OpenDesk

An alternative to proprietary productivity suites.

openDesk is an office suite that integrates a selection of open source collaboration software to enhance digital sovereignty.

It brings together office application tools such as word processing, collaboration, file sharing, video calls, chat, and project management. Element is the real time messaging component within the collaboration suite, rebranded to match openDesk and integrated with its other components.

Sovereign by design.

openDesk was created by The Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) and The Governmental Center for Digital Sovereignty (ZenDiS). It aims to deliver an alternative digital sovereign workplace, based on open source software, to meet a growing need for increased digital autonomy in the German public sector.

openDesk aligns with the German Administration Cloud Strategy (DVS), led by the Federal CIO, to deliver true digital sovereignty: giving organisations the independence to self-host, own, and manage a full suite of productivity suite including collaboration and communication tools.

Enterprise solutions for public administration.

openDesk offers a variety of operating models specifically designed to meet the needs of public sector organisations. The Enterprise Edition brings together trusted tools for government workflows within a single, unified interface. It includes all enterprise-level applications provided by the respective vendors and is ideally suited for large organisations with anything from 500 to more than 50,000 users. Built on a highly scalable architecture, it delivers consistent and reliable performance - even under demanding workloads.

openDesk in your own data centre

Deploy openDesk on-premise with SLA and support options - perfect for public IT service providers and environments with strict security requirements

openDesk as a SaaS solution

A comprehensive, hassle-free package hosted by a national hyperscaler - ideal for authorities and public sector organisations looking for a ready-to-use solution with instant availability.

openDesk in the Confidential Cloud

A secure deployment hosted by an international hyperscaler - well-suited for authorities and public sector organisations with international operations.

The power of openDesk.

openDesk is an autonomous, secure, and flexible alternative to Microsoft 365. With a focus on data sovereignty, security and seamless collaboration, openDesk delivers on the need for a powerful and sovereign workspace in the German public administration.

Autonomous

Built on transparent open source software, openDesk delivers digital sovereignty to public sector organisations.

Secure

Local hosting and strict data protection offers complete control over data and processes.

Flexible

Open standards and modular architecture ensure flexibility and protect against vendor lock-in.

Sovereign and secure productivity.

Element was chosen by ZenDiS as the real-time communication tool providing messaging for openDesk. The Matrix open standard also ensures that Element is interoperable with any other Matrix-based system and offers the protection of end-to-end encryption.

Element offers the German public administration digital sovereignty:

Decentralised for ownership and resilience
Open source for transparency
Open standard based
Powerful federation for communication between separate organisations
Secure by design

Working in a Purple Submarine: Matrix in openDesk.

Alexander Smolianitski

Head of Open Source Products – openDesk

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Other European collaboration suites for digital sovereignty.

SAFOS

Sweden’s social insurance agency provides a sovereign and secure collaboration service called SAFOS for parts of Försäkringskassan and several government agencies to replace Skype and MS Teams. Element is used to deliver the messaging and video calling component for ‘SAFOS Chatt’.

LaSuite

A selection of collaboration tools designed for the France public sector.

Tchap, the secure instant messaging part of LaSuite, is based on Element and relies on the Matrix protocol for collaboration within the public sector administration.