Bremen, March 14, 2023 – Univention GmbH has set ambitious growth targets for 2023. That includes expanding the market leadership for digital identity management in the school sector and its expansion throughout the DACH region. Another focus is on providing an open source workplace for public administration as part of projects such as the dPhoenixSuite by Dataport and the Sovereign Workplace for Administration which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community. The new Vice President Sales & Marketing, Roberto Blickhan, is an internationally experienced executive Univention has brought on board to implement its growth strategy and expand strategic partnerships.
Expansion of Market Leadership in Data Privacy Compliant Management of Digital Identities in the School Sector
Approximately 2.8 million digital identities of learners and teachers in the school sector in Germany, Austria and Switzerland alone are now managed via the Univention solution UCS@school. There are ongoing projects with several federal states in Germany and Austria to implement further statewide solutions based on UCS and UCS@school.
In addition to the centralized, privacy-compliant management of digital identities, UCS@school has become the most important platform in Germany for the integration and provision of digital educational services. Together with major school authorities such as the State of Hamburg, Univention is working to further expand the model of roles and rights for its solutions and to optimize the technical basis for cloud operation.
Open Source Workplace as a Digitally Sovereign Alternative for Public Administration
The second key growth segment for Univention is the public sector in Germany. Against the backdrop of growing geopolitical tensions and dependencies, the German government has made digital sovereignty in IT infrastructure and cloud services a top priority. Governmental and economic independence and the ability to innovate in digitalization must be secured for the future.
Together with other major open source manufacturers, Univention is developing integrated open source solutions within the framework of several projects, such as the dPhoenixSuite on behalf of Dataport and the Sovereign Workplace for the Administration, which is financed by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community. Over the next few years, these are expected to become full-fledged alternatives to office products from American corporations such as Microsoft.
New Vice President Sales & Marketing Roberto Blickhan in Charge of Expanding Market Leadership and Developing New Market Segments
In order to achieve its economic goals, Univention brought Roberto Blickhan on board at the beginning of the year. “An important lever for our growth strategy,” says Blickhan, “is the expansion of our partner program. Working with a strong partner network is essential to drive digital sovereignty and serve the enormous demand for digitalization in Germany. We are working closely with Dataport in the public sector and are currently in talks with other partners to develop other market segments where there is a great need for digitally sovereign IT infrastructures. UCS will be a key building block in these partners’ multi-vendor strategies.
Blickhan brings a wealth of experience to the role, having spent many years running his own management consultancy for tech companies. His experience includes developing growth strategies for various American AI start-ups and preparing their market entry into Europe. Prior to that, he was Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing at debitel AG in Stuttgart, Germany, and served on the supervisory boards of several international telecommunications companies.
To Roberto Blickhans LinkedIn profile
About Univention
Univention, headquartered in Bremen, Germany, is the provider of the Open Source platform Univention Corporate Server (UCS) for digital identity management and application integration. Openness, scalability and usability serve to realize digital sovereignty, which ensures users have full control over their own data and identities. UCS, as an open integration platform with an identity management system, a web portal for easy access to applications and the Univention App Center, enables the seamless integration of third-party applications and services. With its own solutions and their integration into the Sovereign Cloud Stack (SCS) as well as into the dPhoenixSuite, Univention enables the modernization of the IT infrastructure of the public sector as well as that of companies.
The UCS@school solution, which is tailored to educational institutions, offers an optimized platform with central identity management for the simple provision of services from different providers such as learning management systems, email, cloud and office applications for schools, school boards, and states via their own school portals. UCS and UCS@school are used by numerous federal states, municipalities and districts, administrations and companies. For more information, visit https://www.univention.com.
