What's a cost effective solution for managing client projects with our clients

[Doreen]

Hi, I'm looking for a project management tool for client projects, where we allow clients to log in and submit their requirements, issues, attachments, and comment for each project. We want them to have the ability to monitor their requirements and milestones. However, we don't want to purchase licensing for customer users as it can easily add up and they aren't always active.

I came across this youtube proposing how to combine Jira products to manage client projects. Anyone merged Service & Software together before?

I'm interested in knowing what's the best solution in a cost-effective manner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4HMvD0hqvo

Thanks

[Brant Schroeder]

@Doreen Welcome to the Atlassian community

I have used this solution for years and I would suggest doing it.  The service desk is based on internal licensing which you do not need a lot of if you use automations to keep the issues in Jira Service Desk in sync with Jira Software.  In the last decade this solution has become substantially better and continues to improve.  I only expect it to improve and continue to be a solution that serves my teams well moving forward.  

You can try the solution for free with 10 members of your team.  This way you can get it setup and have processes in place before paying for the service and having your clients use it.  

[Doreen]

Based off the demo videos I've seen so far, most of them are focused on helpdesk ticket driven/some type of individual service requests.... where the client submits individual requests

Does the projects in Jira Service allow clients to submit subtasks with a task, assign tasks to sprints upfront, etc.?

or is there a video that shows more in detail how a client can do bundle of tasks, subtasks, milestones, on the welcome page of the project they have access to?

[Brant Schroeder]

@Doreen As you have seen in the demo the client would be able to submit a request the request would be a single issue in Jira Service Management.  As you learn more about the request you would build the work out in your Jira Software project with Sub-tasks, etc.  This would be the work that you add to sprints etc.  The customer would not be creating this work.  Technically you could create sub-tasks on the Jira Service Management issue and add those to a board / sprint but the customer would not see those issues in the portal nor would they be able to create them.  

We use Jira Service Management for intake and then complete the actual work in Jira Software.  We have a linked issue (Epic or Story) that we use to communicate updates back to the customer through automation.  This allows our team to work on the request using Jira Software and keep our customer(s) notified without having to purchase additional licenses or open up the project publicly.  It has worked well for us and we review the process regularly to see how it can be improved as new features are released by Atlassian.  

[Doreen]

wow that's very informative thank you very much!!! I appreciate you elaborating on the differences b/w the two environments. You answered what would have been my follow up questions. It's unfortunate they can't submit subtasks on the intake or see the subtasks on the Service portal. But the concept of using both Service & Software sounds like a good start for us.

I wish there were more videos that demonstrates what you just described for my colleagues to visually see how the automation can be all tied together between the two environments haha I'll research for more demos

Thank you very much Brant!!

[Brant Schroeder]

@Doreen I would suggest that you get the free version and play around with the automations.  You can look at the automation library to get some of the automations I am talking about and adjust them to your needs.  https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/automation-template-library You can also use the automation playground to test and learn about automations. https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/automation-template-library/rules#/rule-list?systemLabelId=all&page=1&pageSize=20&sortKey=name&sortOrder=ASC 

[Doreen]

Is there a way for me to play with both systems first without starting the countdown with 10 free users for 12 months?