For employees of the City of Zurich, a rapid replacement of Microsoft 365 with the open-source alternative OpenDesk is currently not possible. This is at least the result of a study conducted by Zurich's Competence Center for Digitalization and the Bern University of Applied Sciences, which has now been presented. It states that while OpenDesk “meets the functional requirements of regular office life in many areas,” a complete switch is missing “central elements of a modern computer workplace.” The authors include external telephony with caller ID, effortless video conferencing with external parties, native apps, and limitations arising from OpenDesk being browser-based. Furthermore, low-code automations are missing.
OpenDesk is being developed by the Center for Digital Sovereignty of Public Administration (ZenDiS) and has been increasingly considered a possible alternative to Microsoft software widely used in administrations for some time. Technically, it is browser-based technology that combines various open-source software with different functions. Specifically, this includes Nextcloud for file management and Collabora Online as an office replacement. In Zurich, the aim was to determine whether the technology could already serve as a full-fledged replacement for Microsoft 365 and its many integrated functionalities, and what might still be missing.
