ZenDiS brings digital sovereignty to SCCON

Bochum/Berlin, August 21, 2025 - "We make sovereign" - this is the motto under which the Center for Digital Sovereignty in Public Administration (ZenDiS) is presenting itself at this year's Smart Country Convention (SCCON, 30.09. to 02.10.2025). There will be a wide-ranging program at the ZenDiS stand (No. 103, hub27): At info points and on stage, trade fair visitors can expect a mix of digital sovereignty "to touch" and technical deep-dives around a digitally sovereign state. Included: the tried-and-tested openDesk and openCode offerings, including successful use cases. ZenDiS will also provide an outlook on the sovereign video conferencing solution openConference and the sovereign workplace.

Removing critical dependencies, strengthening digital sovereignty: This clear mission was written into the founding documents of ZenDiS. At its 100 square meter stand, the center will be demonstrating how it provides practical support to federal, state and local authorities on the path to greater digital sovereignty: With advice and empowerment, its own sovereign solutions and tools for a sovereign software supply chain for public administration.

Sovereign office alternative openDesk: Arriving in everyday public administration

With openDesk, ZenDiS provides a sovereign office and collaboration suite for public administration. After just under a year, openDesk is already in use on more than 70,000 government workstations, and the trend is rising rapidly. "We have openDesk requests in the four-digit range. There is enormous interest in our superior office alternative, not only in administration, but also in universities, colleges and the private sector," says Alexander Smolianitski, Head of Products & Delivery at ZenDiS.

At SCCON, the focus will be on specific use cases for openDesk. For deep dives into the individual applications, most of the open source providers whose solutions are integrated into openDesk will be on site as co-exhibitors: B1 Systems, Collabora Online, Element, Nextcloud, Nordeck, OpenProject, Open-Xchange, Univention and XWiki.

In addition, there will be information on the new openDesk pilot program: this allows authorities and public institutions to test openDesk in an uncomplicated way with real users in their working environment.

Innovations: Sovereign Workplace and secure video conferencing solution

ZenDiS is dedicating a separate demo point to the "Sovereign Workplace" project, which operates entirely without proprietary software, including the operating system level. ZenDiS will also be showing openConference as a preview. The sovereign video conferencing solution based on OpenTalk should be available in early 2026.

openCode: Automatically evaluate software quality

Since its acquisition by ZenDiS, openCode has developed into the central collaboration platform for open source projects in the public sector. A good 8,000 users are now active on the platform in over 3,600 software and digital projects. Since March, a badge program has made it easy to evaluate the software on the platform. "At SCCON, we will be demonstrating how openCode makes it possible to automatically assess the quality of software. This makes openCode the fundamental infrastructure for a secure software supply chain within the German administration," says Leonhard Kugler, Head of Platform & Development at ZenDiS.

Digital sovereignty in the stage program

"The immense interest in our offerings shows: ZenDiS has become the central anchor for all issues relating to digital sovereignty," says Alexander Pockrandt, Managing Director of ZenDiS. This is also reflected in the extensive stage program at the ZenDiS stand, which highlights various facets of digital sovereignty with deep dives into openCode and openDesk, concrete use cases and partner presentations. There will also be tips on getting started with open source for administration.

But digital sovereignty is not only the focus at the ZenDiS stand: on the main stage at SCCON, ZenDiS will be talking about secure software supply chains, and in a workshop, interested parties will learn how they can work with ZenDiS in a very practical way.

At the stand of the Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernization (BMDS), ZenDiS will shed light on the European dimension of digital sovereignty, including Germany's pioneering role, and explain how openCode ensures greater security and sovereignty in administrative IT.

The complete lecture program including all time and location details will be available from the beginning of September at www.zendis.de.

About ZenDiS

The Center for Digital Sovereignty in Public Administration (ZenDiS) was founded in 2022 by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and for Home Affairs (BMI). As a competence and service center, ZenDiS supports the public administration at federal, state and municipal level in securing its ability to act in the digital space in the long term - above all by eliminating critical dependencies on individual technology providers. To this end, ZenDiS is concentrating on promoting the use of open source software in public administration in the first expansion phase. ZenDiS is a limited liability company and is currently wholly owned by the federal government. A participation of the federal states is in preparation. ZenDiS is based in Bochum.