Why we succeeded with the German government
There are times when even we at Easy Software slightly forget about how important the keyword “open source” can be. It is very simple for everyone to type “why open source” into Google, but you start truly believing it, once you see it helping people in practice.
I would like to tell you the story of the open-source European initiative is a great proof and example of that. It was one of the key benefits why we become one of the recommended project management solutions by German government and ITZBund (Informationstechnikzentrum Bund), independent federal administration IT service provider. Other factors that helped us succeed were customized functionality development, price, cooperation with German partners, and on-premises solution.
1. Open-source software
Hundreds or thousands of people from different teams and backgrounds, using different processes and workflows that need to be brought together through a flexible solution only open-source software can provide. hat is one of the reasons why the German government supports the European initiative, aiming to spread and grow the utilization of open-source solutions across governments and public organizations, officially approved by the European Commission on October 21st, 2020.
Read the official strategy that was released along with the approval to understand the direction of IT solutions across Europe for the foreseeable future.
2. Customized functionality development
Some organizations are generally known to be rigid and stiff in their structures and processes. Therefore, working with a vendor like Easy Software, a mid-size company, that is willing to modify their development plans and priorities for large projects is crucial.
The latest ongoing example of this is software accessibility. Many software tools were subjected to several audits by the German government and - as expected - there were major flaws in all of them. However, we were able to shift some of our focus and start implementing Easy Redmine improvements within weeks, while our competitors either refused to co-operate or only offered to implement these changes into their roadmap, taking over 1 year to implement the first fix.
Working with a co-operating vendor not only creates a better environment but also significantly helps with securing budgets and resources for these public organisations.
ITZ runs into corner cases that could need further development from our side. Easy Redmine is an adaptable tool that adjusts to organisations and teams in situations in which our competitors force teams to change their structures and workflows. However, millions of teams also represent thousands of different approaches.
Yet another situation in which we have managed to take a few steps further than other project management software, is due to our ability to consult and consider an on-demand feature development for large projects.
Due to very strict requirements and data sensitivity, working with a Prague-based vendor proves to be beneficial thanks to our ability to dynamically work with the product and the licensing structure.
3. Price
Many public organisations are in the process of replacing project management software that do not support this open-sources initiative right now, which applies to ITZBund as well. With Jira drastically increasing prices for their server solution, Easy Redmine proved to be the strongest replacement, thanks to the Easy Software’s mission and positioning as #1 on the open-source market, committing to support on-premises solutions and open-source codes in the future.
The strong message from ITZBund not only proves the importance of the European mission, but also highly motivates future Easy Redmine development to support the German government long-term.
4. Cooperation with German partners
We are very keen on working with business partners on large projects, such as the rollout of Easy Redmine across ITZBund and other government institutions. This particular implementation is being spearheaded by one of our partners Cloudogu GmbH. Despite the strength of Easy Redmine itself, we are well aware this project could not have been delivered without them.
It is yet another proof that Easy Redmine works extremely well for all companies in IT, especially for teams looking to implement the software into their development cycle and use our Git integration and MediaWiki extension we released, based on the official co-operation with another German partner, HalloWelt GmbH.
5. On-premises as well as cloud solution
It is yet another bottleneck in which other "big players" fell short due to their rigid structures and strong focus on exclusive cloud hosting, which does not comply with the European initiative and hosting requirements. Easy Redmine can be hosted on server as well as cloud. Not to mention it is being run by managers that seem to lack understanding of the European IT strategy.
