Agent setup

[Evan Bartholomeusz]

As the administrator of JSM, at what level do I set up an agent? How do I start this process? What are the sequences of setup events from the first time I register for JSM, let's say, for the FREE plan option?

Given I can register up to 3 agents with the FREE plan, I am trying to identify under what circumstances I would need to create a new agent each time.

Thanks...Evan.

[Dirk Ronsmans]

Hi @Evan Bartholomeusz  and welcome to the community!

i'm trying to fully grasp your question so correct me if i'm wrong or let me know if there are specific details that you are missing.

As you are on Cloud an agent is linked to an Atlassian Id, so they are linked to an individual person. (unless you create a generic email address and use that for an atlassian id)

An Agent would be someone that reuquires full access on your JSM project. If they are licensed as an Agent they will be able to use queues, see SLA's, transition items, be the assignee of an issue, .. etc..

You can of course revoke someone's license/access if needed. So if you currently have 3 agents but your team changes you can always change who gets access/a seat at the table. So they are named but can be transferred between users.

If you can maybe elaborate a bit on your question I can give you more direct information/advice so let me know what you want to know specifically.

[Evan Bartholomeusz]

Hi there Dirk! Apologies for delaying to reply back to you.

I have been trying to fully grasp this issue about setting up agents, and when I should consider doing this!

At the moment, we are a very small company. Currently, we have my CEO who is both the owner, is technical, and is involved in a number of build activities, and heavily involved in sales and marketing activities. We also have one other senior technical architect (involved in build activities), a senior marketing and salesperson, and myself as part of HR and Communications.

I have set myself up as the administrator of JSM, but very early on in the registration process, I was required to set myself up using one of the Atlassian project templates, in my case, 'IT Service Management' (ebartholomeusz.atlassian.net).

I was informed by one of the Atlassian consultants that provided me with some information related to 'agents', the name 'ebartholomeusz.atlassian.net' identifies me as an agent. I am happy with this understanding!

I am based in Melbourne Australia, and we have our direct clients (customers), and clients (customers) who are Services companies, both in Australia and other global markets. With our clients who are Services companies we want to be able to set them up to use JSM so they have the ability to register their own incidents and assign them to their users, be-it, whether it is their clients or their own users, and if required, raise issues against my company to have us resolve an incident/problem that affects their operation/s.

In this instance, to achieve my requirement, would it be correct for me to assume that I can set up our external Services company/s with one or more agents within our JSM account that I have already set up for our company?

Thanks,
Evan B

[Dirk Ronsmans]

Hi @Evan Bartholomeusz

Took me a while too to get back to you but here goes.

i'm a bit confused about the statement

I was informed by one of the Atlassian consultants that provided me with some information related to 'agents', the name 'ebartholomeusz.atlassian.net' identifies me as an agent. I am happy with this understanding!

Also, you named the Jira instance in your own name. Wouldn't it have made more sense to name it as the company?

I'm also struggling a bit to full understand the situation/use case. Feel free to correct me here.

So you have:

• Direct clients: people that raise incidents/issues towards your company which you will then solve internally and provide them feedback on. They never enter the issue solving process itself and are only the reporter of the issue.
• Service Company clients: they will raise both incidents for themselves or for you but all within the same Jira environment. Sometimes they will handle this all on their own (meaning they only use the functionality of your environment) and on the other hand they will require input/assistance from your company.

For me the difference between an agent and customer is easiest explain by what they will do in your envirionment.

Customers (who don't require a license) can create issues and monitor them from the portal side. They are the end-user.

Agents, will be the people that handle the issues once raised. (of course they can also be customers themselves if need be). Those Agents will require a license to be able to manage/handle the issues.

So yes, you could grant the service companies access with one or more agents and have them work on issues within the same JSM account (if you mean the environment by that).

Depending on whether you want to have them work in the same project is another thing.

I feel it might be better/cleaner to at least set up multiple projects and have each "company" work in their own project (inside the environment). If they require to escalate a ticket to your company they can simple create a linked issue in your project.

While not necessary, this would mean a cleaner environment and you would not be bothered by issues that don't concern you.

If that doesn't bother you tho (and also that they can see what you are doing) this could remain a single project.