I am looking for a simple system to manage inbound emails from a support mailbox for a group with about 3 support people. I've looked at OTRS which seems to have the features that we need. Unfortunately, so far the UI still looks like a confusing mess.
Are there any good FOSS tools that would meet this need? I've heard murmurings that something called fooogzeeebugzo might have similar features, but it seems quite expensive for such simple needs.
My company recently started using Mojo Helpdesk: www.mojohelpdesk.com. It's a hosted service, not FOSS, but it's pretty cheap and the interface is slick.
RT - Request Tracker handles inbound mail. I'm working to add inbound mail support to TicketDesk, but that might be a little while before that makes it into a release.
We use FogBugz...er, "fooogzeeebugzo"...and while it may be a bit expensive for your needs, it works very well.
bugzilla is more of an issue tracker than a request tracker, but it can be configured to handle email-based status tracking. That said, I think Steven has it- RT is the standard recommendation for this that I've seen.
Scope out SmarterTrack from SmarterTools:
http://www.smartertools.com/SmarterTrack/Features/Customer-Service-Software-Web-Interface.aspx
or
The on-demand version of Fogbugz is a pretty cheap option for just a few people, and works really well. We did that for a while before moving it inhouse.
I've used fogbugz for over 12 months now and more and more I'm finding one of the most valuable features is the in built email support. I've got an on demand account and I'm finding more and more that I don't even check my email in the morning as all my business correspondence is put straight into fogbugz.
FogBugz is great as others have mentioned. I use it for my bug/feature tracking system, but I like to separate out my support ticketing system for my support staff to use. Another tool that has great email integration also is called HelpSpot, they have hosted and non-hosted versions for purchase, depending on your budget. It has a lot of great features, that make the prices worth it. Take the tour and see for yourself.
TicketDesk- C# issue tracking system and support system
http://www.codeplex.com/TicketDesk
TicketDesk is efficient and designed to do only one thing, facilitate communications between help desk staff and end users. The overriding design goal is to be as simple and frictionless for both users and help desk staff as is possible.
TicketDesk is an asp.net web application written in C# targeting the .net 3.5 framework. It includes a simple database with support for SQL 2005 Express or SQL Server 2005. It can leverage SQL server for membership and role based security or integrate with windows authentication and Active Directory groups.
I realize that FOSS is your primary desire and I definitely agree with this. If I were to limit myself to FOSS, I would go with RT 3.8, http://blog.bestpractical.com/2008/07/today-were-rele.html#screenshots
However, if you are willing to entertain commercial solutions and are looking for a Helpdesk-"ish" application. I just deployed WebHelpDesk with great success at my current employment, where I am the primary sysadmin and Corporate IT person. They just released a new version, 9.1.1 and it is very well done. The email integration is superb and beyond what I have seen with most other FOSS and commercial issue/bug trackers, given that it is built to run a Helpdesk and not be a software or source code issue tracker. It runs on Windows and *nix, they have a great demo and you can obtain a 30 day trial installer. I have become a big fan of this software and think it has a reasonable price of $250/year/technician (support person).
If you want more info on how we deployed it, please email me and I'd be happy to discuss it at length. I have no more connection with them than I am a very happy customer.
I have to agree, Fogbugz is probably the best out there. I have used both the hosted version and the purchased version which I hosted. It is top-notch.
BugTracker.NET is free, open source, and widely used. It has integration with incoming email. In other words, it will accept an incoming email and turn it into a support ticket.
I'll second the suggestion for RT. See my post here for more thoughts and details on our setup.
From my personal experience I can recommend using Bridgetrak.
It works pretty smooth in our environment and includes rich helpdesk functionality for powerful tickets tracking.
I have a lot of experience using this tools - feel free to ask any questions!