Need your opinion on OTRS usage for my project

[SLESSARD]

Hi folks, In a previous life I was in charge of OTRS install / admin / config ... for an IT department and we mainly used it to handle client IT request for services, change, incidents etc ...

I retired from IT and now living my dream career. To be more precise I am self-employed in the banking / lending world ... probably the next greatest thing after being a parent for me at least ;o)

Knowing OTRS and it's numerous capabilities, I am wondering what the OTRS community's opinion would be to use it outside of the IT world. Although it is made for IT / ITSM and the ITIL world but would you consider it for other means? Have you heard or participated in non-IT related projects where OTRS was implemented and if so how did it go / still going?

Basically I need something that:

- allow clients to submit service requests;
- allow the back-end agents to respond, track, email and follow-up on those requests;
- allow multiple agents to work as part of a team's workflow;
- assign SLA for different groups / queues and specific service request that are more sensitive than others;
- provide reporting functionality;
- allow grouping of clients / agents;

Basically what I need to do is all supported by OTRS ... but I feel like I'm using a tank to go dear hunting, obviously overkill for what I need.

Cost is something I have considered also ... having perl, php, apache SQL experience I can do most of it on my own or sub-contract (hint hint for those looking for a special project ;o) )

Comments are more than welcomed

[jojo]

About 50% of the installations are non IT related. So it seems to be perfect fit