Smart functions, useful extensions, and intuitive operation!
Saxony's largest research center relies on KIX! The Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) is Saxony's largest research location. Its eleven institutes focus on energy, health, and matter, and are staffed by leading scientists.
Initial situation
The HZDR is also involved in various projects to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Back in spring 2020, for example, the CASUS (Center for Advanced Systems Understanding) institute provided the Folding@home project with free computing capacity to decode the complex protein structures of the virus. Other scientists at the HZDR are investigating airborne transmission routes, for example, in order to develop more efficient air purification systems. However, as the structures became more complex, it quickly became clear that the IT infrastructure was no longer able to meet the increased requirements.
For many years, the HZDR relied on a ticket system that had been developed in-house by IT staff. Important features, such as full-text search, were not available. The entire interface was also unintuitive, far too complicated, and ultimately simply outdated. Although it was still possible to work with it, users became increasingly dissatisfied.
Olaf Ruddigkeit, the head of user services at HZDR, and his team set out to find a new IT service management system. First, they drew up a list of specifications summarizing the system's most important requirements.
Since HZDR is a public institution, the team sought to implement an open-source solution. Four systems were shortlisted.
The project
"Of course, the new system should have all the functions of a traditional ticketing system. But with KIX, we can also map various clients, assign role-based rights, and configure dynamic fields freely without relying on a developer. That really impressed us.
The financial advantages also played a role: with other systems, billing is often based on the number of agents, but with the on-premises version of KIX, the number of agents doesn't matter; Cape IT has created a fair billing model.
Incident management, the actual ticket system, facility management, laboratory orders, and research technology all run through KIX now. This also makes it easier to train employees," says Olaf Ruddigkeit happily.
KIX is the heart of IT service management
The IT service management system at the Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf consists of four elements: unified endpoint management, a central database, the Checkmk monitoring software, and KIX — the heart of IT service management.
Unified Endpoint Management, also known as Desktop Central, handles system inventory and patch distribution. All assets, users, user data, and locations are stored in a database and subsequently managed in KIX. Checkmk, the monitoring software, also provides KIX with information. "This is where all fault reports are received in the management system, for example, in the event of hardware failure," explains Olaf Ruddigkeit. Around 40 employees are responsible for IT at the HZDR. They have access to approximately 50,000 assets in the database. Currently, they process around 14,000 tickets per year with KIX.
Daily work at HZDR
HZDR employees can use the KIX Self Service Portal to create a new ticket. Dividing tickets into different categories enables targeted assignment of problems. Users can also contact local administrators at the institutes directly. If they cannot solve the problem, the ticket is forwarded to the service desk managed by Olaf Ruddigkeit and his team.
The Kanban board, which is integrated into KIX, has proven particularly useful for daily work at HZDR. It provides employees with a simple visual representation of a project's current status or completion. This has simplified processes in the laboratories in particular because, due to limited capacities, employees must work according to schedules. If there are any changes or a lab order is delayed, they are informed directly in KIX. This minimizes overlap and duplication of work.
Conclusion
The HZDR currently uses KIX for incident management, including area incidents. The ITSM system also handles knowledge management, service contracts, service level agreements, change management, and reporting. The implementation of additional functions is in the planning stage.
"We are already working on setting up a device database. We also plan to integrate order management and administration tools into KIX," says Olaf Ruddigkeit. Ruddigkeit and his colleagues' long-term goal is to map the entire HZDR IT service catalog in KIX. He believes that the switch to the new system was a complete success and becomes enthusiastic when discussing it.
"The overall package offered by KIX is hard to beat. With its smart features, useful optional extensions, intuitive operation, and open source, it's exactly what a modern ITSM system should be. Furthermore, working with Cape IT was an excellent experience. We can therefore look forward to the coming years with confidence, at least as far as our IT is concerned."
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