797519
submission
kwandar writes:
My company develops subscription based software that needs annual updating with a short turnaround time. The software is very sophisticated, and we try to add significant new functionality to the product each year. To cope with the time pressure, we are thinking about outsourcing part of our quality assurance.
Since we haven't done this before, we are looking for some advice from Slashdot. We see potential advantages in being able to augment our core QA staff during busy periods, and getting overnight turnaround. What are the disadvantages, hidden costs we should look for? How does one go about selecting a firm to outsource Quality Assurance to? What have your experiences been like?
723577
submission
kwandar writes:
Word today from Michale Geist's blog that the Canadian Government led by Stephen Harper once again caved into US demands in the recently introduced Canadian Copyright Bill C-61. This legislation which is being sold as "Made in Canada" has received an outpouring of complaints by the Canadian public, with more than 6,000 people writing to their Members of Parliament (that averages 20 emails per member)and the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook group increasing in size from 40,000 to over 50,000 members.
According to documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, the US made veiled threats about "thickening the border" between Canada and the U.S. if Canada refused to put DMCA style copyright reform on the legislative agenda. This is a clear threat to Canada's economy as our only border is with the US.
Perhaps some of our US friends would like to write to their representatives too, about the pressure being applied to other countries to adopt DMCA style legislation? We're in this together!
296791
submission
kwandar writes:
Our Company is looking at putting in a Support Desk function for customers. We have about 10 people on support lines.
We are looking at commercial solutions such as BMC, Heat, etc. but what I'd what we'd like to do is find a supported open source solution. The problem is, I've had difficulty finding one for a small/medium sized business, that includes components such as a knowledge base (very important — we don't have one presently), escalation, good reporting of issues, an ability to customize, and good APIs that will let us link with, for instance, SugarCRM, and move bugs to the developer's bug tracking software.
I can't seem to find open source products, other than internal support and ticketing systems. Can anyone please direct me to a strong contender (no ERP systems please — we don't want to go there just yet)? I'd like our support fees to go to an open source initiative.
