OTRS supports SES Techcom Services’ system for end-to-end connectivity based on satellite communications

In order to guarantee excellent and precise services, the SES Techcom Services team manages the Unified Customer Interface (UCI), which is used as an operation and customer support system. In 2013, the company was looking for a help desk solution in order to improve and optimize SES Techcom Services’ UCI. This solution was expected to enable customers to easily visualize and manage their records (incidents, problems, maintenance operations, changes and configuration). High availability, flexible integration possibilities and 100% reliability of the support software were of particular importance to the teams providing connectivity services. Georges Amirza, Service Manager of SES Techcom Services, explains: “Our 24/7 operations teams and expert engineering helpdesk offer support to our customers, wherever they may be, covering end-to-end services based on satellite communications. All support levels have to be fully integrated into a single process flow, ensuring fast reaction and proper resolution.” Georges Amirza and the operations team have focused on improving customer services with the help of a service desk system. “Our main goal for the deployment of a new support software has been to find the appropriate solution to deliver helpdesk services to our customers which could match their high expectations.”

In order to run its growing end-to-end service and operations, and to smoothly integrate them into SES’ core operations, an OTRS Instance was initially deployed and used for internal purposes at SES Techcom Services in 2014. “It was perfectly responding to our needs and smoothly bridging the detected gaps, so we extended the partnership in 2015, signing an OTRS Contract,” states Georges Amirza. The main operational functions that have to be covered by the system include the operation calendar and a ticketing solution to track operational processes, such as Incident, Problem, Requests and Change Management. Also, the Configuration Management, as well as a shared knowledge system and a reporting system for inventory, performance and SLA fulfillment are now being realized with the help of OTRS. The system surprised with its scalability and flexible operating fields, as explains Mr. Amirza: “Today, we have several service contracts managed using OTRS as an operation support tool. Together, the tool, the field operator team and the processes offer an Operation Support System fulfilling our UCI concept. Each customer, business partner and operator receives dedicated access to UCI portal to visualize and manage their assets and track their service cases.”

For SES Techcom Services, the most important expectations for a supporting help desk tool were improving customer services with regards to reaction time and implementing flawless workflows for incident and problem resolution. Therefore, several technical requirements had to be fulfilled. To evaluate the functionalities and to verify if the solution was suitable for the many different operating scenarios, the company started a comprehensive test with OTRS in 2014. OTRS offered great number of configurations, as well as special features that could be tailored to SES Techcom Services’s operating scenario, as Georges Amirza underlines, when talking about the benefits: “The main drivers for choosing OTRS were the integrated ticketing and configuration management solutions, the possibility to have multi-users, the ease of configuration and administration, and the flexibility of the system. After the trial of OTRS, the choice became quickly clear.”