Efficient IT service management: Universität Flensburg relies on ESM, opsi, and KIX

Germany's northernmost university is one of only two European universities in the Federal Republic, the other being Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder). This title underscores the spirit of partnership and cooperation across national borders. In Flensburg, this is not just lip service; it is lived out in all areas.

The university's history began in 1946 when British occupying forces ordered the establishment of a teacher training college. Initially, this college was housed in the Mürwik Naval School, which was vacant in demilitarized Germany. After relocating at the end of the 1950s, the university received scientific university status in 1967. At the turn of the millennium, the university moved to its current location on Sandberg. Since 2014, it has been known as the European University.

Currently, around 5,250 students attend the university, which focuses on teacher training and international management. Students can deepen their studies through worldwide partnerships and obtain a German-Danish double degree.

The European University of Flensburg (EUF) cultivates its commitment to partnership-based cooperation internally as well. Departments collaborate closely to enable smooth workflows. IT plays a key role in this. 

Those responsible have been working with the ITSM software KIX for 17 years. "We have been relying on KIX for almost as long as the company behind it, KIX Service Software, has been around. For us, this is the fourth version of the system," reports Karsten Veers, system administrator of service and service desk. He and his colleagues have been using the current version of KIX since April 2024. 

An important aspect of this is the use of Enterprise Service Management (ESM), which involves various departments. The EUF uses KIX in five departments: Human Resources, Finance, Building Services, Student Services, and ZIMT (Center for Information and Media Technologies), which is part of the IT department. Karsten Veers works in ZIMT, primarily taking care of the three main systems: KIX, OPSI, and IT security.

KIX is used for asset and inventory management, as a customer database, and for creating text modules and templates in all areas. "Talking about a customer database might sound strange to outsiders," Karsten Veers explains with a laugh. “By that, we mean all students, lecturers, and administrative staff. This demonstrates how important the ESM is to us.”

Karsten Veers provides a clear example of how ESM is used with KIX: "When a new teacher starts at our university, the onboarding process begins in the human resources department. The building services department books a room, and ZIMT assigns the account, hardware, and software. Then, the finance department takes care of all the billing. All of these processes are documented in a KIX ticket and can be tracked at any time. This gives everyone involved an overview and allows them to see at a glance if there are any issues. We have a wonderful workflow." 

Of the approximately 670 EUF employees, more than 100 use KIX daily, primarily administrative staff. A major advantage of the service management software is its open-source basis, which allows individuals in all departments to customize it. "Our student services department, for example, recently created over 130 text modules, saving a lot of time. The great thing about the latest version of KIX is that we can assign the modules to different teams. Searching for text across all departments would be quite time-consuming,” says Veers.

The integration of opsi is just as important as the ESM for the University of Flensburg. This asset management system is used by several universities, including Karsten Veers and his team. It helps manage hardware and software. All assets are also mapped in KIX via an interface. Veers says, "Data collection is cyclical for us — once a month for hardware and once a week for software."

This makes inventory management very easy. Without a central system like KIX, this process would be much more time-consuming and error-prone. Labels on the devices allow employees to record all technology and, if necessary, check who is using which piece of hardware and where it is located. The installed software is also stored in the system. In the latest version of KIX, each asset number is also the inventory number. This feature notably simplifies the work of Karsten Veers and his colleagues, who manage over 25,000 assets. 

A notable feature of opsi usage in Flensburg is that users and lecturers can grant themselves temporary administrator rights. This allows them to install software for 30 minutes without waiting for IT department approval. For documentation purposes, all data, including software scans, is stored in a ticket. This makes it possible to track which user did what on which computer.

In case of problems or security incidents, IT managers can track everything. "The interaction between asset and ticket management with OPSI and KIX is great," says Karsten Veers. He and his team are considering using AI as an additional security measure to verify processes and justifications in tickets.

Karsten Veers and his team have future plans to integrate additional services. These include setting up and delivering computers, managing users, and assigning rights. They also plan to optimize user management further so that, for example, when an employee leaves the company, the HR department is not the one to initiate the process. 

The introduction of the latest KIX version brought numerous innovations and revisions. Over the years, the university has introduced many customizations developed by KIX Service Software in the previous version. Now, they can integrate these customizations themselves via configuration. "One major advantage is that we are update-proof, so there can be no problems with the special developments." However, despite all the new possibilities, we still have to find our way around in some areas. We are currently in the adaptation phase, so to speak," Veers explains.

“Due to the habits we’ve developed over the last few years, we still need a few more clicks in some places than before, but we’re on the right track. It's not for nothing that we've stuck with KIX for so long,” Karsten Veers summarizes. "Internally, we regularly make adjustments, and when we lack manpower, the KIX team provides active support. For us, this is what ideal cooperation looks like — working together through thick and thin into the future."

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