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"With OTRS as our central helpdesk solution, we can respond quickly to inquiries and offer our volunteers a first-class service."

Nico Reiners, Head of the IT working group at DLRG

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DLRG

Agents: 126

Tickets / Month: 2,000

Web

DLRG

SolutionIT Service Management

A faster DLRG saves lives

Warum OTRS?

The German Lifesaving Association (DLRG; Deutsche Lebens-Rettungs-Gesellschaft) saves lives - and OTRS “saves” IT support. The DLGR association has been using the community edition of our software for around 20 years without support. This has now been replaced by a fully-fledged secure SaaS version. “We are increasingly relying on IaaS and SaaS to relieve volunteers of operational tasks,” says Nico Reiners, head of the working group.

The DLRG is extremely satisfied with OTRS. Personal contact with support is consistently positive, and they feel well looked after.

Of course, the ideal is not to need software support in the first place. The DLGR’s IT working group appreciates not having any problems with our software. Nico Reiners describes this internal requirement as “on demand software”.

What particularly impressed the DLRG IT working group about OTRS was the clarity of our software solution. “I can keep an eye on the processing status of requests at all times,” reports Nico Reiners. This mostly applies to the display of the different queues and the processing status. “Filters can be flexibly configured according to individual tasks and requirements.”

The tickets reach the IT group via a web interface (hilfe.dlrg.net). According to Nico Reiners, this was a big advantage because important information can be retrieved and tickets can be assigned to the right queues straight away.

Impact of OTRS

Fast processing of requests and problems
Intuitive and fast organization and assignment of tickets to queues
Processes can be clearly tracked
Transparency in the processing of IT service cases
Users immediately receive all necessary information (including processing statuses)
Individually configurable filters offer better oversight

Features Used

Filter

Requirements

Fast processing of tickets
Escalation options
Intuitive creation, organization and assignment of tickets
Clearly-structured software
Web application available at any time and from anywhere
SaaS solution
Smooth processes (no support required)

The challenge

The DLRG teams are spread across Germany. They need fast IT service and use a variety of hardware.

When saving lives, every second counts - and speed is also of the essence when it comes to IT. OTRS was needed to provide the individual DLRG divisions with high-performing and responsive IT support.

They needed the option of creating tickets via hilfe.dlrg.net, which would then be assigned to the correct queue. The IT working group on hilfe-dlrg.net immediately needed to be able to ask the right questions so that the tickets could be processed as quickly as possible and the corresponding problems solved at an early stage.

One specific challenge was that the DLRG teams are distributed throughout Germany. Another complicating factor was that the volunteers each use their own hardware. Therefore, a web application needed to be available at any time - and from any location. A tool that worked in all common browsers was of great importance.

The solution

With OTRS as a central software solution, those responsible can improve IT service delivery through excellent organization and quick request processing.

The IT working group strives to keep the number of outstanding tickets as low as possible. The rule is: “If we have fewer than 20 new tickets and fewer than 80 open tickets, then everything is fine.”

An important use scenario for OTRS at DLRG concerns the call center, for example. Here, it is important to be able to track processes and have transparency in processing. It must be clear to everyone involved which steps have been taken and when, and what the status of the individual measures is.

According to Nico Reiners, it is also important to process orders as quickly as possible. This requires software that is clear, works smoothly and organizes tickets intuitively.

As a specific use case example, consider that a swimming coach has problems with participant registration in his coach app. The reason for this could be that the app does not recognize the QR code on his membership card. This is reported via OTRS. All the necessary information about the problem is available there and a developer can take care of the problem. This allows it to be solved quickly and the trainer can register the participants properly again.

A second example could be that a treasurer has a question about membership statistics in the “DLRG Manager” application. As a result, she contacts the volunteer support team of her national association and they document the issue using OTRS. When they are unable to answer the question and 2nd level support is required, the ticket is quickly transferred to the federal association's queue. Here, a full-time employee takes over and is finally able to answer the treasurer's question. Nothing is missed or lost.

DLRG

The DLRG is an association with 2,000 branches and more than 600,000 members. The DLRG (Deutsche Lebens-Rettungs-Gesellschaft – German Lifesaving Association)’s voluntary information technology (IT) working group provides its members and branches with a CMS, a mail service and numerous self-developed applications and smartphone apps. The IT working group makes OTRS available to other areas, such as DLRG management (member administration and accounting) and e-learning.