Jira Salesforce Integration: Connect Jira and Salesforce Bidirectionally

This article was written by Teja Bhutada from Exalate.

Today’s global teams demand easy and effective collaborations between the applications they use, like Jira for project management and Salesforce for CRM. To establish a communication channel between these applications, a Jira Salesforce integration comes into play.?

In this article, we’ll see the benefits of integrating Jira and Salesforce. We’ll also discuss a few common scenarios where such an integration is useful, finally moving on to implementing it using an integration solution called Exalate.?

Let’s get started!

Why Integrate Jira and Salesforce in the First Place??

While using applications like Jira and Salesforce, often teams resort to manual data transfer, emails, and meetings to get clarity over issues at hand.

For instance, a sales team member using Salesforce might want to pass useful customer insights to the dev team working in Jira. Using manual and old-school ways to pass this information can lead to inaccuracies, errors, and wasted resources.?

A Jira Salesforce integration addresses these challenges by establishing a consistent, real-time, and automated data exchange. Such an integration fosters collaboration, minimizes errors, and empowers teams to focus on higher-value tasks.?

Following is a brief overview of the advantages you can expect by integrating Jira with Salesforce:?

• Streamlined communication and collaboration
• Reduced manual data exchange errors
• Enhanced operational efficiency
• End-to-end automation of key business processes leading to a wholistic digital transformation within your organization

Having seen why integrating Jira and Salesforce can become a game-changer for your business, it's important to discuss how we can implement it.?

Here's where Exalate steps in as a solution that can pave the way for a smoother, more efficient collaboration between different teams.?

There are a lot of integration tools available in the market that offer different pricing models, deployment options, and connectors. We choose Exalate for reasons discussed in the coming section.?

Benefits of Jira Salesforce Integration with Exalate

Exalate is an integration solution that acts as a bridge between applications like Jira and Salesforce. It facilitates bidirectional synchronization of data between multiple platforms like Azure DevOps, GitHub, Jira, ServiceNow, Salesforce, etc.?

Whether you are tackling a support ticket in Jira that relates to a specific customer case in Salesforce or updating project status in Jira that impacts a sales opportunity in Salesforce, Exalate ensures information flows seamlessly, allowing teams to remain on the same page.?

Real-time and Decentralized Integration

Exalate allows teams working in Jira and Salesforce to sync in real time. So, updates made in one system are instantly reflected in the other. This way, teams have better visibility over critical business data and can make informed decisions.

It also supports decentralized integration, where each side can make changes to the integration without affecting or consulting the other side's admin. This feature works well for cross-company integrations where there is a need to maintain the integration independently. It also increases the scalability and security of your integration.?

Secure Integration?

Exalate has in place different security mechanisms to keep your integrating data secure. It has JWT-based tokens, data encryption at transit and in rest, single-tenant architecture, etc.

It’s important to use a tool inherently secure by design for your integration. You can read all about the security measures in its whitepaper.?

Flexibility and Customization

Exalate offers customizable sync rules, allowing organizations to tailor the integration to their specific needs. Whether it’s mapping custom fields, defining sync triggers, or controlling the data flow, Exalate provides the flexibility to align the integration with your unique workflows.?

Robust Integration

Exalate has an in-built retry mechanism based on transactional sync queues that allow the sync to resume from the point of interruption in case of downtimes, upgrades, or system failures.?

Let’s get a little practical and have a look at a few use cases that have been implemented using Exalate.?

Key Jira Salesforce Use Cases Implemented Using Exalate

Sync Multiple Related Salesforce Objects to Jira?

Salesforce often has multiple objects that have some association between them. For instance,? a Case can have a related Account or Contact, or a custom object exists unique to your business needs. With Exalate, you can sync multiple related objects between Jira and Salesforce. We implemented a use case where the Account and Contact information related to a Case the sales team was working on had to be passed over to the dev team working in Jira.?

Update Salesforce Account Info From Jira Custom Field?

You can map and sync your default and custom fields in Salesforce and Jira any way you want. Consider a use case that allows you to select an account name from a drop-down custom field in Jira that is then synced as an Account entity in Salesforce. Any changes to the account in Jira are reflected automatically in Salesforce.

Sync Comment Threads and User Mentions in Comments between Jira and Salesforce?

You can perform filtering, transformations, and mappings for comments and other fields with Exalate. Consider an advanced comment use case that allows syncing threads of comments and user mentions between Salesforce and Jira. Exalate also provides you with additional helper methods for advanced use cases.?

Sync Any Jira and Salesforce Entity?

You can sync any Jira issue or sprint fields. You can sync any Salesforce objects like Product, Opportunity, Case, Account, Task, etc. You can sync any entity available via REST APIs using Exalate.?

Efficient Issue Resolution

Imagine a scenario where a customer issue reported in Salesforce requires development work. With Exalate, you can synchronize the issue to Jira, and the dev team can work on it without leaving their preferred environment. Updates, resolutions, statuses, and comments are automatically synced back to Salesforce, ensuring transparency and faster issue resolution.?

Enhanced Customer Insights

By connecting customer cases in Salesforce to related Jira issues, organizations can gain a holistic view of customer interactions. This insight can drive product improvements, helpdesk efficiencies, and overall customer satisfaction.?

Let’s now have a look at how we can integrate Jira and Salesforce using Exalate.?

How to Implement a Jira Salesforce Integration in 6 Steps?

Exalate is a decentralized app enabling you to gain independent control over your side of integration. So, you need to install it on both Jira and Salesforce.?

1: Install Exalate on Jira

Exalate is available to be installed on Jira cloud and on-premise. You can even install it via docker.?

Here, we’ll consider Jira cloud. It’s available on the Atlassian Marketplace. Search for Exalate and choose “Exalate Jira Issue Sync & more”.?

The installation is pretty straightforward and won’t take long.?

Next, you need to install it on Salesforce.?

2: Install Exalate on Salesforce

Exalate for Salesforce is available on AppExchange.?

Following is a brief summary of the steps for installing it on Salesforce.?

1. Access AppExchange and search for Exalate.
2. Click “Get it Now”
3. Choose to install it on production or sandbox
4. Confirm and install
5. Install it for specific user profiles, for all users, or only for admins
6. Approve third-party access and click “Continue”
7. The app is successfully installed
8. Create a connected app and copy the “Consumer Key” and “Consumer Secret”
9. Configure Exalate for Salesforce
10. Verify the Exalate node you will receive in your inbox.?

Refer to our detailed installation guide to install Exalate on Salesforce. You can also install it on docker.

3: Connect Jira and Salesforce

You need to set up a connection between Jira and Salesforce. You can start initiating the connection from either end as the UI remains the same.?

Enter the destination instance URL. After a quick verification, you’ll be prompted to choose between two different modes: the Basic mode and the Script mode.?

The Basic mode is available for free. It consists of predefined mappings that cannot be configured. So, you can use it for basic synchronizations.?

Exalate’s Script mode is what offers unlimited customization capabilities. It has Groovy-based scripts available in both instances. So you can configure the sync rules the way you want.?

If you go ahead with the Basic mode, you’ll need to enter the Case URN or the issue ID that you want to sync. You can see the sync status immediately.?

If you choose the Script mode, you’ll be prompted to configure the sync. We’ll discuss how to configure it in the upcoming sections.?

4: Configure Your Sync Rules The Way You Want

The “Rules” tab allows you to configure what information you want to share or not share. It has preloaded scripts that are set up during the connection establishment. You can edit them to change what you want to sync.?

The “Outgoing sync” scripts decide what information must be shared with the destination. The “Incoming sync” scripts allow you to decide how you want to interpret the information received from the destination.?

Simply delete or uncomment a line if you don’t want to send or receive something. You can choose to add script templates available in the UI by uncommenting or copying them to share something extra. You can write new scripts based on your sync requirements.?

Now is the time to set up an automatic sync for exchanging information according to the rules you have set.?

5: Automate Your Sync Via Triggers

Triggers allow you to set conditions for automatically exchanging information. They are present in both the Jira and Salesforce instances. You can configure them at a granular level using the platform's native query language. So, for Jira, you can use JQL (Jira Query Language), and for Salesforce, you can use SOQL (Salesforce Object Query Language).?

Activate the trigger to start the sync. You can always edit them later.?

6: Happy Syncing!?

That’s all you need to get your sync to work. Change your configuration anytime you want, adapt your code base, “Publish” your changes, and you’re good to go.?

Conclusion

A Jira Salesforce integration is a transformative solution that combines the power of project management and customer relationship management. With this partnership, keeping track of projects while also taking care of customers becomes easier. This teamwork isn't just about making things work faster, it also helps teams make smarter choices and keeps customers even happier. In a world where businesses need to be quick and smart, Jira-Salesforce teamwork really shines and helps everyone do their best.

FAQs

• Is it possible to connect Jira with Salesforce? Yes, Jira Salesforce integration is achievable through built-in connectors such as Mulesoft Anypoint or third-party solutions like Exalate. These solutions facilitate data synchronization across selected fields, often driven by automation.
• Is Exalate a viable solution for Jira-Salesforce data synchronization?Absolutely, Exalate facilitates data synchronization between Jira and Salesforce. This platform enables teams to share attributes like remarks, detailed descriptions, account custodians, and tailored fields, whether within the organization or externally.
• How can I customize my Salesforce Jira sync?You can easily use triggers and Exalate Groovy-based scripting engine. It provides you with the flexibility to write your own custom code.