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 wide range of study options.
Salzburg University of Applied Sciences offers a total of 33 degree programmes, including 18 Bachelor’s and 15 Master’s programmes. 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 Digitalisation. A special feature of 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-student ratio of 1:13, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences offers personal and intensive support. 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 university landscape.
Organization Name:
Salzburg University of Applied Sciences
Short description of the project:
Since the beginning, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences 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. Thanks to the simple integration and high data protection standards, sproof optimizes both internal and external processes.
Why sproof sign:
“Salzburg University of Applied Sciences is pursuing a cloud-first strategy for many areas. However, they are out of the question for international data centers. We can’t and can’t and don’t 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 various variants of how to provide this proof. Through digital signatures, through blockchain technologies – and from these considerations two dissertations were created. Among other things, 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 Salzburg University of Applied Sciences is actually a large company. We have 3,500 students and thus 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 sheet or that we need 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, then something like this is also handled via sproof sign.
Salzburg University of Applied Sciences is pursuing a cloud-first strategy for many areas. However, international data centers are out of the question for us. We must not and 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 Salzburg University of Applied Sciences is pursuing a cloud-first strategy for many areas: For us, of course, it is particularly important: We handle personal data, 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 absolute care. This means that data protection is a highly priority issue for us. That’s why we rely on a European solution, the IT security has to fit. With sproof, we have the great advantage that we rely on a European or Austrian solution and we can rely on the fact that the data is stored accordingly carefully. The server data is thus 100% stored in a European cloud infrastructure. For us, international data centers would be out of the question. We must not and cannot and do not want to store our data there.
How did the integration of the cloud work?
As early adopters, we were allowed to be part of it from the very beginning. We have gradually made more and more of our systems signature-capable, integrated single sign-on and now it is largely just one 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 worked very well.
Is proof sign training provided at the FH?
The integration of sproof sign happens so seamlessly that it does not require any special training. We point out sproof to our new colleagues once as part of the welcome day, but large training courses are not necessary.
How are international contract processes with external students from all over Europe handled?
Internationalisation is a very important goal of the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences. In recent months and years, we have greatly increased our student mobility, but also staff and teaching mobility. This goes all over Europe and it is of course very valuable if, for example, a Spanish or French digital signature has just as much space on the contract as an Austrian signature.
There is the “audit function” at sproof sign. How is it used?
This is very important for us. The digital signatures must be easy and clearly verifiable. With the audit function, we can see who signed with which certificate and when. We want to know exactly when who signed and that is made very easy with the solution. However, it is also important for 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, then 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 sense, sproof GmbH is a spin-off of the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, founded by two doctoral students, Fabian Knirsch and Clemens Brunner, of the Center for Secure Energy Informatics. It is particularly pleasing that the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences was on board as an early adopter from the very beginning. sproof was born in the FH Startup Center, our own incubator, so to speak, and took the first steps there. This initial idea has developed greatly and as a university of applied sciences we are very proud when our spin-offs develop so successfully. Of course, we are watching this development with great pride.
