Empowering Education with Collabora Online: A Case Study

During the global pandemic, the Friedrich-List-Gemeinschaftsschule in Mössingen, Germany, seamlessly embraced the challenge of transitioning to online learning. Throughout this process, privacy, reliability, and accessibility were held up, with an open-source strategy leveraging Collabora Online as a vital component of their educational toolkit.

“It simply works. And it is reliable. That is crucial for us. In combination with Nextcloud, it works wonderfully and is very performant.”
– David Binder, teacher and IT officer

Embracing Open Source for Education

The Friedrich-List-Gemeinschaftsschule has long been an advocate for open-source solutions, fostering an environment where students are prepared not only for academic challenges but also for the demands of a rapidly evolving digital world. With a robust IT infrastructure based on free software, including Linux clients and LibreOffice, the school was well-positioned to address the sudden shift to online education triggered by the global pandemic.

Reliability and Security as Key Factors

What sets Collabora Online apart for the Friedrich-List-Gemeinschaftsschule is its reliability and security. With approximately 70 teachers and 600 students actively using the platform, Collabora Online has seamlessly become part of the school’s everyday workflow. The software’s integration into the existing infrastructure, coupled with its commitment to data and document security, has provided the school with a reliable and privacy-conscious solution for online collaboration.

Collabora Online for Educational Empowerment

In an educational landscape where flexibility, reliability, and privacy are paramount, Collabora Online stands out as a tool that empowers both educators and students. Its usage at Friedrich-List-Gemeinschaftsschule showcases the adaptability of Collabora Online in addressing the unique challenges of modern education. As institutions continue to navigate the complexities of online learning, Collabora Online proves to be a reliable and secure solution, contributing to the evolution of education in the digital age.

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Explore the full details of how Collabora Online enhances secure collaboration within educational institutions. Dive into the full white paper to uncover the benefits and insights.

 

Case Study

“Open Source helps students learn from home during lockdown”

Why the German Staatendokumentation (State Documentation) Chooses Collabora Online

Discover how the Bundesamt für Fremdenwesen und Asyl (Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum) leverages Collabora Online, a secure and GDPR-compliant cloud office solution, to streamline operations and protect sensitive data.

“Collabora Online is the solution for uncomplicated use of documents in a public authority environment, which fits seamlessly into the existing environment and can be flexibly extended with required extras, such as the Duden Korrektor.”
– Thomas Schrott, Head of Dept for BFA Staatendokumentation

The State Documentation Challenge

The State Documentation team handles a vast amount of sensitive information, making data security and privacy paramount. With governments dealing with an increasing volume of data daily, it is crucial to maintain effective control over the processing of personal data to protect against unauthorized access, theft, and breaches, while also adhering to data protection laws such as GDPR.

Privacy, Security, Compliance

Collabora Online, hosted locally and GDPR compliant, emerges as the ultimate SaaS cloud-based solution. This choice not only ensures control over data location but also guarantees adherence to the stringent data protection laws governing government institutions.

Integration with Nextcloud: Collabora Online seamlessly integrates with Nextcloud, providing a collaborative environment that ensures data privacy and security. This is particularly vital for international exchanges where privacy concerns are heightened.

Open Source Advantage: By leveraging open-source software, BFA retains full control over sensitive data within the EU. This choice aligns with the growing trend among government institutions to opt for open solutions, reducing dependency on proprietary platforms.

The Duden Korrektor Integration

One of the distinctive features of the BFA’s implementation is the integration of Duden Korrektor. This widely used software tool aids in correcting written German and ensures consistency in spelling across all documents produced by the department. Especially with technical terms or names, Duden Korrektor helps standardize company-wide terms. The implementation of the Duden Korrektor into Collabora Online has been co-financed by the EU’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF).

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Explore the full details of how Collabora Online enhances secure collaboration within government institutions. Dive into the full white paper to uncover the benefits and insights.

 

Case Study

“Collabora Productivity Ltd provides Duden Korrektor functionality for BFA Staatendokumentation”

How SURF keeps 66,000 users productive in Dutch universities

 

SURF, the collaborative ICT organization for Dutch education and research institutions, plays a vital role in supporting 14 universities, 36 universities of applied sciences, and 70 research institutions by managing their IT infrastructure. To address the need for secure data exchange within this academic ecosystem, SURF deployed SURFdrive, an ownCloud-based file-sharing platform. However, they also required an online office productivity suite to enable real-time collaborative editing of documents, tables, and presentations.

In response to stringent data security requirements, SURF sought a solution that could be self-hosted, ensuring efficient and secure data exchange while allowing simultaneous real-time collaboration. ownCloud met their file-sharing needs, but they still needed an office productivity suite. Collabora Online emerged as the ideal solution, seamlessly integrating with ownCloud to enable users to access, create, and edit office documents collaboratively. Multiple authorized users could work on the same documents simultaneously, eliminating version conflicts.

 

Find out how the combination of ownCloud and Collabora Online has been highly successful for SurfNet, allowing SURFdrive to connect 59 institutions and serving 66,000 users in the Dutch academic landscape.

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Explore the full details of how Collabora Online is helping in The Netherlands. Dive into the full white paper to uncover the benefits and insights.

 

Case Study

“Together with ownCloud and Collabora Online, we have created an IT infrastructure that meets [and] can keep up with the large enterprises in terms of performance and usability”

£1.2 Million for Office Software? Collabora Office and Healthcare Savings

(First published 2018, SEHSCT went on to become a Collabora Office customer)

The South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust (SEHSCT) provides six hospitals in Northern Ireland with acute hospital services and community health and social services to 345,000 people, with a budget of just under £500 million and a staff of 8,500 with computer accounts. Microsoft Office licenses were due for renewal in 2018, at a cost of £145 per user each year.

For the Trust, these licenses would have cost in excess of £1.2 million a year.

Faced with the high cost of renewing its licenses for Microsoft Office, the SEHSCT began a feasibility study to examine the possibility of using Collabora Office.

“We’re happy with the software. It has been a real pleasure working with Collabora to fix our migration issues”
– Darren Henderson, SEHSCT

Financial Efficiency

The SEHSCT was going through a feasibility study, assessing the shift from Microsoft to Collabora Office. The motivation? Substantial savings on licenses – a vital consideration for institutions grappling with tight budgets. Collabora Productivity offers a highly competitive solution, with licenses costing a fraction of Microsoft Office’s annual license fee (£145 per user at the time).

Functional Parity and Beyond

Despite concerns about compatibility issues due to the vast number of applications used, Collabora Office proved itself by offering a reliable and functional alternative.

Ongoing Support and Adaptability

Collabora Productivity’s team demonstrated a commitment to addressing compatibility concerns promptly. The collaboration between the SEHSCT and Collabora Productivity ensured continuous improvement and adaptation to specific needs. With a modest annual fee, institutions can gain access to an extensive wealth of expertise. Collabora Productivity’s team, with decades of experience, provided unparalleled support to navigate migration challenges successfully.

Download the Full White Paper

Explore the full details of how Collabora Office and Online can enhance secure collaboration within healthcare institutions. Dive into the full white paper to uncover the benefits and insights.

 

Case Study

“Open Source helps students learn from home during lockdown”

Collabora Productivity Turns Ten

Can you believe it, September 2023 marks the ten year anniversary since Collabora Productivity was incorporated?! It has been a brilliant decade, full of hard work, persistence, collaboration, growth, success and of course, fun!

We are so grateful to everyone who has supported, contributed and worked with us to make Collabora Online and Office the success it is today. Here are some of the team who have worked with Collabora Productivity along our journey so far. They come from an impressive range of countries, languages, tribes and tongues, we really love to work with the best people wherever they are based.

We loved to celebrate our 10 year anniversary with the LibreOffice community
Celebrations at the LibreOffice Conference 2023 in Bucharest, Romania

 

Thank you to all the coding engineers

It has been amazing over the years to work with 75 talented engineers working on developing the code-base, each one has made a significant improvement somewhere, from interns spending their summer with us, to developers who spent ten years making a huge impact – in alphabetical order:

Abigail Lowrie, Aditya Dewan, András Timár, Andrej Shadura, Andrew Lee (李健秋), Andrzej Hunt, Armin Le Grand, Áron Budea, Ashod Nakashian, Attila Szűcs, Caolán McNamara, Chris Sherlock, Christopher Gladman, Corentin Noël, Daniel Stone, Darshan Upadhyay, Dennis Francis, Emmanuel Gil Peyrot, Ezinne Nnamani, Faruk Uzun, Florin Ciornei, Gökay Şatır, Gopi Krishna Menon, George Wood, Grzegorz Araminowicz, Gülşah Köse, Henry Castro, Hubert Figuière, Iván Sánchez Ortega, Ivan Stefanenko, Jack Leigh, Jan Holešovsky, Jaume Pujantell Traserra, Justin Luth, Kohei Yoshida, László Németh, Lenny Horstink, Louis-Francis Ratté-Boulianne, Luboš Luňák, Lubosz Sarnecki, Luigi Iucci, Marco Cecchetti, Marc Rodrigues, Markus Mohrhard, Matúš Kukan, Mert Tümer, Mihai Varga, Mike Kaganski, Miklós Vajna, Muhammet Kara, Muthu Subramanian, Nick Wingate, Noel Grandin, Oli Baker, Olivier Hallot, Özcan Esen, Paris Oplopoios, Patrick Luby, Pedro Pinto Silva, Pranam Lashkari, Pranav Kant, Rashesh Padia, Sarper Akdemir, Shehr Bano, Skyler Grey, Szymon Kłos, Tamás Bunth, Tamás Zolnai, Thais Vieira, Tim-Philipp Müller, Tomaž Vajngerl, Tor Lillqvist, Ursache Vladimir, Will Thompson, Yunusemre Şentürk

Thank you to all the supporting team

Of course, it’s not just engineering – no company can run as smoothly as Collabora Productivity without a great team around them, its been great to have 41 people across many roles in Management, PoPs, HR, Finance, Marketing, Sysadmin…

Amélie Hanna, Anna Nazaryan, Asja Čandić, Ben Toynton, Cor Nouws, Deirdre Daly, Dorée Carrier, Elisa de Castro Guerra, Eloy Crespo, Ema Infate, Foad Vafaei, Hannah Greetham, Heidi Merrifield, Guy Lunardi, Iris Lee, Jassie Badion, Javier Llamas Mondragon, Jona Aziza, Julie Wilder, Lily Logua, Mark Filion, Mazin Alhaddad, Michael Meeks, Mike Dworski, Mitch Tester, Naomi Obbard, Niall McCarthy, Niamh Merrit, Philippe Kalaf, Richard Brock, Robert McQueen, Sam Tuke, Simon Lofthouse, Simon Napper, Stelios Milidonis, Swapnil Bhartiya, Tim Eyles, Timur Gadžo, Tina Lowe, Tracie Fabb, William Gathoye

Some of our team building events over the last 10 years included Sky Diving, High Ropes, Paddle Boarding, Punting…

Partners

Of course, we wouldn’t be where we are today without our partners. We currently have over 230 partners in 60 countries who work alongside us and integrate Collabora Online into their products. We’d like to thank them for their continued support and trust that has allowed us to grow to grow our businesses together.

We love to work with partners all over the globe

Customers

And to our customers, with some four million paying users, who have entrusted Collabora Productivity to provide their secure online office suite – it’s a privilege to be part of your business!

Community

We love to work alongside so many talented people in the community, with over one thousand four hundred (1400) individual developers committing alongside us to the underlying LibreOffice Technology code we build on over the last ten years, along with a huge number of translators and documentation, UX experts and more all across the world. Please do checkout their credits. We’re particularly grateful to those helping us out with Collabora Online, but for reasons of brevity omit this list of names – checkout the links.

Photos from many of the community events we’ve taken part in over the decade

What have we achieved?

Throughout the decade, Collabora Productivity has focused on supporting our users and giving back to the wider LibreOffice community. We have brought LibreOffice technology to the browser and mobile in an easy to consume way for everyone.

We have released over 31 major releases across LibreOffice-from-Collabora, Collabora Online, Collabora Office, Collabora Office for Mobile and Collabora Online Development Edition.

We have pushed 57,000 commits to LibreOffice and 21,000 to Collabora Online.

We’ve hosted 7 Team and Partner events; Bern in 2014, Brno in 2016, Tirana in 2018, Almeria in 2019. COOL Days, for our partners and community was born during the pandemic. The first was hosted online in 2021, and two in the subsequent years were held in person in Berlin and Cambridge.

Of course, no software is without support tickets, enabling us to assist our customers and partners to get setup, migrated and working smoothly with Collabora products. Over the last 10 years we have closed 3596 tickets – that’s an average of around ten per day, with 19 currently open.

While our primary focus is supporting our product customers, part of Collabora Productivity is our bespoke consultancy work. We have worked with a large number of companies to build better features, provide better interoperability and solve their specific problems, all the while contributing the work back into the wider community. You can read about some of our projects.

Some Special Thank Yous

Some special thank-yous are necessary for the many people behind the scenes who worked hard behind the scenes to make the original spin-out from SUSE a succes – thanks to: Brad Haque, Gerald Pfeifer, Marie Louise van Deutekom, Melanie Reichel, Michal Svec, Nils Brauckmann, Ralf Flaxa and Vojtech Pavlik

Then thanks to our first significant customers, partners and supporters:

It took a special person ten years ago to have faith in this small, new spin-out and to support our work while we went through our teething period as a new company. Many of these people also helped us with support, advice, practical experience in negotiation, and ultimately of course funding. Without them we would not be here today – you are much appreciated:

Daniel Aquilino, Kyle Beam, John Blanton, Jean-Pierre Bordes, William Bridwell, Kent Davison, Holger Dyroff, Fernand, Adam Fyne, Tsahi Glik, David Gümbel, Chris Hall, John Hunter, Frank Karlitschek, Jagan Lokanatha, Robert McCullough, Meir Morganstern, Jos Poortvliet, Anil Raut, Jim Routh, Darren Ruotolo, Robert Schulman, Kismat Singh, Niels Spanjers, Adam Paclt, Antonin Prukl

And finally, a huge set of partners, customers and key users who have contributed so much love, feedback, financial and moral support:

Thank you to all those who have helped to fuel the growth and success of Collabora Productivit from a business perspective over this decade – the full list of names would need to be far longer here, but here are the people that came immediately to mind; thank you !

Maria Alandes Pradillo, Birgit Becker, Ralf Becker, Thorsten Behrens, Maurizio Berti, Oliver Biewald, Jean-Romain Bouquet, Ulrich Brandner, Anthony Callahan, John Carberry, Antonio Chaac Velazquez Rincon, Nicolas Christener, Jan Christoph Dageförde, Denny Dahl, Holger Dyroff, Denny Ehrenberg, Stephan Feldhoff, Eric Ficheux, Vincent Francois, Peter Ganten, Jonas Garstick, Tobias Gerlinger, Peter Gietz, David Gillard, Mark Götting, Nico Gulden, Julius Härtl, Philippe Hemmel, Darren Henderson, Jerome Herledan, Thomas Hildmann, Thomas Hilstad, Timo Hirvonen, Teo Hirvonen, Lars Hoeger, Ali Işıngör, Mihajlo Joksimovic, Niall Keaveney, Nico Kossuch, Devadas Kovilakath, Ryan Kruse, Steve Kucia, Gerald Langisch, Marina Latini, Michiel Leenaars, Jérémie Lesage, Lucie Lesage, Fabian Liedtke, Javier Llamas Mondragón, Giuseppe Lo Presti, Leif Lohdahl, Patrick Maier, Marcel Meyer, Andrea Mörike, Julie Murphy, Robert Nijhof, Robert Nouwens, Jez Nuzum, Jos van den Oever, Olivier Paroz, Jean-François Pellier, Benoit Penicaut, Régis Perdreau, Andreas Rhode, Dave Richards, Bernd Rodler, Ulises Rodriguez, Björn Schieble, Paolo Storti, Mathias Supp, Jorg Thalmann, Sebastiaan Veld, Nicolas Vérité, Arnaud Versini, Christophe Villeneuve, Sean Wilson, Markus Windecker, Andrea Wörrlein, Michael Wuttke


If you read those lists and think – “wow, that’s a lot of people” – you can share our joy at each of the relationships, insights and contributions that we’ve brought into the company from them. There has been a staggering amount of work done.

Thanks too to everyone who has written about us in the media, liked our posts on social media, met us at a conference or event or just told their friends about Collabora. All of this has allowed us to keep doing what we love most – Making Open Source Rock! We’re excited about where we’re at, and are looking forward to another decade of fun!

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