Open Technology Real Services (OTRS) create managed help desk software, which their clients can use to organize transparent communications with their own customers. Their clients use OTRS for solutions for customer service, ITSM, and corporate security.
Christopher Kuhn has worked at OTRS AG for 13 years. He is on the executive board and is responsible for business operations. He explained in an interview why Hetzner Online is exactly the right web hosting partner for OTRS.
How did OTRS develop?
The roots of OTRS go back to Suse Linux AG in Nuremberg. Suse Linux needed a well-organized system to record and process customer questions, and so they decided to create one internally. At the time, they named it “Suse Trouble Ticket System”, and this laid the foundation for OTRS later on.
Which advantage does your software give your clients for their customer communications?
OTRS provides structure and it is also flexible, so it can meet the requirements of the individual company as it grows and changes. The software adapts to the company, and not the other way around.
OTRS organizes communications, which improves transparency, and enables service teams to respond to their support requests and customer queries in an efficient and speedy manner.
What is your secret of success?
We pay very close attention to the needs of our customers and take their special requirements into consideration as we continue to develop our software solutions. We always have our finger on the pulse of the latest trends and we can therefore offer our clients a tailor-made solution that can also evolve as their market changes.
Because of our business strategy, we were looking for a reliable data center partner to handle our infrastructure. We have found that partner in Hetzner Online.
There were a couple of aspects about Hetzner Online that were very important to us when we were choosing our provider. First, we wanted our data center provider to be economically independent and stable. Secondly, we needed a provider that would operate in accordance with German and EU data protection laws. And last but not least was support. And Hetzner Online’s competent staff has always been able to assist us through complex problems and to the satisfaction of our clients.
Via Hetzner Online’s ISO 27001 certificated data centers, we serve our clients, starting with the initial implementation of the software, through general operations, and finally with creating reports and key figures so that they can further optimize their operations. So we offer our customers a complete service experience.
"By working together with Hetzner Online GmbH, we have succeeded in reducing the provisioning times of a new server system from two weeks to just two hours..."
How has Hetzner influenced the efficiency and manner in which you work?
Currently we use two different services at Hetzner Online GmbH: dedicated root servers and colocation. My absolute favorite part of Hetzner Online’s system, however, is their administration interface Robot. Our team can use it to deploy a wide range of servers in an almost fully automated manner. And since the ordering process is automated, our staff can deploy new servers at any time of day or night.
Over the last five years, we at OTRS have invested heavily in automating and optimizing our processes. By working together with Hetzner Online GmbH, we have succeeded in reducing the provisioning times of a new server system from two weeks to just two hours, thus giving us and our clients a decisive market advantage.
How do you rate the development opportunities of your company?
More and more companies are optimizing their processes, leading to a growing demand for OTRS and our services. In addition, we are focusing more on managed products. This, in turn, is leading to a higher demand for servers and data center resources. This not only applies to the region EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa), but also to our clients in Asia, the USA, and Latin America. We hope to place these customers’ ORTS infrastructure, amongst other things, at Hetzner’s new location in Finland. This makes us feel quite positive about our future. And we believe we will continue to work closely with Hetzner Online GmbH for a long time to come.
