CASE STUDY | ENTERPRISE SERVICE MANAGEMENT
ISO-compliant, smoothly migrated, and fully supported: OTOBO at Stadtwerke Passau
- Implementation: 2024
- Users: currently 13 agents across 3 departments
- Ticket volume: several hundred tickets per month, approx. 200 active ones at any given time
- Use case: IT, Real Estate, Contracting/District Heating – expansion to Facility Management and Sales planned
In 2024, Stadtwerke Passau switched from OTRS 7 to OTOBO. Today, IT and business units benefit from seamless collaboration, a flexible system with predictable costs, and strong support.
Choosing OTOBO: Trusted foundation, transparent costs, outstanding support
Stadtwerke Passau GmbH, with 450 employees, is the leading provider of energy and infrastructure services in the Passau region. For many years, the IT department relied on OTRS. However, when the system was to be rolled out more broadly across the company, it became clear that the agent-based licensing model and the paid add-on modules would make expansion costly.
When searching for an alternative, the team evaluated OTOBO as well as other OTRS forks and a Windows-based tool. “OTOBO really impressed us. Even in its standard version, the system provides a very strong base and a flexibility that is rarely found,” explains IT Manager Josef Greiml.
In addition to its rich functionality, the closeness to the legacy system and the secure long-term perspective, the compelling contact with the team behind OTOBO was another decisive factor: “Stefan Rother made a great personal impression – you can tell that this man knows what he is talking about. With his background, experience, and clear commitment to open source, he immediately gave us the feeling that we were in safe hands.”
Migration during ongoing operations? Sounds risky – but it wasn’t.
The migration from OTRS 7 went completely smoothly. No outages, no complications.
OTOBO managed the project professionally, on schedule, and in close coordination – first on a test system and, after successful trials, in the production environment.
Greiml was particularly impressed by the speed and stability of the transition: “The migration was absolutely painless. We were immediately productive again and could continue working right away – there wasn’t even any noteworthy downtime.”
All tickets and all data were migrated – the complete ticket history being especially important to the Stadtwerke. With OTOBO, they received a solution that is both familiar and future-proof. Another huge advantage: thanks to the system’s closeness to its predecessor, data and accumulated know-how can be reused, and employees were able to adapt immediately.
“The migration was absolutely painless. We were immediately productive again and could continue working right away – there wasn’t even any noteworthy downtime.”
Everyday use: ISO 27001-compliant ISMS and greater transparency
Today, OTOBO is a central part of everyday work across several departments.
The IT department uses OTOBO for its ISMS within the framework of ISO 27001. Clearly defined, traceable incident and change management processes are essential here. OTOBO ensures these processes are strictly followed, efficiently managed, and thoroughly documented.
Whether a department submits a change request, a software update is needed, or modifications to a system are required – every process starts with a ticket. From there, a change request is created that runs through a clearly structured approval process.
All steps are transparently documented. Evaluations and monthly reports on successful and failed changes are available at the push of a button.
“With our OTOBO, we’re always well-prepared for audits. Everything in the system is fully traceable – these are exactly the processes you need in ISMS operations when, like us, you’re under annual ISO 27001 review.”
OTOBO has also simplified work in other departments: the Real Estate team now handles approvals directly in the system – no more lost email authorizations, and every approval is clearly documented, showing who approved what and when.
The Contracting unit coordinates external service providers and manages incident resolution via OTOBO. All stakeholders have full visibility into the current status of processes at any time.
“With our OTOBO, we’re always well-prepared for audits. Everything in the system is fully traceable – these are exactly the processes you need in ISMS operations when, like us, you’re under annual ISO 27001 review.”
Favorite features & support: Technology and service that truly convince
One real relief in everyday work has been the company-wide Single Sign-On via LDAP, introduced during the migration. Multiple logins are now a thing of the past.
The fast Elasticsearch search is also highly valued – “a super feature, really impressive!” – as well as the ability to customize widgets and dashboards exactly as needed.
With an average of around 200 tickets in progress at any given time, OTOBO provides the team with a strong foundation for regular coordination on open cases and their status, ensuring consistently high service quality.
Thanks to reporting, the IT manager has a reliable basis for communication with both management and end users. The system runs stably and reliably. And if support is ever needed?
“OTOBO support is outstanding. The team responds quickly, and instead of being put off, you always get solutions right away. That’s not what we were used to before.”
Future plans: OTOBO grows with us
The IT manager is thoroughly satisfied with the tool: “OTOBO is well established, very easy to handle, and absolutely recommendable.”
At Stadtwerke Passau, the next steps include rolling out OTOBO to Sales and Facility Management. In addition, more workflows are to be automated – for example, mapping the onboarding process directly in OTOBO.
With the upgrade to OTOBO 11, the CMDB was also introduced. In the medium to long term, it will be regularly populated via import from the inventory tool Docusnap.
Greiml’s conclusion: “In general, open source provides the opportunity to access solid solutions at a low cost. The challenge of building more in-house expertise compared to off-the-shelf products is well balanced at OTOBO thanks to excellent consulting and vendor support. And: Few other tools can cover the same scope that OTOBO does.”
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