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Ticket Tracking and Customer Management?

Posted by kdawson on Sun Jul 29, 2007 08:55 PM
from the looking-for-a-package dept.
Businesses IT
An anonymous reader writes "Like many Slashdot readers, I'm sure, I run a small side business doing IT consulting in addition to my day job. I'm looking for a good open-source ticket tracking system that I can run under Linux, preferably one that also has some customer management features. I'd like to be able to maintain a separate record for each job, along with time tracking, work logs, and information about the customer. Much of what I see on Sourceforge is, as usual, pre-pre-pre-alpha with no actual code. Does anyone have any suggestions for a project that might fit my needs?"
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  • JIRA... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Forbman (794277) on Sunday July 29 2007, @08:58PM (#20037295)
    at least, that's what Merrill Lynch uses.
    • but it does look pretty good.

    • Re:JIRA... (Score:4, Informative)

      by flowsnake (1051494) on Sunday July 29 2007, @09:04PM (#20037351)
      JIRA is nice, but I'm not sure it satisfies the poster's open source requirements. AFAIK, the source code is only available to 'commercial users' http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/docs/v2.6.1 /building.html [atlassian.com] which I assume requires a paid-for commercial licence http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/pricing.jsp [atlassian.com]. I guess it depends on one's definition of 'open source' as to whether this is sufficiently open.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Artega VH (739847)
      JIRA isn't open source although it is quite nice and I use it internally at my workplace.

      I might suggest Trac [edgewall.org]. It's an open source ticket management system integrated with Subversion. Probably doesn't have the extensive customer management features but with the wiki+ticketing is done quite well and can no doubt be used to satisfy the posters needs.

    • Re:JIRA... (Score:5, Informative)

      by arivanov (12034) on Monday July 30 2007, @01:14AM (#20039137) Homepage
      This is more for internal issue tracking and software development issue tracking. At least this is the way I have seen it used.

      If you want to use something for external facing issue tracking and make it customer facing straight away I would suggest RT by Best Practical. It is GPL and relatively open as far as brain effort to extend it is concerned. It is also trivial to use for issue oriented CRM/sales which is typical of a service company or consultancy.

      It is used as the primary system for tracking customer facing issues by companies with turnover in the billions like NTT/Verio. It is also used by small non-IT companies like my favourite plumbing supply shop http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/ [plumbworld.co.uk]. It is also often adapted to integrate the support, CRM and sales process like in Claranet http://www.claranet.co.uk/ [claranet.co.uk]. Judging by the people on its mailing list it is also running in pilots and internal projects at Audi, BT and a couple of other places.

      It has been in stable for nearly 4-5 years now. I have used in my previous job, and while it is not completely free of bugs, it is possibly the best general purpose issue tracking system I have seen so far.

  • RT (Score:3, Informative)

    by oskard (715652) on Sunday July 29 2007, @09:01PM (#20037327)
    Been using RT [bestpractical.com] as a ticket tracker at a few places I've worked at. Works well.

    • Agreed on RT as First Step (Score:5, Informative)

      by zamboni1138 (308944) on Sunday July 29 2007, @09:10PM (#20037387)
      This question has come up [slashdot.org] before [slashdot.org], and I usually answer the same way. RT: Request Tracker [bestpractical.com] is a good place to start. It is a Perl+Apache+MySQL based open source solution. The first few times you install it can be tricky. Find a good and current how-to.

      I have since moved away from RT and now use an in-house designed system. But I still give it two thumbs up.
      • One small caveat that I see with all the products mentioned is they all seem to be tailored towards / around software development / ticket / bug tracking. Can anyone suggest software more suited to a workshop? Say allowing tracking of jobs as they arrive/ leave etc? None of the options people list seem to cater or are adaptable for this purpose.

    • RT For sure (Score:3, Informative)

      by g8orade (22512)
      Definitely thumbs up for RT.

      We are on a mission at the company where I work to replace all email / attachment based work management with it.

      You'd be amazed how far you can push RS using the concepts of owner, status, subject line, journaling, parent child / depends on depended on by tickets, auto-notification, attachments etc. all built in.
      If you think you need more structured data, you should at least see how far you can get prototyping it first in RT, using its minimal custom fields but also its custom v

      • Re:RT For sure (Score:4, Interesting)

        by yarbel (1134645) on Sunday July 29 2007, @09:21PM (#20037483)
        RT does not scale well at all however. We have had to make major modifications to the source in order to support 200,000+ tickets.
        • hmmm.
          We've been running it for 2 plus years now, have 100,000 plus tickets, and it's quite fast. We did have to add an index recently when coming back to All Tickets view and many of us have a lot of queues.

          I see others have had issues / bad experiences. Our shop has some very experienced Oracle guys and someone who, so far, has been able to make it do everything we've wanted it to using Perl mods. (auto assignment based on subject contents, custom fields, etc.).
          Maybe other tools are easier when you don't h
          • I think the support is important. I was able to hack together any sort of odd request that the business asked. That was something I couldn't have done with other systems. You got whatever they put in with other ticketing systems. With RT, you ask for something, you get it provided you have some support.

            We connected into other systems, had real time displays of information to help them answer questions inside the system. It was very nice until we were bought out, and started using a monolithic system that ha

        • Re:RT For sure (Score:5, Informative)

          by jesse (306) on Sunday July 29 2007, @11:14PM (#20038293) Homepage
          yarbel,

          I'd love to hear a bit more about the scaling problems you had over on rt-devel@lists.bestpractical.com. We have end users (some of them paying customers, but plenty of them not) with well over a million tickets in their RT instances without any sort of performance problem.

          And I'd certainly love to see patches for anything you had to do to get performance up to snuff. (Since, well, we'd certainly like to improve things if users are running into trouble.

          Best,
          Jesse (RT's chief catherder)

    • Re:RT (Score:5, Interesting)

      by zeath (624023) on Sunday July 29 2007, @09:24PM (#20037509) Homepage
      When researching a ticket tracking system to implement at my workplace I came with no experience in any non-proprietary system. I compared RT and trac [edgewall.org] side-by-side and found trac to be much more readable and user-friendly. Even for me, when setting it up, I spent an entire day trying to make heads or tails of the RT interface, while in a day I already had trac up and running and I was showing others how to log in and use it. Now that it is in production, what surprises me the most is the ease with which the non-IT department managers use it for tracking their tickets and project progress.

      The irony of the situation is that I do specialize in Perl, which is why I went toward RT first. I assumed it would have been the better choice for making any changes to the underlying system, but in the process of working with trac I've learned Python enough to hack together a number of custom solutions for our needs.

      Since I didn't go any further with RT after that first day, I can't say how well that would have worked, but in my case RT did leave a bad taste in my mouth.

      • Re:RT (Score:5, Informative)

        by notque (636838) on Sunday July 29 2007, @10:15PM (#20037851) Homepage Journal
        RT used to be much more difficult to install than it is now. Even then, it wasn't very difficult if you are a Linux Administrator with a knowledge of perl.

        Now, it's extraordinarily simple. Initial understanding of some of the rights management will take a little bit of time depending on how complex you want it to be.
        • My time frame for comparing the two packages, which I did not mention, was about a month ago. It wasn't that it was difficult to install; it was the configuration after it was installed that felt like I was on a treadmill, I was spending all my time working backwards and fighting with features I didn't need and managing permission settings way beyond the complexity that I required. In trac I was customizing ticket fields and setting up project workflows in a fraction of the time that it had taken me to give

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by mrmagos (783752)
      Oh, if I only had Mod points. RT is great. Once you get used to it, it's not too difficult to customize, and can be extended with the user-contributed modules (e.g. LDAP/Active Directory integration). There's even an O'Reilly book [oreilly.com] that outlines customization for different requirements/environments.
    • Another thumbs up for RT. I have used a few others including custom systems in the past and RT is towards the better end of the systems I've used. (trac is also nice). One of the really great things about RT is how easy it is to integrate email into the workflow. It is very easy to have an incoming email address like "helpdesk@mydomain.com" where people can send requests and get a link to their ticket. In addition all email you send in reply to that mail (or any that have the ticket number in the subject) a

    • Re:RT (Score:5, Funny)

      by More_Cowbell (957742) on Sunday July 29 2007, @09:36PM (#20037609) Journal
      The website is down (slashdotted?) Do you know where I can submit a ticket?
    • Another vote for Request Tracker, the best ticket tracker I've ever used, deployed, and customized.

    • Re:RT -- Use RoundUp instead.. (Score:5, Informative)

      by cowmix (10566) <mmarch.gmail@com> on Sunday July 29 2007, @10:11PM (#20037827) Homepage
      RoundUp (which is Python based) is a great system..

      Its self contained.. a GREAT email interface.. easy to setup and easy to extend.
      • With all those acronyms, that could have possibly been the geekiest sentence ever! ;)

        It's humor people, laugh...
  • I'm looking for the same thing, only I need it to run under windows.

    I'm looking for something web-based, allowing clients to enter tickets, and programmers to respond to them.

    Any ideas?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by crossmr (957846)
      if its web based..no you don't need it to run under windows. Its why god invented virtual machines. Web based means the back end should be completely transparent to the users and it doesn't matter if its run on a gerbil strapped to a hamster chasing a toaster.

      • it doesn't matter if its run on a gerbil strapped to a hamster chasing a toaster.

        I'd be careful of gerbil/hamster based backends. There's always that one sysadmin whose just too interested...

    • I'm looking for the same thing, only I need it to run under windows.


      You can have features, windows, and running. Choose two.

  • Eventum (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Lordrashmi (167121) on Sunday July 29 2007, @09:02PM (#20037339)
    A bit of shameless self promotion (since I am the lead developer), check out Eventum [mysql.org].

    It might not be the perfect fit for you, but it is stable and customizable. Right now it is lacking built in customer management features, instead it relies on a Customer API to integrate with other systems. Right now I am working on integration with Sugar CRM but do not yet have an ETA on when it will be released.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by jumperboy (1054800)

      I'm currently evaluating Eventum for both IT support and generic issue tracking for service departments with no IT component. The only thing that feels beta about it is its obvious origin as a software issue tracker, but it won't require much modification to support generic issue tracking. Other than that, it is very stable, and customizable in a good way, not an evil, "I can't use this unless I completely rewrite the source code" kind of way.

      I have experience with RT, and have installed it for clients w

  • One (Score:5, Funny)

    by m0nkyman (7101) on Sunday July 29 2007, @09:09PM (#20037379) Homepage Journal
    Postgresql. You may need to do some minor work customizing it....
  • It's not Free, but you might want to check out Cerberus Helpdesk [cerberusweb.com]. They've got a free (beer) version [cerberusweb.com] that's subject to some limitations. We considered using it at my last job (before settling on another solution.)
    • I can vouch for Cerberus, it's a great product. Yes, there's a free version, but the full license is about $300, which is peanuts for a ticketing/crm system, and it is the best one I've used.

      I've worked for companies that spent ludicrous amounts of money on ticketing systems, and I've always wished I could go back to Cerberus. I just left a job that used RT, and I hated it.

      • We ended up settling on a ticket tracking system by Intuit. I was pushing for the Cerberus solution, but the higher-ups settled on that, for whatever reason.

  • trac (Score:5, Informative)

    by zeath (624023) on Sunday July 29 2007, @09:10PM (#20037395) Homepage
    I implemented trac [edgewall.org] at my workplace as a change control and task management system. We use it for both internal projects as well as billable work, with a number of custom fields for supporting our quoting system and quality control. The built-in Wiki also doubles as our IT documentation repository, all in one easy to access location.

    It is extremely extensible, and anything not readily available [trac-hacks.org] can be easily created. It didn't take much time to learn the class and data structures and I've modified existing plugins and written a few of my own to support our needs.

  • We use JIRA (Score:5, Informative)

    by GoatRavisher (779902) on Sunday July 29 2007, @09:14PM (#20037429)
    JIRA runs under Linux. It is not open source, but the cost of the application and support is well worth it. I believe it is free to use for open source projects. They also provide the full source code, which has allowed us to heavily customize the application. When I started evaluating issue tracking systems this page proved to be rather useful http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_ticket- tracking_systems [wikipedia.org].
  • While not conceived as a ticket tracking app, phpBMS might be able to suit your business better than a plain old ticket tracker. phpBMS runs on LAMP and can manage customers, invoicing, and sales/prospecting. I found it while looking for a way to do billing but it's turned out to be good for managing contacts.

  • Vtiger (Score:5, Informative)

    by Blackknight (25168) on Sunday July 29 2007, @09:29PM (#20037547) Homepage
    Check out Vtiger [vtiger.com], it's a really nice CRM and also has ticketing features.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by yhetti (57297)
      Seconded. Vtiger is an excellent system that's based on a fork of SugarCRM from a while back. I've been running it for about 8 months production and I've been extremely happy with it. You can make custom fields for time tracking and cheat a little bit to get asset management. Overall, B+/A-

  • Trac [edgewall.org] is an enhanced wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects. Trac uses a minimalistic approach to web-based software project management. Our mission is to help developers write great software while staying out of the way. Trac should impose as little as possible on a team's established development process and policies.

    It provides an interface to Subversion, an integrated Wiki and convenient reporting facilities.
  • http://www.osticket.com/ [osticket.com]

    It works well; I use it integrated with Help Center Live [helpcenterlive.com]

  • Keystone is still alive and kicking. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Shayde (189538) on Sunday July 29 2007, @09:53PM (#20037697) Homepage
    Take a look at http://www.stonekeep.com/keystone.php [stonekeep.com]

    Opensource, non-alpha, many many users active, still being supported and worked on.

    (Obdisclaimer. I wrote it. :)
    • How about putting your demo back online so we can test / see the product!
      • The demo is offline because folks were spamming it. The product page has screenshots on it though.

        Drop me emailif you want to see the live demo.

  • COULD NOT FIND ANYTHING ?? (Score:3, Informative)

    by kevorkian (142533) on Sunday July 29 2007, @10:00PM (#20037765)
    wow .. all he found was "pre pre pre alpha alpha alpha"

    the author did not do a very hard search.

    First and for most .. RT Open source , even has commercial support if you want.Ive been using RT in many forms for at least 10 years now. I remember it back in the late 90s.

    And then of course there is JIRA. This may be more for dev work. Most places ive been used RT for anything that MIGHT face the customer and the areas that had 'issues' and 'projects' that would end up closing at some time. But JIRA was used by the devs for bug tracking and coding projects.

    of course there are a lot of others .. remedy is another that pops into my mind.

    Seriously though. How could you have enough experience and knowledge to run your 'side business' and never have run into either of these projects in your travels. Where have you really worked that they have not used a ticketing system ? Or perhaps you are fresh out of school. But even fresh out of school. I would think that even the dorm network operators would have used SOME sort of ticketing system that you would have been exposed to , if even from the 'customer' side.

    If your google-fu is so weak as to have not found these , then I fear for your customers.

    there is even a nice wiki page comparing all the products..

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_issue_t racking_systems [wikipedia.org]

  • This has been covered in a few previous "ask slashdots". When I was looking for a ticket system last time, I found some references to OTRS and ended up implementing at my company. IT supports ~200 people and we use it to track helpdesk, report, and feature requests. The system is open source and runs on a number of platforms including Linux and Windows.

  • Major missing point... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Sparr0 (451780) <sparr0NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Sunday July 29 2007, @10:33PM (#20037951) Homepage Journal
    All the other replies are pointing out great "ticket tracking" software, but I think that is the easy half of this request. I too have searched for what the original submitter is searching for. The key thing that is missing from the existing offerings is hour and work logs. Put simply, at the end of a ticket we need how much to bill the client for. Integrated invoicing would be awesome.
  • I think dotProject will do most, if not all, of what you need....from the site:

    Features Include:
    • User Management
    • Email based trouble Ticket System, (Integrated voxel.net's ticketsmith)
    • Client/Company Management
    • Project listings
    • Hierarchical Task List
    • File Repository
    • Contact List
    • Calendar
    • Discussion Forum
    • Resource Based Permissions

  • doyourownwork = asshole (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dbc001 (541033) on Monday July 30 2007, @08:21AM (#20041587)
    Whoever tagged this post as "doyourownwork" is an asshole who has no understanding of the way The Internet and it's online communities work. For any question that gets posted on Slashdot, there are dozens if not hundreds of Slashdot readers who want to know the answer. I wouldn't be surprised if 20% of the Slashdot community is running some kind of business that might have a need for a ticket tracking and CRM software setup. Many Slashdot readers are also very friendly, so while a person could easily spend hours researching a question like this, it's far more effective to come to Slashdot and benefit from the experience of it's users.

    So to all the douchebags who criticize people who ask questions on Slashdot: FUCK YOU.

  • Mojo Helpdesk (Score:3, Informative)

    by Chaswell (222452) on Monday July 30 2007, @09:18AM (#20042331) Homepage
    I read through a lot of the comments and saw so many mentions of enterprise level ticket tracking and development management. You actually asked for a ticket tracking for IT sidework. I use Mojo Helpdesk [mojohelpdesk.com]. They have a free plan, 30 day free trial for their pay plans and gives you a central location to track open issues and receive reedback from clients.

    Hope this helps.

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