Without a sophisticated process and workflow, IT departments can’t respond to cybersecurity incidents quickly, resolve requests from high priority customers, or support internal teams in performing their own tasks effectively. The entire organization’s momentum can be ground to a halt as bottlenecks pop up in these circumstances.
This is when the topic of integrations tends to crop up: do we build one internally or buy an out of the box solution? If we buy it, which vendors should we consider? What features are essential, which ones are nice to have, and what can we live without?
So what do you do about these questions? Let’s get into it as we explain use cases for integrating IT operations with a focus on ServiceNow and Jira.
Common use cases for a Jira ServiceNow integration
Connecting Jira Software to ServiceNow offers a range of benefits in everyday business scenarios for an IT service desk:
Incident management: Email server issues, website downtime, and security incidents (e.g., cybersecurity breaches) are managed more effectively when recorded and tracked across both ServiceNow and Jira for collaborative resolution. ServiceNow incidents can be logged as Jira issues so that developers or engineers can directly access details from ServiceNow as tasks or issues within their epics and projects.
Change management: Implementing internal changes often requires rigorous tracking to ensure minimal disruption to the organization. An integrated system for change management within your organization ensures any internal transition is properly documented, approved, and communicated quickly. If your team logs change requests from ServiceNow, they can be turned into action items in Jira for quick dispatching and updates.
DevOps coordination: By linking together the cycle of coding (tracked in Jira), new features or updates with operational feedback or requirements (logged in ServiceNow), your organization can foster better DevOps practices.
These use cases illustrate just how integral a well-configured synchronization between ServiceNow and Jira can be for optimizing your business operations. The key is speed and efficiency in all cases.
Whether you wish to deploy a faster incident management process, IT change management system, or to fulfill cross-departmental requests automatically, integration makes a difference.
This is especially true when it comes to cyber threats when every second of response time counts. Automating tedious manual tasks enables your team to spend more of their effort on problem-solving and using their primary skill sets.
When and how to choose a Jira ServiceNow integration solution
“Our company uses ServiceNow for customer issue tracking across all departments. The IT department primarily works in Jira. Right now, we have to manually duplicate customer issues reported in ServiceNow into Jira. This also affects tasks like release testing, leading to delays, errors, and wasted effort. We’re looking for a solution that integrates Jira and ServiceNow, so we don’t have to enter the same information twice and constantly update statuses in both systems. Our goal is to streamline our workflow and improve visibility for everyone involved.”
– Unito customer interview
How to choose the right integration solution
This decision requires a number of key considerations, particularly planning out future maintenance and scalability. You need to be able to maintain and scale your stack without incurring costly fees or having teams spend months implementing updates. Other factors worth considering include: compatibility, ease of use, security measures, and support services.
Compatibility and ease of use
The next step in selecting the appropriate solution for your Jira or Jira Service Management to ServiceNow integration involves checking compatibility between tools. You need an option that seamlessly interacts with both ServiceNow and Jira without requiring extensive modifications or complex workarounds.
Here’s what you typically need to consider:
Native integrations: The integrated capabilities of Jira and the ServiceNow platform come with a range of benefits for those with an internal integration team capable of maintaining and updating the system. ServiceNow Integration Hub offers “spokes” for connecting with other tools, such as Jira. A spoke is defined as: “a scoped application that includes Flow Designer custom actions or subflows.”
Configuration: Since your needs likely vary from another user, opting for a platform that allows adjustments can help tailor the integration to meet specific demands. So while ServiceNow offers spokes, will they serve your needs efficiently? Will you be able to configure them with precision? How much effort will that require from your own department?
User interface (UI): A straightforward UI ensures that your team can manage the integration easily. If your team is handling large volumes of code, how much time is spent maintaining it? How much does it cost to outsource that work to a service provider? A low-code solution eliminates the need for costly outsourcing and lengthy development cycles, keeping your team in control and speeding up your time to value.
So if you need a configurable integration with an accessible UI, your best bet is likely a no-code solution that’s also fully configurable, such as Unito.
Evaluate the level of customer support provided. Effective support can drastically reduce downtime and ensure problems are solved quickly:
Technical support: Accessibility to knowledgeable tech support teams who understand particulars about Jira and ServiceNow.
Documentation and training resources: Well-documented guides and tutorials facilitate smoother setup processes and troubleshooting procedures.
By carefully considering these factors within different technological offerings, you equip yourself with knowledge necessary to make an informed decision about which tool will best serve your needs for integrating ServiceNow with Jira effortlessly.
Enhance interdepartmental workflows with a low-code 2-way integration
Now that we’ve reviewed key considerations to look for and some of the options available to you, let’s dive into how low-code platforms such as Unito can optimize your interdepartmental workflow between Jira and ServiceNow with consideration for data security, efficiency, and accessibility.
Minimizes bottlenecks so IT operations can focus on resolving issues instead of chasing approvals
Escalation path: A low-code 2-way sync platform can establish clear escalation paths integrated with Jira and ServiceNow. That means issues will seamlessly move to the correct department based on predefined rules, ensuring rapid resolution and avoiding unnecessary delays.
Dispatching: Once your workflow is integrated, the dispatching process becomes fully automated. Requests or incidents generated in ServiceNow flow directly to the right department within the appropriate tool (Jira in this case), eliminating manual handoffs, meetings or redundant emails.
Connect your tools with Unito’s 2-way solution
By syncing ServiceNow’s comprehensive ITSM capabilities with Jira’s agile project management tools through Unito, both systems improve with:
2-way flows: Records, incidents, tasks, or issues created in one tool are automatically mirrored to another with:
Live updates: That means manual changes made in either platform are automatically reflected in the other system in real-time.
Full oversight: Stakeholders from any department can track status updates, priorities, and task ownership.
Step-by-step instructions: Connect Jira to ServiceNow with Unito
Quick configuration: Unito’s low-code setup means you’ll be up and running quickly. Intuitive configuration tools let you tailor the data flow to your specific ITSM processes.
Error reduction: Automated syncing eliminates manual updates, significantly reducing the risk of mistakes and data discrepancies.
Granular control: Fine-tune field mapping and syncing rules to ensure only the necessary information is shared between Jira and ServiceNow. This balances visibility with data control.
Enhanced visibility: Everyone involved, from IT service agents to those in other departments, sees the full up-to-date picture, promoting faster resolution.
Team management: The Unito team can help you put together a permission model to help you manage your workspace(s) effectively.
Time needed: 15 minutes
Here’s how easy it is to set up your own Jira ServiceNow integration with Unito
Set up Jira before syncing
If you’re connecting to Unito via OAuth2, then there are no extra steps to sync your issues to records in ServiceNow.
To connect ServiceNow to Unito, you’ll only need three things: Your ServiceNow username. Your ServiceNow password. Your ServiceNow Domain URL. If you’re not sure how to get this, ask your administrator.
Step 1: Connect Jira and ServiceNow to Unito
Navigate to the Unito App and select +Create Flow. Select Start Here to connect ServiceNow and Jira. Choose the accounts you want connected to Unito.
Set a direction for incident or issue creation
Filter unrelated incidents or issues with configurable rules
Rules let you decide which issues or incidents to sync between Jira and ServiceNow. You can set rules based on any supported field in either tool, including custom fields.
Link fields between ServiceNow incidents and Jira issues
This step tells Unito how each field in ServiceNow and Jira relates to each other. You’ll also be setting a sync direction for real-time updates. In this example, the ServiceNow State is linked to the Jira Issue status bi-directionally. So a manual change to one will automatically update the other.
The 2-way solution for integrating ServiceNow and Jira
Unito enables a real-time connection between ServiceNow and Jira so that updates between tools are always in sync end-to-end.
Users can configure their flows through rules to filter out unrelated data, and a table of fields in Jira and ServiceNow. The field mappings table allows you to set the relationship between fields in each tool to link statuses, summaries, assignees, attachments etc. as well as set a separate sync direction for each pair of fields.
Seamless data flow: Bi-directional syncing ensures issues and updates in either Jira or ServiceNow are mirrored automatically, eliminating manual effort and ensuring everyone has the most current information.
Enhanced organization: IT service departments, support staff, and other departments can collaborate effortlessly. Issues move smoothly between Jira and ServiceNow based on your workflow rules, speeding up resolution.
Greater visibility: Real-time updates provide a clear and centralized view of all ITSM activities, regardless of which system they originate in. This enables faster decision-making and better insights for process improvement.
Setting up a single Unito flow only takes the average user ~12 minutes, making it far more accessible than an integration tool based in Groovy or JavaScript.
Unito reduces the risk of manual input and error in ITSM
Unito reduces the need for manual data entry and all but eliminates the risk of human error, for a more effective collaboration between tools, optimized communication and visibility, and a more flexibile ITSM process.
Optimizing communication and visibility
A Jira ServiceNow integration eliminates the need to chase updates across multiple systems. Real-time syncing provide stakeholders with up-to-the-minute details on Jira issues and linked ServiceNow incidents or records. Instead of relying on scattered emails or Slack threads, everyone has clear, consolidated insights into issue status and progress. This promotes smoother handoffs between departments and better decision-making.
Flexible ITSM processes and reduced errors
Your ITSM department can configure their flow to align ServiceNow perfectly with Jira. Detailed field mapping ensures the right information flows between Jira issues and ServiceNow incidents. Comments, status updates, and issue assignments stay in sync automatically. This saves time, reduces the risk of errors, and lets you adapt the integration as your ITSM processes evolve.
Summary: Jira ServiceNow integration
For enterprise-level IT and engineering teams, efficient cross-departmental collaboration is crucial. Unito’s Jira + ServiceNow integration simplifies incident management and other core ITSM tasks via low-code, 2-way syncing to mitigate wasted time and lost opportunities.
Reduced human error: The automated flow of data between tools reduces the risk of human error caused by manual updates and saves time. Unito’s fully configurable field mappings allow users to enjoy greater flexibility than they would with ServiceNow Integration Hub.
Greater Visibility and Control: Real-time updates provide a clear, consolidated view of incidents, records, tasks, and issue lifecycles, regardless of origin. This increased visibility enables faster decision-making and resolution.
Enhanced Customer Experience: By streamlining ITSM processes with a Jira + ServiceNow integration, support teams can resolve issues faster to make your customers happier.
Book a demo to see if this integration is right for you
