Pitch instead of PowerPoint
Presentations are low on any sensible sovereignty priority list, and that is precisely why this entry is worth including: it shows what the reasoning looks like when the data-protection argument is weak and the decision has to stand on other grounds.
Why Pitch is better than PowerPoint
Not "more European" — better, for the specific job of producing decks collaboratively in an organisation that cares how they look.
Templates that actually hold. PowerPoint templates degrade the moment someone starts moving things. Pitch's enforce structure, so the tenth deck looks like the first without a designer intervening.
Collaboration built in rather than bolted on. Real-time editing, comments and version history that work the way people expect from modern tools.
Speed. It is a fast, modern web application. Anyone who has waited for a large .pptx to open over a VPN will recognise the difference.
For a consultancy producing client-facing material regularly, the consistency argument alone is usually enough.
The two honest caveats
1. PowerPoint owns the interchange format
This is structural and it is not going away. Every deck you send to a client, a board, or a conference organiser will be opened in PowerPoint. Export fidelity is therefore a hard requirement, not a nice-to-have.
Export works, with the usual cross-tool losses around fonts, exact positioning and animation. Test it with your most complicated real deck before you decide — not a simple one, the ugly one with the diagram everybody argues about.
2. Verify the vendor's current standing
A smaller vendor is a different risk profile from Microsoft, and that cuts both ways: better product, more concentrated commercial risk.
TODO(thejn): confirm Pitch's current commercial position before publishing this guide. I have not been able to verify it, and I am not going to assert a company's health from memory in a guide that carries your name. If you are recommending it to clients, you want that answer current anyway.
The general discipline applies to any smaller vendor:
- Can you export everything, in a usable format, without an active subscription?
- What happens to shared links and embedded decks if the service goes away?
- Is there an offline or self-hosted fallback?
Ask before standardising, not during an incident.
Where this sits on the priority list
| Move | Data sensitivity | Effort | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | Medium | First | |
| CRM | High | Medium | Second |
| Documents | High | Very high | Wait |
| Cloud hosting | High | Varies | High, project by project |
| Presentations | Low | Low | Opportunistic |
Presentations are a good candidate for an early, low-risk win precisely because the stakes are low. If you want to build internal confidence that European alternatives are usable before proposing something consequential, this is a sensible place to start.
Just do not confuse it with a sovereignty achievement. It is vendor diversity, and it is worth having on those terms.
The verdict
A better tool for the job, from a European vendor, in a low-stakes category. Verify the vendor's current standing and your export path, then adopt it opportunistically rather than as a programme.
Frequently asked questions
- Will decks survive export to PowerPoint?
- Broadly, with the usual caveats of any cross-tool export: fonts, precise positioning and animations are where fidelity is lost. If most of your decks leave the organisation as .pptx, test that path with a real, complicated deck before committing rather than with a simple one.
- How sensitive is presentation content anyway?
- Usually much less than email or CRM data, which is why this sits lower on a sovereignty priority list. Board material and deal documents are the exception. Treat this as a supply-chain and vendor-diversity decision rather than a data-protection one, and sequence it accordingly.
- What about vendor viability?
- This is the real question and it applies to any smaller vendor. Before standardising, check the company's current commercial standing, and confirm your exit path: can you export every deck in a usable format, without a subscription, if you had to leave next quarter? Get that answer before the decision, not during an incident.
- Are there other European options?
- TODO(thejn): add the ones you have actually used. A recommendation you have not tested is worth less than an honest gap.