Current business environment  

Customer-centricity has become a winning strategy for many companies. It helps them stay afloat in the ever-changing business landscape. But maintaining stable relationships with existing clients and acquiring prospective ones is not as easy as one might think. Meeting their needs and resolving their issues is tied to the designated teams dedication, effort, and technology. Thats why the systems service desk teams use are so important. Those technology solutions must be able to cover all needs of service desk teams in terms of stability, security, diversity of channels for approach, and communications with clients. Thats why combining a DevOps system with a service desk one is the ultimate solution.

One of the most popular solutions that meet those requirements is Freshdesk. On top of its diverse functionalities, Freshdesk is also very agile and scalable. Often, its combined with a tool like Jira. The combination with the Atlassian product allows service desk teams to directly collaborate with their DevOps colleagues to resolve client issues in the fastest possible manner.

If you want to know more about the Jira Freshdesk integration and its benefits, feel free to schedule a demo.

Freshdesk in brief

Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer service software. Its goal is to help enterprises organize, manage and resolve customer-related issues. Easy to incorporate into the companys already existing IT stack, Freshdesk allows customer service teams to easily handle client-related issues and establish a clear path for communication on various channels  phone, email, chats, social media, and more.

Freshdesk empowers organizations to significantly improve their customer satisfaction score (CSA) and maintain relationships with new and existing customers.

Freshdesk benefits

• All-in-one service desk solution that easily incorporates a large variety of tools available on the market

• Easy to use, set up and navigate through

• Provides timely support for any customer-related issues and inquiries

• Easy automation of repetitive tasks that save time and resources

• Fast communication between service desk teams and other departments

• 360-degree of the customer journey  from start to end

• Provides ground for better accumulation of feedback information

• Helps cut down the issues response time

• Provides reliability and availability to its users

Jira in brief

With more than 65 000 active business users from around the globe since its initial launch, the Atlassian product has established itself as one of the most preferred DevOps solutions. Suitable for almost all types of companies, IT teams use Jira to organize, track and manage their most important projects, tasks, and operations. Adaptable and scalable, Jira allows for customizations to fit the needs of every DevOps team. As a result, developers rely on it to build workflows, handle issues and problems on time, and achieve visibility over crucial production rollouts.

Agile teams prefer using Jira as their main work tool thanks to its easy implementation alongside other software solutions. Additionally, it helps fight information gaps and silos.

Jira benefits

• Default security settings and a permission scheme (allows only certain users to access the track of bugs)

• Advanced encryption of data

• Scrum/Kanban practitioners use Jira boards proactively

• Enhanced reporting features that allow for granular analysis of incidents and issues

• Enhanced backlog features and mobile applications

• Roadmaps that help with the seamless creation, management, and visualization of stories

Without a Freshdesk Jira integration in place

The presence of the two in the tech stack does not mean they are connected. As a result, communication between departments happens slowly and often brings misunderstandings. Data is transferred by hand from one system to another, opening the door to possible errors. Issue remediation comes slow, and customers often miss updates on their problems.

When there is an established integration between Jira and Freshdesk

Connecting the two systems allows for the automation of crucial tasks and operations. Freshdesk tickets get transferred into Jira tasks without manual effort. As of this, DevOps teams investigate the reason for their appearance and resolve them timely. With a bi-directional integration in place, both systems sync immediately. A change in any of them shows up instantly in the other  keeping customers and the service desk team updated in real-time.

Choosing the right integration solution    

Connecting Freshdesk and Jira is crucial for the smooth data transfer between them. Even more important is the choice of the platform that will establish the connection between the two. It must have advanced capabilities that allow for flexibility and scalability. Easiness of deployment and use is also vital. Additionally, the option for customizations to fit more than one use case must also be at hand.

ZigiOps encompasses all of the above functionalities.

Why choose the ZigiOps connector

Often, companies find it hard to instantly settle with just one integration solution. Usually, they weigh the pros and cons of having an external or internal one. Many believe the latter is the best solution without taking into consideration that it is timeconsuming and in most cases not delivering the expected results. Integrating Jira and Freshdesk is not as easy as it seems, especially when the end goal is a stable, scalable and functional system integration. As a result, businesses end up in a whirlwind of data gaps and bottlenecks. The Freshdesk Jira integration is often ineffective and unreliable. There are delays in the remediation processes and customers are disappointed.

Having an external solution like ZigiOps can be a turning point. ZigiOps is an advanced no-code integration platform. Agile and scalable, ZigiOps offers a secure bi-directional Jira and Freshdesk integration. The tool possesses an intuitive UI and functionalities allowing users to make integrations from scratch or use one of the many pre-defined templates. You can read more on what sets apart the ZigiOps platform from the rest of the integration solutions currently available on the market.

The connector covers every aspect of the Freshdesk and Jira integration  fitting every use case scenario or business goal with minimum effort. Fully customizable and flexible, ZigiOps is an out-of-the-box solution. It does not require the implementation of additional applications or additional help from a developer. With it, the Jira Freshdesk integration happens in minutes.

Freshdesk Jira integration use cases

One of the popular scenarios regarding the integration between Jira and Freshdesk relates to transferring Freshdesk tickets to Jira tasks. Well assume that we need to synchronize our helpdesk and DevOps departments. The customer desk receives a ticket from a customer. Upon investigation, it becomes clear that this issue is a software bug. The only way to solve it is to send it to the development team.

Without a direct integration between the two systems, the help desk team would have to open Jira and manually log the issue as a task. Often, such actions are time-consuming and may result in unintentional errors. With an advanced and agile integration solution like ZigiOps, the Jira Freshdesk integration happens instantly and without additional coding or deployment of applications. ZigiOps transfers the main data alongside additional details such as notes, log files, comments, or traces. Since the connector offers a bi-directional integration  the connected systems are synced and kept up-to-date in real time. A slight change in either of the systems instantly becomes present in the other.

Setting up the Freshdesk Jira integration using ZigiOps  

For detailed information checkout our Jira Freshdesk integration page

The first step of the Jira Freshdesk integration is installing the ZigiOps system. You can check out the ZigiOps requirements and installation processes for further clarification. The tool comes with iPaaS and on-premises versions. The installation of the on-premises version of ZigiOps needs not more than five minutes to complete. Since its a no-code solution, using ZigiOps does not require additional coding actions. Also, it does not require changes in other applications to make the integration. Due to its strict security policies, ZigiOps does not store any of your information.

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Upon logging, you'll be taken to ZigiOps Dashboard. It encompasses all the necessary information about the health status of the integrations, system licenses, exact number of transactions between systems, and more.

Due to its intuitive and easy-to-navigate design, the connection configuration happens seamlessly and in a few clicks.

Connecting to Freshdesk

After installing or connecting to ZigiOps, the log in requires username and password. After filling them its time to connect to the systems wed like to integrate. Our first system is Freshdesk. To connect with it, ZigiOps needs the following information:

• Log into the ZigiOps instance.
• Server URL. Here we have to add the URL of our Freshdesk instance. (heres an example  https://example.freshdesk.com)
• API Key

Side notes: There are also proxy settings that enable the usage of a proxy server.

Upon filling all the above fields, the ZigiOps platform will automatically check the connection with Freshdesk. If its successful, there will be a notification.

Parallel to this, ZigiOps also collects metadata from Freshdesk and loads all available fields, in order to make the Jira Freshdesk integration easy execute.

Connecting to Jira

After establishing a connection with Freshdesk its time to connect to the second (destination system). In our use case that would be the Atlassian Jira.

Again, the needing data is as follows:

• Instance URL
• User
• Password

You are also able to login through a proxy in case you want to. You need to have the following permissions for your Jira account:

• Add Comments
• Assign issues
• Browse Projects
• Create Attachments
• Create Issues
• Edit Issues
• Resolve Issues
• Transition issues

Jira Freshdesk Integration Configuration

Now that there is a connection with both systems, we can proceed with the integration. This requires the configuration of the Jira Freshdesk integration.

The ZigiOps platform offers its user the option to choose a ready-to-use template from its large library. This saves valuable time and effort. Each template is entirely customizable and can fit into any use case.

There is also the option of starting the integration from scratch  when needed.

Integration configuration

After loading the Jira Freshdesk integration template for tickets to tasks we must point out few additional settings from the drop-down menus:

• Place Freshdesk as a source system
• Set Jira as a destination system
• Define the entity type from Freshdesk ticket in our case
• Select the entity type from Jira  task

After that, we can determine what we aim to sync along with the tickets in the correlation section. ZigiOps supports a variety of things including:

Once we are done with this, we can click Save and go to the advanced data mapping of the Freshdesk Jira integration.

It's important to point out which system will be first and which second. This helps the system populate the fields wed like with the data needed. ZigiOps allows customizing them so they can cover even the most sophisticated use case scenario.

The ZigiOps connector will automatically load the schema for Jira and Freshdesk systems, making the integration logic easy.

From the custom field we can see the additional data available in the correlation field:

• Transitions
• Reporter
• Priority
• Key and more

For each separate configuration ZigiOps has a detailed Correlation menu. It gives access to the fields of the integrated systems included in the data synchronization. There are also additional fields which can also be synced. The correlation menu allows for bi- directional updates and controls the correlation logic.

ZigiOps presents us with a variety of actions that help us tailor the integration between Jira and Freshdesk the way we want.

• We can create a task in Jira from a Freshdesk ticket
• We can update the Jira task
• We can update the Freshdesk ticket, too

Jira Freshdesk Integration Actions

For a successful Freshdesk Jira integration, there are few actions that must be taken. In our use case they are:

• Create a Jira Task from Freshdesk Ticket
• Update Jira Task
• Update Freshdesk Ticket

Create a Jira Task from Freshdesk Ticket

Lets start with the first action  creating a Jira task from the Freshdesk ticket. This action allows us to take a look and adjust trigger conditions and their settings.

ZigioOps uses polling as a trigger action to search for newly created tickets in the Freshdesk database. We can choose the time interval on which the integration platform will scan Freshdesk  minutes, seconds, days and more.

We have a trigger condition that consists of field name and value, which must be populated for ZigiOps to perform the scan.

Expressions can also be defined in accordance with our use case needs. In our use case last time expressions will be used to sort out tickets that we have already logged into Jira. Just new tickets will be looked for. This is a useful feature that eliminates the possibility of duplication in the systems.

‍Update Freshdesk Ticket

ZigiOps can also perform an update on already created and transferred tickets. This option helps both the service desk and DevOps teams be up to date in real time. Again, we have the trigger action. We can tailor on what time interval ZigiOps will look on both sides of the connected systems for any changes on the ticket status.

Trigger conditions are also customizable:

Expressions are present, too, and can be changed to fit the current data needs.

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Freshdesk field mapping functionalities:

From ZigiOps data mapping section we can chose the type of trigger we would like to use. Here its polling. This means that ZigiOps will scan for new tickets in Freshdesk on a predefined interval. This can be performed on certain time intervals  minutes, hours, or seconds.

In the mapping options, we can define which fields get synchronized. In this case, we have:

• summary
• description
• priority

Update Jira Task

Updating the Jira task is easy, thanks to ZigiOps bi-directional integration capabilities. It helps track any changes and inform teams on work progress. As before, last time expressions are configurable to make sure no data duplication happens while establishing the Jira Freshdesk two-way connection.

With those settings in place, our Freshdesk Jira integration is almost done. We must click on the Save button in the upper right corner to activate the bi-directional connection.

Conclusion

Pairing DevOps and ITSM tools helps with customer retention and the smooth resolution of their issues. Systems like Jira and Freshdesk are perhaps the most common go-to solutions in such scenarios. Used separately, they both provide users with the much-needed functionalities to cope with client-related issues on time. However, a Jira Freshdesk integration expands their capabilities by allowing the automation of repetitive tasks and actions, eliminating the information gaps between the service desk and developers teams, and even enhancing their overall productivity.

With an advanced integration platform like ZigiOps, Jira and Freshdesk instantly sync (along with their data). Client requests are thoroughly tracked and closely monitored. Thanks to its bi-directional integration abilities, ZigiOps can keep both customer support and DevOps teams updated on any changes in either of the systems. Choose smart integration book a demo with the ZigiOps team today.