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Helpdesk software

Permalink 2008-08-16 20:53, by jaervosz, Categories: General, Universe/English, Opensource

At work we're currently running Bugzilla for internal issues and code changes. However we'd like to have a single system where we can handle both internal and external issues. The requirements so far are pretty simple:

  • Easy issue creation
  • Status web page for each issue
  • Internal comments not viewable by everyone
  • Open interfaces to easily integrate with other applications

I guess we could hack Bugzilla to comply with those requirements but I'm not sure if it's worth the effort. I've been looking briefly at Jira from Atlassian. It seems to suit our needs and provide a project management solution as well.

I'm very interested in hearing from people having tried using Bugzilla as a helpdesk system or from people having used Jira.

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4 comments

Comment from: deadhead [Visitor] Email
Jaervosz, choose the right tool for the right job : bugzilla is not good for tracking requests but only for bugs as you have experienced.

Jira is on the right line, but it has a problem: co$$$t .

I suggest you another tool I use daily: RT, produced by Best Practical (http://bestpractical.com/rt/)

RT it is :
* open source
* free
* used by company/university all around the glob
* has huge documentation+wiki and an active ML
* designed with business in mind
* ready to use
* written in perl
* present in portage (maybe you could give help in keeping updated the ebuild - 3.8.0 is now out there but ebuild is still ~3.6.7)

As you can imagine the introduction of this kind of tool have to be planned carefully, but once you have clear the structure present in your working environment and the result you want to reach with RT, half of the job it's already done.

They organize course too, just in case you boss need some candy...

I started using it some months ago and we're vary happy with it. We have hundreds mail less in the box, we can track activities easily and information are more easily shared among the team.
2008-08-16 @ 23:51
Comment from: jaervosz [Member] Email
Yeah, I've been hearing a lot of good stuff about RT too. Wrt Bugzilla, I know it's not the perfect tool for the job, however it is what we use internally and it would be nice if issues shouldn't move from one system to the other. OTOH the goals might be too conflicting and we'll have to use separate software internally and externally.

Thanks for your input.
2008-08-17 @ 20:54
Comment from: Mads Chr. Olesen [Visitor] Email · http://mchro.dk
From my experience with JIRA it seems to be a fine basic bugtracker, can be customized quite easily, and generally seems reasonable.

I have however had the pain of having to use Jira's various remote interfaces (SOAP and "Jelly"). They are ridiculously inconsistent, and downright stupid. Sometimes you need to pass a project key, sometimes the project ID. A prime stupid example is http://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRA-9218, but there are others.
2008-08-18 @ 15:52
Comment from: Joshua Bernier [Visitor] Email
Bugzilla is better for bug tracking.

But for a helpdesk system I like Bridgetrak. We've been using it in our company for the past few years.

[Edited by Jaervosz: link removed]
2009-04-14 @ 16:29

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