An IT set up for a startup/SME: Nextcloud, Mattermost, Mailcow and more

I had a client who wanted to avoid vendor lock-in.

They wanted:

• Mailboxes under 7 different domain names
• an alternative to Google Drive, docs, sheets
• an alternative to Slack
• an alternative to Calendly
• an alternative to Airtable
• an alternative to Zoom
• an ERP for HR and accounting
• a password management system for the whole organisation

Solutions:

• Mailcow
• Nextcloud
• Mattermost (MM)
• Nextcloud's applications Calendar and Appointments
• Grist
• Big Blue Button
• ERPNext
• Vaultwarden

We customized Nextcloud as such:

• Shared folders per team/department with 'Workspace'
• Set up collaborative documents: spreadsheet, slides/decks and documents with Collabora
• Activated Nextcloud's application Forms to run surveys
• Activated Nextcloud's Calendar and Appointments to have a booking system (alternative to Calendly)
• Connected MM and Nextcloud to share files from MM to Nextcloud
• Activated Nextcloud's application Deck, a Kaban system within Nextcloud

For mailboxes, we use an instance of Mailcow which includes the ability for them to:

• manage the mailboxes of multiple domain names
• create unlimited email addresses
• create common email addresses e.g. contact@example.com
• create wildcard email addresses e.g. client-*@example.com

Next steps are:

• set up LibreSign to their Nextcloud instance to sign documents
• set up an instance of Grist to replace Airtable
• set up Big Blue Button and link that to their Nextcloud instance as well as a Mattermost to start calls from within either apps
• set up ERPNext for HR and accounting
• set up an instance of Vaultwarden to store, share and manage permissions of passwords