A Bit of history

The people behind OakSoft are our co-founders Henk Eikelboom and his partner Geert van Erven. They started the software company in 2009 after both of them have been at the head of a software company specializing in judicial software for over 10 years. With over 160 law and notary firms both gentlemen became very important players on the Dutch market, until, in 2006, both of them decided to resign as directors and leave the organization.

They both knew that leaving the organization did not mean that their partnership ended. Henk Eikelboom immediately started working on a completely new toolkit together with a colleague, which would make sure that the new applications database would be independent. This also ensured high quality and productivity. Besides this, both Henk and Geert were confident, as what they have achieved in their careers was very unique. Apart from this, OakSoft runs its company on the basis of trust; the so-called ‘click’ that exists and in which both directors are standing with their boots in the dirt themselves. Most software companies are run by entrepreneurs without any background in automation. They are often account managers, as they were skilled in selling products and eventually grow into a top function. A programmer is simply a nerd, should not be taken too seriously and has no idea how things work in the real world outside the little room where he does his programming.

How are we different?
Automation is a skill on its own. In order to run a software company you really need to know the ins and outs of automation; where are the problems? Where the possibilities? “I used to hire new programmers on a regular basis who liked to tell me in elaborate ways how much work an adjustment was or what was and wasn’t possible. Which meant they were in trouble, as Henk and myself knew exactly what programming was.’ Says director Geert van Erven.

Geert van Erven

Managing director Geert van Erven started his career after his administrative studies at the ABN-AMRO bank. He then moved on to start working as an administrator at a Waste Company and soon decided that automation was what he enjoyed most. He retrained and was taken in by his current partner and Technical Director Henk Eikelboom’s enthousiasm. This was in the late eighties. Geert van Erven started out as a junior programmer, but within the year he became one of the most important founders of the financial solution X-Finance and X-Logic, which was later taken over by UNIT4. He continued to create an automation solution in his attic for the disposal branch, which was implemented quite soon and sold to BFI (currently called SITA). Up to today, Geert’s solution is still a global market leader in the Waste and environmental branch. The company that sells his solution is one of the most important and biggest suppliers of environmental software. ‘Yes, my wife still thinks about how I used to fly out of my bed at 3.30 at night. My wife thought something was wrong with our daughter. But when she heard that I had thought of a name for the software solution I designed for the disposal branch, I had some explaining to do. Anyway, CLEAR<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><!--[endif]--> ¹ is still the most famous name in the environmental branch,’ states Geert van Erven.

The fact that OakSoft’s current R&D Manager Sohan Machielsen together with Geert van Erven was responsible for the software goes to show that OakSoft consists of a winning team. Now, almost 10 years later, Sohan is one of the driving forces behind OakSoft B.V. and he is responsible for the ‘tools’ underlying our application.

JUDICIAL SOFTWARE

After some time, Geert van Erven had the opportunity to start his own software firm. At the end of the nineties, the time has finally come. In a small room of 50 m² Geert runs his first software company. Even then his vision was specialization and, together with his brother, who was accountant of a medium sized law firm, he started developing a software solution for the law and judicial sector. Within years the company not only grew in number of employees, but the company also became one of the top three biggest suppliers of judicial software. ‘We are convinced that the personal relationships we build with our clients are the most important reason for our success. That’s why we are proud of the fact that, in all those years, we have never lost a client, which says a lot about the way we honor our agreements,’ says Geert van Erven.

PHOTOGRAPHER AND PRESS EMPLOYEE

Besides his career in automation, Geert van Erven has become one of few professional football photographers in the Netherlands. He covers football matches on a weekly basis for the newspapers and he is the official club photographer of the dutch football club Willem II.  Several years ago, Geert was even stadium speaker and he welcomed over 14,000 spectators from the center spot on a weekly basis. Several media published Geert’s photos regularly. If you would like to view Geert’s work, visit his website: voetbalfotografie.nl or have a look at his photos at Willem II's club site.

¹ CLEAR is a registered tradename of GMT Europe B.V.

Henk Eikelboom

Henk Eikelboom has also been living and breathing automation. As said earlier, the cooperation between Eikelboom and van Erven goes back 20 years, which truly means that they can trust each other completely. Furthermore, both gentlemen complete each other perfectly, as Henk, with his automation knowledge and perfectionism is able to lay the ground works for a lengthy cooperation between client and automation partner. Geert completes this by taking care of the commercial and creative side of the organization.

 ‘If this were a marriage, then we could safely say that, after 20 years, we are still a happily married couple. We trust each other without doubt and have put a few wonderful kids on this planet,’ Henk says with a smile. ‘Our youngest baby is called OakTree Business Suite and we are convinced that with our way of automating, the end-user is not only offered quality, but is also provided with the most user friendly software.’

FINANCIAL ADMINSTRATION

Henk too has specialized in automating financial and administrative processes. He has already developed two successful financial solutions. With OakTree Finance, a third has entered the market. ‘Financial administration is pretty basic. The complexity lies in correctly integrating several administrative processes. By developing your own financial solution and integrating it with branch solutions you provide so much more than existing software solutions. Examples are the processes within the rental branch. Using various statistics and management overviews, software suppliers try to give an overview of the rental company’s status. However, this is usually not based on financial facts. Often, companies have to rely on the numbers the solution offers. An account is not able to conclude anything and will not come to any further conclusion than those the solution already gave. This is where we saw the value of our solution,’ states Henk Eikelboom.

BANKING

Henk has been involved in complex automation issues for many years. In the nineties, Henk was responsible for automating dozens of Rabobank offices in the Netherlands. He also developed a complete solution for one of the Netherlands’ largest suppliers of mortgages. The last couple of years, Henk, together with his part Geert van Erven, worked on the development and creation of a solution for the judicial market. In part thanks to Henk, the organization was able to attain and hold the position of market leader with over 200 offices.

Sohan Machielsen

Sohan Machielsen is OakSoft’s Research & Development Manager. Several years ago, Sohan started developing high-end software tools that were aimed at quality and productivity. Productivity tools with which OakSoft develops quality applications quickly and effectively, but which also make sure that the user can edit and modify the software quickly and easily. Research has shown that users are often quite pleased with their software supplier, except for the fact that making changes usually take months and the eventual product is mediocre at best. Sohan was and still is convinced that by using good tools it is possible to gain time by a factor of 10 and the quality is still higher than that of software developed using standard tools.

Lengthy cooperation

Sohan Machielsen has been part of the OakSoft team for years. Together with Geert van Erven and Henk Eikelboom, Sohan developed applications for waste companies in the Netherlands in the nineties and was Sohan responsible for the introduction of the first Difftar in the Netherlnds ("He who pollutes, pays..."). Later, Sohan was responsible for the tools and engine behind our software company. Next to developing the tools, Sohan is also responsible for OakSoft’s OakTree Business Suite. Together with Technical Director Henk Eikelboom and their programmers, Sohan works on the software’s future on a daily basis. ‘You see, a solution is never finished. After years of developing modules and extra functions, the client always thinks of something new and better. A lot of software companies are told, due to budgetary reasons, that enough is enough, unless the client is willing to pay a lot of money. We see it differently. If you want to be the number one in your sector and want to stay number one, then you need to listen very carefully to your client’s wishes. Our strength is that we can act quickly and efficiently on those whishes, which makes the client doubt that he can’t find that sort of service anywhere else,’ states Sohan Machielsen.