In the world of constantly growing competition across various industries, companies of all sizes feel the need to introduce transformation and digital solutions to their organizations to keep up with the new requirement and market rules. Jira is one of the robust and powerful tools used by managers, IT specialists, and non-IT professionals to cover all kinds of needs of project and product management. In this article, we will talk about the key functionalities of Jira, solutions delivered through Jira and Salesforce integration, and explain how to connect both tools for the benefit of the business.
What is Jira?
So what is Jira used for? Jira is a software development and project management tool built for development and management teams to help them better plan, track, and manage operations and processes related to the initial software release.
Development History
Initially, Jira started as a bug and issue tracker for software development teams. The first version of the software was released by the Australian-based company Atlassian Corporation Plc in 2002. With time, Jira evolved into a project management tool that can now be used both by technical and non-IT users. In 2012, Atlassian introduced their first marketplace allowing developers from all over the world to share their plugins extending Jira functionality.
Packages & Features
Atlassian Corporation Plc currently offers four main Jira packages tailored to specific business goals and needs:
- Jira Software is the basic software created to help development teams plan and prioritize their tasks to help them release top-notch software and solutions in time without compromising their quality and performance. Every member of the team has access to all the data, task lists, and reports related to certain project/product development. As a result, the platform streamlines your development and release processes and reduces time to market.
- Jira Service Management was built to help development, operational, and business teams streamline their service management processes, enhance communication inside the organization, and deliver better support and experiences to their company’s key customers and employees. Service Management tool comes in three plans (Free, Standard, and Premium) and allows:
- Creating service desks;
- Connecting teams across the organization;
- Delivering better customer service support;
- Tracking internal processes;
- Responding to requests, issues, and challenges quickly.
- Jira Core is a workflow management solution that is designed to help teams optimize their processes and stay organized through efficient project and task management. Users can track their tasks, statuses, add comments and attach required files via a single dashboard. With Jira Core, it’s possible to set up dashboards for specific projects to make sure all of the project team members can access data and project details in real time. A notification system allows users to stay up-to-date with their tasks and catches their attention when needed. Jira Core also delivers meaningful reports to help the teams see a project’s current status and adjust its processes to reach greater performance.
- Jira Align is an enterprise agile planning platform designed for connecting an organization’s business strategies and technical execution to get every team member on the same page. Jira Align links together development tasks and the company’s business goals to bring value to its customers without disrupting the work of Agile teams. By combining product and portfolio management with the IT departments, Jira centralizes all of the data within a single platform making projects more visible across the entire organization.
Jira Features
Besides the above-mentioned features related to each package specifically, Jira brings in a number of useful and powerful functionalities aimed to empower the organization’s capabilities.
- Scrum and Kanban boards
Jira allows creating customizable boards to improve teams’ collaboration. Scrum boards display project progress and provide team members with information about their roles, tasks, and events. Meanwhile, Kanban boards are mainly focused on real-time visualization. Both types of boards in Jira aimed to increase communication, deliver transparency, and continuous improvement across teams to help them optimize their key workflows and clearly understand their goals.
- Meaningful reporting
The platform offers numerous types of reports to make sure teams get valuable and relevant information in the most efficient and convenient way. Jira reports deliver insights into team performance, help to analyze collected data, enable forecasting, and make informed and data-driven decisions.
- Roadmaps
Every project starts with a roadmap where team members can create, schedule, and keep track of handling tasks to ensure outstanding project development processes and results. Roadmaps can be visible across multiple departments to help them see the entire picture and track project progress.
- Automation
Automation with Jira helps to eliminate repetitive tasks, decrease the number of human errors, and optimize operational efficiency and productivity across the organization. Automation provides team members with more spare time that can be spent on more important tasks requiring human interaction. The main goal of automation is to drive productivity across the organization and help teams work smarter.
- Security
Jira allows managing permissions and access to projects to make sure only certain team members are allowed to work with particular tasks.
What are the Benefits of Using Jira?
Based on the above-mentioned robust features and functionalities, here are only a few of the most obvious Jira benefits that help businesses evolve:
- Decrease number of bugs and human errors;
- Improves speed to market;
- Enhance team collaboration and cooperation;
- Increase visibility across the organization;
- Boost project team productivity and performance;
- Optimizes decision-making process.
Why Integrate Jira and Salesforce?
When connecting Jira and CRM by Salesforce, companies get:
- Better informed sales and marketing teams that can speak more about new features, upcoming updates and new products with their company’s key clients. It is always great to show your customers that your company is constantly improving and working on new projects aimed to deliver better customer experiences.
- Insightful reports packed with the most up-to-date information generated both from Jira and Salesforce reporting systems. This data can be efficiently used to keep track of your team’s progress and enable efficient project management and planning.
- Time-saving benefits delivered by eliminating the need to switch between the two platforms on a daily basis.
- A perfect combination of account and incident management allowing customer support, sales and development teams to be aware of the challenges and problems faced by customers.
Jira and Salesforce Integration Options
Jira and Salesforce are widely used by large companies and startups and their integration can benefit businesses of all sizes across various industries. One of the best ways to find integration options is to check out the official Atlassian marketplace where developers offer their solutions for Jira. If you search for “Salesforce integration” on the marketplace, you will find numerous custom plugins and connectors for Salesforce Service Cloud and Jira integration. Here are some of the most popular integration solutions.
ServiceRocket
Jira and Salesforce Cloud Connector by ServiceRocket helps to connect Salesforce Lightning and Classic versions with various Jira packages. ServiceRocket offers a 30-day free trial for new users which means that you can test the integration solution without paying for it from the start. As soon as your free trial period comes to an end, you can subscribe to the service or switch to a different solution.
Zapier
Zapier is a California-based company that helps enterprises integrate various applications and software when they need it. The company offers its own solution for integrating Jira Software Server and Salesforce. Zapier connector core features are free. You can check out premium features during a 14-day free trial period and upgrade to premium later.
Final Thoughts
By connecting Jira and Salesforce, companies encourage collaborative teamwork aimed to bring greater business value and results. If your organization actively applies both solutions, Jira and Salesforce integration is one decision that can lead your business to a new level of success. Make sure to learn more about possible integration options and evaluate each solution before choosing the one that fits you best. If you want to learn more about Jira and Salesforce integration options, reach out to the OMI specialists. Our team will be happy to provide you with more details about our Salesforce integration services and help you pick the right solution to cover your business needs and goals.