Managing Multiple Customers with 1 Service Desk

[Emily]

First time posting, and semi new Atlassian user.

We already have an existing Service Desk which runs in JIRA Project Software (7.01.10) for external customers and an internal service desk which runs JIRA Project Software (v6.4.11). We are now looking to move both of these services desks to JIRA Service desk, but want to keep the current way that the tickets are coming in, as the email addresses for both are well publicised and our external customer base are hesitant to change.

My query is can I have both the external and internal service desk running on the same version of JIRA service desk, but with their existing methods of contact both feeding in, and also prevent external customers from seeing internal customers portal/tickets. Is this something that could be available on the Cloud version, but not the server version?

If that's not possible, is there a dashboard that we can use that would bring together both the service desks together so that they can be monitored and displayed on a dashboard quickly and easily?

[Jack Brickey · Accepted solution]

Emily,

I hope this answer meets your needs. If not please let me know where I may be misunderstanding your requirements.

• Yes you can run many independent customer projects on the same instance. Whether they are internal or external is not a concern. You simply add all of your customers into JIRA and assign them to the appropriate project.
• If your customer currently use an email to open requests then you can retain these emails by simply configuring the Customer email channel in JSD per project. FWIW, I continue to push my customer away from email and onto the Portal as the preferred method for a number of reasons but old habits...
• You can configure your portal per project

Regarding cloud vs. server, while I am on cloud, given your current scenario I would suggest adding the JSD sever application to your 7.01.10 instance and move the internal 6.4.11 over. Cloud works fine and has some advantages but there are often times I wish I was on a server instance so I could take advantage of more plugins.

I highly recommend running a trial to evaluate what is best for you. Leverage the documentation as it is a great resource.

[Emily]

Hi Jake,

Thanks, that's really helpful just another couple of questions though. The query isn't coming from me, but the Service Desk Manager, he basically wants to have 1 service desk for internal and external issues (central pot) with two different email addresses feeding in, and different request types of internal/external rather than having 2 different projects that we have to log into to manage tickets, is that possible?

Yes I'd rather they used the portal too, but email seems to be winning at the moment, I'll keep trying.

So if we do have to run 2 different projects to manage the two different service desks, is there a plugin/dashboard that would give an overview of both?

Yep me and Atlassian documentation have become great friends over the last couple of weeks!

Thanks  

[Jack Brickey]

Let me start by saying that I'm confident you can accomplish most if not all of your needs. With that said, you are venturing into questions that I have dealt with personally and it will take more playing around to get it to where you want. With that out of the way...

The first issue is to figure out is if the server version provides for more than one custom email channel per project Cloud does not, from what I have seen. There can be two emails but one is fixed/provided by Atlassian and the other is custom. I don' think that helps you though. 

IMO, having the projects separate is the way to go. Certainly you can create combined filters and leverage on dashboards to show combined views if that is desired. However, w/ JSD the agent generally works from w/in the project queues window and I don't believe there is a way to combine them. However, 

Also, note that when the email is used you do not have the ability to specify the request type. There is a 1:1 relationship between the email channel and request type. One and only one request type can be associated to an email channel resulting in all emails coming in w/ the specified request type. This is one reason I push the portal usage.

good luck!

[Emily]

Thanks for that Jason, that's what I thought especially regarding the email being associated with the request type but its helpful to have it confirmed.

Pretty sure that I'll be back at some point in the not to distant future to ask more questions.