OTRS vs Jira

Many companies use OTRS as a helpdesk-system for two reasons: it is free and is perfect for integration with web site and email. Now, OTRS can be also adopted by sysadmins and IT departments (even in large companies) - the new version OTRS ITSM 2.0 has been officially certified by expert company PinkVERIFY of compatibility with six ITIL v3 processes. As you know, ITIL - is the library of recommendations and best practices for managing IT infrastructure. OTRS ITSM has been around for about 3 years. Until today, it featured incident management, problem management, configuration management, SLA management and knowledge management. Version 2.0 added change management to that list. Now OTRS ITSM allows you to control such processes as setting up new employee with a laptop, implementing new systems and equipment, upgrading licensed software.

Atlassian has launched the new version of its project management system Jira 5 and called it Social. We expected to see some sort of built-in social network where users could add bugs, vote for features, discuss updates. But none of these features appeared. Probably it's for the better, because bug - is an intimate thing and it shouldn't be publicly discussed. The new social features in Jira 5 are: the tool for sharing bugs/tasks with co-workers or groups, and the support for @names. If you mention @someone in the comments - he will receive the notification and will probably help in solving the task. In addition, the new version allows to link a bug to any external URL (website or web app) and adds a lot of integrations (including Salesforce, Zendesk, Confluence, Get Satisfaction). And you certainly want to know why there are so many Angry Birds in the video?

Atlassian has launched the new SaaS service Atlassian OnDemand, which includes its popular tools for managing software development projects: JIRA (issue-tracker), Confluence (wiki), GreenHopper (Agile Project Management), Bonfire (bug reporter), FishEye (code manager), Crucible (code review) and Bamboo (integration). All products in the SaaS version provide the full functionality of the installable counterparts. There are only minimal restrictions on the tool integration and use of the custom plug-ins. You can turn on/off the tools as needed. The service pricing is traditional for Atlassian - "everything for $10 for 10 users." Recall that the company is also selling the 10-user leniences of the same installable products for $10. So you can either buy the product for $10, or rent it for $10/month.

Initially OpenSocial standard was created by Google to unify the data exchange between social web services with the help of gadgets. OpenSocial is used in Friendster, hi5, LinkedIn, MySpace, Orkut, etc. But Atlassian noticed that it has great potential  in business applications behind the firewall. The new version of its popular  web-based project management and issue-tracking software, Jira 4.0, got the full support of OpenSocial. And so what? First, this made the software interface more user-friendly. Now user can arrange individual page layout with the help of embedded gadgets. And each gadget can contain any information from the system - latest issues, activity stream, report diagram, etc...