How to use nextcloud instead of MS Teams within a charity?

🏷️ General
1

I have no support question and have seen the support category. (Be aware that direct support questions will be deleted.)

on

Which general topic do you have

Hi there, I’d like to ask some advice on using NextCloud.

As a freelancer, I use nextcloud and Deck for my business, sharing files and keeping tasks in the Deck section. So I know NextCloud a bit.

For an international charity we are looking at nextcloud as well, but we are not sure how excactly to use it. We now you MS outlook, teams, one drive, Zoom, Ninth Brain and a custom website. Our volunteers live all over the world, some are using digital tools all day and some are not used to software at all. Many people say Teams is too complicated; they cannot find files or open them, do not understand logging in or to join or even host a meeting.

Now I am curious if we can use a NextCloud setup that woud be easier for them. Ideally, we would have our website integrated with webmail, file sharing and video calling. For instance, .org/members shows the login to webmail, shared folders, etc etc.

How could we do this? Can we easily migrate all emails from outlook accounts into a nextcloud email server, or should this be an email server from a hosting company? Can we setup a nextcloud instance that runs on .org/members with access to the shared folders and video calling, without people needing to install apps? Hopefully this would make it easier for members to find the right login etc :wink:

Then we also have several working groups. Right now they have an email alias, like a distribution list. E.g. emails sent to “Logistics@charity.org” will arrive in my personal inbox and when I reply, it will be from “fietserse@charity.org”. Therefore, I only need to open 1 inbox. However, for some working groups it makes sense to have a shared inbox; if I reply, my colleague will also be able to read the inbox and the mail I’ve sent in the outbox. But in that case, I should have multiple inboxes open at the same time and I don’t know how easy that works on a webmail?

I’m curious to hear your advise, let me know if you have more questions!

Greetings, Gert Jan

2

Hello Gert Jan,

Nextcloud does not have an email server themselves, however they do have partnerships with Dovecot and Stalwart. It’s listed on their groupware page. Maybe Zimbra integrates also well.

Unless you’re willing to spend a lot of time on hosting an email server yourself, I would personally go with a hosting company that offers it (maybe they also offer migration services). Mainly because of having to deal else with spamfilters yourself and all the other issues that come with hosting your own email service.

Then there’s also Nextcloud Mail and Roundcube. For shared mailboxes Nextcloud Mail, IMAP ACL is implemented: Share and receive mailboxes via IMAP ACLs · Issue #7057 · nextcloud/mail · GitHub probably also the same for Roundcube. So if the email server works according to the RFC, it should work. Distribution lists themselves are of course handled by the email server.

To be fair, I think personally I would start doing some tests with different user groups first (specifically for the techy and non-techy people) and see if the features besides email alone align with the user friendliness your users seek. Focus the test up-on collaboration within Nextcloud (Files, Office, Talk, Groupware).

3

What Nextcloud would be best for - and how - on a collaborative environment like what you describes:

Basically any SMTP and IMAP email capable provider/solution would work with Nextcloud. To make it “fluent” though, it will require some work, and you can get a lot of things handed to you in this regard, if using an open source appliance that delivers an email server based on an LDAP. Then it is a simple matter of connecting the Nextcloud instance to that same LDAP, and all will run fluently. The alternative is not that native, and you will have to figure out how to “synchronize” user provisioning between the email platform and Nextcloud using some other mechanisms, but this is not difficult to achieve, if investing some time and effort. It adds more complexity as it adds more moving parts, but it is not hard to achieve.
However this is not where Nextcloud would provide most value - albeit still capable of fully deliver on that. No. Collectives, Collabora/OnlyOffice/Libreoffice, Talk and the files sharing. Install the Secrets app as well. Especially group based shares. That is a powerfull combo that will empower the work of the charity affiliates.
Add group calendars to the mix, and you have a powerfull organization platform.

Collectives
Sharepoint replacement. Build community sites and make them even publicly available, available to some groups, some individuals or even entirely private.

Any office suite supported by Nextcloud
Edit, read, create and collaborate on documents, live, and enjoy all the benefits of Nextcloud as well as a fully integrated experience.

Talk
Chat (1-1, Group, public etc).
Video meetings, streamed webinars etc.
Additional tools natively build into Talk:

  • Sharing notes, documents, files.
  • Meeting summaries.
  • LocalAI for auto generating meeting summary - if installing and activating

Files
No brainer. But the ability to share files, tag them and make workflows as well as approval flows, is a powerfull toolbox.

Secrets
Share encrypted self destructive secrets to select people. Can also be used to request upload of sensitive data.

1 Like
4

You definitely can replace some services with Nextcloud but I don’t think this would address problems when users find login complicated - this experience/requirement is more or less the same for every application. And while Nextcloud and FOSS in general is always preferred in terms of sovereignty and privacy it is not always possible to replace or reduce monopoly applications due to external factors.

Depending on your current footprint consolidation of many different platforms to a single application could improve the user experience but this must be evaluated well - e.g. if some external parties require the use of specific service e.g. Zoom or Teams, introducing Talk would not change anything, same applies for every specific functionality Files vs OneDrive and Collabora vs Office Online.

1 Like