Seamlessly Integrate Zendesk Support & Jira With Sinergify

Today, every brand is going above and beyond to solve challenges and delight customers.

However, having a holistic view of support and development teams is key to ensuring customer satisfaction and smooth case resolution.

And for that, brands are switching to best-in-breed software such as Zendesk Support, a ticketing system, and Jira, a project management tool, to improve team collaboration.

Integrating Zendesk Support with Jira enables you to complement the strength of one system with the other.

Not just that, combining the power of these platforms helps you increase organizational efficiency and drive success with support and development teams.

In this article, we’ll talk about the benefits of this integration and how you can integrate Zendesk and Jira for effective team collaboration.

Benefits of Integrating Zendesk Support With Jira

Integrating Zendesk with Jira is a great way to stay organized. It minimizes the time teams spend working with different tools for a common objective.

Here are the major benefits of this integration:

1. Improved Team Collaboration: Integrating Zendesk Support with Jira enables teams to seamlessly access data by eliminating the need to transfer it. This means that support and development teams can communicate on a single platform in real-time.

2. Ensure a Bug-Free Environment: Support teams can escalate and link Zendesk support tickets to Jira issues. They can also notify the development team of bugs affecting customer experience and get updates on issues – all from their Zendesk Support account.

3. Complete View From Support to Development: In Jira, development teams will have a complete view of customer interactions related to any issue. They can collaborate easily with the support team to resolve issues without leaving Jira.

4. Complete Control Over Data Sharing: By integrating Zendesk Support and Jira, you can customize the integration to fit team workflows. You can choose the Jira information you want to show in your Zendesk Support account and share tags from Zendesk Support to Jira and vice-versa.

Integrating Zendesk Support and Jira with Sinergify – What Does the Process Look Like?

Sinergify is a CRM and Jira connector that connects Zendesk with Jira. It enables you to link, track, and synchronize information between Zendesk tickets & Jira issues. With configurable syncing, you can decide what updates to sync from Zendesk to Jira or vice-versa. To integrate the platforms using Sinergify, you’ll need to follow these steps:

Installation on Zendesk

1. Log into your Zendesk instance and navigate to Admin.
2. Locate Marketplace under ‘Apps’ and find the Sinergify (Zendesk-Jira Connector) App. Click Install.

Authentication on Zendesk

Here’s how you can authorize the Sinergify application on Zendesk via an authenticated Jira user:

1. Setting Up Application Links

Step 1: Log into your Jira account as a user with ‘Jira administrator’ permissions.
Step 2: Click the Settings icon.
Step 3: Under the Settings (gear icon) drop-down menu, click ‘System’.
Step 4: Then click ‘Search Jira admin’.

Step 5: Enter ‘Application’ in the search bar and click ‘Application links’ from the search results.

Step 6: Select the type of link. Then, select ‘Direct Application Link’ and enter the Zendesk URL in the application URL. Click ‘Continue’.

Step 7: A new screen will appear to configure the application URL. Click ‘Continue’ again to verify the application URL.

Step 8: Define an ‘Application Name’ for reference like ‘Sinergify (Zendesk-Jira) Connector’. Select ‘Generic Application’ as the Application Type. Then, enable the ‘create incoming link’ option and select ‘Continue’ to save the settings.

Step 9: A fresh window will appear where you can review the data you’ve entered. Click ‘Continue’ to confirm and save the changes you’ve made. If it prompts you again, click ‘Continue’.

Note: Check the reference document for Private and Public Keys.

Document link: Public/Private Keys Generator for OAuth.

[In order to generate keys, make sure you choose the 2048 Bit size.]

Save the private key that will be used in the Zendesk Authentication Screen.

Step 10: And voila! An application link will be created.

2. Zendesk Side Authentication Panel

Step 11: To authenticate on Zendesk, enter the following details and select ‘Save’ once done.

• Jira Instance: URL of Jira Instance.
• Consumer key: The same as entered in the application link, for example: ‘Sinergify Zendesk-Jira connector’.
• Private key: Pair of Public Keys entered in the Application Link above.

Step 12: A new screen will pop-up to login into your Jira instance. After you’re logged in, another new screen will appear asking for ‘Read’ and ‘Write’ permissions. To share your access token, click ‘Allow’.

Note:

• If you’re already logged in, it will show the logged-in user name. Ensure that the user with admin access is being used for integration.
• If you’re not logged in, you’ll have to enter Jira credentials.
• Ensure that pop-ups are not blocked in browser settings.

Step 13: After clicking ‘Allow’, a confirmation pop-up will appear stating that access has been granted. Close the pop-up window.

Step 14: To complete the authentication process, click ‘Finish’.

Step 15: After clicking the Finish button, the authentication screen will pop up with the Jira status of ‘Connected’.

Configuration on the Zendesk Side

1. Project Mapping

Step 1: Once the authentication process is complete, the next step is to configure the Jira projects. Click ‘Next’ to go to the ‘Project Mapping’ screen. The projects on the screen will be visible to you as per the project-level permissions to the specific Jira integration User through which we did the authentication. If a Project is missing, contact your Jira Administrator to assign the necessary project permissions or choose the right user in the Authentication Screen. Only the projects selected on the ‘Project Screen’ will be available for the Create, Search, Link, and Unlink features.

Step 2: Click ‘Save’ and then ‘Next’ to configure Field Mapping.

2. Field Mapping

This feature enables users to handle and manage the mapping of Jira Fields with Zendesk fields.

Step 1: Select the desired Jira fields and click the ‘Add’ button. These fields will be available on the Create Jira screen. If you want to pre-populate the Jira field data with Zendesk ticket field data or set up a unidirectional or bidirectional sync between Zendesk and Jira fields, select the respective Zendesk field and set the Target type.

Step 2: Target – It enables you to sync updates directly from Zendesk to Jira or vice-versa. Also, it pre-populates Jira fields with Zendesk ticket fields on the Create Jira screen. Users have to decide the type of sync (None, Jira to Zendesk, Zendesk to Jira, Two way).

1. None: If the target selected is ‘None’, auto-syncing will not update linked records.

2. Jira to Zendesk: Whenever you update the fields of the Jira issue, linked Zendesk tickets are also updated.

3. Zendesk to Jira: This will pre-populate the Jira field with Zendesk field data when we open the Create Jira screen in Zendesk. Whenever there is an update on the fields of Zendesk tickets, the fields of linked Jira issues are also updated.

4. Two-Way: When the target is set to two-way, any update made on either side will update the linked record on the other side. This will pre-populate the Jira field with Zendesk field data when we open the Create Jira screen.

Step 3: Sync – With the help of sync, you can auto-sync fields added to the target. It is mandatory to click the Sync button after making changes. Select ‘Save’.

Step 4: The mapped fields will appear on the Create Jira issue screen.

Field Type Syncing Compatibility
There are some restrictions on the field types that are compatible with syncing. See the reference below showing restricted field types for both platforms.

1. Restricted Jira Field Type

• Multi User-picker
• User-Picker
• User
• Status
• Date time
• Cascading Select
• Issue Link
• Issue Type
• gh-epic-link

2. Restricted Zendesk Field Type

• Status (Standard Zendesk Field)
• Assignee (Standard Zendesk Field)
• Group (Standard Zendesk Field)
• Credit card
• Regex
• Checkbox
• Description (Standard Zendesk Field)
• Lookup relationship

Key Points to Remember:

1. Users can create Jira issues even if the Zendesk field is not mapped and the target is set to ‘None’.
2. Target is always mandatory when choosing the Zendesk field.
3. When you map a picklist field, Jira field values and the Zendesk field value API name must match. For example, if the API Name of the picklist value in the Zendesk field is ‘most_ critical’ then the picklist value in the Jira field should also be ‘Most Critical’.

3. Detail Mapping

All fields available in Jira are shown on the screen. Only the fields that are selected in the detail mapping section will be shown on the Jira issue details screen.

There are four types of fields that are shown by default on the Linked Jira issue detail page. These fields will be saved by default in the detail mapping section.

1. Issue Type
2. Summary
3. Status
4. Priority

Here’s an example of fields in Zendesk tickets:

In the detail mapping section, the user can add more relevant fields as per requirements to see details about the Jira issue. View the screenshot below:

Once you click on save, the fields below will be available on the Jira issue detail page. To view these details, click on the detail icon as shown below.

Note:

If in case you see the field ‘Linked Issue IDs’ on the layout, please make sure to remove the field from Zendesk ticket page layout. This field is part of integration and should not be modified. Hence it needs to be removed from the layout to avoid any accidental issues.

Installation in Jira

1. Select Apps, and under the drop-down menu, select Find new apps in your Jira account.
2. Enter Sinergify in the Search bar for Apps input box and press Enter.
3. Select Get App, and the application will be installed in the background. Follow the below-mentioned steps once the app is installed.

Authentication on Jira

Step 1: In the Apps drop-down menu, select Manage your apps.

Step 2: In the left-hand panel, click Zendesk Plugin Authentication.

Step 3: Enter the Zendesk login instance URL along with the client key.

For the Client Key and Client Secret

Step 4: In the Zendesk admin center, open the Apps and Integrations section in the sidebar or search for the Zendesk API, then select APIs>Zendesk APIs.

Step 5: Click the OAuth Client tab on the Zendesk API page, and then click the ‘Add OAuth Client’ on the right side of the OAuth client list.

Step 6: To add an OAuth client, fill out the following fields.

• Client Name: Enter a name for your app. For example, Sinergify Zendesk Integration.
• Description: Optional. This is a short description of your app.
• Company: Optional. You can add the company name for reference.
• Logo: Optional. This is the logo that will appear to users when asked to approve access to your application.
• Unique Identifier: The field is auto-populated with a restructured version of the name you entered for your app. You can change the name if you want.
• Redirect URLs: Enter the browser URL of the Jira plugin Authentication screen.

Step 7: After the page refreshes, a new pre-populated Secret field will appear on the lower side. This is the ‘client_secret’.

Step 8: Copy the secret value to your clipboard and store it safely. Make sure to copy and store this token as it won’t be visible after you click ‘Save’ or leave the page.

Step 9: Click ‘Save’.
Step 10: Use the unique identifier and the secret value in the authentication screen on Jira as the key and client secret, respectively.

Step 11: Login into ‘Zendesk’ after you have filled out the details.

Step 12: It will open a new window for authorization. Click ‘Allow’.

Step 13: A Jira authentication screen will appear with the status ‘Connected’.

And you’re done integrating Zendesk Support with Jira!

The Bottom Line

Integrations are crucial to enhance all aspects of your business. If you’re ready to delight customers and grow your business, consider integrating Zendesk Support with Jira.

Integrating these tools will enable support and development teams to solve issues as they arise, collaboratively and effectively.

Now, it’s time to experience improved productivity and flawless data sync with Zendesk and Jira integration.

If you need any assistance in integrating the two platforms, simply drop us a line at info@sinergify.com and we’ll take it from there.