One year OTTER Alliance - review and outlook

Almost exactly one year ago, OTTER Alliance and Znuny GmbH started to develop the widely used Open Source Ticket System ((OTRS)) Community under the name Znuny in a new fork. 2021 has two feature releases and just released 6.3.1. Two more releases are planned for the current year. In 2023, a dream of the community will come true: Znuny 7 will bring a modern, clean interface with improved usability and accessibility.

(Dormagen, March 21, 2022) At the end of 2020, OTRS AG withdrew as sponsor from the open source project ((OTRS)) Community Edition. Znuny GmbH stepped in as the new main sponsor and found broad market support in the OTTER Alliance from well-known service providers who recognized Znuny as the successor system and agreed to offer their services for Znuny on a permanent basis.

With Znuny LTS, a version was already available in January 2021 that is fully compatible with the ((OTRS)) Community Edition in the last version 6.0.30. Users could switch to Znuny LTS through a simple update. Since then, ten security updates and bug fixes have been provided for Znuny LTS.

A lot of energy went into the further development of the popular ticketing system last year. Two feature releases appeared in 2021 with Znuny 6.1 and 6.2, which brought many new functions. It has been significantly simplified the connectivity of the system via REST interface and web services. Process management has been enhanced with numerous functions to facilitate the modeling of complex requirements and to make operation more flexible.

“We have achieved a lot and are very grateful for the support of the community, which has very actively contributed and helped develop it. With the OTTER Alliance, we have strong partners who ensure that Znuny is becoming increasingly well-known and is well received by customers. This spurs us on enormously, and we therefore have a lot of plans for the next few years,” reports Johannes Nickel, Znuny project manager and managing director of Znuny GmbH.

Just now, on March 9, 2022, Znuny 6.3 was released with many improvements to the service desk and reporting. In the middle of the year, Znuny 6.4 is expected to significantly expand ITSM capabilities. In October then the version 6.5 appears, which then becomes the new LTS variant (Long Term Support).

In 2023, what the community has been looking forward to for a long time will come true: Znuny 7 will replace the aging user interface with a modern, uncluttered design. It’s not just about optics. Usability is significantly improved and, of course, accessibility is also a big issue. Work on the new surface is already in full swing. First previews are expected to be seen in the fourth quarter of 2022.

“In the meantime, our customers know that the OTTER Alliance stands by its word and delivers,” says Gabriele Hein, spokesperson for the OTTER Alliance, happily. “Customers have arrived on Znuny (LTS) and at OTTER community meetings across the board express great satisfaction with Znuny and the good future prospects this ticketing system offers.”

A look at the figures confirms this assessment. For example, the new feature version Znuny 6.3 recorded about 600 downloads already in the first week (09. to 16.03.2022). In total, Znuny versions are downloaded about 6,500 times per month, 40% of which are feature releases (Znuny 6.1 +) and still 25% of downloads are outside Europe!

For users currently running Znuny LTS 6.0, please note that support for this version is scheduled to end at the end of 2022. You should plan to update to the Znuny feature version by the end of the year at the latest. In doing so, the members of the OTTER Alliance advise customers according to their needs as to whether version 6.5 with Long Term Support or another version is the right choice for them. Like its predecessor, Znuny LTS 6.5 will again be provided with security updates and bug fixes for two years, until the end of 2024.

The OTTER Alliance

The OTTER Alliance was launched in February 2021. It is an association of service companies that jointly recognize Znuny as the successor of the ((OTRS)) Community Edition, permanently ensure the availability of services for Znuny and actively support Znuny GmbH in the further development of the ticket system.

Information about the members of the OTTER Alliance and their offers can be found on the homepage: https://otter-alliance.de.

Press contact

Gabriele Hein
maxence business consulting gmbh
Am Weißen Stein 1
41541 Dormagen

Phone: +49-2133-2599-12
E-mail: gabriele.hein@maxence.de

Due to the current market development becon uses different forks of the popular ticket system depending on customer requirements. Since Znuny LTS is the only product on the market that maintains full compatibility with the ((OTRS)) Community Edition Version 6 by pure continuation and provides future features in a separate product, we support Znuny LTS as an unofficial successor product within this alliance.

becon’s experts have many years of experience in consulting, implementation, further development, training and support of ((OTRS)) Community Edition. This know-how is the foundation for our services around Znuny LTS, but also Otobo, Ofork and other forks.

becon supports users of the ((OTRS)) Community Edition Version 6 in ensuring support and security fixes for current installations, in migrating to a fork that is more suitable for their requirements, and in connecting applications.

The connection to other applications is achieved by becon through the open source based integration platform OpenCelium, which has been developed since 2016 and can exchange data between all forks and many other applications: