Last Updated on 17. August 2026
Together with the State Chancellery of Schleswig-Holstein, mgm has submitted the A12 project for replacing Access in Schleswig-Holstein to the Open Source Competition 2026. Today the community voting kicks off: every vote counts.
Digital Sovereignty in Practice: The A12 Project in Schleswig-Holstein
Public administrations face a central challenge: decades-old, proprietary software solutions must be modernized without disrupting ongoing operations and without deepening dependencies on individual vendors. Together with the State Chancellery of Schleswig-Holstein, we are taking this path.
The goal: to replace more than 100 outdated Microsoft Access-based specialized applications with a sovereign, future-proof Low Code-Plattform. With A12, a modern infrastructure is being built that enables employees from government departments and agencies to independently develop specialized applications as so-called citizen developers — with no programming skills required. This way, the administration shapes its own digitalization, self-determined and sustainable.
This project was accepted into the Open Source Wettbewerb 2026 in the Artificial Intelligence category.
The Open Source Competition 2026: What’s Behind It?
The competition is organized by the Open Source Business Alliance (OSBA) and supported by the Zentrum für Digitale Souveränität (ZenDiS) . It is aimed at public administrations at the federal, state, and municipal level that use open-source software as a key driver of digital transformation. 2026 marks the second time the competition is being held.
The four categories reflect the key topics of administrative digitalization:
- Specialized Applications
- Internal Administrative Applications
- Transformation
- Artificial Intelligence (our category with A12)
The jury features high-profile members: Katja Wilken (President of the Federal Office of Administration), Peter Ganten (Chair of the OSBA), Prof. Dr. Dirk Riehle (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg), as well as representatives from Capgemini, SUSE, IONOS, govdigital, and ZenDiS.
The award ceremony will take place on October 15, 2026, at the Smart Country Convention (SCCON) in Berlin.
Why This Competition Matters to mgm
Open source is a strategic cornerstone for mgm. Especially in the public sector, it is essential that administrations do not become trapped in proprietary dependencies but instead retain control over their own digital infrastructure. A12 embodies exactly this approach: a platform built on open standards, adaptable, and designed to be further developed by the administration itself over the long term. Since May 2026, the Community Edition of A12 has been freely available under the EUPL 1.2 license on openCode and GitHub.
Submitting to the Open Source Competition gives us the opportunity to present this project to a broad professional audience — and to demonstrate what is possible when technology and government truly work together.
Vote by September 30, 2026
In addition to the jury’s decision, the competition also awards a Community Award — which goes to the project with the most votes from the public, entirely independent of the jury’s ruling.
Voting runs from August 17 through September 30, 2026. Casting your vote is easy and takes just a few seconds:
Questions about the A12 project or want to learn more about our work with the State Chancellery of Schleswig-Holstein? Feel free to reach out to us.
