In 2026, the trade-off between agility and security is no longer relevant. A trusted collaboration tool must combine three essential criteria: a streamlined user experience, certified technology, and complete digital sovereignty. Against the backdrop of American suite dominance, Tixeo has established itself as the leading sovereign alternative for organisations seeking to balance productivity with communications security.
Online collaboration is no longer a trivial matter
For CIOs and CISOs, deploying a collaboration solution has become a highly strategic decision. Across all sectors, European organisations are increasingly aware of their digital dependencies. One figure illustrates the scale of the challenge: 80% of European enterprise spending on software and cloud services goes to American companies, equivalent to 284 billion euros per year.
Yet behind the intuitive interfaces offered by Big Tech lie growing risks of service disruption and data breaches, particularly as AI modules become increasingly embedded in these platforms.
In a context of geopolitical instability, access to tools such as Teams or Google Workspace can become a critical point of failure. Should access be suspended for political or technical reasons, an organisation’s entire capacity to collaborate collapses overnight.
Reducing dependence on Big Tech: what’s at stake?
Most dominant collaboration platforms are subject to extraterritorial legislation, such as the US Cloud Act. This framework allows authorities to demand access to data, even when users are based in Europe, opening the door to espionage and interference.
Reducing this dependence allows organisations to activate two key resilience levers:
- Strengthening data control: By relying on European hosting providers, organisations ensure GDPR compliance and protect the integrity of their data.
- Improving service continuity: Choosing a sovereign collaboration tool preserves operational continuity in the face of disruptions caused by international tensions. This resilience is maximised when the sovereign solution is deployed directly on the organisation’s own servers (on-premise), eliminating any reliance on third-party infrastructure.
The 3 pillars of a trustworthy collaboration platform
A reliable collaboration tool must be built on three core foundations:
- Security by Design: Security must be embedded from the ground up. Certification such as CSPN from ANSSI (France’s national cybersecurity agency) is an essential trust indicator for the most regulated sectors (Defence, Industry, Finance).
- End-to-End Encryption (E2EE): To guarantee the confidentiality of communications, data flows must never be decrypted on servers, ensuring that no third party can access the content (messages, video, audio…). Certain extraterritorial laws, such as the US PATRIOT Act, place significant restrictions on end-to-end encryption by requiring vendors to build in backdoors. In Europe, end-to-end encryption in messaging applications is regularly debated, but there is no equivalent obligation.
- Deployment Flexibility: The ability to choose between sovereign cloud hosting and on-premise deployment allows organisations to align the tool with their internal security policies.
Beyond these criteria, even a secure collaboration tool must today offer a seamless user experience.
Collaboration features that make the difference
The evolution of working practices shows that technology silos limit organisational efficiency. According to a study carried out by Wakefield Research for Atlassian, employees lose on average one working day per month deciphering, and sometimes correcting, poorly worded, incomplete, or inaccurate instructions received via instant messaging or email.
To address this lack of fluidity, new collaboration standards are emerging:
Workspaces
Workspaces centralise different communication flows into a single environment: instant messaging, file management, and video conferencing. Team members can collaborate easily, without information loss, synchronously or asynchronously, while drawing on shared resources. This approach also reduces cognitive load by preventing information from being scattered across multiple applications.
The virtual open space
The virtual open space recreates the spontaneity of in-person exchanges and encourages team responsiveness. When a message or email lacks clarity, colleagues can switch directly to a video call with someone present in the open space. Issues can be resolved quickly without the need to schedule a formal meeting, saving time, reducing frustration, and keeping teams genuinely connected.
The AI assistant
The integration of artificial intelligence into collaboration tools is transforming productivity, freeing teams from time-consuming tasks during meetings. Transcription, translation, and summarisation are among the key capabilities.
This productivity gain allows teams to focus on decision-making rather than note-taking. However, the rapid and widespread adoption of AI typically lacks governance frameworks within organisations, and can create vulnerabilities. Particular attention must be paid to the protection of collected data and its hosting arrangements, to ensure these agents do not become vectors for intelligence gathering on sensitive information.
To assess the relevance of a collaboration tool, IT decision-makers now rely on these three criteria:
| Criterion | 2026 requirement | Decision-maker benefits |
| Security | CSPN certification (ANSSI) & end-to-end encryption (E2EE) | Absolute confidentiality guaranteed |
| Sovereignty | 100% European publisher & hosting | Immunity from extraterritorial legislation |
| Capabilities | All-in-one platform (messaging, video conferencing, file sharing) | No data silos, centralised management and full traceability |
The sovereign alternative: Tixeo, a secure collaboration platform
For European software publishers, the challenge is clear: offer organisations an experience as smooth as the consumer tools they already know, while guaranteeing absolute security for the most critical communications.
Alternatives already exist, enabling organisations to stop choosing between user experience and regulatory compliance.
In this context, French publisher Tixeo offers a new approach to secure collaboration. Historically recognised for its expertise in secure video conferencing, Tixeo now positions itself as a comprehensive, fully end-to-end encrypted visual collaboration platform.
Users benefit from a smooth collaboration experience, without compromise on security, including:
- Tixeo Workspaces: all-in-one encrypted spaces combining messaging, file sharing, and video conferencing, with end-to-end encryption enabled by default;
- A sovereign AI for transcription, translation, and summarisation, hosted on Tixeo’s private, internet-disconnected servers, with no storage of queries or data;
- Adaptive security with customisable meeting security levels, tailored to the sensitivity of each exchange.
Why choose Tixeo for collaboration?
Beyond the technology, Tixeo strengthens the strategic autonomy of organisations: R&D and support are based in France, and cloud hosting is 100% sovereign, within Europe.
Organisations in the most sensitive sectors already trust Tixeo to protect their critical communications, including Naval Group and Dassault Aviation.
Tixeo’s key strengths:
- Comprehensive collaboration platform with end-to-end encryption throughout
- CSPN certification by ANSSI since 2017
- GDPR, NIS 2, and DORA compliance
- R&D and support based in France
- Public cloud, private cloud (SecNumCloud-qualified), or on-premise deployment
Choosing a sovereign, secure collaboration tool is a strategic investment in confidentiality and operational resilience. Solutions like Tixeo enable organisations to enhance their efficiency while meeting their security requirements.