Linkando and regio iT digitize committee meetings with gpaNRW-certified specialist application

PRESS RELEASE

A partnership between Linkando and regio iT enables legally compliant digital committee work in cities, municipalities, districts and associations.
In a pilot project with the Landschaftsverband Rheinland ("LVR"), the Linkando Meetings app is to be used in political committees.
The certification of the Linkando app by the North Rhine-Westphalia Municipal Audit Office ("gpaNRW") creates legal certainty within the framework of the Digital Meeting Ordinance.

Landau/Palatinate, June 12, 2024 - The software provider Linkando from Landau/Palatinate and the IT service provider regio iT, headquartered in Aachen, now also offer certified voting for committee work in cities, municipalities, districts and associations as part of their partnership. In March 2024, the Linkando meetings app was the first app of the year to be certified by gpaNRW for use in digital and hybrid committee meetings. Since then, the number of requests has risen sharply, particularly from the public sector.

Linkando is now to be used as part of a pilot project with the Rhineland Regional Association. With its 22,000 employees, the LVR operates as a higher municipal association and covers an area with around ten million inhabitants. Holding political committee meetings using the Linkando Meetings app enables elected representatives to participate in the political process digitally or in hybrid form.

"Certification by the gpaNRW is a game changer for us," explains Volker Wiora, founder and Managing Director of Linkando. "Since the end of the pandemic, the government has once again demanded stricter requirements for holding digital committee meetings. At the same time, interest in digital meetings in the public sector is growing. With the gpaNRW certification, Linkando and regio iT enable legally compliant digitalization."

"Since the first publication of the Digital Meetings Ordinance (DigiSiVO), there has been an increase in requests from local authorities and municipal companies for digital committee work," confirms Jürgen Kouhl, Member of the Management Board, regio iT gesellschaft für informationstechnologie mbH. "We are delighted that with the Linkando solution we can now offer a complete solution that meets the requirements of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia."

The Linkando app is integrated with the Zoom video call software and therefore also with Zoom MC by regio iT. Linkando offers specialist functions tailored to digital committee work, such as secret and public votes and elections, voting lists, interactive agendas and automated meeting minutes. The integration in Zoom makes a decisive contribution to the user-friendliness of the Linkando app.

Aylin Aslaner, Head of Public at Zoom DACH, says: "As Zoom, we are the first video conferencing provider to have our solution certified by gpaNRW. With the Linkando app for Zoom, the appropriate add-on is now also certified, enabling our public sector customers to implement their plans for modern, digital committee work in a legally compliant manner."

Andreas Zenger, Manager Operations of Linkando partner Connect4Video GmbH, also explains: "With easymeet24, our version of Zoom Meeting Software, which particularly addresses data protection issues, we have already been gpaNRW-certified as a pure video conferencing platform since 2023 and are pleased that we can now offer a fully integrated solution for digital committee work together with our partner Linkando."

The state of NRW is a digital pioneer in Germany. In April 2022, the state parliament passed the "Act on the Introduction of Digital Meetings for Municipal Bodies and on the Amendment of Municipal Regulations", thus creating the legal basis for digital meetings in the public sector. Linkando puts these requirements into practice.

About Linkando

Linkando is a software provider from Landau/ Palatinate. The company develops software-as-a-service solutions for digital sales playbooks and virtual meetings, supported by the use of artificial intelligence. Companies use Linkando Playbooks to simplify workflows, increase productivity and scale proven best practices and sales techniques. Linkando's legally compliant meeting apps are primarily used in formal meetings such as digital board meetings and annual general meetings. Linkando's customers and partners include Deutsche Telekom, Zoom, Microsoft and SAP.

https://linkando.com/meeting-gpanrw

About regio iT

As the largest municipal IT service provider in North Rhine-Westphalia, regio iT GmbH is the ideal partner for public clients: for municipalities and schools, energy suppliers and waste disposal companies as well as non-profit organizations. Based in Aachen and with branches in Gütersloh and Siegburg, regio iT offers strategic and project-related IT consulting, integration, IT infrastructure and full service in four service areas: IT service and operations, administration and finance, energy and waste disposal, education and development.

www.regioit.de