Zammad is the modern tool we were looking for

The Challenge SER Were Facing

The SER Solutions team had been using the OTRS helpdesk tool for many years. But at some point, no more updates were released for their version - reason enough for SER to look for an alternative.

But even though Zammad was created by Martin Edenhofer (just like OTRS), it did not mean that it was automatically the right solution. "We had some concerns before the change," recalls Benner. "The software had to be maintainable and updatable. And, of course, it had to cover all required functions".

On top of that came the icing on the cake that Zammad would provide a smooth OTRS migration. "That's why we eventually chose this tool."

How Was the Switch?

But did the switch go smoothly? "Absolutely," remembers Benner. "the launch day was very quiet." SER took advantage of Zammad's migration support package and was supported by Zammad's CTO Thorsten Eckel. "Especially in the weeks leading up to the launch there are many questions to be answered," Eckel said. "When is the best time for migration? What hardware will be used? Once all these questions have been clarified, the migration can begin. We carry out several test runs to be sure that everything runs smoothly on day X. During these tests, the customers can already familiarize themselves with Zammad."

I think it was precisely because of these tests that our start went very well," says Dominik Benner. In fact, it took the team just under four weeks to become fully familiar with Zammad. Looking back, all of my colleagues are very satisfied with the system. "The only thing we had to get used to was the different structure of the ticket history in Zammad, but that was quick. Today, all colleagues in Customer Support are working with Zammad smoothly. Every time there is a change resulting from an update they adapt to it very quickly.

What the Team Says Today

"Towards the end, there was no acceptance for OTRS at SER because the UI was completely overloaded and confusing," says Benner.

"Zammad, on the other hand, convinces the whole team with its modern surface and great features."

The helpful full-text search is a firm favorite: "In OTRS you could search, but most of the time you found nothing or too much," says Benner. "It’s completely different with Zammad. And updates are also no longer a problem!"

During the test phase, the SER team noticed that a few specific functions were not (yet) available in Zammad. "These were very important for the daily work of the team," explains Thorsten Eckel. "That's why we included them as paid add-ons. In the long term, we were even able to include them in the standard version so that they are now available to all users. This supports the Open Source idea very nicely.“

What Does the Future Look Like?

"So far we are really satisfied with Zammad, especially regarding the smooth migration and the easy collaboration," says Dominik Benner. "SER Solutions plans to pursue the topic of internationalization even further in the future. With its multilingualism, Zammad will be a great support in this process!“