Digital Sovereigni…. What?

Why Data Privacy and a Secure Digital Workplace are so Important for Us!

written by Heiko Abmeyer | November 19^th, 2024

The other day, my daughter once more asked me what I do for a living. My son – bound to begin an apprenticeship himself next year – immediately responded that I learned something to do with electronics. The question my daughter had asked does come up surprisingly often, and repeatedly among friends, family, neighbors.

So, I begin with following: Partner Management in the Team Germany where I advise partners, companies and authorities, then I end up with the creation of a sovereign workplace. We have a platform for digital collaboration, and so on. This is where you realize who your besties are! Their faces are the only ones showing you that they cannot quite follow :-)

Okay, let’s break it down: First, let’s find out where you no longer were able to follow. I started with ‘Partner Management’. This term used to be called ‘Sales Manager Region XYZ’. We do not sell our products and solutions directly, so the old term seemed unfitting - and PM has a good sound to it. Platform for digital collaboration or, old school, IP telephone system. It doesn’t fit either, we offer so much more than just communication, e.g. our social tool Connect or our tool to digitally record working times, the Working App (short: Working). So it can only be the sovereign workplace and - jackpot, there it is, the question mark.

The term sovereign workplace is indeed not easy to understand at first. Anyone who deals with authorities is more likely to understand this term. It sounds so straightforward, so James Bond-ish, so sales-typical. And yet it is an important point for us as a manufacturer and developer with "Made in Germany" genes.

Explaining Digital Sovereignty 

I’m not quite in my mid-40s, but I vividly remember my first attempts with emails, ICQ and mobile phone ringtones. I would love to find out what happened to the data trail I left behind over 25 years ago...

Precisely this digital self-determination is what matters. I and my employer decide, where my data ends up, and what happens with it. On the one hand, it is important to create a sovereign workplace where IT can assume that no data is stored on any media that you don’t know about. On the other hand, the users sitting in front of the computer or software can decide for themselves when and where they leave their data, and to which extent.

Beware: Just because a website lets me customize cookie settings does not mean that this is a form of sovereignty! Quite the opposite: I am merely making the decision to perhaps not reveal quite as much about myself as I would if I just went ahead and accepted them all.

Digital Sovereignty with the innovaphone myApps Client

Let’s take a look at digital sovereignty with our myApps client, taking the point of view from an admin. Rollout to the computers of the users is very simple through the company’s rollout policy. With the Windows Installer, myApps packages are distributed. Actually, it is only the myApps Client which is distributed, i.e., without apps or similar features. After this initial step, a user license for an app, such as the Softphone App, is assigned to the user on the innovaphone PBX. The myApps Client is essentially just an empty shell waiting to be filled with apps centrally distributed from the innovaphone platform. Vice versa, in case of loss or theft of a device, the IT removes the apps from the myApps client.

For the user, it is basically irrelevant how the own workspace looks like. There usually isn’t much you can do about it: guidelines from IT, data protection regulations, code of conduct - also relevant training topics. I do have the option to customize my myApps Client a bit. I can adjust my home screen, add favorites, select the color design, etc. What is particularly important to me, however, is that all apps in my myApps are identical on all devices I use. So I have both the Softphone App and my Connect App as a social tool on my laptop, as well as on my smartphone. From all authorized devices, I can start and stop the recording of my working times. No matter where I use myApps, nothing is stored on the device! All data remain on the storage area specified by IT. The data is therefore protected in case of data theft or similar incidents, if something happens with my devices such as data theft or similar crimes.

It is only a small example, but nevertheless an important contribution to digital sovereignty. Self-determination for our customers, security and yet digital collaboration are super easy to achieve - with myApps from innovaphone.

Incidentally, I’ve also explained my tasks to my kids in the meantime - after all, I have everything in my home office. The questions have been solved. They do know now what a secure, digital workplace is all about. But whether I was able to explain what exactly I do in Partner Management all day long... who knows...

Contact us for more details on your sovereign workplace with innovaphone.
Our portfolio provides versatile business applications to meet your unique business needs.