If you are selling software products in Japan, you might need a helpdesk tool to keep track of your clients' questions and problems. I performed an evaluation of 10 helpdesk software solutions and here are the results. I first selected 30 tools (including bug trackers), and restricted my choice to the 10 that are actively maintained, open-source, and localized in Japanese. In the QSOS spirit, I defined criterions and filled the matrix. I gave a weight to each criterion according to what is important to me, but using the OpenOffice spreadsheet linked on my blog, you can input your own weighings according to what is important for your company. My winners are SiT! and GLPI, but OTRS would be above if it had an official Japanese translation. Nicolas Raoul http://nicolas-raoul.blogspot.com

1. Support Inci­
0:no/poor, 1:average, 2:excellent OTRS
dent Tracker Bugzilla retrospectiva GLPI 影舞 Redmine trac Mantis Weights 0­5: Short­term
Japanese translation 0 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 3
Targets helpdesk 2 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 4
Targets software development 0 0 2 2 0 2 2 0 0 2
Frequently updated 2 2 2 2 2 0 2 2 2 3
Active community 2 1 2 0 2 1 2 2 2 3
Maturity superior to 2 years 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 3
Reports (to send to Alfresco Inc) 2 2 1 0 2 1 2 2 0 3
Issues status visibility 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 5
An instance can handle several products*clients 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 5
Separated client visibility 2 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 2
Short­term score 85 85 73 55 89 56 77 71 62
Long­term score 92 86 68 46 93 47 69 66 58
Japanese translation
Targets helpdesk Separated client visibility OTRS
2
1 Japanese translation
Targets software development An instance can handle several products*clients
0
Targets helpdesk Separated client visibility
Frequently updated Issues status visibility 2
Active community Reports (to send to Alfresco Inc)
Maturity superior to 2 years
Japanese translation 1
Targets helpdesk Separated client visibility Support Incident Tracker Targets software development An instance can handle several products*clients
2
1
Targets software development An instance can handle several products*clients
0 0
Frequently updated Issues status visibility
Active community Reports (to send to Alfresco Inc) Frequently updated Issues status visibility
Maturity superior to 2 years
OTRS
Japanese translation Support Incident Tracker
Targets helpdesk Separated client visibility GLPI
2 Bugzilla
1 retrospectiva
Targets software development An instance can handle several products*clients Active community Reports (to send to Alfresco Inc) GLPI
0 影舞
Frequently updated Issues status visibility Maturity superior to 2 years Redmine
trac
Active community Reports (to send to Alfresco Inc) Mantis
Maturity superior to 2 years

2. Long­term
1
5
2
3
5
3
3
5
5
5
e can handle several products*clients
us visibility
OTRS
Support Incident Tracker
Bugzilla
retrospectiva
sco Inc) GLPI
影舞
Redmine
trac
Mantis