The Salzburg University of Applied Sciences
The Salzburg University of Applied Sciences is a modern educational institution that has been offering practice-oriented education with high quality since its foundation in 1995. With locations in Urstein, Kuchl, Salzburg and Schwarzach, it covers a broad spectrum of study options.
The Salzburg University of Applied Sciences offers a total of 33 degree programs, including 18 Bachelor’s and 15 Master’s programs. The degree programs are divided into six departments: Applied Social Sciences, Business and Tourism, Creative Technologies, Health Sciences, Design and Green Engineering and Information Technologies and Digitalization. A special feature of the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences is its focus on innovative research and teaching. Students benefit from close networking with the regional economy and international partner universities. This ensures practical training and promotes the exchange between theory and practice.
With over 3,500 students and a student-to-staff ratio of 1:13, the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences offers personal and intensive support. The Salzburg University of Applied Sciences stands for quality in education, the development of potential and the design of sustainable solutions, which makes it a respected institution in the higher education landscape.
Organization Name:
Salzburg University of Applied Sciences
Brief description of the project
FH Salzburg has been using the digital signature solution from sproof, which emerged as a spin-off of the university, to handle contract processes efficiently and securely since the beginning. Thanks to its simple integration and high data protection standards, sproof optimizes both internal and external processes.
Why sproof sign:
“FH Salzburg is pursuing a cloud-first strategy for many areas. However, international data centers are out of the question. We cannot and do not want to store our data there.”
How did it come about that the students dealt with the topic of secure electronic signatures?
One of our research centers at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences has been working on the proof of green energy and has researched different ways of providing this proof. Through digital signatures, through blockchain technologies – and two dissertations emerged from these considerations. This included a dissertation on the topic of sproof, which later led to a spin-off.
For which use cases is the digital signature used?
If you look at the number of students, the FH Salzburg is actually a large company. We have 3,500 students and therefore a whole range of people who sign or receive signed documents from us. We therefore use sproof Sign for external contract signing, but also for all our internal processes. Be it a personnel form or that we have to approve a purchase requisition or something similar internally. The qualified electronic signature is used for almost all of our contracts. For example, if we have a large research project, this is also handled via sproof sign.
FH Salzburg is pursuing a cloud-first strategy for many areas. However, international data centers are not an option for us. We cannot and do not want to store our data there.
FH-Prof. Priv.-Doz. Dr. Dominik Engel
Rector and Managing Director of the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences
How did the integration of the cloud proceed and what role do cloud solutions play in the IT strategy of the FH?
The FH Salzburg is pursuing a cloud-first strategy for many areas: For us, of course, it is particularly important that we handle personal data and we have many young people who are taking their next step in education with us. Of course, we have to handle the data entrusted to us with the utmost care. This means that data protection is a high priority for us. That is why we are focusing on a European solution; IT security has to fit. At sproof, we have the great advantage that we rely on a European or Austrian solution and can rely on the data being stored with the appropriate care. The server data is therefore stored 100% in a European cloud infrastructure. International data centers would not be an option for us. We cannot and do not want to store our data there.
How did the integration of the cloud work?
As early adopters, we have been involved from the very beginning. We have gradually made more and more of our systems signature-capable, integrated single sign-on and now, for the most part, it’s just a click and the signature is guaranteed.
sproof Sign has also shown us the advantage of being able to integrate it directly into our student management systems. Together with sproof’s development department and our own IT department, this has worked very well.
Is sproof sign trained at the FH?
The integration of sproof sign is so seamless that no special training is required. We point out sproof to our new colleagues once during the welcome day, but extensive training is not necessary.
How are international contract processes with external students from all over Europe handled?
Internationalization is a very important goal of the FH Salzburg. In recent months and years, we have significantly increased our student mobility, as well as staff and teaching mobility. This applies to the whole of Europe and it is of course very valuable if, for example, a Spanish or French digital signature has the same place on the contract as an Austrian signature.
There is an “audit function” in sproof Sign. How is this used?
That is very important to us. The digital signatures must be easily and clearly verifiable. With the audit function, we can see who has signed with which certificate and when. We want to know exactly who signed when and this is made very easy with the solution. However, it is also important to us that the signatures can also be verified with any other common Office solution. So if someone wants to check it in Adobe Reader, for example, he or she will also see that the signatures are valid.
How did the collaboration between sproof and the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences come about?
In a way, sproof GmbH is a spin-off of the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, founded by two doctoral students, Fabian Knirsch and Clemens Brunner, from the Center for Secure Energy Informatics. It is particularly pleasing that the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences was on board as an early adopter right from the start. sproof was created at the FH Startup Center, our own incubator, so to speak, and took its first steps there. This initial idea has developed very well and as a university of applied sciences we are very proud when our spin-offs develop so successfully. We are of course very proud of this development.
