ROOV: the app for managing your personal finances with complete confidentiality

ROOV is a personal financial assistant for individuals and families. It is very convenient, but also very secure, because we are talking about your financial data, which means private information. For the hosting of the app, ROOV therefore decided to use Combell's highly secure hosting. Here is an introduction to this smart and extremely secure assistant.

ROOV: your personal financial assistant

The ROOV app is a unique app in Belgium, which has been developed taking into account the Belgian reality of ordinary users. ROOV offers the ultimate solution to a problem that so many people are struggling with: how to keep an overview of their personal finances and administration. You can indeed replace your old household budget book by an Excel spreadsheet, but this solution is not really user-friendly, not to mention that it does not give you clear insights into how you spend the money you earn. Many accounting applications have been developed for companies, but private individuals have been left to their fate.

Using ROOV is a bit like having a personal financial assistant: it scans your invoices, so that you can create a digital archive of your invoices, your certificates, and even the receipts of your purchases. Not only does ROOV provide you with a clear overview of your expenses, but it will also give you tips on how to save on energy, telecoms and insurance. And the icing on the cake is that ROOV keeps a close eye on payment deadlines, so that you can pay your invoices on time and avoid annoying reminder fees.

ROOV is very convenient and user-friendly, but it is also incredibly secure. The app has access to a great deal of personal data about you, which means you should be able to rely on them being stored in a secure location. That is why the ROOV app and the users' data are hosted on fast Combell servers, which are located in highly secure data centres in Belgium. This way, you always have access to the app, and the privacy of the data you enter into it is fully protected.

Artificial intelligence to take the work off your hands

Many families are looking for a smart way to manage their finances. "We found that companies have many different applications at their disposal, but private families are left with only a few applications that specifically focus on their personal financial administration", says Frédéric in a report aired on Kanaal Z.

The main idea behind the ROOV app was thus to make it as easy as possible for users to manage their finances, and from there, to help them save money – with, of course, the necessary safeguards for privacy. "Our aim with ROOV is to optimise the costs and expenses you incur, without you having to put a lot of effort into it", Frédéric promises. Let us now take a closer look at ROOV's 3 core values.

1. Keeping things simple

To make it easy to use the app, entering invoices, receipts and other documents should not be a time-consuming task. Everything should be kept as simple as possible. And the app achieves this brilliantly, thanks to the use of artificial intelligence. All you have to do is upload your documents so that the AI can extract the necessary data from them.

Forget about retyping the invoice date, payment deadline, account number, etc. Every invoice looks different and it may take some time for the human eye to find all the details. But with the ROOV app, that is now a thing of the past. Just point the camera at the document and the AI will neatly transfer all the data into the appropriate fields.

"And we intend to go even further", claims ROOV CTO Kevin De Wolf. After all, there are still plenty of new features in the pipeline. "The development of a consumer application is a very dynamic process. We obviously developed a long-term strategy and already know which major features we want to introduce. But in the meantime, we also receive a lot of feedback from our users. Every couple of weeks, we therefore adjust our planning a little to be able to process this feedback as quickly as possible."

2. Helping users make savings

First of all, ROOV ensures that your invoices are paid on time. It will remind you when you have to pay an invoice, which will help you avoid those annoying reminder fees.

The app can also provide you with an overview of your expenses based on your payments. ROOV helps you keep track of how much you spend per month, per week and per year on energy, food, entertainment or travel. And also when you are about to go over your pre-defined budget. Of course, it is then up to you to adjust your other expenses accordingly.

But you can make even more savings. The app recognises invoices for energy, telecoms and insurance and checks in real time if they are in line with other offers currently available on the market. This is a brand new and unique feature, because ROOV is the only app that is also able to read consumption data on your invoice, and not just the amount to be paid. This means it can proactively offer you a better deal tailored to your actual needs.

3. Protecting your privacy

In order to guarantee the privacy of the data stored in the app, ROOV chose Combell's hosting services. Since all ROOV users' data are stored in the cloud, it is essential that those data are managed securely. "The fact that we can rely on Combell as our trusted partner in Belgium, and that our users' data are hosted securely on Belgian servers, is one of the reasons why we chose Combell", says Kevin.

Highly secure cloud hosting is also very important for ROOV's future plans. Soon, you will also be able to get overviews of all your bank accounts in the app, and you will even be able to make payments using the app. "This will require a connection to the Belgian banks", Kevin continues. "And the requirements imposed by Belgian banks are very strict when it comes to security and data privacy protection."

The fact that we can rely on Combell as our trusted partner in Belgium, and that our users' data are hosted securely on Belgian servers, is one of the reasons why we chose Combell.

Managed hosting helps focus on the development of the app

The further development of the app is key for the entire ROOV team. In order to avoid having to spend time on the correct configuration of the hosting infrastructure for the app, the decision was made to join forces with Combell. "Combell provides us with a managed hosting solution, which ensures that our development team does not have to deal with hosting and can fully focus on development", confirms Kevin De Wolf.

The fast-growing number of users also means that the infrastructure on which the app is hosted and the storage space for users' data must be able to scale up accordingly. Without neglecting security and privacy requirements in any way. The data must also be available at all times. This requires a robust infrastructure.

But, as a start-up, how can you decide which hosting to choose? Combell has the perfect answer: by providing managed hosting that is completely suited to every specific situation. In addition, ROOV benefits from a robust infrastructure, but with simple solutions. And the strict SLAs that ensure high uptime guarantees give each customer the necessary peace of mind.

Managed Kubernetes: perfectly scalable without technical issues

When a Combell customer opts for managed hosting, Combell's IT experts will discuss the operation of the app in detail, consider any future plans, and jointly decide which hosting solution would be best suited to these specific requirements. For ROOV, we opted for managed Kubernetes hosting. This is because Kubernetes is a highly scalable solution that uses 'containers'. When the hosting solution needs to scale up, we do not opt for larger, more powerful servers, but simply for more servers. This promotes both flexibility and speed. (Read more: What is Kubernetes and why is it so interesting?)

For storage space management, Combell's IT experts chose NetApp's high performance storage. Because this technology uses redundant controllers, meaning that there can never be any inconvenience if one of them fails. Just as it is important for ROOV to choose a reliable hosting partner, Combell also chooses its storage partners with great care. It is a fact that NetApp offers high-quality hardware that is fully redundant.

Combell CTO Wesley Hof explains why this managed hosting package is the ideal solution in this specific case. "For fast-growing customers such as ROOV, it is crucial that they can scale up quickly and flexibly. And our managed Kubernetes solution, combined with NetApp storage, makes this perfectly possible." A very scalable infrastructure, however, is not so easy to configure. But the customer does not have to worry about that, as Combell's IT experts know exactly what they are doing and can configure an ideal environment to ensure that the app works smoothly. "The customer does not have to worry at all about the complexity of the underlying infrastructure. This way, he can continue to focus on the development of his application, which is his core business."

Wesley once again stresses the importance of the fact that the Combell servers are located in Belgium. "We host ROOV's entire managed solution in our Belgian state-of-the art data centres, which are secured in every possible way. This allows us to guarantee the security and privacy of the ROOV users' data at all times."

Combell can help any application developer

Does your app, like ROOV, have high requirements when it comes to privacy and scalability? Or does your app have other specific hosting requirements? Combell can help any application developer. Our experts will help you find the best solution to meet your needs. 

Do not hesitate to contact our experts. We will be happy to provide you with personal advice, without any obligation, on how to optimise your hosting to suit the specific needs of your website, web store or application.

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