Cross-platform integration is how modern organizations deal with SaaS sprawl. You’ve got teams running on different tools, different architectures, different data formats, and somehow they all need to talk to each other.
Whether it’s software or hardware, you need a way to connect systems that weren’t designed to work together and get them exchanging data reliably.
When you’re bridging platforms with entirely different architectures, a lot has to happen under the hood: data transformations, field mapping, format conversions, error handling. Depending on the complexity, this can be straightforward or a serious engineering challenge.
This article covers what cross-platform integration actually involves, where it delivers real value, the common pitfalls, and how to choose the right tool for the job.
Key Takeaways
- Cross-platform integration connects incompatible systems through middleware that handles data transformation, field mapping, and format conversion automatically.
- Industries from e-commerce to healthcare rely on cross-platform integration to eliminate manual data entry, reduce errors, and speed up decision-making.
- The biggest challenges are technical complexity, data security during transit, entity mapping across different data models, and avoiding vendor lock-in.
- Cross-company integration builds on cross-platform integration. You can’t get two organizations collaborating without first connecting their tools.
- Choosing the right integration tool means evaluating security certifications, connector coverage, scripting flexibility, real-time sync capabilities, and AI-assisted configuration.
- Best practices include starting with clear requirements, testing in sandbox environments, automating where possible, and training your team on the integration tool.
What is Cross-Platform Integration?
Cross-platform integration is the process of connecting two or more systems that aren’t natively compatible so they can exchange data and interact.
Think of how PlayStation, Xbox, and PC players can now compete in the same multiplayer lobbies. That cross-play functionality? It’s cross-platform integration in action. The systems are fundamentally different, but a layer in between translates and routes the data so they work together.
For example, a retail company running Shopify for its storefront and Salesforce for customer management needs both systems to share order data, customer profiles, and support history. Without integration, someone has to manually copy data between them. With cross-platform integration, it happens automatically.
For organizations, cross-platform systems integration typically relies on a middleware solution that bridges the interoperability gap. This middleware could be a third-party platform, a custom API connector, or an embedded application that enables scheduled or real-time data sharing.
The integration could connect a help desk with a CRM to improve service quality, sync a project management tool with a development platform to align engineering and product teams, or bridge an ITSM tool with an external vendor’s ticketing system. The applications are broad.
What are the Applications of Cross-Platform Integration?
Companies across industries use cross-platform integration to collect, extract, transform, and analyze data across their toolchains. Here’s how it plays out in practice.
E-Commerce and Retail
Vendors and shop owners connect inventory management systems with their online storefronts to keep stock levels, pricing, and product availability in sync automatically. Without this, overselling and stock discrepancies become a constant headache.
Connecting CRM tools like Salesforce with ERPs or e-commerce platforms lets online sellers capture user behavior, purchase history, and sales trends in one place. This data feeds into personalized marketing, demand forecasting, and customer segmentation.
Further applications of cross-platform marketing integration in e-commerce include automated invoice management, quote generation, and returns processing across fulfillment systems and customer-facing platforms.
Supply Chain and Logistics
Logistics companies implement cross-platform shipping integration by connecting time-tracking and GPS software with fleet management systems to monitor driver activity, optimize routes, and reduce delivery times.
Logistics giant Maersk used cross-platform service desk integration between Jira and ServiceNow to keep their support and development teams updated in real time. This helped them reduce expenses by avoiding additional licensing costs for onboarding ServiceNow.
Case: A global shipping company needs its warehouse management system, transportation management system, and customer portal to share real-time shipment status, inventory counts, and delivery ETAs.
Solution: Cross-platform integration syncs data between all three systems so that a change in shipment status at the warehouse automatically updates the customer portal and triggers route adjustments in the transport system.
Real-world application: The customer support team can see live delivery updates without logging into the warehouse system, and dispatchers get automatic alerts when inventory levels trigger new shipment requirements.
Healthcare
Doctors and nurses within the same hospital ecosystem can gain access to patient records for more accurate diagnosis, treatment, and prescriptions. Cross-platform integration makes this possible even when different departments use different EHR systems.
Using the best EMR for small practices, hospitals and healthcare institutions can integrate prescription data with patient support portals to track how patients are responding to new medications and flag adverse reactions early.
Case: A hospital network runs separate systems for patient records, lab results, and pharmacy management, creating delays when doctors need a complete patient view.
Solution: Integration middleware syncs lab results and pharmacy data into the EHR in near real time, so clinicians see the full picture during consultations.
Real-world application: A doctor reviewing a patient’s chart can immediately see the latest blood work and current prescriptions without switching between three different systems, reducing diagnostic errors and appointment times.
Banking and Finance
Banks integrate payment systems with e-commerce platforms using secure payment gateways. Once the end user passes authorization, the transaction is initiated and processed automatically across systems.
Insurance company Turkiye Sigorta used cross-platform synchronization software to iron out disruptions within its ticketing system. This gave them better visibility into suppliers’ demands and customer response patterns.
Case: An insurance company processes claims across a legacy underwriting system, a modern CRM, and an external adjusters’ portal, leading to data silos and slow claim resolution.
Solution: Cross-platform integration connects the three systems so that a claim filed in the CRM automatically creates records in the underwriting system and assigns an adjuster through the external portal.
Real-world application: Claims processing time drops significantly because adjusters, underwriters, and customer service reps are all working from the same synchronized data instead of emailing spreadsheets back and forth.
Manufacturing and Construction
The success of a construction or manufacturing project depends on close collaboration between different teams. And this is only possible if the platforms they use are in sync.
For instance, the inspection team can forward their findings to the quality control and supervisory teams without physically meeting them. Defect reports, compliance checklists, and progress updates flow automatically between project management, ERP, and field reporting systems.
Following this approach, Nevaris Build was able to get its internal teams to work in tandem. This helped them reduce conversion times and improve coordination across departments.
Service Delivery and ITSM
ServiceNow and Zendesk are common platforms for connecting the help desk with the development or IT team.
With cross-platform service desk integration, users on both sides stay up to date about the customer. The help desk gets updates about incident resolution, while the development team can prioritize their efforts depending on consumer response or overall business impact.
When Qualco used this integration framework, they were able to cut down resolution times and increase their overall customer satisfaction score.
Case: An MSP manages support tickets in Zendesk for its clients but needs to escalate engineering work items to a client’s internal Jira instance without giving the MSP direct access to Jira.
Solution: Cross-platform integration syncs relevant ticket data (status, priority, comments, attachments) between Zendesk and Jira while keeping each side’s access and configurations independent.
Real-world application: The MSP’s support agents update tickets in Zendesk, and the client’s engineers see those updates as Jira work items. Neither team switches tools, and both have full context without shared system access.
Software Development and DevOps
Development teams frequently work across multiple platforms: project tracking in Jira, code repositories in GitHub, CI/CD pipelines in Jenkins or Azure DevOps, and bug tracking in separate tools.
Cross-platform integration keeps these tools in sync so that a pull request merged in GitHub can automatically update the corresponding Jira work item, trigger a deployment pipeline, and notify QA through their preferred tool.
Case: A software company tracks features in Jira, manages code in GitHub, and runs CI/CD in Azure DevOps. Developers waste time manually updating statuses across all three tools.
Solution: Integration middleware connects Jira, GitHub, and Azure DevOps so that branch creation, PR merges, and build statuses flow between platforms automatically.
Real-world application: When a developer merges a PR in GitHub, the linked Jira work item moves to “In Review,” the Azure DevOps pipeline kicks off, and the QA team gets notified, all without anyone touching a status dropdown.
What are Examples of Cross-Platform Integration?
Here are some technical use cases that show what cross-platform integration looks like in practice:
Automated triage and incident escalation. Connect multiple help desk applications to speed up and automate triage and incident escalation. For example, admins can connect their internal Jira Service Management instance with an external supplier’s ServiceDesk application. When a high-priority ticket comes in, the integration routes it to the right team on the right platform based on predefined rules, complete with all the context the receiving team needs.
Bidirectional entity and field sync. Shuffle data between multiple platforms by syncing entities and objects between disparate systems, including attachments, comments, formatting, and summaries. This keeps both sides of the integration working from the same information without manual copy-paste workflows.
Custom field mapping for additional context. Obtain additional context by syncing data from custom fields. Any information that can’t be conveyed through standard fields can still reach the other side through custom field mapping. For instance, you can update Salesforce account information from a Jira custom field, passing along project codes, account tiers, or internal priority levels that don’t exist natively in Salesforce.
Multi-instance hub-and-spoke connections. Connect multiple instances to a single platform or get a single application to connect and interact independently with multiple systems simultaneously. For example, you can connect multiple Zendesk tickets to a single Jira Service Management work item to provide visibility for all stakeholders. This is especially useful for MSPs managing clients across different platforms.
Feature gap bridging. Bridge the feature gap between two systems by extending functionality that doesn’t exist on one. One instance of this is the establishment of hierarchy and parent-child relationships. This functionality is available by default in Jira but not in Azure DevOps. Cross-platform integration can replicate the hierarchy structure so that both teams maintain the same work breakdown.
Security incident response. Get instant updates about security incidents, including the entire context and impact of the breach. Cybersecurity service providers can use this integration model to connect with clients’ internal ticketing systems, ensuring that incident details, response actions, and remediation steps flow between organizations in real time.
Read technical use cases and practical applications of Exalate for cross-platform integration.
Cross-Platform vs. Cross-Company Integration
Cross-company integration is the process of establishing a collaborative ecosystem between two separate companies or organizations.
By contrast, cross-platform integration involves connecting two systems (applications, hardware, cloud services, etc.) with disparate architectures to get them to interact. The systems could belong to the same company or different ones.
The overlap between the two concepts is that both involve configuring entities that normally aren’t compatible to work together. And both require careful attention to data mapping, transformation logic, and access control.
But here’s the key relationship: cross-platform integration is a component of cross-company integration. You can’t get two organizations collaborating without first connecting whatever platforms they’re using.
Let’s say you want to outsource all customer support efforts to an MSP. A reliable connection requires planning and configuration to get your company’s Jira in sync with the MSP’s Zendesk. You need to define what data flows in each direction, who controls the mapping, and how to handle conflicts when both sides update the same record.
So, cross-company integration starts with cross-platform integration. But it adds layers on top: organizational governance, SLAs, data ownership agreements, and security policies that govern how the connected platforms share information across company boundaries.
For cross-company scenarios, the integration tool you choose needs to support independent configuration on each side. This means each organization controls what they send and receive without the other party being able to override those settings.
How Does Cross-Platform Integration Work?
At a technical level, cross-platform integration involves several coordinated steps that happen automatically once the connection is configured.
Connection and Authentication
The integration tool establishes a secure connection between the two platforms, typically through their REST APIs. Authentication is handled through tokens, API keys, or OAuth, depending on the platform. The goal is to create a trusted channel where both systems can send and receive data without exposing credentials or internal infrastructure.
For cross-company scenarios, this step also involves establishing trust between two separate organizations, often using token-based authentication with automatic rotation to minimize the risk of credential compromise.
Data Mapping and Transformation
Once connected, the integration maps fields and entities between the two systems. A Jira “work item” might correspond to a ServiceNow “incident” or a Zendesk “ticket.” The integration tool translates these entities so that data arriving from one platform makes sense in the other.
This includes handling differences in data formats (date/time formats, field types, enumeration values), structural differences (flat vs. hierarchical data models), and custom fields that exist on one side but not the other.
Change Detection and Sync Triggers
The integration monitors both platforms for changes. When a work item is updated in Jira, for instance, a webhook or polling mechanism detects the change and triggers a sync. The updated fields are extracted, transformed according to the mapping rules, and pushed to the corresponding record on the other platform.
Depending on the configuration, syncs can happen in real time (triggered by webhooks) or in scheduled batches. Real-time sync is better for time-sensitive workflows like incident management, while batch sync works for periodic reporting or data warehousing.
Conflict Resolution
When both sides update the same record simultaneously, the integration needs rules to decide which change wins. Common strategies include last-write-wins, priority-based resolution (one side is designated as the source of truth for specific fields), or field-level merging where non-conflicting changes from both sides are applied.
Error Handling and Recovery
Network outages, API rate limits, and schema changes can all interrupt syncs. A well-designed cross-platform integration queues failed operations and retries them automatically once the connection is restored. This ensures data consistency even during temporary disruptions.
What are the Challenges of Cross-Platform Integration?
Connecting systems with completely different data formats, APIs, system configurations, transformation logic, and native architectures comes with real obstacles. Here are the most common ones.
- Figuring out the tech. The main headache of cross-platform integration is understanding how each system works at an API level. Now imagine doing that for two or more systems with fundamentally different infrastructure. You need to understand each platform’s data model, API limitations, rate limits, authentication mechanisms, and webhook capabilities before you can even start mapping fields. The technical debt compounds with every additional platform you add to the integration.
- Finding a compatible solution. Once you understand the underlying infrastructure of both systems, you need a solution that’s compatible with them. This means finding a tool that can handle the data transformations and conversions accurately and in real time, while also supporting the specific API versions and authentication methods each platform requires. Not every integration tool supports every platform, and connector quality varies significantly between vendors.
- Mapping entities and fields correctly. Even after the tech is figured out, mapping objects and fields between platforms is its own challenge. A “priority” field in Jira might have five levels while ServiceNow has three. A “status” field in Zendesk might not have a direct equivalent in Salesforce. Custom fields, required fields, and field validation rules all add complexity. This requires a deep understanding of both systems’ APIs and data models.
- Keeping data secure in transit and at rest. When data moves between platforms, especially across company boundaries, it becomes vulnerable to unauthorized access. You need encryption during transit (TLS 1.2 or higher), proper access controls on both sides, and clear policies about what data is allowed to cross the integration boundary. Look for tools with recognized security certifications like ISO and transparent security practices.
- Maintaining consistent performance. The cross-platform help desk integration tool needs to deliver consistent data transformation and sync performance. This includes handling API downtimes, rate limiting, schema changes, and network interruptions without significant service disruption or data loss. The tool should queue failed operations and retry them automatically.
- Avoiding vendor lock-in. When choosing a solution for cross-platform sync, pay attention to how tightly it couples you to a specific vendor. If the tool uses proprietary data formats or doesn’t let you export your configurations, decoupling later will be expensive and disruptive. Look for tools that give you control over your sync scripts and configurations so you can adapt or migrate if needed.
- Handling schema evolution. Platforms update their APIs and data models regularly. A field that existed last month might be deprecated or restructured. Your integration needs to be resilient enough to handle these changes without breaking, or at a minimum, to fail gracefully and alert you when something needs attention.
What are the Benefits of Cross-Platform Integration?
Despite the challenges, implementing cross-platform integration is essential for modern organizations. Here’s what you get in return.
Increased Productivity
Cross-platform integration increases the efficiency of processes and workflows by making data available as quickly as possible to everyone involved in the sync. When every team member has access to current data in their preferred tool, they can address work items faster without context-switching between platforms.
For example, a support agent working in Zendesk can see the development status of a bug fix happening in Jira without leaving their tool. The time saved per ticket might be small, but multiplied across thousands of tickets per month, the productivity gains are substantial.
Enhanced Data Consistency and Accuracy
With the cross-platform API integration doing the heavy lifting, the accuracy of data transformation and exchange is significantly improved. Compare that to manual data entry, where the risk of duplication, errors, typos, and inconsistencies grows with every transfer.
Automated sync also eliminates the “which version is correct?” problem. When both systems are continuously synced, there’s always a single source of truth for each field, defined by the mapping rules.
Greater Flexibility and Customization
Integrations across platforms let collaborative environments maintain their flexibility. Modern cross-platform integration tools come with scripting capabilities and automation that allow admins to explore different configuration scenarios and use cases without being locked into rigid templates.
Take AI-powered integration configuration, for example. Tools like Exalate offer Aida, a scripting assistant that helps you build and customize your sync scripts based on natural language prompts. This gives you the flexibility to implement custom configurations without the grind of writing every line of code from scratch and debugging it manually.
Cost Savings
Integrating platforms is more financially favorable than paying for redundant licenses or maintaining manual processes.
Let’s say your team uses Jira Service Management, but your partners are contractually required to use ServiceNow.
Without integration, someone has to buy licenses for both platforms or manually relay information between them. With cross-platform integration, both teams stay on their preferred platform while sharing data seamlessly. Your team no longer pays for ServiceNow licensing just to keep the collaboration alive.
Calculate time and money savings from automated bidirectional sync.
Scalability
Cross-platform integration lets both sides scale without hitting capacity walls. When an e-commerce company expands into a new market segment, they can sync their platform with an external customer service team without worrying about whether their infrastructure can handle the expected surge in support tickets and customer inquiries.
The integration layer absorbs the increased volume because it’s designed to handle data flow at scale, not just for a single use case.
Better Decision-Making
Access to multiple data sources through a unified view helps organizations make informed business and administrative decisions.
A surge in support tickets after a product release could indicate a defective feature or widespread customer dissatisfaction. If the decision-makers have access to this data in real time, they can decide to roll back changes, allocate more engineering resources, or invest in addressing user concerns in the next iteration.
Without integration, this insight is buried in a support tool that product leadership might never check.
Improved Collaboration
Collaborations become more productive when all involved parties can get what they need from the cooperation without switching tools or waiting for manual updates.
Cross-platform integration, whether internal or external, gives both parties access to essential data needed to optimize workflows and fine-tune processes. It also increases the transparency of collaborations by making data available to both teams and organizations in near real time.
Regulatory Compliance
Certain industries have specific provisions regarding what platforms can be used for handling customer or business data. In healthcare, finance, and government sectors, onboarding a non-sanctioned application or system can create serious compliance violations.
The alternative? Use cross-platform integration to obtain only the necessary information from the regulated system while keeping sensitive data private and within the compliant environment. This supports data minimization principles and helps you meet regulatory requirements without overhauling your entire toolchain.
Improved Customer Experience
Ultimately, the goal of cross-platform integration is better outcomes for the customer. Automating every data exchange improves the accuracy and delivery speed of service.
For the customer, this means faster resolution times for complaints, change requests, and critical incidents. When the support team and the engineering team are both working from the same synchronized data, nothing falls through the cracks.
What are the Different Types of Cross-Platform Integration?
Not all cross-platform integrations are built the same way. The approach you choose depends on your use case, technical requirements, and how many systems need to be connected.
Point-to-Point Integration
This connects two systems directly with a dedicated link. It’s simple and fast to set up for a single connection, but it doesn’t scale well. If you need to connect five platforms, you end up with 10 individual connections to maintain. For organizations with only two or three tools to connect, point-to-point can work. Beyond that, complexity and maintenance costs grow quickly.
Hub-and-Spoke Integration
A central integration hub sits between all connected systems. Each platform connects to the hub, and the hub handles routing, transformation, and delivery. This is more scalable than point-to-point because adding a new platform means creating one new connection (to the hub) instead of one for every existing platform. Most enterprise integration tools, including Exalate, use this pattern.
Event-Driven Integration
Systems communicate by publishing and subscribing to events. When something happens in one platform (a work item is created, a status changes, a comment is added), an event is published and any subscribed system picks it up and acts on it. This pattern works well for real-time use cases where you need immediate responses to changes.
API-Led Integration
This approach structures integrations into three layers: system APIs (connecting to individual platforms), process APIs (orchestrating business logic), and experience APIs (serving data to end users or applications). It’s common in large enterprises with complex integration landscapes and is often implemented through iPaaS platforms.
Batch Integration
Data is collected over a period and transferred in bulk at scheduled intervals. This works well for reporting, data warehousing, and scenarios where real-time sync isn’t necessary. It’s less resource-intensive than real-time integration but introduces latency.
What are Cross-Platform Integration Solutions?
Cross-platform integration solutions are tools that facilitate the connection of two or more platforms, bridging the compatibility and interoperability gap. Here are the main options.
Exalate
Exalate is an AI-powered cross-platform integration solution that lets users map and exchange data between systems like Salesforce, Zendesk, Jira, ServiceNow, Azure DevOps (Cloud and Server), GitHub, Freshservice, Freshdesk, Asana, and more. For platforms not on that list, Exalate supports custom REST API connectors.
Exalate provides Aida, a scripting assistant that helps you build and refine sync scripts using natural language prompts. Instead of writing every mapping rule from scratch, you describe your use case and Aida generates the Groovy-based configuration for you. You can then review and adjust the output for full control.
Each side of the integration controls their own configuration independently. This means your organization defines what data it sends and receives, and the other party can’t override those settings. This is especially valuable for cross-company integrations where data governance and access control matter.
Security-wise, Exalate is ISO 27001:2022 certified and uses JWT tokens with automatic rotation and TLS encryption for data in transit. Full details are available at trust.exalate.com.
Zapier
Zapier is a cross-platform integration solution that automates workflows and processes between applications, cloud services, and more. The main selling point for Zapier is that it supports no-code integration and has a vast library of connectors for simple, trigger-based use cases. It works best for lightweight automations where you need one event to trigger one action. For complex bidirectional syncs or enterprise-grade data mapping, it has limitations.
Workato
Workato is a solution for integrating data and workflow management systems. Workato provides Recipes and Actions that can be referenced for automating complex workflows between disparate systems. It’s positioned as an enterprise iPaaS with strong automation capabilities, though the learning curve is steeper than simpler tools.
Make (formerly Integromat)
Make is a visual automation solution that connects multiple platforms to ensure they share data based on specific conditions or instructions. You can automate workflows and processes between systems and teams using Make’s drag-and-drop builder. It’s a good fit for visually-minded teams building multi-step automations, though it’s less suited for deep bidirectional sync scenarios.
Custom Cross-Platform Connectors
Some companies opt for custom connectors when available third-party tools can’t handle their specific cross-platform integration use case. This could be an API connector or custom script written by the in-house development team for a particular scenario.
The problem with custom connectors is that they’re limited in applicability and require ongoing maintenance. The team has to keep up with API changes, handle error recovery, manage authentication, and maintain the infrastructure. If your organization’s technical debt is already high, a third-party tool is usually the better option for cross-platform data integration.
How to Choose the Right Cross-Platform Integration Tool
Not every integration tool fits every use case. Here’s what to evaluate when comparing options.
- Connector coverage. Does the tool natively support the platforms you need to connect? Native connectors are more reliable and easier to maintain than workarounds. Check whether the tool also supports custom connectors for platforms not in its standard library.
- Sync depth and flexibility. Can the tool handle bidirectional sync, custom field mapping, conditional logic, and entity transformations? Lightweight tools handle simple one-way triggers well, but complex use cases need deeper scripting and configuration capabilities.
- Security and compliance. Verify the vendor’s security certifications, encryption standards, and access control mechanisms. For cross-company integrations, check whether each side can control their own configuration independently.
- Scalability. Can the tool handle your current volume and grow with you? Check API rate limits, sync frequency options, and whether the platform can support hub-and-spoke architectures with multiple connections.
- AI-assisted configuration. Tools with AI-assisted setup, like Exalate’s Aida, significantly reduce the time it takes to build and refine sync configurations. This is especially useful when you’re connecting platforms for the first time or modifying existing integrations.
- Error handling and reliability. How does the tool handle failed syncs, API downtime, and network interruptions? Look for automatic retry mechanisms, error logging, and notifications so you’re not caught off guard by silent failures.
- Vendor independence. Check whether you can export your configurations, access your sync scripts, and migrate away if needed. Avoid tools that lock your integration logic into proprietary formats you can’t control.
What are the Keys to Successful Cross-Platform Integration?
Here are best practices that help ensure your cross-platform data integration runs smoothly from day one.
- Agree on the fundamentals. Work closely with team admins from both sides to define the goal of the integration, the entities and workflows that will be part of the sync, and who owns what. This alignment upfront prevents costly rework later.
- Get your budget right. Consult with your technical leads and finance team to confirm the target budget. This helps you choose the right solution within your bracket and avoid surprises during procurement.
- Choose the right tool. The ideal solution for integrating multiple platforms needs to be secure, compliant, flexible, customizable, and scalable. Check features, supported connectors, user reviews, and security documentation before finalizing your choice.
- Work with automation. Triggers and automated actions speed up connections and data sync by removing the need for manual oversight. Define clear trigger conditions so syncs fire only when they should, reducing noise and unnecessary API calls.
- Decide on real-time vs. batch integration. As part of planning, determine whether the systems within the sync should exchange data in real time or transfer data in batches at designated intervals. Real-time works best for incident management and customer support. Batch works for reporting and analytics.
- Run tests in a sandbox. Set up and try new connections in a sandbox environment before rolling out changes to production. This helps you identify mapping errors, transformation issues, and edge cases before they affect live data.
- Train your team. Dedicate time and resources to get your team comfortable with running and configuring the integration. Even with a third-party solution, your engineers should understand how the sync rules work, how to troubleshoot common issues, and how to make adjustments when business requirements change.
- Document your sync rules. Write down what data flows where, which fields are mapped, what triggers the sync, and how conflicts are resolved. This documentation becomes critical when team members change or when you need to modify the integration months later.
- Monitor and iterate. Integration isn’t a one-time setup. Platforms update their APIs, teams change their workflows, and business requirements evolve. Build in regular reviews of your sync configurations to ensure they still align with how your teams actually work.
Exalate for Cross-Platform Integration
Exalate works well for cross-platform integration because it gives each side independent control over their sync configuration. Your organization defines exactly what data it sends and receives, and the other party does the same on their end. Neither side can override the other’s settings.
The Groovy-based scripting engine lets you implement custom mappings, conditional logic, and data transformations that go beyond what template-based tools can handle. If your use case requires syncing only high-priority work items, filtering out internal comments, or transforming field values during transit, you have full control over the logic.
For teams that don’t want to write scripts from scratch, Exalate’s Aida acts as a scripting assistant. Describe your use case in plain language, and Aida generates the sync configuration for you. You can then review, test, and refine the output.
Exalate supports Jira Cloud, ServiceNow, Zendesk, Salesforce, Azure DevOps (Cloud and Server), GitHub, Freshservice, Freshdesk, Asana, and custom REST API connectors for platforms not on that list.
Want to try out Exalate’s cross-platform integration capabilities? Book a demo with the engineering team.
Frequently Asked Questions
What platforms does Exalate support for cross-platform integration?
Exalate natively supports Jira Cloud, ServiceNow, Zendesk, Salesforce, Azure DevOps (Cloud and Server), GitHub, Freshservice, Freshdesk, and Asana. For platforms not on that list, Exalate provides custom REST API connectors that extend integration capabilities to proprietary systems and niche tools.
How does Exalate handle cross-company integrations where both sides need independent control?
Each organization in the integration controls their own sync configuration independently. You define what data you send and what you receive through your own sync rules and field mappings. The other party can’t access or override your settings. This means even if a partner’s environment is compromised, your data exposure is limited to exactly what you’ve configured to share.
Can Exalate sync custom fields between platforms?
Yes. Exalate supports custom field mapping between any of its supported platforms. You can map custom fields from one system to standard or custom fields on the other, apply transformations during transit, and set conditions for when specific fields should or shouldn’t sync. This is handled through the Groovy scripting engine, which gives you full control over the mapping logic.
What is Aida and how does it help with cross-platform integration?
Aida is Exalate’s scripting assistant. Instead of writing sync scripts manually, you describe your integration requirements in plain language and Aida generates the Groovy-based configuration. You can then review, edit, and refine the generated scripts before applying them. This reduces setup time significantly, especially for teams without deep Groovy experience.
How does Exalate ensure data security during cross-platform sync?
Exalate uses TLS encryption for data in transit and JWT tokens with automatic rotation for authentication. The platform is ISO 27001:2022 certified. Each side of the integration maintains independent access controls, so organizations retain full control over what data leaves their environment.
What’s the difference between Exalate and Zapier for cross-platform integration?
Zapier is built for lightweight, trigger-based automations: one event triggers one action. It works well for simple use cases like “when a form is submitted, create a record in Salesforce.” Exalate is built for deep, bidirectional data synchronization between enterprise platforms. It handles entity mapping, custom field transformations, conflict resolution, and independent configuration for each side. If you need ongoing, two-way data sync with full control over the logic, Exalate is the better fit.
Does Exalate support real-time sync or only batch integration?
Exalate supports both. Real-time sync uses webhooks to detect changes and trigger immediate data transfer, which is ideal for incident management, support escalation, and any workflow where delays cost money or customer satisfaction. Scheduled sync is also available for use cases where periodic data transfer is sufficient, such as reporting and analytics.
Can Exalate handle integrations when one platform changes its API?
Exalate maintains its connectors to stay compatible with platform API updates. When a connected platform releases a new API version, Exalate updates its connector to support it. The scripting layer also provides flexibility to adjust mappings if a platform introduces new fields or changes its data model. This reduces the risk of sync failures due to platform updates compared to custom-built integrations.
Is Exalate suitable for organizations that need to integrate legacy systems?
If your legacy system exposes a REST API, Exalate can connect to it through its custom connector framework. This makes it practical for government agencies, manufacturing companies, and enterprises that need to bridge older systems with modern cloud platforms like Jira, ServiceNow, or Salesforce without replacing existing infrastructure.
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