How To: Easily Evaluate and Permanently Operate Apps with Appliances

IT environments are a dynamic situation with changing problematics, requirements and needs of users. System administrators have to face these dynamics while maintaining IT operations. Therefore, they have to regularly deal with new software solutions and check whether they fit the requirements, needs and circumstances of their own IT environment. In this article, we want to show how Univention App Appliances can help with this. As pre-configured virtual images ready for immediate use with an integrated operating system, they can be used to quickly try out new software, switch it off if it fails to deliver the desired results, or, if the evaluation is successful, transfer the test solution to live operation.

bitpack.io Introduces New UCS-based Solution at ImPuls e. V. Association

An outdated IT landscape, many different desktop systems with proprietary software and corresponding license costs had repeatedly confronted the administrators of the association ImPuls e. V. from Hohen Neuendorf, Brandenburg, with problems. A solution was sought that would make both setting up new workstations and maintaining already existing desktops easier. The responsible persons also desired the possibility of interconnecting all facilities while at the same time retaining full control over their data.
We, the company bitpack.io from Birkenwerder, have modernized the IT infrastructure of the association in recent months. The new systems are running since July 2019: Univention Corporate Server is the central component; furthermore Kopano, Nextcloud and OnlyOffice are being used. In this article we would like to briefly introduce you to the project.

No longer Windows exclusive: Automatic document recognition soon available for Linux Users

Users of agorum core will soon receive an update for the OCR engine*. In addition to a significant performance boost, text recognition will be also be a benefits for Linux users thanks to the Linux-compliant pillar.

agorum core is a highly flexible enterprise content management software (ECM) that allows individual configuration and customization with a wide range of agorum core plug-ins to fulfill your specific requirements. In addition to typical document management features like GDPR audit-proof (mail) archiving, ticket system, internal chats and project management tool are also included and operate on one single platform. Users can access, share and organize information within and beyond departments, therefore collaboration and transfer knowledge become barrier-free and effortless.

Wekan: The Open Source Kanban Board as Alternative to Trello

screenshot-wekan-board
Whether you’re maintaining a personal TODO list, planning your holidays with family or friends, or working in a team on your next revolutionary idea – Kanban boards are a great way to organize tasks, visualize a project’s current state, and become more efficient. They also make it easy to focus and detect potential problems, i.e. bottlenecks in a project or a deadline coming closer. They bring more transparency for all team members and make it possible – if the board is managed well – to take over atasks, if a colleague is absent. And last but not least, it is hard to imagine agile and scrum based projects without them.
There are plenty of Kanban solutions out there, but if you’re looking for an Open Source alternative to Trello, Kanban Tool, Airtable, ClickUp, etc., then check out Wekan . The software is distributed under the MIT license and now available in the Univention App Center – so, it’s easy to integrate in Univention Corporate Server.

Discovering Your Very Favourite Apps – The New App Suggestion System in Our App Center

At Univention, we are constantly thinking about how we can add benefit and value to our Univention Corporate Server (UCS) and App Center. One idea born from this is the app suggestion system, which I would like to introduce to you in this article. I would also like to give you some insight into how we work with hypotheses & tests in such projects at Univention. Plus, you will learn how, contrary to many other systems, we at Univention have given top priority to the protection of personal data.

Unclouding: UCS-Apps as SaaS-Alternative

Not only since the discussions about the GDPR last year, security and data protection have returned to the attention of both companies and users. Following the trend to move as much as possible to the cloud, there are now again conflicting approaches: The “unclouding”, that is the return from the cloud to on-premise solutions on the one hand or the operation of own systems in IaaS environments (Infrastructure as a Service) on the other.
In the following, I will briefly examine the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches and show how users can operate IT services securely and, most importantly, at their own command. Naturally, the services which users can integrate into their environment from the Univention App Center play an essential role for us.

OpenProject 9 with new Boards for Agile Project Management – download now in the App Center

The new version 9 of the open source project management software OpenProject includes new Agile Boards and therefore supports even better classical as well as Agile project management, such as Scrum and Kanban.
The main advantage: teams can manage their projects in a classical approach via waterfall as well as steer projects or subprojects in an Agile approach – included in one software.
OpenProject can easily be installed via the UCS App Center. For comfortable user identity management, OpenProject is integrated in the UCS LDAP. An upgrade for existing users to the new version is possible via the App Center.

Free ONLYOFFICE given tabbed interface and other extended version features

ONLYOFFICE is a collaborative office suite for working with documents, spreadsheets and presentations in UCS. It is combined with either Nextcloud or ownCloud and installed from Univention App Center casually (Docker-based) or as a pre-configured virtual appliance. You can also integrate it in UCS LDAP to manage all users. Read this article to learn about the latest and likely the most extensive update in ONLYOFFICE Document Server.
Free open source ONLYOFFICE Document Server has caught up with the advanced version, ONLYOFFICE Integration Edition, in functionality. This means that all features including the tabbed interface layout, Content Controls, navigation and many more are now available for small teams using the the community version of ONLYOFFICE. The update also includes novelties newly introduced in version 5.3.
For bigger organizations that rely on higher number of employees and seek professional technical support, ONLYOFFICE still offers its business-scale solution.

Differential backup by SEP sesam reduces backup volume and time expenditure for Kopano users

SEO Backup for Kopano and UCS
For quite some time it has been possible to make an online differential backup of Kopano. It is therefore sufficient to make a full backup at longer intervals (e.g. weekly). In between (e.g. every night) differential backups are sufficient, which occupy less space and are much faster.
Therefore we are happy that with SEP sesam we now have a backup software that supports Univention Corporate Server (UCS) and Kopano all-inclusive, including the differential backup for Kopano.

Smart Enterprise Ressource Planning: WaWision becomes Xentral

Xentral is an ERP/CRM system that can be easily installed via the UCS App Center. Until now, the software was available for download under the name “WaWision” in the Univention App Center. Xentral is a combination of a flexibly expandable basic version with its own AppStore. With Xentral, every company can individually define the scope of functions and thus configure exactly the ERP system it needs for its requirements. The free open source version already covers all important business processes such as master data management, quotation and order management, invoicing, warehouse management, shipping, time recording and much more. Xentral is extremely scalable with high performance and is used in particular by online retailers.