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Why did we create ToolHive

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General

ToolHive is a tool management tool designed to help your organization manage the tools you use every day. Bringing together all the departments in your company. So how did we get here?

Excel sheets

This journey begins where everything computer begins, with Excel. We used Excel as a way to get an overview of our tools. We focused mainly on security with questions like

  • Who is responsible?
  • Who has access
  • Do we need multi-factor authentication?
  • Is the data stored securely.

It was a very simple Excel spreadsheet with a lot of information missing.

GDPR

We also had a privacy policy and a cookie policy. But GDPR required more documents, more information.

Like many smaller companies, we didn't have a data processing register. Our finance department didn't always know which tools had been canceled and ended up paying for them anyway. We didn't have visibility.

ToolHive

So we decided we needed something better. A unified way to better manage the tools in an enterprise. We found some of our competitors like Openli & OneTrust. They had tools that did some of what we were looking for. But with a high price tag that was out of reach for smaller companies.

ToolHive was born. A tool for small businesses. A tool to unite billing, legal and security departments. A tool to help you with GDPR, ISO certifications, and day-to-day operations.

GDPR (again)

We started with the hardest part of all, GDPR. We delved into what we needed to know, what questions we needed to ask about the tool. We came up with our core questions:

  • Why do you need this information?
  • How long will it be stored?
  • Why is it stored for so long?
  • How do you tell your customers that it is OK to store this information?

These questions will help you make a GDPR complaint and create a data processing register.

Billing

Our next focus was on billing. Adding some basic information for the finance department such as cost and billing cycles. This, along with the tool status, will help the finance department figure out if a tool is still being used or if they can stop paying for it, ending unnecessary spending.

Security

Our last focus was on security. How could we improve data security using ToolHive? We used our previous Excel spreadsheet as a starting point. Focus on information such as

  • Who has access?
  • Who is accessing the tool?
  • Is information encrypted?

Combine

We have combined this into ToolHive. To make it easier for everyone to get more visibility into the tools they use, and to be more GDPR compliant.

We wanted to make ToolHive accessible to everyone. So we created the Free plan, which will always be free. We created our Small Business plan for just €29.95. That way everyone can get into ToolHive.

We have a lot more planned for ToolHive in the coming weeks, months and years. We are just getting started. So join us on this journey.