# What do I do?
I take care of IT tools and infrastructures for businesses and provide them with software and apps they need.
- I advise organisations on which software or apps to use, licenses and hosting.
- take care of setting things up: hosting, services and apps
- train staff so they make full use of the tools you use
- on-board new hires with apps they need to get up to speed
- train your Information System Manager (or someone who can do the job) if you want to have someone who take care of IT internally
- and remain available for support
There is no vendor lock-in.
# How is there no vendor lock-in?
- I use software any provider can host for you
- I use software whose source code is freely distributed
# Why copyleft?
Copyleft and permissive licenses are a type of software license.
By license, I don’t mean the fee an organisation pays to a software provider to use their software (like Microsoft licenses); I mean the notice that stipulates how the source code of a software can be used.
Why would your business want to rely on software that is permissively- or copyleft-licensed?
Because when your organisation becomes dependent on a software, you want to make sure you have control over that software.
Most of the time you don’t.
If the license is proprietary or restrictive, you have no control over the technologies your business is dependent upon.
Only the original provider has control over that technology.
The risk is that if things go wrong, or if the provider decides to go their way, your business can be left with nothing; like the 35,000 businesses that got locked out from their accounting system back in 2024. These businesses were left with no access to their accounting, tax and financial data.
That means two things:
- keep a copy of your data
- use technologies which are non-restricted so you can redeploy your digital infrastructure with another provider
Copyleft and permissive licenses stipulate that users and companies have as much control over the (source code of the) technology as the providers of the technology itself.
If you are no longer happy with the provider, or if you sense that there is a risk, you have the right and the possibility to quit that provider and ask another provider to host that software for you.
# What do I offer?
NEXTCLOUD from EUR 220 per year
Alternative to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace
- share folders across organisations; per user, per group, etc.
- collaborate on documents, spreadsheet, slides
- create forms (run surveys, etc)
- create a webpage with calendar slots others can book in your calendar
- get others to sign documents
- sync folder with your folders on your desktop automatically
WEBSITE from EUR 200 per year
- static website
- easy to update
- low maintenance
- news feed that sends notifications to subscribers
- integrate with Nextcloud apps: booking system, forms, etc
MATTERMOST from EUR 120 per year
Alternative to Slack
- communicate via instant message with your team
- create public channels a la Discord
- integrate with your video conference tool
- receive notifications from other applications
- use on desktop, web, iOS or android
BIG BLUE BUTTON from EUR 140 per year
Alternative to Zoom
- get a dedicated URL for conferences with your name
- organise online conferences
- record conferences
- draw on white boards
- chat with participants
VAULTWARDEN from EUR 120 per year
- manage passwords for your organisation
- share passwords with others securely
- share collection of passwords
- manage passwords permissions per user, team, organisation
- send encrypted files via temporary links
MAILBOXES (MAILCOW) from EUR 24 per year
- get email addresses with your own domain name
- get unlimited addresses/mailboxes
- pay per usage (number of email sent, storage per GB)
- use your own email applications (or SoGo)
- manage shared mailboxes e.g. contact@example.com
- manage wildcard mailboxes e.g. client-*@example.com
- administrate addresses and aliases of your organisation via Mailcow
- synchronise your contacts and calendars via CardDAV and CalDAV
Other software we offer: Discourse, Grist, Wordpress, ERPNext, Humhub, Forgejo, Etherpad, Yeswiki, Peertube, Jitsi, Matrix, Mastodon, Hedgedoc, Zammad, Snipe-IT, Uptime Kuma, Listmonk.
# Who are you?
- GNU/Linux system administrator
- Former go-to-market lead for startups
- Former entrepreneur-in-residence for a corporation
- Former public officer for digital affairs (ministry of finance)
- Researcher
- Essayist; essay: Asymmetry
# What does an IT setup look like for a startup or a SME?
Please see this blog post.
# What do people say?
“Roman is an expert; it is great to be able to leverage his expertise and get things done”
# Why do you run this business?
To finance my research and publish my work under a CC BY-SA license.
# Contact
See contact page