A safer way to collaborate

Why Databeamer exists #

Organisations already use tools for email, documents, chat and file sharing. These tools are essential to everyday work. But when sensitive information needs to be shared with people outside your organisation, things become more complicated.

A client needs to send personal documents. Several organisations need to discuss a shared case. A citizen needs to answer questions from a public service. A professional needs to exchange confidential information with someone who has no account in the organisation's IT environment.

Email attachments, consumer file-sharing services and separate communication channels can leave information scattered across different systems, with different access rules and unclear responsibilities.

Databeamer is designed for these situations.

It provides a secure collaboration platform where organisations can collect, exchange, manage and discuss confidential information, including with people from other organisations and individuals who do not belong to their internal IT environment.

One environment for confidential collaboration #

Databeamer brings three related activities together within one security and access-control model.

1. Store and manage confidential information #

Keep files, shared records, journals and related information in a controlled environment. Organise information around the team, project, client or collaboration it belongs to. Manage access through explicit membership and permissions.

2. Exchange information securely #

Send confidential documents, request information from clients or partners, collect answers through forms and communicate through Secure Mail. Recipients can participate without necessarily needing an account in your organisation.

3. Discuss and work together #

Use direct messages and group chat to discuss information in context. Keep communication, shared files, requests and records connected to the collaboration they belong to, rather than spreading them across unrelated channels.

These activities are not separate security islands. They are different ways of working within the same platform, with access determined by the relevant account, group and sharing arrangements.

Why not just use Microsoft 365 or another existing platform? #

Databeamer is not intended to replace the standard workplace tools an organisation already uses. If Microsoft 365 or another platform works well for internal documents, meetings, email and everyday collaboration, there may be no reason to move that work.

The question is different when a process crosses organisational boundaries.

Giving an external person access to an internal collaboration environment can introduce additional questions about guest accounts, permissions, licensing, administration and the information that person may be able to access. Sending information through separate channels can also make it harder to maintain a clear overview of where it belongs and who should have access.

Databeamer offers another approach: create a dedicated shared space for the confidential process itself.

An organisation can keep its internal systems and records, while using Databeamer to exchange and discuss the information that needs to be shared with clients, citizens, partners or professionals from other organisations.

The aim is not to duplicate every workplace feature. It is to make cross-organisational collaboration more controlled, straightforward and secure.

Three examples #

1. Several organisations working on a shared case #

A healthcare professional, a social worker and a municipal team need to coordinate support for a family.

Each organisation continues to use its own internal systems for its own records. Databeamer provides a shared workspace for the information the participants need to discuss together, including relevant documents, requests, messages and a shared journal.

Only the people who are authorised and added to the relevant group can access its encrypted content. The collaboration can take place without giving every participant access to another organisation's internal network or case-management system.

The benefit: a shared place for joint work, without turning separate organisational records into one unrestricted shared dossier.

2. Collecting confidential documents from a client #

An organisation needs identification documents, completed forms or other sensitive information from a new client.

Instead of relying on ordinary email attachments or asking the client to create an account in the organisation's internal environment, the organisation can use a Databeamer request or form to collect the required information.

The client can submit the information through the intended secure process. The organisation can then manage the received material within its own controlled workspace.

The benefit: a more structured way to collect confidential information, with fewer disconnected communication channels and a clearer link between the request and the information received.

3. Discussing a confidential matter with an external professional #

A lawyer, consultant, accountant or other professional needs to exchange documents and discuss a sensitive matter with a client or another organisation.

The documents, messages and related information can be handled through Databeamer, using the sharing method appropriate to the collaboration. External participants do not need general access to the organisation's internal IT environment simply to take part in this exchange.

The benefit: confidential communication and document exchange can take place in a dedicated environment designed for that purpose, rather than being spread across unrelated services.

Security is part of the design #

Databeamer is designed around the principle that the contents of confidential information should remain outside the reach of the service provider.

Information is encrypted on the user's device before it is sent to Databeamer. The service provider does not hold the keys needed to read the protected content. Access to shared information is tied to the relevant keys and authorised participants, rather than relying solely on server-side access permissions.

This design helps reduce the consequences of a server-side data breach: obtaining stored encrypted content does not, by itself, provide the keys needed to read it.

Security is not a promise that every risk disappears. Account security, authorised sharing, device protection, organisational processes and appropriate retention practices remain important. Some metadata is also visible to the service, as explained in our security documentation.

Databeamer combines this encryption architecture with European hosting, explicit access arrangements and documented security and compliance practices. See our technology overview and compliance information for further details.

A dedicated space for what matters #

Not every conversation or document needs a separate secure environment. But when information is confidential, several parties are involved, or access needs to be carefully controlled, the way those parties collaborate matters.

Databeamer gives organisations a dedicated place to collect, exchange, manage and discuss that information while allowing them to keep using their existing systems for the work those systems already do well.

Your existing workplace remains your workplace. Databeamer provides a shared space for the information that needs to cross its boundaries.