Teja, Author at Exalate

The Role of Integration in Project Collaboration Success

Project collaboration is synonymous with successful teamwork! Yet, when teams operate on different tools and platforms, collaboration becomes a challenge.

This blog explores the critical role of integration solutions like Exalate in overcoming these challenges and ensuring project collaboration that drives business success.

Challenges of Project Collaboration in Modern Workspaces

The nature of teams today has changed. They are no longer confined to office spaces but are often dispersed across the globe, working remotely or in hybrid setups.

In the past, sticky notes, face-to-face conversations, and whiteboards served these physically colocated teams well. However, as teams became more distributed, exchanging information and collaborating effectively turned into a challenge. Manual methods simply couldn’t keep up.

So, how do global, remote, or hybrid teams stay aligned and collaborate on shared project goals?

This is where project collaboration comes into play.

What is Project Collaboration?

Project collaboration enables teams to communicate, share knowledge, and work together on various projects. These projects are handled by diverse teams like IT, HR, software development, or customer support. They also span different departments of the same company or even include external partners, like outsourced vendors or customers.

For truly global teams to collaborate effectively on shared project goals, it’s essential to understand a few key concepts.

Often, when talking about project collaboration, you might have come across the term project management and assume it means the same thing. While the two are closely connected and complement each other, they have a few subtle differences.

How Can Collaboration Between Teams Improve Project Management?

Project management is the process of organizing, planning, executing, and successfully completing projects from start to finish. The nature of a project can vary widely depending on your business. It can be developing a mobile application, building an e-commerce inventory management system, or launching a software product.

Project collaboration can be seen as the heart of project management. Since a project is as good as the team executing it, it’s essential to ensure these teams collaborate effectively.

But it is equally important to have a reliable way for teams to collaborate. It allows team members to be more aware of each other’s needs and ideas, and to align their workflows towards common project management goals.

Project collaboration is invaluable for teams that rely on data and input from others to complete their daily tasks. When done iteratively, it helps keep every team member in the loop and contributes towards achieving the project’s overarching goals.

When collaboration between teams is on point, the benefits are both tangible and far-reaching.

Benefits of Project Collaboration

Teams become siloed if they work on their own system without effective ways to communicate with others. This hampers the overall project management goals.

So, why is effective collaboration between teams so important, and how does it make a difference?

Align your teams

When team members work together, they develop a better understanding of the project’s objectives and their individual roles in achieving them. This helps align them with others and creates a more motivated and cohesive work environment. Workflows are always coordinated, and duplication of efforts doesn’t happen anymore.

Improve data visibility

Collaborating between multiple platforms improves data visibility across your teams. They have access to real-time information and updates and can track projects more efficiently. This also helps them identify any potential issues or bottlenecks before they get out of hand.

Value everyone on the team

It’s important for the team members to feel their contributions are valued. This is the end result of good collaboration. With diverse perspectives and views on the table, companies can tap into the full potential of their workforce and create a more inclusive environment.

Brainstorm and come up with new ideas

Project collaborations are the key to innovations and new ideas. When team members from different backgrounds and expertise brainstorm together, they can challenge assumptions and think outside the box.

Communicate effectively

Poor communication often leads to misunderstandings and conflicts. With an automated and consistent process to collaborate on projects, you can set clear expectations and build stronger relationships among team members.

Make better decisions

Collaborative decisions often result in better outcomes. With multiple stakeholders involved in the process, you can reduce the risk of biased or short-sighted decisions. You get to analyze the problems from all angles and increase your buy-in for the final decision.

Don’t forget it’s all about teamwork!

At its core, project collaboration is all about the power of teamwork and shared responsibility.

Project Collaboration Examples You Can Relate To

You often do not realize you need project collaboration until you see your teams looking for information from each other.

Marketing and Design teams: When the marketing team creates campaigns in their system, it needs to be worked on in the design team’s system. All the campaign-related information, along with guidelines and deadlines, needs to be passed.
Product and Engineering teams: While product teams conjure user stories and new features, the engineering team needs to develop them in their own system.
Support and Development teams: Customer-reported bugs need to be escalated to the development teams often working in another system.
Cross-company collaboration: When your outsourcing partner needs to reach out to you and collaborate, it needs to be thorough and accurate. Mistakes or manual errors are unacceptable.

So, how to make sure you collaborate between project teams efficiently? The answer lies in project collaboration tools.

Popular Project Collaboration Tools: An Overview

Project collaboration tools, also known as task management tools, are platforms designed to help teams plan, track, and manage tasks to execute a project to completion.

They help everyone to follow a central workflow, making it easy to share updates, assign responsibilities, and align everyone with project goals.

You can find various types of project management tools used for different purposes, like video conferencing, real-time streaming, task management, instant messaging, etc.

Ultimately, the project collaboration software you choose depends on your needs, the problems you currently face, and how it fits your budget.

Also, certain teams prefer working with specific collaboration software, for instance, project managers love working with Jira, and customer support teams like Zendesk.

Let’s look at a few project collaboration tools:

Jira

A favorite among software development teams, Jira focuses on issue tracking, project management, and agile workflows. It’s ideal for managing sprints, tracking bugs, and ensuring product releases stay on schedule.

Notion

Notion acts as a workspace for notes, tasks, databases, and project documentation. It’s great for teams who value a blend of structure and creativity in their collaboration.

Asana

A project collaboration tool for task and project management, Asana provides an intuitive interface to organize projects, set priorities, and monitor progress. Teams can visualize tasks in lists, boards, or timelines.

monday.com

A customizable project collaboration platform for managing projects and workflows. monday.com’s interface makes it easy to track progress, assign tasks, and integrate with other tools to streamline work.

At this point, it’s important to explore another key aspect of project collaborations. While teams often use different tools for various purposes, it’s crucial to understand how these tools can connect and communicate with each other in order to finish a project.

The Role of Integration in Collaboration Success

Certain teams, like the development teams, prefer to work, manage, and collaborate on the development workflow within Jira. However, the customer support agents use Jira Service Management (JSM). These independent project collaboration tools, if connected, can be beneficial for common business goals.

When we talk about true collaboration in this context, it means finding an efficient way to share information between these multiple Jira instances. Without proper integration, teams are forced to rely on manual processes like sending data through emails or duplicating issues in another instance. This defeats the whole essence of project collaboration.

With an integration in place, all of this becomes automated and happens in real time. For instance, imagine a customer raising a ticket in Jira Service Management (JSM), which then automatically creates an issue in the development team’s Jira instance based on predefined rules.

Introducing Exalate: An Integration Tool for Efficient Project Collaboration

Integration solutions like Exalate are a turning point for project collaborations. Using Exalate, you can set up one-way or two-way integrations between multiple project collaboration tools like Jira, Salesforce, ServiceNow, etc.

It supports decentralized integration, meaning all teams have an independent say in the information they want to share. This increases the security of your collaboration since you don’t have the risk of unwanted data leakage or access.

Exalate has an intuitive AI-powered scripting engine that works for any kind of scenario. You can set it up for advanced needs and control what you sync to the most granular level.

Let’s see how it works in practice.

Real-Life Scenarios of Using Integration for Project Collaborations

Jira to Jira Integration

Sometimes, companies explore ways to reduce the number of user licenses they need for their Jira instances.

For instance, a company and its external development partner use Jira in the Atlassian Cloud. To collaborate across projects, they have to invite every external developer to their Jira instance, which means paying for additional user licenses, even though they already have their own.

Ideally, they would like to work together on shared projects, where their product owners can manage tasks on their side and the developers can contribute on their end, without requiring extra licenses for the external teams. An integration between project collaboration tools is the best option for such companies.

Jira Salesforce Integration

When managing workflows between Salesforce and Jira, one challenge many teams face is categorizing Salesforce cases into the right Jira issue types.

For instance, your Jira setup might include three issue types: Support, Bugs, and Feature Requests. But how can you ensure the right cases from Salesforce sync to the corresponding Jira issue type?

By setting up filters or mapping rules, you can define which Salesforce cases should sync to specific Jira issue types based on criteria like case type, priority, or custom fields.

For example:

Support Cases: Sync cases tagged as “Support” to the Support issue type.
Bug Reports: Map cases labeled “Bug” to Bugs.
Feature Requests: Route cases marked “Feature Request” directly to Jira as such.

Tips For Using Integration Tools For Better Project Collaborations

Define clear collaboration goals
Before integrating project collaboration tools, identify the key objectives of your collaboration. Are you aiming to share issue updates, align workflows, reduce manual effort, or all of them? Clear goals will help you configure the integration effectively and ensure all teams benefit from the setup.
Involve all stakeholders early on
Integration affects multiple teams and workflows, so make sure every team is involved in planning for it. This will help you uncover unique requirements and gain consensus on the integration’s scope and rules.
Start with a Proof of Concept (PoC)
Begin with a small-scale project collaboration workflow. Then, test and refine the setup. You can save time and resources if you take an iterative approach.
Strictly control what you share
Not all information needs to be shared. Use your integration tool’s filtering and scripting capabilities to control what data is exchanged. Don’t notify all team members when exchanges happen. This minimizes unnecessary noise and ensures your integration remains secure.
Map data fields and values thoughtfully
Make sure every field in your project collaboration software aligns logically with others when shared. For instance, sync priority levels, statuses, or issue types accurately so that teams across tools interpret the data consistently and avoid confusion.
Monitor, audit, and train your teams for the Integration
Periodically review if your integration still makes sense and how it performs. Are the right issues in sync? Are updates reaching the correct teams?

Train all your team members on how the integration works and how it impacts their workflows. Make sure they understand the benefits and minimize the resistance to change.
Prioritize scalability
Your integration setup should adapt to growing teams and new project collaboration tools. Opt for solutions that can scale with your business needs, supporting more workflows and users as required.

Conclusion

In a world where teams use different tools for their daily tasks, project collaboration can no longer rely on manual methods or disjointed workflows. Integration solutions like Exalate ensure information flows seamlessly between these tools, allowing teams to stay aligned and productive. With the right strategies and tools, businesses can turn project collaborations into a competitive advantage.

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Introducing Exalate for Freshdesk: The Freshest Way to Sync Teams

Exalate for Freshdesk is here – the connector that keeps your teams aligned across systems.

This addition to our integration ecosystem opens up new possibilities for delivering exceptional customer experiences while working across tools like Jira, Azure DevOps, ServiceNow, Salesforce, GitHub, Zendesk, and more.

Why Exalate for Freshdesk?

Today’s teams face challenges with disconnected tools and manual processes that slow them down. Support agents capture critical data in Freshdesk, but moving that data to development, IT, or external partners often involves tedious workarounds.

Exalate for Freshdesk eliminates these barriers by enabling real-time, two-way synchronization across platforms. Now, teams can collaborate seamlessly, with changes reflected instantly—no need to switch tools or manually update data.

Key Features

✅ Fully customizable sync rules – Tailor the integration to your specific workflows.
✅ AI-assisted configuration – Simplify setup and adjust sync rules easily.
✅ Rich data exchange – Sync comments, attachments, statuses, priorities, custom fields, and more.
✅ Real-time synchronization – Always have up-to-date information across systems.
✅ Granular triggers – Automate syncs based on specific conditions to reduce manual work.

💡 Example Use Case: A customer escalation in Freshdesk can trigger an automatic sync with Jira, instantly updating development teams. When developers change the status or add a comment, the update flows back into Freshdesk—no manual input required.

What Makes Exalate for Freshdesk Different?

Unlike basic integrations, Exalate is built for teams that need flexibility, control, and automation to fit their unique processes.

Full Data Control – Choose what information gets shared and what stays private.
Effortless Automation – Set rules to make updates happen exactly when needed.
Scalable & Secure – Works for teams of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises.
Beyond Support & Dev – Connect IT, sales, customer success, and external partners—not just support and development.

Get Started

Exalate for Freshdesk launches April 2, with a free Basic Mode to help you get started.

For teams looking to unlock advanced customization, automation, and enterprise-grade support, our Standard and Enterprise packages offer even greater flexibility.

👉 Learn More about Exalate for Freshdesk or Request a Demo to see it in action.

Introducing Exalate Connector for Freshdesk: Connect. Sync. Escalate

We’re excited to introduce Exalate for Freshdesk – a smarter way to automate your escalation workflows and beyond!

Our latest connector will enhance collaboration between support teams using Freshdesk and their counterparts in development or engineering using Jira, Azure DevOps, etc.

Why Exalate for Freshdesk?

When support teams operate in silos, resolving customer tickets takes longer. They often need to collaborate with developers, outsourced service desks, and sales teams to ensure smooth ticket escalation and resolution. But things don’t always go as planned. Misaligned communication, manual updates, and inaccurate data can all contribute to delays, SLA breaches, and angry customers.

Exalate for Freshdesk helps automate the ticket escalation process between Freshdesk and other systems like Jira, Azure DevOps, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Zendesk, etc.

This eliminates the need to switch between different tools to look for updates or other critical information, ensuring data is shared accurately and in real-time.

Let us walk you through a few integration use cases where Exalate for Freshdesk makes a real impact.

Key Freshdesk Integration Use Cases

Automate Ticket Escalation: Freshdesk Support to Development Teams

When frontline support identifies customer issues that require deeper investigation or fixes, tickets often need to be escalated to development or other external teams.

Sometimes, a subset of Freshdesk tickets needs to be escalated to the L2 support tier for the required resolution.

With Exalate for Freshdesk, you can ensure that:

The support team can escalate tickets to Jira, Azure DevOps, or other tools without copy-pasting information between them.
Developers receive all the relevant details (summary, description, priority, attachments, comments, etc.) automatically in their system of choice.
Updates from the dev team, such as bug fixes, workarounds, status changes, version number where the bug fix will be introduced, or additional information requests, are synced back to Freshdesk.
All teams stay aligned without switching tools, reducing friction and improving resolution times.

Improved Visibility and Reporting Across Teams

Exalate for Freshdesk can improve cross-team visibility by synchronizing key information available in tickets.

This means:

Support teams always have visibility on Freshdesk ticket statuses without manual follow-ups.
Managers can generate accurate reports with a single source of truth, ensuring SLAs are met and operations stay efficient.
Support managers can track key metrics like resolution times and service performance across multiple platforms within their own tool. Having the ability to analyze key data within Freshdesk can enable data-driven decision making and improve service quality.

Optimize Outsourced MSP Services

For Managed Service Providers (MSPs) handling multiple clients, automating the escalation process will ensure the tickets always end up at the right destination. For instance, you decide the project into which the tickets will be routed based on certain criteria and control which fields are synced in different escalation scenarios.

Stronger ITSM Integration Efficiency

Integrate Freshdesk with your ITSM platforms like Jira Service Management or ServiceNow to improve service efficiency and delivery.

With Exalate for Freshdesk, you can set up complex escalation scenarios, track tickets in real-time, and resolve incidents faster. This way, you optimize ITSM workflows while maintaining full control over them.

Improve Customer Experience with Proactive Support

Customers often use CRMs like Salesforce to report issues, request features, or share feedback. If not logged in and worked on properly, it can affect your customer experience, wishing you’d done things better.

An agent on Freshdesk can also tag a ticket as a potential upsell or renewal opportunity and sync the relevant customer details, ticket history, and interactions to the customer success team in CRM, creating a new lead or updating an existing opportunity.

Keeping this alignment between support and sales/CS teams can improve customer experience, customer retention, and upsell opportunities. It will also ensure real-time visibility across all platforms.

Key Features of Exalate for Freshdesk

Fully customizable and decentralized Groovy-based scripting engine to handle complex use cases. Choose what gets exchanged and what stays out of sync. Orchestrate your end-to-end support workflows with status updates and complex dependencies to define the logic you want.
AI-assisted scripting to make your script generation process faster and more efficient.
Granular-level triggers to automate your sync based on your needs.
Real-time one-way or two-way synchronization for Freshdesk tickets and their associated data.
Supported Freshdesk ticket fields: summary, description, labels, status, priority, attachments, notes, custom fields, and custom keys. You can always request a sync for additional fields here.
Rich text formatting support for comments and descriptions (bold, italic, underline, text color, links, lists, dividers)
Basic Mode is available to help you get started free of charge.

Get Started with Exalate for Freshdesk

With Exalate for Freshdesk, your support teams can automate and streamline the ticket escalation process.

Exalate works equally well for internal support processes or while collaborating with external partners at any support level. It gives you the control, flexibility, and reliability you need to ensure smooth handovers and issue resolution.
Interested in seeing Exalate for Freshdesk in action? Book a call with us, discuss your use case, and we’ll take it from there!

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Integration Nightmares: Let’s Face It

Let’s be real. Integrations aren’t exactly the “main character of the show”. They’re the behind-the-scenes plumbing of the digital world that most people don’t think about until something goes wrong.

Integrations quietly do their thing, linking systems, syncing data, and making everything talk to each other without causing a scene.

Our “Integration Nightmare” series isn’t about scaring you. It’s about acknowledging the very real pain points that teams experience when trying to connect their tools, systems, and workflows. We’ve seen the eye rolls, the sighs, and the “not another integration” looks. And honestly? We get it.

Integration nightmare 1 — *Highlights from the Integration Nightmares series – the Halloween edition*

The Invisible Backbone of Modern Work

But here’s the thing: integrations are the unsung heroes of digital work. They’re what turns a collection of disconnected tools into a smooth-operating machine. When done right? Pure satisfaction. When done wrong, they’re, well, a nightmare.

We love integrations because we understand they’re more than just technical connections. They’re about human connection—helping teams communicate, collaborate, and create more seamlessly.

The “Integration Nightmares” series is our honest way of starting a conversation. It’s an invitation to those who’ve been burned by integration attempts and a knowing wink to those who appreciate the art of connection.

*Highlights from the Integration Nightmares series – Nightmare Before Christmas edition*

Integration That Doesn’t Put You Six Feet Under

So yeah, we’re calling out the integration nightmares. But we’re doing it with a smile because we know that on the other side of that nightmare, there’s the green grass of smoother work.

Did we land on our point?

Can integrations be a nightmare? Absolutely. But they shouldn’t be. We want to strip away that soul-crushing complexity that makes people want to slam their laptops shut or call IT the moment they hear the word “integration”.

We’re using Halloween’s darkness, Christmas’s connections, and Valentine’s intimacy to show you that integrations are deeply, wonderfully human.

*Highlights from the Integration Nightmares series – Valentine’s Day edition*

Give us a chance to show you Exalate. Even if you’re not a prospect today.

We’re offering a conversation, a different perspective, and a smoother path through the integration landscape.

Trust us, we got the connection you need.

The “Integration Nightmares” series runs on our LinkedIn page. Support us there to see more.

Check out some of the previous posts:

Exalate’s AI Assist Sees 70% Jump in Integration Success Rates

At Exalate, the path to using AI in integrations has been anything but just for the hype.

While many see AI as a passing trend, we view it as a powerful tool to simplify complex integrations, making them more accessible and efficient for businesses of all sizes.

Since the launch of AI Assist, we’ve seen a 70% improvement in acceptance rates, meaning companies can now get integrations up and running faster and with fewer hiccups along the way. As our CEO, Francis, puts it, “What we’re seeing isn’t just a technical improvement—it’s fundamentally changing who can build complex integrations and how quickly teams benefit from connected systems.”

This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without the dedication and expertise of our team. Their ongoing effort to refine AI Assist and make it even more user-friendly has played a huge role in its success. But, as Francis also mentioned, “This is just the beginning—we’re on a mission to solve the integration challenge once and for all.”

Want to learn more about what we’ve accomplished and what’s next?

Read the full news here and get more details in our article here.

Or give AI Assist a try now and see the difference for yourself.

The Evolution of AI Assist: Improving Accuracy in Script-based Integrations

Script-based solutions like Exalate provide the flexibility to set up integrations for complex scenarios and intricate workflows.

However, with this flexibility, there’s also a need to maintain precision.

Building scripts from scratch, or sifting through documentation to look for the correct scripts isn’t always the most efficient approach. It can be time-consuming, especially when things don’t go as planned.

To address these issues, Exalate introduced AI Assist in October 2024 as a means to improve the script-based integration experience.

AI Assist and the Shift in Integration Success

AI Assist is embedded directly into Exalate’s Script mode interface to automate the script generation process and make it more efficient. It analyzes user input based on prompts and suggests scripts based on existing configurations and Exalate’s scripting API.

Since its launch, the goal was simple: to give users the power of scripting without the steep learning curve.

As more users began adopting AI Assist, we kept a close eye on feedback and performance. The more scripts it generated, the better we understood what worked and what didn’t.

What began as an integration enabler quickly evolved into a tool that learns and improves with every interaction.

As more and more users began trusting AI Assist to get their scripts right on the first try, acceptance rates climbed, confirming that AI Assist was making meaningful contributions.

Key Factors Behind AI Assist’s Success

Diving into user feedback revealed two major updates that made a noticeable difference.

The Snippet Database: A collection of predefined code snippets that AI Assist uses to generate sync scripts. This database is carefully curated and constantly refined, ensuring scripts are accurate and up-to-date.
Retrieval Algorithm: The rework of the retrieval algorithm reduced the time to generate code (or sync scripts) by nearly 50%. Now, users spend less time waiting and more time getting things done.

But we learned more than just how to improve the tool. Some users, for example, asked AI Assist questions meant for Aida, Exalate’s AI-powered documentation assistant.

This unexpected behavior gave us insight into how users interact with Exalate’s AI tools and where we could bridge the gap.

Tracking user actions like “Insert” or “Discard” allowed us to fine-tune AI Assist further, ensuring it aligned with user needs and expectations.

The Importance of Acceptance and Accuracy Rate in Integration Tech

When it comes to evaluating the success of AI Assist, two key metrics stand out: acceptance rate and accuracy rate.

Acceptance Rate: Measures how often users accept AI-generated scripts. In short, did AI Assist help users achieve what they set out to do?
Accuracy Rate: Measures how closely the generated script aligns with the user’s prompt. A script can be technically correct, but it is still declined if the prompt isn’t clear enough.

For example, if AI Assist produces a correct script but the user’s prompt lacks clarity, the acceptance rate might drop. However, the accuracy rate might still be high because the script itself was accurate.

Tracking these metrics revealed a crucial insight: about 30% of initially rejected answers were actually correct.

Each iteration of AI Assist used these insights to refine its output and improve performance.

Behind the AI: How we Build, Test, and Improve AI Assist

Every version of AI Assist addressed a new challenge, steadily enhancing the experience for users. Here’s a quick look at its evolution:

Version 1.4.0

Overhauled the retrieval system, cutting script generation time in half. Faster scripts meant users could move quicker, spending less time troubleshooting.

Version 1.5.0

Improved AI Assist’s ability to understand the context of the entire user conversation instead of isolated prompts.
Introduced better safeguard against malicious prompting.

Version 1.6.0

New reranking functionality: Added reranking functionality, which prioritizes the most relevant snippets from the snippet database, reducing the need for users to sift through suggestions.

Version 1.7.0 (Coming March 2025)

AI Assist will become more proactive, asking for clarification when prompts are unclear rather than generating scripts directly. This ensures users get scripts that align more closely with their needs.

Each step was a learning experience and brought us closer to a tool that not only generates scripts but understands user context.

The AI Assist Impact on Script-based Integrations and What’s Next

From the moment we introduced AI Assist, our goal was clear: make script-based integrations smoother, faster, and more accessible.

Early user feedback shows we’re on the right track. AI Assist is helping even non-technical users who aren’t familiar with scripting to implement integrations successfully.

So, what’s next?

The future of AI Assist is about more than just scripts. We’re building the AI Orchestrator: a unified interface that brings together all our AI tools into one powerful interface. Imagine having AI Assist and Aida in one place, ready to handle scripting questions, troubleshoot errors, or guide you through integrations without switching between assistants.

And that’s not all. We’re always exploring the latest advancements from OpenAI, Anthropic, and others to ensure AI Assist stays ahead of the curve.

Data and Privacy: How We Process and Use Data

Leveraging the power of AI always comes with the responsibility to protect and respect user privacy.

That’s why AI Assist is built with privacy at its core. It never accesses user data directly. The only information AI Assist uses is what you provide in your prompts or configuration.

To ensure compliance with industry standards, we:

Track overall usage (e.g., prompt count, platform) without collecting personal data.
Follow ISO 27001 rules for data storage.
Anonymize logs, making them inaccessible to anyone who doesn’t need access.

Final Thoughts: The Journey Continues

Since its launch, AI Assist has transformed script-based integrations, making them smoother and more accessible for everyone.

With the AI Orchestrator and continuous improvements in the works, we can’t wait to see how AI Assist continues to evolve.

One thing is certain: we’ll keep listening, learning, and building so that Exalate users always have the best tools at their fingertips.

Read more about AI-powered integration here.

How Ideagen Scaled Up Operations By Integrating Multiple Jira Instances with a Zendesk Instance

Ideagen is a global leader in governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) software, providing organizations with solutions to manage quality, safety, and regulatory requirements. With a strong presence across industries like aviation, healthcare, life sciences, and financial services, it helps businesses ensure compliance, mitigate risks, and drive operational excellence.

Since the start of 2023, Ideagen has grown its capabilities and geographic footprint with the acquisition of 11 innovative tech companies across Asia-Pacific, North America, and Europe. Ideagen software is used widely to keep people and processes safe and protected.

We spoke to Kyle, who works as an Operations and Analytics Specialist at Ideagen. His role is heavily data-focused, particularly when there’s a new company acquisition. He manages the technical side, such as creating API scripts and migrating data between systems.

He looks after Zendesk and other third-party tools like Exalate. He manages the connection between Zendesk and Jira and ensures everything works as expected, maintaining the sync rules and resolving any issues that arise. Additionally, he supports the customer division by keeping everyone’s tools aligned and reporting reliable and up-to-date.

Scaling Challenges: Managing Multiple Jira Instances

His major responsibility is to ensure everything is operationally efficient and meets the needs of Ideagen’s customers and internal stakeholders. Every stakeholder should have access to the required data to help them make informed decisions.

Ideagen currently manages three Zendesk instances, one being their central Zendesk instance. They acquire, on average, six to eight businesses annually, for which migrations and integrations become essential. They wanted a way to connect multiple Jira instances used by engineering teams to their main Zendesk instance.

The Search for the Right Fit: Solutions Ideagen Evaluated

Ideagen looked at different integration tools but there weren’t any that fit their requirements. The native Zendesk support for Jira integration did not allow multiple Jira instances to be connected to Zendesk.

Exalate’s ability to manage multiple Zendesk and Jira connections has been invaluable, so it was an obvious choice.

Use Case: How Exalate Powers a Custom In-house Ideagen App to Integrate Jira and Zendesk

Exalate is the key to powering Zendesk integrations at Ideagen.

In their Zendesk domain, they have several connections between Jira cloud instances with Exalate. Such a setup allows the support staff to raise tickets with the development team and access information from Jira without needing direct interaction with Jira itself.

Exalate powers a custom-built interface, called Jira Link, which pulls data from Zendesk fields and presents it to the engineers working in Jira.

The idea is to reduce the need and dependency on another platform. Such an integration doesn’t require any kind of intervention from an engineer.

Exalate does all the background work, and the Jira Link is essentially the front-end.

It shows what the engineers need to see, so there’s no need to access Jira directly. The Jira link app shows the current Jira ticket priority, the reference to the created date, and the latest comment along with the subject.

It basically displays everything the support engineers need to understand where a development ticket is at any time.

For Ideagen, the customizable sync rules that Exalate provides make their Jira Zendesk integration shine. For instance, when they connect a Zendesk ticket to a Jira ticket, Exalate adds a comment to the Jira ticket specifying the details like ticket ID, the organization, etc.

So, the development team has a quick note of the ticket priorities.

It also provides additional information like the customers affected by the ticket and how many Zendesk tickets are attached to a Jira ticket. This helps their development team build a complete picture and understand where they need to prioritize resources.

Such a setup enhances the engineer’s experience and streamlines escalation workflows.

They also use custom sync rules for every connection to automate processes across their instances. For example, when a Jira ticket moves to a specific status, that update is automatically pushed to Zendesk. If a developer marks a ticket as “More information required”, Exalate also syncs this status with Zendesk, displaying the latest comments, ticket status, and other relevant Jira details.

Ideagen also uses Exalate alongside Zendesk triggers. When there’s an update from Jira, Exalate notifies triggers in Zendesk to automatically reopen the ticket and place it back in the support queue.

Ideagen Use Case Overview

• When a Zendesk ticket is created, the Jira Link appears in the app sidebar, offering engineers different Jira issue types to choose from.

• Selecting an issue type pre-populates the project ID, task ID, and relevant parameters in Jira, ensuring the ticket follows the correct workflow.

• Support engineers then create the Jira ticket and input the defect reference into Ideagen’s custom Jira Link app.

• This action notifies Exalate to initiate a sync, pulling data from Jira back into custom fields in Zendesk—visible to engineers through Jira Link.

• Any status changes in Jira (e.g., a request for more information or ticket closure) are synced back into Zendesk via Exalate. This triggers workflows such as reopening tickets, adding internal notes, and ensuring engineers receive timely updates.

Why Exalate?

Exalate was an obvious choice because of its scripting capabilities, which allowed it to connect with Jira Link, a custom-built in-house solution.

They chose Exalate because it could enable them to connect multiple Jira instances with Ideagen’s Zendesk domain.

They could also enable custom sync rules for every Jira to Zendesk connection, all isolated from each other. This made the entire setup scalable.

It’s easy to set up new acquisitions since they update their triggers by specifying to Exalate what new information it should look for. All they need to do is create a new connection, set up new sync rules for that, add new features if required, and update the Jira Link app. Everything else just works!

Once this is done, they let the acquired staff know that they can start using their Jira instances like they used to before.

All of this makes it easier to add new products or acquisitions, making the process more scalable and efficient.

It’s also easy to troubleshoot Exalate if things go wrong. So, when they have sync errors, for instance, a required field is missing, Exalate notifies them both on the Zendesk and the Jira side.

Additionally, unlike simpler one-to-one Jira Zendesk integrations that work well for smaller companies, Ideagen’s complex environments require maintaining multiple Jira instances due to Ideagen frequently bringing in new acquisitions, making the onboarding process for the newly acquired customers seamless and efficient.

Why Exalate?

• Scripting capabilities that help power a custom in-house app called Jira Link.

• Connecting multiple Jira and Zendesk instances, each with an isolated connection and distinct sync rules and triggers.

• Easily add new Jira instances during acquisition to the existing tech stack, making the process scalable.

• Troubleshooting is easier since they are notified on both Zendesk and Jira instances.

• A complex Ideagen environment can be handled easily via Exalate, making it a fair and cost-effective solution.

• Decentralized integration helps isolate external instances, leading to better security.

Results

Some key benefits Ideagen observed:

Isolated and distinct Jira instances ensure a seamless and consistent experience for engineers who get a consolidated overview of all issues.
Efficient and automated ticket management process.
Increased efficiency by automating the handover process between support and development.
Seamless onboarding experience for newly acquired customers.
License optimization.

What’s Next?

Kyle thinks there are still additional capabilities in Exalate that are yet to be leveraged. Every acquisition comes with new or different requirements, and it’s worth assessing if Exalate can provide solutions beyond what they’re currently using.

They are also willing to explore AI Assist, Exalate’s AI-powered integration solution to help them generate their sync scripts faster and more efficiently.

Leveraging the Power of Workflow Automation – It’s Easy to Work Smarter

Introduction to Workflow Automation

Workflows are the routines and systems you use to get things done. They define what you do and when you do it. They include individuals and technology and flow through and between organizations.

Refining and improving them is key to growing your business and a great way to do that is through automation. After all, things that happen automatically are cheap and quick. Automating your workflows can therefore massively improve business outcomes, giving you an edge over the competition.

Today, with constantly evolving AI and tools dedicated to coordinating different software platforms, there are more opportunities than ever to give your team a boost. In this article, you’ll learn why you should use workflow automation, what you can achieve with it, and how you can do it.

What is Workflow Automation?

Workflow automation is the process of setting up an automated system to perform tasks that you would otherwise do manually. You need to set up a system that can carry out every required task, in the right order, at the correct time. That could be done with software or a code script. Dedicated workflow automation software can integrate with other software, initializing all kinds of action.

Benefits of Workflow Automation

Automating workflows requires investment, but once done, automation can drastically increase your productivity. Once a workflow is automated, it then functions with little intervention required.

That reduces costs, as automating work reduces the required labor. You no longer have to pay staff to do repetitive jobs or take time considering simple, binary decisions.

Workflow automation is also fast. Many automations carry out tasks near instantly, achieving things that would take humans considerable time. That can be especially useful when you need to act quickly, such as when responding to a client.

Workflow automation can also be more accurate. Particularly with repetitive jobs or tasks that humans find challenging, automating things can be more reliable. That means better outcomes for your customers and staff.

Key Components of Workflow Automation

There are many ways to automate workflows. It can be done using dedicated software, or by writing your own scripts. It can also be done by setting up specific tools to run at specific times if they include their own scheduling capabilities. However, all these tools have elements in common. Conceptually, automation tools consist of the following components.

Triggers

Triggers define when things happen. A trigger may be the receipt of an email, or the changed status of a ticket. You can also schedule triggers for particular times, or at regular intervals.

Actions

Actions are the things your system does. They could involve copying something from A to B, running a software script, or sending someone a message. Pretty much anything a computer can do can be an action.

Logic and Rules

Workflow automation involves making decisions, and then taking action accordingly. Decisions are based on rules, defined by logical steps. Code scripts are one way to implement these, and are perfect for advanced workflow automation. No-code systems can also be useful, performing well for simple workflows.

For example, a synchronization system may decide to send an alert to staff for urgent issues, but not for others.

Monitoring and Analysis

Many workflow automation systems track what they do using metrics. Systems can log the actions they take and report them to administrators. That helps you confirm they are working properly, and spot errors and problems. Careful use of analytics can help you refine your automated workflows and squeeze more performance out of them.

Workflow Automation Examples

Here are some examples of how you can automate your workflows. These are just some of the many possibilities. Hopefully, these workflow automation examples will show you what you can achieve, and inspire you to come up with your own ideas.

Automating the Software Development Workflow

Many teams use ticketing systems to track work, and log incidents. Often you’ll have different teams using different systems. For example, a customer support team may log issues on ServiceNow. A software development team may use Jira for development tasks. Often these teams will store or need information about the same issues.

A workflow automation can synchronize customer bugs to the programming team’s work tracking system. They wouldn’t have to use all the data, but just provide each team with the specific attributes it needed. Once the development team finishes working on the ticket status updates are passed to the customer support team. Everyone is kept in the loop with the right kind of information.

Case Study: Gartner shifted to Exalate to synchronize issues 45 times faster than their previous system.

Triaging Tickets to Different Support Tiers

You can use an automation to triage tickets, piping them to the correct tier of support, especially if your support teams prefer to work on different platforms. Suppose an issue isn’t dealt with or is flagged as challenging at the lower tiers. In that case, your automation can notify senior team members and copy the issue to their systems automatically, in real time. You can route tickets to the correct destination based on certain field values. For instance, sync Jira issues whose reporter is “George” to ServiceNow as an incident. Share only the required fields during different escalation scenarios. You can also re-route tickets to the correct support portal in case of any errors.

Customer support escalation workflow automation

With this kind of IT service management automation, team members at each level of your support system get the information they need quickly, without waiting for someone to filter it manually, or for lower support tiers to escalate it. This can help you proactively avoid SLA breaches, improve support quality, and reduce churn.

Consolidating Multiple Customer Tickets to a Single Development Instance

Sometimes, multiple customers raise the same type of bug. Creating a separate issue in the development team’s task management system isn’t always the best issue.

Consolidate multiple Zendesk tickets into a single Jira issue to streamline development service operations.

Use Case: Learn how to connect multiple Zendesk tickets to a single Jira issue.

Streamlining Customer Onboarding

Customer onboarding often involves many steps, such as getting user’s data into your system, setting up passwords, and providing information. An AI-powered automation system can manage this process, triggering emails at each stage, checking that users have completed onboarding tasks, and providing them with reminders or information when needed. They can also alert a friendly human if there’s an issue.

Centralizing Software Development Project Management

If you have multiple projects stored on a platform like GitHub but want to manage work on those projects using a central system, then connecting everything together involves a lot of work. An automation can handle it automatically, synchronizing issues on all the GitHub repos on a single system.

Case Study: Read why seL4 foundation connected all its GitHub projects to its single Jira management platform.

Choosing the Right Workflow Automation Software

There’s a lot of good automation software out there, so how do you pick the best? Here are some qualities you should look for when picking a tool.

Security: Since workflows span departments and companies, you need to ensure your data always remains safe and secure. Workflow automation software must have the required security measures in place, like limiting data exchange at the integrating endpoints independently. This ensures you have full control over what you send and receive on your side without any external system stepping in the way.
Encryption protocols, RBAC, ISO certification, etc. are all a must.

Reliability – The automation should work without human intervention, and should fail as little as possible. The less you need to get involved the better. The point is to save time!

Flexibility – You’ll generally need to modify your workflow automation as data sources change and your tools and your use of them evolve. If you can make changes in your automation software easily, that’s a big plus. It’s also a bonus if the automations can be reused and reapplied to different workflows. That can really be a force multiplier throughout a large organization.

Scalability: As businesses scale up, your workflow automation software must be able to catch up. Adding new tools and technologies or adding new partners within your integration setup should not take a lot of effort.

Accessibility – Programmers can achieve great things with workflow automation, but coders are expensive to deploy, and they need time to understand the workflows of other team members. Al-assisted automation can make things much easier, enabling a broader spectrum of people to get involved. That way you can save time and take advantage of everyone’s organizational knowledge.

Getting Started with Workflow Automation Using Exalate

One key area where automation can help is syncing different systems. This could be two systems used in your company, or an internal system syncing with a client or contractor. Managing the relationship between these allows for complex workflow orchestration.

Exalate is an integration solution that lets you easily create advanced workflow automations. Tickets, issues, or items used by your systems can be automatically copied from place to place. You can copy everything, or set filters that pick items that match. You can also choose which fields to synchronize, ensuring everyone gets the data they need while maintaining autonomy and security.

With Exalate you can do the following::

Create granular-level triggers that define the conditions for data exchange. They are native to the integrating platforms
Pick which fields are shared between synchronized items. Set custom logic or data mapping and automate workflows end-to-end using the Groovy-based Script mode.

After a thorough evaluation, we realized other solutions couldn’t match Exalate’s precision and flexibility. The results speak for themselves: with over 20,000 synced entries and nearly 10,000 synced comments, Exalate has become vital to our cross-company collaboration.

– VODAFONE

You can use Exalate with Jira, Azure DevOps, ServiceNow, Github, and Salesforce. There are guides for all of them. Here’s a guide to integrating Jira with Salesforce.

Once you create a synchronization, it can be adjusted easily, or recreated for different teams or purposes. It’s very easy to do.

Workflow Automation Best Practices

To get the most out of your workflow automation software, take a look at these workflow automation best practices.

Gather Information Carefully – Changing workflows can have a big effect on your team. Involving everyone in the process can help you ensure the switch goes smoothly. It also lets you gather information that can prove critical when setting up the automation. Managers, administrators, and anyone that works with the data can offer insight on what information they need, and how they use it. Collecting this knowledge can help you build workflows that help the whole team work better.

Improvement and Iteration – You can achieve big things with workflow automation, but it is an ongoing process. Monitor the performance of your automations and see how they can be improved. You should also be on the lookout for ways to recreate automations in other areas of your business.

Start Slowly and Have a Backup Plan – Automations can go wrong. Systems have outages and the internet can go down. You should be able to deal with these issues. That means having a way to get work done when the automation is out. It also means the automatic systems should be robust enough to restart automatically without any help. Automatic alerts to managers when problems happen are another good idea.

Conclusion

Automated workflows boost your productivity and enable faster, more efficient collaboration with others. They minimize staff costs, performing tasks quickly and reliably. There’s so much potential, but it’s imperative you make the right choices when setting things up.

Fortunately, there’s never been a better selection of software to help you, and much of it is accessible enough for anyone to use. By applying modern tools, you can connect your platforms together, moving and manipulating information seamlessly.

Exalate delivers an easy, but powerful solution for workflow automation. With it, you can build automated workflows that are reliable, versatile, and powerful. Check it out, and see how it can turbocharge your productivity.

Recommended Reading:

Pura Vida: Exalate’s Tropical Sync

Paradise Meets Purpose

Sunburned noses, muddy shoes, and some edge-of-your-seat action—exactly what we signed up for. Add in the pura vida vibe, and it was the perfect team-building escape.

With team members converging from Bolivia, Argentina, Belgium, and Costa Rica, we chose the perfect destination: Manuel Antonio, a coastal gem three hours from San José.

Our November getaway was a mix of adrenaline-pumping activities, teamwork, and a touch of chaos.

Jet Skis, ATVs, and Tropical Mishaps

The day started bright and early with a 5 a.m. departure, setting the tone for a day packed with action. First up: jet skiing. The rush of the sea spray and the stunning coastal views made it an unforgettable ride.

Next, we switched gears—literally—with an ATV tour. We tackled jungle trails, crossed waterfalls, and climbed scenic viewpoints. The highlights weren’t just the stunning views but the moments in between. The rain joined the party, turning dirt tracks into muddy playgrounds. Complaints? None. We enjoyed every slip and splatter.

Sunburns, Fruit Fights, and Team Spirit

No trip is complete without its quirks. A few of us (rookie mistake!) underestimated Costa Rica’s sun and learned the hard way. By evening, the search for aloe vera became a team mission.

The fun continued during lunch, where a casual chat turned into an all-out fruit debate. Bananas, mangoes, pineapples—everyone had an opinion on what belonged in the “Fruit Hall of Fame.” It might sound silly, but these moments created bonds that spreadsheets and Zoom meetings never could.

After a whirlwind of activities, we returned to the hotel to wrap up our trip with a delicious meal and some quiet reflection.

Saying Goodbye with Full Hearts

This trip wasn’t just about activities; it was about togetherness. It reminded us that whether we’re making integrations work or exploring jungles, teamwork, and trust are at the heart of what we do.

Stay tuned for more stories from our global team as we continue to explore and grow together.

Mission Manuel Antonio: accomplished.

#ExaVibe

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Sin Prisa, Con Alma: Exalate’s November Catalonia Escape

Teamwork and Sunshine

When you think of Barcelona, you think of Gaudí’s masterpieces, sunny beaches, and delicious tapas. But at Exalate, our trip to Barcelona wasn’t just about sightseeing—it was about syncing as a team, with a few twists and turns along the way.

With the goal of organizing a special time for our people, we found the perfect venue: Mas Redorta, a charming country house just outside Barcelona. The plan? Activities that balanced fun, collaboration, and a little wine.

An Unforgettable Line-Up

The team voted on activities, landing on two crowd favorites: horseback riding and wine tasting. However, Mother Nature had other plans.

Good teams make good plans, but the best teams are the ones that can pivot smoothly when plans change. When rain swept away our equestrian dreams, we didn’t miss a beat. We swapped it out at the last minute for an on-site escape room—improv worthy of an Exalate integration!

Here’s how it all unfolded…

Clues, Collaboration, and Cabernet

Friday morning started with a scenic one-hour drive from Barcelona to Mas Redorta. Greeted by rolling hills and crisp air, we took in the serene surroundings and explored our lodgings. The guys bunked in two houses, while the ladies cozied up in a smaller one.

After a quick breakfast of coffee and pastries, we kicked things off with the Escape Room hosted by Roomboescape.

The mission? Save the world from a virus by solving riddles, scanning QR codes, and hunting down clues scattered across the estate. Watching everyone divide into teams, brainstorm, and race to finish was a masterclass in teamwork—with a side of friendly competition.

Next came lunchtime to relax and recharge. But the real treat of the day? A wine-tasting session led by LoCatamos. We sipped our way through Spain’s finest vintages while learning about the subtle differences between cava and champagne. Even non-drinkers were captivated by the sommelier’s storytelling.

Dinner was the cherry on top—a delicious Argentinian-inspired feast featuring flame-grilled ribs, fish for pescatarians, and, of course, empanadas.

Kevin, our Support Team Lead, especially appreciated these little pockets of joy, so much so that the caterers sent him an extra batch the following day.

The Night: Storms and Serenades

As the night rolled in, we gathered for a cozy night of card games and live piano and guitar music. The perfect way to unwind.

But Catalonia wasn’t done surprising us. A storm knocked out the estate’s electricity overnight. By morning, we found ourselves in the dark, with the electric gates locked shut. We were stuck—like a real-life escape room.

We made the best of it, sharing breakfast in the dark, and as the sun started to rise, we found a manual key that unlocked one side of the gate. Finally, we were able to open it and head back to Barcelona.

The Takeaway: Laughter in the Rain

This trip wasn’t without its challenges—but that’s what made it memorable. From solving puzzles to overcoming a literal lockdown, we proved once again that our strength lies in how we work together.

We know that our best moments don’t just come from following the plan but from adapting, supporting each other, and finding opportunities in every situation. It’s this dynamic that makes Exalate special, both in and out of the office.

Stay tuned for more stories from our team as we continue our journey around the world.

Mission Barcelona: accomplished.

Next stop: Costa Rica.

#ExaVibe

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