How We Overcame Real-World JSM Challenges: Lessons from Our 2024 Client Work

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As 2024 came to a close, our team has been reflecting on the many Jira Service Management projects we worked on this year. As an Atlassian Gold Marketplace Vendor and Gold Solution Partner, we bring value to both sides of the ecosystem - building apps while also working closely with customers to optimize their Jira implementations. We asked consultants on our team about the biggest challenges they faced and solved in 2024, and we're sharing these insights to help the broader JSM community.

What Challenges We Helped Customers Overcome Last Year

Manager Approval Automation

For one financial client, employees had to manually choose an approver (their manager) for their requests, sometimes choosing the wrong person. Our consultants built a simple rule that automatically assigns the correct reporting manager based on the employee's profile. No more guesswork, no more delays.

Better Ticket Synchronization

Another struggle the team managed to help organizations with was keeping service and software teams in sync. By setting up automatic ticket syncing between Jira Service Management and Jira Software, teams no longer had to deal with double data entry, and clients didn’t need to purchase extra licenses. This solution works smoothly, ensuring everyone stays on the same page.

Custom Prioritization Workflows

For clients with project sponsors who needed to prioritize requests but didn’t want full agent access, our consultants built a simple solution using custom automation and permission settings. This system allows sponsors to set request priorities directly, without needing agent roles.

Portal Organization Improvements

Some clients struggled with an overwhelming number of service request types in their JSM portal, which made it difficult to navigate and find the right request. To address this, our team re-organized the categories and adjusted the layout to make everything more intuitive. This included simplifying the structure and grouping related requests together for better visibility. These changes helped reduce confusion and made it easier for users to find what they needed.

How Our Apps Can Help in JSM Implementations

Our apps address specific challenges we've observed across multiple JSM implementations our team have dealt with. We've developed tools that help both service teams and portal users get more done with less effort. Here's how our apps deal with common challenges users and admins face:

Portal Organization

In some cases, companies have too many service request types, which makes it hard for portal users to find the right one. This leads to confusion and delays. Advanced Portal Reports helps by showing important details like SLAs directly on the portal. This gives portal users a clearer idea of what to expect, reducing the need for follow-up tickets and helping them find what they need faster.

Easier Task Management

Clients often struggle to keep track of their tasks. Without a clear overview, it is easy to forget about requests or miss deadlines. My Tasks solves this by giving users a simple, personalized list of requests that need their attention.

Advanced Portal Reports' Search also makes it easy for users to quickly find specific tasks. Portal customers can search using any information they have about the request, such as reporter, summary, reference, and more. There are also extensive options to filter requests and narrow down the results.

Editing Requests

A common issue for companies is that users often need to correct details in their requests, like fixing a typo in the description or updating a number or radio button they selected incorrectly. While these mistakes may seem small, they can cause confusion for both agents and users. Contacting agents or creating new tickets for such mistakes can be time-consuming and inefficient. Modify My Request allows users to edit their requests directly. This saves time, keeps information accurate, and eliminates the need for agents to deal with duplicate or unclear tickets.

Billing and Time Tracking for Professional Services

For teams managing their professional services through Jira Service Management, tracking billable hours can be a challenge. Standard portals hide time tracking information, making it difficult to share accurate billing details with clients. Worklog Report solves this by displaying time tracking data directly on the portal, allowing teams to easily share billable hours with their clients, without needing agent involvement. Plus, with Tempo integration available, teams can seamlessly sync their time tracking data for even greater efficiency.

What's Working For You?

Every Jira Service Management implementation faces unique challenges and therefor has unique solutions. Have you dealt with similar customer problems when working on JSM implementations? Do you think our apps may be the solution to some of the challenges you face?

As both an Atlassian Gold Marketplace Vendor and Gold Solution Partner, we're in a great position to improve your Jira Service Management experience - whether through our powerful apps or hands-on consulting expertise. Contact us today to discuss how we can help improve your processes.

Also, drop your experiences or tips and tricks in the comments - our team would love to continue the conversation and learn from your JSM journey!