Open source: a practical solution

A small group in the Amherst College IT Department was given responsibility for researching new ticket tracking software during the spring and summer of 2006. The help desk staff had been using purchased software for several years and had learned to live with the quirkiness of some of the modules, the costly maintenance fees, and more importantly, the resistance from other groups within IT about using it. Open source became our mantra for the cost-saving benefits, but we had to embrace the same programming conventions (Java, PHP, and Perl) and database infrastructure (SQL) we used for other systems. The wish list included finding a solution that would allow future API integration with a knowledge base and self-service module. We also knew it had to have a web-base interface, a relatively sophisticated search function, automated email notification system, and provide a queue-oriented navigation schema. Lastly, the software implementation had to coincide with the rollout of a new Content Management System scheduled for mid-January of 2007. This gave our team less than six months to research and recommend software options for testing, make a decision based on the criteria from our 'feature wish list', and have the software available for use by January. This presentation will provide insights into the realm of support for open source, the surprising collaboration between internal and external constituencies during the research and implementation process, and how this experience has affected our support initiatives.