Salzburg, January 19, 2026 – The Salzburg-based tech company is setting new standards in the automation of customer processes with its latest innovation. Using Salzburg AG as a best-practice example, sproof shows how the fully digital processing of SEPA direct debit mandates not only enables significant efficiency gains, but also meets with the highest level of customer acceptance. By using the “sproof Fastlane”, the infrastructure service provider is digitizing one of its most time-consuming analogue processes to date and saving over 250,000 pages of paper every year.
Innovation “sproof Fastlane”: SEPA mandates without media discontinuity
A core element of the collaboration, which serves as a model for many industries (insurance companies, banks, utilities), is the digitization of SEPA direct debit mandates via the sproof Fastlane. Previous processes were often based on a time-consuming mix of printouts, manual signatures and manual scanning in the back office.
“With our solution, we have completely automated this process for Salzburg AG. Customers sign digitally on their smartphone – without registering – and the data flows back into the system in a validated form. This reduces the error rate to almost zero and massively increases customer satisfaction,” – explains Fabian Knirsch, CEO and co-founder of sproof. “The massively high response rate of digitally submitted SEPA mandates also shows that customers are actively demanding such digital solutions today.”
Best practice: Salzburg AG saves 250,000 pages of paper per year
The figures from Salzburg AG show what a successful transformation looks like in practice. The conversion of previous processes alone saved the company over 250,000 pages of paper in 2025 – in addition to significant savings in shipping and postage costs. Thanks to the seamless API connection, the signed documents and validated bank data flow directly into the company’s existing CRM systems. Manual post-processing is completely eliminated, which saves the back office an enormous amount of time. In the long term, the aim is to achieve potential savings of more than one million pages per year by extending this to tariff changes and new contracts.
Digital sovereignty as a strategic decision
In addition to process optimization, digital sovereignty was a decisive factor for Salzburg AG. sproof offers a platform developed and hosted entirely in Austria that enables legally compliant signing without the risks of international cloud solutions.
“It was crucial for us to find a solution that guarantees the entire data storage in Europe and at the same time enables qualified, legally secure signatures that are also recognized in court,” – explains Markus Schmidt, Head of IT & CIO at Salzburg AG.
This positions sproof as an independent partner that guarantees the highest compliance standards within the European legal framework.
Future-proof thanks to eIDAS 2.0 and EUDI Wallet
For sproof, the independence of European companies is paramount. While US providers often react inflexibly to European regulations, the sproof platform is already prepared for upcoming standards such as eIDAS 2.0 and the EUDI wallet (the EU’s digital wallet). The partnership is therefore designed for the long term: In addition to the signature, Salzburg AG is planning to integrate digital identity solutions in order to process the legally required identity verification in a secure and customer-friendly manner in the regulated telecommunications sector, for example.
“We see ourselves not just as a software provider, but as a partner for digital sovereignty,” – “The fact that a leading company like Salzburg AG relies on our technology confirms our approach: highly specialized IT solutions from Salzburg for the global market that are uncompromisingly based on European values.”
A blueprint for the industry
The cooperation shows that regional innovation and economic success go hand in hand.
“The project is a blueprint for the entire industry,” – sums up Thomas Oberndorfer, Head of Customer Service at Salzburg AG. “It proves that digital sovereignty not only increases security, but also delivers tangible economic benefits through process automation.”
