Digitalisation
Digital sovereignty
Deciding about data and tools yourself: what it means and which open alternatives there are to the usual subscriptions.
What it is about
A company is digitally sovereign when it decides itself where its data lives, which tools it uses and when it changes them. Using only rented software hands these decisions over: the vendor sets prices, terms and features.
That does not mean giving up every subscription. It means choosing deliberately and using open formats, so that a change stays possible.
Examples of open alternatives
Not a must, but worth considering: for almost every subscription there is a solution you can run yourself. A few examples, sorted by area:
| For | The usual way | Open alternative |
|---|---|---|
| Company and back office | ||
| Mail, calendar, meetings | Microsoft Teams, Outlook | Grommunio |
| Inventory and invoicing | SAP and classic industry ERP | ERPNext |
| Letters, spreadsheets, slides | Microsoft 365 | LibreOffice or OpenOffice, openDesk |
| Sharing files | Dropbox, SharePoint | Nextcloud |
| Knowledge and how-tos | Confluence, SharePoint wiki | Outline |
| Project management | ||
| Schedules | Microsoft Project | OpenProject, ProjectLibre |
| Team tasks | Jira, Asana, Excel lists | OpenProject, Nextcloud Deck |
| Lists and reports | Excel sheets by e-mail | Baserow, NocoDB: one database instead of many copies |
| CAD and BIM | ||
| Modelling | Revit and other Autodesk subscriptions | Blender with Bonsai, FreeCAD |
| 2D drafting | AutoCAD | FreeCAD, LibreCAD |
| Viewing and checking models | Vendor cloud viewers | Open IFC viewers |
| Own analyses | Add-ons per program | Own tools on open data, for example with IfcOpenShell |
How we go about it
Understand
Review subscriptions, data and where it flows.Standardise
Choose open alternatives and formats.Implement
Introduce and run it yourself, with us behind you.