I'm one of the main developers on a complex web application. As we start to gain more users, we need a better method of managing customer support. Currently, we just have a support email box that someone goes through and answers questions, or forwards them off to other team members who can help. But it's getting too big to manage. Ideal...
Am i obligated to give the source code and support of the software I have created for a client especially if the client wanted to add some functionalities? For how long? ...
I'm running a large private beta release for an application, about 100 beta testers. This number keeps increasing. I'm looking for a website like http://uservoice.com but more focused on private beta releases. Only accessed by invitation, allows me to store private download files as well as voting alike uservoice functionality. Do you...
We've been using Edgewall's Trac and a plethora of Trac-Hacks to manage a large development project. It serves as a front-end to our SVN repository, it is our project wiki, and we've progressively built a nice toolchain to tie it all together. (We especially love the integration between Trac and SVN using Tortoise, TracExplorer, and post...
I have the problem all the time of clients coming to me with their print designer who just wants to give me a design and get me to code it up. I'd prefer to be able to give some input in with considerations for SEO, usability, download size etc, but quite often the designers are of the mind that the design is finished and mustn't be cha...
What is the best open source customer support / staff management / job management software out there? We are using OSTicket right now, which has some serious shortcomings. Anyone used anything better? ...
Looking for a "customer email management system" similar to MailTank to deal with support emails. MailTank seemed perfect but it was a bit expensive. I tested the Email Center Pro also but thought it was too messy. Is there something that is simple, cheap, handles 3-5 users and to assign emails and conversations to a particular user? ...
Hi, We have developed a multiuser intranet based C#.Net client server product where the client application as well as the server application would be at the customer's site. I would like to know how we can give them support remotely. Going to the customer sites for every call may not be possible. How can we provide them a remote suppor...
Ok here's the story: I manage a team of 3 developers that have been working on, and recently completed, a 1 1/2 year project for one of our largest clients. The project is a web application written in .NET 3.5 MVC 1.0 SQL 2005. Their requirements for the program were such that we had to build 10 robust completely ajax controls; one of ...
This question is somewhat multi-part. First, I realize it can vary somewhat, but what is generally expected from SaaS vendors in terms of what happens when a customer discontinues service with respect to their data. I have/am building a hosted Web based business application that customers use for an important aspect of their business. I...
When a hosted software application does have a paying user base (albeit a small one), but it's no longer profitable to maintain it, improve it, or support it, what's the "right way" to kill it off, and instead use that time/money to focus on your solutions that are working? What's the most professional way to do this? Do you... Simply...
During beta testing, sometimes our end-users unfortunately encounter a bug. This inevitably leads to a bug report, where the Joel on Software article Painless Bug Tracking suggests: Every good bug report needs exactly three things. Steps to reproduce, What you expected to see, and What you saw instead. This is usua...
I've been looking at support systems for a webapp I'm going to be pushing really hard over summer. I've narrowed it down to Zendesk and tenderapp. They both seem to offer much of a similar product, price & features. Has anyone out there used the two and can advise how to best make the decision? Thanks :) ...
I work for a small software firm, and I am one of two developers on staff. My coworker and I handle more than half of the support calls. Support calls are a given, there is no stopping them especially since one of the selling points of our flagship product is "free non-outsourced toll-free phone support". Usually, this gives us only a...
Hello. My company is deploying an embedded software/hardware product. We have beta testers lined up who will test the product in the field. We would like a system of keeping track of the feedback we receive from these users. Perhaps some sort of ticketing system? I've looked at Zendesk as a possibility. Thoughts? Thanks, Jason ...
I am developing a web service and depend on 3rd party developers to write client applications for it. I need to set a developer portal, a web site where existing and potential developers would find documentation html pages doc files for download libraries downloads wiki forums support ticketing system. There should be a public part ...
Hi, I'm finishing my masters degree in cs, I have the option to do a thesis project. I'm having a hard time coming up with a project that is interesting to me. I'd like to do something that is free and useful for others. I've worked for a few mobile startups now and one thing that seems pretty common is the lack of really killer custom...
I am developing an information management system in C# Winforms. Of course, I need to support my clients. Traditionally or popularly web sites are used to do client support. I am thinking why I don't build it in my application. And then I have some related questions: Is it a good idea to do so? Is it better to use other software or w...
I am hoping to release my first Android application (yay) and am doing some research on a self hosted (i.e. PHP or RoR) simple support based website where customers will be able to login and report/track issues. The critical required feature for me is some mechanism where customers will be able to vote on feature requests... where most ...
We have a fairly simple support ticketing system(Send an email to the Support email address). However what we CONSTANTLY do battle with is garbage support tickets where the user is being told by the system how to solve their problem yet the user isn't happy with the course of action they are required to take. Also we get plenty of tick...