NEWS | COMPANY
When a visit from the NATO Mission Systems Engineering Centre (MSEC) is announced at the OTOBO office, it’s never just an ordinary training appointment.
In October 2025, we had the pleasure of organizing two intensive working sessions with this special customer: four days of a CMDB workshop at the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force site in Geilenkirchen, followed by four days of OTOBO training with Igor C. and Jesus E. from MSEC at our office in Leiblfing.
This second part marked the conclusion of the series—and ended with both participants becoming Certified OTOBO 11.0 Administrators.
Turning ideas into reality
The joint project began around two years ago in Geilenkirchen. At that time, our Head of Development Sven Oesterling and Managing Director Stefan Rother visited the site to discuss the future development of OTOBO together with ITSM specialists Chris W. and Ralf W..
Both of them saw potential for improving the CMDB based on the legacy OTRS Community Edition and contributed their extensive expertise in ITSM and change management to the project. Through close collaboration, a concept was created that would become the foundation for one of the most significant enhancements in OTOBO 11: the new OTOBO CMDB—tightly integrated with ticketing, offering more flexibility, clear permission control, and an improved user experience.
A photo in front of one of the iconic AWACS aircraft captures the moment when, during intensive workshops, the groundwork for the new CMDB was laid — the starting point of a development journey that we have continued to advance together with our customers and partners over the following months.
From left to right: Ralf W., Chris W., Stefan R., Sven O.
Hundreds of development days and countless coordination rounds with a wide range of stakeholders later, the circle is complete: all systems of the NATO MSEC team have now been migrated to OTOBO 11, and the restructuring of the CMDB is underway.
Once again, practice shows: what formerly started as an ambitious idea is now a reliable part of everyday operations.
Built on real experience — made for real impact
The result is a CMDB that…
- is seamlessly integrated into ticketing, change, and process management,
- enables direct selection, linking, and updating of ConfigItems from ticket forms,
- works with finely controllable permissions down to the attribute level,
- makes assigned assets accessible in both the customer and public frontends,
- visualizes dependencies in a tree view,
… and much more.
Today, the new CMDB is part of the OTOBO standard — and it’s not just helping large organizations like NATO move forward, but also many others who rely on OTOBO:
→ The mid-sized wheel loader manufacturer that records every part of its machines in the OTOBO CMDB and gives customers access to individual documentation via QR code.
→ The university that manages its internship placements through the OTOBO CMDB.
→ And countless IT departments making everyday life easier for their users — because no one has to crawl under desks anymore to note device codes.
The true spirit of open source
This project is a perfect example of how we continue to develop OTOBO — not on our own, but together with the community.
Where people share knowledge and work hand in hand, innovation thrives:
Through open dialogue with our customers and partners, we’ve created a well-rounded product that delivers real value for organizations of all sizes — regardless of the use case.
Implemented and certified
The CMDB Project 2025 with NATO was once again a great success:
Together, we implemented new functionalities, introduced two new colleagues to the finer details of OTOBO and the CMDB, guided them through the certification process — and had an all-around fantastic time. Not to mention the homemade paella.
We’re already looking forward to the next workshops next summer — and we’re excited to see what will have been implemented in the system by then.
A big thank you for the excellent collaboration and congratulations on becoming Certified OTOBO 11.0 Administrators!
From left to right: Sven O., Stefan R., Igor C., Jesus E., Alex O.
Curious to learn more?
Would you like to find out what the new CMDB can do — or what makes sense for your specific use case? Let’s talk. In a no-obligation conversation, we’ll explore what fits your needs best and how we can tailor OTOBO to match them.
