Community resources
Community resources
Community resources
How A Scrum Master Used Exalate to Optimize Sprint Planning Across Salesforce and Jira
A UK-based company specializing in AI-driven call intelligence was growing fast. And like many companies at that stage, their internal processes hadn't kept up.
The support team used Salesforce. Engineering used Jira. And the connector between them was doing just enough to create a false sense of integration without actually solving anything.
The Problem
When a customer issue couldn't be resolved by first or second-line support, it got escalated to engineering as a tech request. That request would land in Jira, but any updates made after that point stayed there. Nothing synced back to Salesforce. Nothing was visible to the support agents who raised the ticket, or the client-facing teams who needed to know what was happening.
With three engineering teams each running their own backlog, the situation got harder to manage over time. There was no reliable way to know which issues were urgent, which were affecting multiple customers, or what was pulling engineers away from planned sprint work.
The team identified four core problems: limited reporting options within Jira, poor visibility in Salesforce of defects affecting multiple customers, no single source of truth across the two systems, and misaligned data between tech support and customer-facing teams that led to long and frequent sync meetings.
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"We had these tech requests, defects, and processes that were broken. We needed to look into it." — Alex, Scrum Master |
Finding the Right Solution
The requirements were straightforward. Any tech request logged in Salesforce should automatically appear in Jira. Status changes, comments, and resolutions should sync in real time, in both directions. Different case types in Salesforce should create different ticket types in Jira. And none of this should force either team to change how they worked.
The project was led by the Salesforce admin along with Alex. After evaluating their options and determining that the existing connector was no longer fit for purpose, they chose Exalate.
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"We needed a solution that could synchronize Salesforce and Jira in real time. Exalate was the clear choice because of its flexibility and reliability." — Alex, Scrum Master |
The decision came down to four factors: real-time bidirectional sync so any update in Salesforce is instantly reflected in Jira and vice versa; customization and flexibility to sync only relevant data, map different case types to different ticket types, and enforce consistent field formatting without changing how either team worked; scalability to handle future complexity as the product portfolio grew; and hands-on support from our team throughout the setup phase.
The integration was rolled out in two phases: Salesforce to Jira first, then the reverse flow from Jira back into Salesforce.
If you're a Salesforce or Jira admin setting this up, map your case types before you configure anything, be selective about what you sync, and set mandatory fields from day one. You will be grateful for this in the future.
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"The ability to configure Exalate to suit both our Salesforce and Jira workflows, without forcing us to change our processes, made it an ideal solution." — Alex, Scrum Master |
The Results
The team began seeing improvements before the integration even reached full production. During testing, status changes, and comments synced automatically, removing the need to chase updates through meetings or message threads.
Reporting that had previously been impossible became routine, with clear visibility into ticket volumes, issue types, and request statuses.
A new prioritization framework based on customer impact let engineering focus on what matters most without a meeting to figure that out first.
And client-facing teams could finally see open customer issues directly in Salesforce without digging through Jira, which proved useful for managing renewals and spotting opportunities with existing accounts.
"We've reduced unnecessary meetings and have a much clearer view of which issues need attention first. It's made our lives easier." — Alex, Scrum Master
If you're dealing with a similar Salesforce-Jira disconnect, happy to chat. Drop a comment or reach out, and I can walk you through how we'd approach it.