Digital Sovereignty and Resilience for Close to 600,000 Members
What we achieved
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Close to 600,000 members
in Austria served -
60–70%
core business processes -
100% on-premises
Data Sovereignty
To who
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Industry Public Sector & Legal Advocacy
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Products: HCL Domino, HCL Connections, HCL Sametime
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Region Europe
Overview
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Part 1
Challenge
AKNÖ needed to deliver agile, statewide initiatives while ensuring absolute data privacy and security for highly sensitive legal counseling.
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Part 2
Solution
A multi-tenant, on-premises architecture powered by HCL Domino, integrating workflows, electronic signatures, and secure video counseling via HCL Sametime.
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Part 3
Results
Maximum data sovereignty, extreme reliability, and the agility to launch new statewide applications from scratch within weeks, independently of cloud monopolies.
The Challenge
The Lower Austrian Chamber of Labour (Arbeiterkammer Niederösterreich, AKNÖ) is the legal backbone for close to 600,000 members across the state. From its headquarters in St. Pölten and 21 regional offices, around 600 employees fight for the rights of their members, whether in conflicts with employers or in consumer protection, often all the way to court. Such a mandate requires an IT infrastructure that operates in exactly the same way: absolutely confidential, reliable in every situation, and highly flexible operationally.
When management decides on new initiatives for members, IT must deliver immediately. At the same time, any compromise on data security is unacceptable in legal counseling. Sensitive case data — for instance, from video consultations in youth or consumer protection — must not flow into uncontrollable cloud silos. It belongs on servers that are physically and legally secure in Austria.
"Especially when citizens seek our help in emergency situations, absolute confidentiality is our top priority. The data from consultations must reside on systems over which we have full sovereignty," says IT Director Peter Mayerl, getting straight to the point.
Consequently, the central task was to maintain a secure collaboration platform that combines this extremely strict data protection with a decentralized structure, while maintaining high performance and stability.
The Solution
AKNÖ’s answer is not a radical upheaval, but rather the logical advancement of an extremely robust architecture. As an early adopter, dating back to Notes 2.0, the Chamber today relies on HCLSoftware technologies for 60 to 70 percent of its entire business processes.
- Core Business Platform: HCL Domino manages not only core file administration but also workflows such as travel expense and time tracking.
- Modern Integrations: The connection of external hardware, such as local time-stamping terminals, or the preparation of documents for official electronic signatures runs smoothly via modern REST interfaces and HTTP requests.
- Cross-Border Multi-Tenancy: Just how resilient, secure, and efficient this architecture truly is becomes apparent when looking across state borders: AKNÖ operates the entire HCLSoftware infrastructure as a secure multi-tenant solution for the neighboring Chamber of Labour in Burgenland as well.
- Collaboration & Video: For internal communication, the team uses HCL Connections; the strictly confidential video counseling runs on HCL Sametime, strictly on-premises to guarantee the highest data protection standards.
The Results
Anyone looking at AKNÖ’s IT infrastructure today sees a system that stands out for its extreme reliability and data security, while successfully withstanding cost pressures and the trend toward cloud monopolies.
"Of course, we also feel the constant market pressure toward Microsoft 365," explains CIO Peter Mayerl openly. "But when we honestly look at the security requirements for our data, the minimal administration effort, and the running costs, our organically grown HCLSoftware architecture is simply unbeatable in operation."
This stability and cost efficiency go hand in hand with operational speed. "When the Chamber’s leadership decides to launch a statewide telephone campaign, they expect a ready-to-use system from IT immediately. With HCL Domino, we often build such applications practically from scratch within a few weeks — securely and without external dependencies," Mayerl continues.
The Future with Domino IQ: The IT team is currently preparing the update to the latest HCL Domino 14.5 Fix Pack 1. There is no question of this being a legacy system — on the contrary: For the coming years, HCL Domino IQ is on the strategic agenda. Martin Posch from the IT team outlines the vision for this: "We are sitting on a decades-old treasure trove of data. With the AI tools of Domino IQ, we want to unlock and harness this rich historical data intelligently and, above all, with absolute security in the future, enabling us to provide our members with even more well-founded counsel."
About the company
The Lower Austrian Chamber of Labour (Arbeiterkammer Niederösterreich, AKNÖ) is the legal backbone for close to 600,000 members across the state. Operating from its headquarters in St. Pölten and 21 regional offices, the organization provides comprehensive legal and consumer protection advocacy for its members, ensuring fair treatment in the workplace and beyond.
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