Zammad plays a central role in our team.

Why Zammad?

In the initial years since its founding in 2013, the company used the OTRS helpdesk. This worked well, and a switch didn't seem necessary at first. However, the situation changed when OTRS transitioned from open source to closed source. Raphael Michel explains the reasoning behind this decision, stating, "The foundation of our company philosophy is based on the principles of open source. We not only uphold these values by providing free software but also through the internal use of open source solutions."

The search for alternatives became unnecessary, as Raphael identified Zammad as the ideal successor. He was not only impressed by the newly designed, modern helpdesk solution by Martin Edenhofer, the creator of OTRS, but also by the shared belief that barriers can be dismantled and engagement can be fostered through open source software.

How was the switch?

The migration back then was completely seamless through import," recalls the open-source enthusiast who switched to Zammad in 2017. To this day, he hasn't regretted the move for a single second. "Our 16-member team consists of colleagues from various departments, and we provide support in both German and English. Efficient team communication is essential to ensure no customer inquiries go unanswered. Therefore, it's important that the maintenance effort remains manageable. Zammad has never let us down.

Another true game-changer was the introduction of webhooks, which are among Raphael's favorite features and significantly expedite team communication. "Thanks to webhooks, we can forward incoming tickets to our own software and automatically add a comment in Zammad. For instance, we can specify the customer and highlight special requirements without the need to manually search for this information."

What is the verdict after 5 years?

Raphael's confidence in Zammad continues to grow: "Zammad is evolving into the central nervous system for communication channels within our company." To further optimize workflows, the passionate software developer consistently eliminates other tools or integrates processes from different systems into Zammad, such as creating automated tickets using the API. The clear advantage is that all aspects are unified within one system. This way, the entire team around Raphael benefits from a highly centralized to-do list in Zammad.

What does the future look like?

Raphael is extremely satisfied with the development of rami.io: "We have been experiencing continuous growth for years, and our unique selling point, for which we consistently receive excellent feedback from our customers, is our fast and reliable support." In the course of this, Zammad plays a fundamental role in maintaining this standard.

However, Raphael does have one improvement suggestion for the future: the ability to represent and track individual process steps within Zammad. Often, communication through Zammad triggers one or more internal processes that require a sequence of steps to be completed before the ticket can be closed. "Presently, there is a lack of an integrated means to ensure that all steps have been properly executed, potentially leading to quality issues." Raphael already has some ideas about what a solution might look like and is in dialogue with Zammad's development team to explore these approaches.