OTRS vs Zendesk

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.

Today's Friday post is dedicated to support agents and those who organize helpdesk service. Here are two interesting stories about why the customer support system should be social. The first story was created by the guys from the helpdesk-service Zendesk (watch video). It's about the support agent who is always hanging on the phone, repeating the same phrases and answering the same questions. The second story is pitched by IBM with really scary title - "The Man Without Email". Here is he:

Meanwhile we don't see a large number of business applications for Windows Phone. Even Microsoft's Skype for this platform is still in the development. But the world helpdesk leaders - Kayako and Zendesk - almost simultaneously launched their mobile clients for Windows Phone. Moreover, it is interesting that for Kayako the Windows Phone app - becomes the first mobile client at all (for Zendesk, it's already the fifth one after the apps for iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry). Both mobile applications, Kayako and Zendesk, allow to easily manage ticket with your fingertips: assign owners, change status, add comments, respond to customers. And all changes are immediately synchronized with the main Cloud service.