I have been an avid user of Mambo and now Joomla since 2001. taragana.com is designed using Joomla. Unfortunately we haven't been able to maintain the site very well, our fault not Joomla's.

I wanted to re-design the site to highlight our products and service, and to cope up with our plan for several micro-site development in 2008 in addition to delivering a nice look. Let's look at my 5 simple requirements for CMS:
1. We should be able to easily embed custom code (php) to embed widgets (or snippets as Modx likes to call them) in certain pages.
2. We should be able to easily modify the pages, preferably from the page itself (think AJAX editing).
3. Ability to create micro-sites which differ structurally and functionally from main sites
4. Flexible hierarchy and menus
5. Automate Sitemap (Google & regular) & RSS feed generation, nice permalinks & SEO optimized URL
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I was looking for a simple free & open source trouble ticket system. I checked several of them, all the popular ones and more. I scanned through all the lists, which unfortunately haven't been updated for years. Anyway after slogging for several hours, I present you with the simplest, easy to use and well featured trouble ticket system I could find.

Note: Don't forget to read the disclaimer section (not your standard stuff) with interesting tidbits on other trouble ticket systems.

Trouble Ticket System / Customer Support System Requirements

First let's look at the requirements:
Most people make the mistake of thinking that a trouble ticket system is nothing but a defect tracking system and so they recommend systems like trac. Trouble ticket system, while similar in concept to defect tracking system, is significantly different in nature and purpose. A trouble ticket system is primarily concerned with accepting issues from end-users and routing them through the workflow system to get it resolved. It should also allow for escalation, if required, and prioritization.

A trouble ticket system, may (mostly for open source projects) or not allow viewing defects reported by other users. A trouble ticket system is more concerned with providing a service to get the troubles / issues resolved. It may or may not want users to view issues reported by other users. However when it doesn't allow viewing issues by other users, it should be complemented with a FAQ system to reduce load on customer support.
A valid use case for not allowing viewing issues for other users is when you are reporting an issue to your web hosting provider. Your report may contain details of login, password or other sensitive information which you do not want other users, or worse search bots, to browse through.
Many defect tracking systems, including the one I currently use - Mantis, doesn't allow this simple functionality out of the box!

A defect tracking system on the other hand is focussed on getting defects resolved for a product or project. It isn't focussed as much on providing timely resolution of customer defects as it is on timely fixing of bugs. So while they are similar, they intent and purpose is different.
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While installing Compiere, the leading web based open source ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) & CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software, on Windows you may face some non-trvivial problems. This document is an overview of the problems you can face while installing Compiere and how to solve them.

First and foremost keep the installation guide open and follow all the provided links. It contains much more than their name suggests. Read this mini-guide whenever you face any problems. Most likely you will find it here. If not let me know and I will add it.
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Contents

• Wireless access for field technicians
• Insurance claim processing with web application and 3G wireless network
• Free Wi-Fi in retail stores
• Operational CRM - Anticipating ways to add to a customers' experience
• Preventing drug counterfeiting using RFID tags
• Selling internal IT products & services to fund IT projects, R&D & infrastructure upgrade
• OCR to speed transportation
• Automated personalized offer generation for cross-selling
• Using GPS enabled cell phone to track drivers and optimize trips
• My favorites

Wireless

Wireless access for field technicians
Construction company Emcor Group put voice (cell phone), e-mail and specialized applications on a handheld device that fits in a shirt pocket. Field technicians are now more productive, using a wireless dispatching system tied to Emcor's customer support center.

As a result customers are now served better and faster and with consistently higher quality. Technicians arrive promptly and are better prepared to address customer concerns. It has improved time to invoice, invoice accuracy and overall customer satisfaction by more closely integrating the field to the office.
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Shares of salesforce.com, which manages customer relationship data for corporations, jumped 19%, as the San Francisco-based firm beat consensus estimates across the board. This was despite reported profit loss of $145,000 for the second quarter.

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Microsoft announced launching of "CRM Live" service along with the next version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The announcement is pretty interesting.

"The coolest work we’re doing is that we’re building a single code base that will support on-premises deployments, partner hosted deployments, and the Microsoft Live service. "
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I was reading Sun's newsletter describing top ten rules for web tier consolidation projects. As you will see they are the same for any integration / consolidation project which affects several departments in a large company. Here is the list modified for general context with explanations:

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AdventNet, network management software provider, announced the release of Zoho CRM, a "cost-effective and easy to deploy" web-based customer relationship management solution targeted for mid-sized businesses. It uses AJAX technology to significantly enhance its user interface. Finally a CRM software adopts ajax technology.

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IT failures are a leading threat to businesses worldwide, and British companies have been found particularly ill-prepared at handling them. According to a survey from Mercury Interactive Corporation, a third of UK companies are handling IT risks in an uncoordinated fashion.

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CRM vendors aren't following good CRM techniques themselves, according to a new report from The Customer Respect Group (TCRG). Oh the irony!

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