Zendesk vs Jira

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.

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...