Edit Office documents together — without sending them to a third-party cloud.
Open, edit, and version docx, xlsx, and pptx files directly inside your platform. Full co-editing, automatic version history, and an audit trail showing who changed what — all within infrastructure you control.
Office files circulate by email — and nobody knows which version is current.
A document gets attached to an email, forwarded, edited in parallel by three people, and returned as "v2_final_FINAL.docx". Nobody is sure which version is the one that counts. Comments are buried in tracked-changes nobody reviews. Sensitive documents move through servers your organisation has no control over.
For regulated organisations, public administrations, and anyone legally accountable for document integrity, this is not just inconvenient — it is a compliance risk. Cloud Office suites solve the collaboration problem but introduce a new one: your documents live on infrastructure you did not choose and cannot fully audit.
There is a better way to manage documents.
Document collaboration that stays inside your infrastructure.
Communication Node lets your team open, edit, and manage Office-format documents directly in the platform — no file attachments, no version confusion, no third-party cloud storage.
Co-editing of standard Office formats
Multiple people edit the same docx, xlsx, or pptx simultaneously — no emailing attachments back and forth.
Automatic versioning with diff view
Every save creates a version. Compare any two states side by side. Restore a previous version with one click.
Audit trail — who changed what
A timestamped record of every edit, comment, and approval action. Meets the documentation requirements of regulated environments.
Granular access permissions
Control who can view, edit, comment, or approve each document. Permissions follow your organisational structure, not a shared folder hierarchy.
Full-text search, tags, and comments
Find documents by content, not just filename. In-document comments and @-mentions keep the conversation attached to the file.
Change notifications and approval workflows
Subscribers are notified when a document is updated. Formal approval steps can be built into the workflow — without switching to email.
Result: The collaboration you expect from a cloud Office suite — inside infrastructure your organisation controls, with an audit trail that holds up under scrutiny.
Cloud Office suites solve collaboration but move your documents off your infrastructure. Communication Node does both — full co-editing, inside a platform you control.
Replaces cloud Office suites and scattered file shares.
| Communication Node | Cloud Office / file share | |
|---|---|---|
| Data location | Germany/EU, your infrastructure | Third-party cloud |
| Version history | Automatic, full diff view | Manual or limited |
| Audit trail | Timestamped, who changed what | Partial or absent |
| Access permissions | Granular, per document | Folder-level at best |
| On-premise option | Yes | Rarely |
From public administration to regulated industry.
Public administration — ordinances, minutes, and approvals
Administrations and public bodies work on draft ordinances, meeting minutes, and internal guidelines that require documented authorship and sign-off. Communication Node keeps every version on record, with a clear chain of who approved what — meeting the documentation standards that public bodies are held to.
Document review and approval in regulated companies (commercial)
Companies in regulated sectors — finance, healthcare, manufacturing — need auditable records of document changes and formal approval steps. Communication Node replaces the email-attachment loop with structured co-editing, tracked changes, and in-platform approval workflows that produce a complete, searchable audit trail.
About Document Workflows
Can we edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files without installing Office?
Yes. docx, xlsx, and pptx files open and edit directly inside the platform in any modern browser. No local Office installation is required. Files remain compatible with Microsoft Office and LibreOffice — you can export and open them externally at any time.
Where are the documents stored, and can we use on-premise hosting?
Documents are stored inside your Communication Node instance, hosted in certified data centres in Germany/EU with no third-party cloud storage involved. On-premise installation is available for organisations that need full infrastructure control — including air-gapped environments.
How does the version history work for compliance purposes?
Every save creates a timestamped version with a record of the editing user. You can compare any two versions side by side and restore earlier states. The audit trail is stored inside your instance and can be exported for compliance reviews. Approval actions — who approved a document and when — are also logged.
Your documents never leave your control.
- Hosted in Germany/EU — certified data centres
- GDPR-compliant by design
- No third-party cloud storage, encrypted databases, regular backups
- On-premise installation available
- Enterprise identity: Active Directory, Azure AD, SSO, SAML, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect and further directory services — scope on request
- Redundant servers and separate test and production environments
Built for organisations that are legally accountable for the integrity and location of every document they manage.