IT Solutions - Jun 18, 2026

Making digital sovereignty measurable – How the Bechtle Index of Sovereignty provides greater transparency.

For Dr Martin Kaloudis, Executive Vice President at Bechtle, digital sovereignty is not an abstract concept, but something organisations can actively manage. In a video interview, he explains how the Bechtle Index of Sovereignty (BIoS) brings clarity and enables well-founded decisions.

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Dr Martin Kaloudis has been Executive Vice President for the Central and West Germany cluster at Bechtle AG since 2023. He also holds a professorship in Business Informatics at AKAD University Stuttgart, where he specialises in the digital sovereignty of systems and states, as well as cybersecurity.

Before joining Bechtle, he spent over 20 years in senior IT roles at Deutsche Bahn and most recently served as CEO of BWI, the IT systems integrator for the German Federal Armed Forces and the federal government.

Three key statements on digital sovereignty.

“We wanted to make digital sovereignty measurable for organisations.”

Dr Martin Kaloudis uses this to outline the rationale behind BIoS. Digital sovereignty has long been treated as an abstract concept that is difficult to define in practical terms, but now the index now allows organisations to assess their situation in a structured way and make it comparable.

Bechtle is addressing a key challenge—uncertainty over which measures strengthen digital sovereignty. BIoS provides a reliable, evidence-based foundation for making those decisions.

“Digital sovereignty means being in control of technological dependencies.”

Bechtle defines digital sovereignty in precisely these terms—not as complete independence, but as the ability to manage dependencies deliberately while preserving freedom of choice at all times.

That calls for IT architectures that are flexible and adaptable, allowing organisations to switch technologies when needed without putting their value creation at risk.

“It’s not about one technology or another, but about the bigger picture.”

BIoS therefore looks at the IT landscape as a whole rather than focusing on individual solutions in isolation. As part of an assessment, processes, applications and IT infrastructures are analysed and consolidated into a single index.

The result is a clear, structured assessment with well-defined areas for improvement. Organisations gain not only transparency, but a robust basis for taking targeted action and strengthening the long-term resilience of their architecture.

Outlook – Digital sovereignty in Europe.

Dr Martin Kaloudis notes that the current level of digital sovereignty in Europe cannot yet be reliably measured and this is precisely where Bechtle’s approach comes in. BIoS enables organisations to assess their current position and track how it evolves over time.

From his perspective, organisations that establish transparency around their digital sovereignty today will be in a position to manage progress in a targeted way and assess its impact over the years to come. Digital sovereignty thus becomes measurable and, over time, something that can be actively managed.

Find out more.

Bechtle launches sovereignty assessment

Content hub – Digital sovereignty

This post was published on Jun 18, 2026.