openDesk in Municipalities – How Towns Use Open Source Day to Day
openDesk in Municipalities – How Towns Use Open Source Day to Day
Towns and municipalities work with emails, appointments, documents and video calls every day – much like an office, just often on a bigger scale. More and more municipalities in Germany and in Switzerland are looking at openDesk and other open-source solutions for this. Some are testing, others have already switched. It's a nice development that small organisations can learn a lot from.
What openDesk is
openDesk is an office suite that combines proven open-source programs into one shared workplace:
| Area | Building block |
|---|---|
| Files | Nextcloud |
| Email and calendar | Open-Xchange |
| Office in the browser | Collabora Online |
| Chat | Element (Matrix) |
| Video conferencing | Jitsi |
| Projects | OpenProject |
| Wiki | XWiki |
It's maintained by the German Centre for Digital Sovereignty of Public Administration (ZenDiS).
Why municipalities are interested
- Open standards: Data is easy to exchange and take along.
- Free choice of operation: In their own data centre, with a municipal IT provider or with a commercial provider.
- Better together: Experience and improvements can be shared with other administrations.
- Predictable costs: No per-seat licensing model.
How municipalities go about it
What you can learn from many reports: successful switches almost always happen step by step.
- Trial phase: A small group tries out the new environment.
- One area first: For example email or file storage.
- Support: Short training sessions and contacts for questions.
- Expand: Only when things are going well are more areas added.
Very important: bring people along. A new program is quickly installed – but getting used to new habits takes time.
What you can take away
Whether club, law firm, practice or small business – the municipalities' approach works on a small scale too:
- Not everything at once: Start with one area.
- Test in parallel: Try first, then switch.
- Learn together: A short introduction makes a lot easier.
- Building blocks as needed: You don't need the whole suite – often Nextcloud, Element and an office program are enough.
You'll find an overview of suitable tools under Alternatives, and I offer an introduction for your team as a workshop.
A few terms, briefly explained
- Municipal IT provider: A data centre that runs IT services for several towns and municipalities.
- Pilot phase: A trial with a small group before something is rolled out widely.
- Groupware: Software for team email, calendars and contacts.
- Reuse: When a solution one administration has developed or introduced can be adopted by others.
What good switches have in common
Many experience reports show a few patterns that apply on large and small scales alike:
| Success factor | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Clear goal | Everyone knows why things are changing and what should improve |
| Small steps | One area after another instead of everything at once |
| Good preparation | Data, templates and accounts are ready before the start |
| Support | Contacts and short training sessions |
| Patience | A settling-in period of a few weeks is normal |
An example from a small office
A planning office with eight people takes the municipalities' path as a model. It starts with shared file storage in Nextcloud. After four weeks, calendars and contacts follow, and after another four weeks a Matrix chat. Each stage starts with a short introduction in the team meeting. After three months, everyone works with the new tools as a matter of course – no big bang, but noticeably more clarity.
Conclusion
The fact that more and more municipalities are trying openDesk and open source shows: open software is ready for everyday use. And the step-by-step path they take is a good blueprint for you too.
If you'd like to give it a try, I'm happy to help – just drop me a line.
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