URBAN has taken its IT helpdesk and customer service to new heights with Zammad
URBAN Maschinenbau is a traditional company that has established itself as a global player in the PVC window industry over the course of more than 75 years. Aiming to provide the highest quality, the team addresses the needs of its more than nine thousand customers and works together before, during, and after the planning and production phases. Michael Walther, Project Manager for Digital Projects, and Christian Klotz, IT Specialist for Client & Software Management, spoke with us about the decisive factors for implementing a ticketing system and gave us an insight into their daily work with Zammad.
100 countries
Customers from
2017
Zammad Customer since
14
Agents
Since its implementation in our service department, Zammad has been at the forefront of our company as our central tool for daily customer satisfaction.
What began in 1947 as an electrical installation business with just one shop in Memmingen, Germany, has evolved into a market leader in mechanical engineering for manufacturing solutions in the window industry. Today, Urban serves customers in more than 100 countries. From consulting and detailed project planning to completion, more than 400 employees ensure comprehensive service and the highest quality in every phase of a project.
As the company grew, so did the complexity of its process structures, which Urban efficiently manages with an ERP system. When a change to the ERP system became necessary in 2017, the challenge arose to manage the associated efforts centrally, clearly, and transparently. The team realized that this could only be achieved with the help of a ticketing system.
"Previously, we did not use any other helpdesk software. IT service cases were handled through the company's email system and were processed on a person-to-person basis. To achieve more transparency and overview, allowing for quick and straightforward handling of cross-functional tasks, we envisioned a ticketing system as a solution-oriented approach," recalls Christian Klotz, IT Specialist for Client & Software Management.
"We researched how helpdesk solutions look and function in detail. In a comparison, we evaluated five ticketing systems side by side to see which would best fit Urban as a medium-sized company – Zammad was a perfect fit for us," says Michael Walther, explaining the decision-making process.
Zammad convinced us with its intuitive handling, sleek design, and well-thought-out structure. Additionally, a straightforward implementation was crucial for us.
After successfully configuring and setting up a stable interface to the ERP system, the IT department got straight to work with Zammad. Alongside the technical affinity of the employees, Zammad's self-explanatory user interface made it easy for them to work quickly and efficiently with the new tool without the need for lengthy training.
When the team noticed that support and communication for technical inquiries had become more efficient, they decided to extend the helpdesk system to other areas of the company.
"After a 2–3 month trial period where Zammad was initially used only in the IT department, we quickly recognized the system's advantages and expanded it to our service department," reports Christian Klotz. "With Zammad as our helpdesk solution, we made a significant leap in customer service," he adds.
We have managed to integrate customers and vendors into our processes, which enables open, comprehensible and transparent communication. The resulting content in service and sales statistically offers many opportunities that are far from exhausted.
In addition to the IT and service teams, the replacement dispatch and sales departments now also work with Zammad. "The daily work routine has changed in a way that makes it easier and accessible for all involved to exchange information internally and externally through the ticketing system," explains Christian Klotz. "What started with classic service requests has developed into a system that enables internal project management with interfaces to the ERP system."
Following the successful implementation of Zammad at the first locations, Urban has big plans for company-wide use. "The next step is to integrate Zammad for our colleagues in Canada to ensure that this location can also benefit from all the advantages of the helpdesk solution", says Michael Walther. "We will continue to roll out Zammad internally in Memmingen and ensure that even more departments have access. This will enable us to work together even more transparently and quickly – in a goal-oriented manner."
Zammad provides the backbone for a structured and reliable customer service. It enables us to uphold our commitment to service quality and customer closeness—even as our operations move further into the digital age.
Zammad has brought a whole new level of flexibility and agility to our daily work. We respond to customer inquiries much faster now – and that difference is both noticeable and measurable.
We see Zammad as a dynamic system that grows with us. Its flexibility allows us to meet a wide variety of needs—which is exactly what makes it a future-proof solution for our team.
Seeing how easily Zammad integrates with all of our channels and tools immediately confirmed that this was the flexibility we were looking for in a help desk solution.
Zammad has completely changed our day-to-day work: Not only has it increased our efficiency, but it has also significantly improved collaboration and communication within our team.
There are three words that describe Zammad perfectly: intuitive, quick, and easy. The switch has definitely paid off: Zammad offers us more possibilities than we originally expected!
We wanted a simple, well-thought-out ticketing system that would allow us to handle various issues, be flexible enough to adapt to different structures, and seamlessly integrate into our system landscape at any time. Zammad has met all these requirements.
I fell a bit in love with Zammad. Little by little I took advantage of the possibilities and personalized the features more and more until I didn't want to miss the system anymore.
This is how I imagine Open Source with a company in the background! There are umpteen ways to use free software as a business model, but Zammad does it perfectly and always stays fair.
This is the only Customer Support team I like calling. At Zammad, you always have a knowledgeable employee on the phone who is friendly and competent and acts quickly. This is really personal and makes an enormous difference!
