MDM + ITSM = Better user support with Jamf Pro integrations

As IT shifts to remote support operations, it is vital to think about how users request and receive the help they need. At Jamf, one of those ways used to be walking up to our Support Bar to ask questions: big or small. These face-to-face interactions provided IT with all the context and tools they needed to help solve a problem. While we all miss seeing our favorite IT friends (Daniel, call me!), the user experience doesn’t have to suffer when we are limited to remote support.

Companies typically deliver IT and support services through ticketing systems or IT service management (ITSM) platforms. These tickets route to the proper person, who uses a combination of tools to diagnose and resolve the issue. IT professionals are expected to have a full toolkit at their disposal and integrating as many of them as possible can increase efficiency. ITSM is a great example. If a user opens a ticket about an Apple device, Jamf Pro would typically be a good starting point for more information— and sometimes, the tool for resolution.

MDM and ITSM go hand-in-hand; these tools typically co-exist within organizations, and both have capabilities beneficial to a service agent. If an admin needs to know more about the device’s configuration or perform basic troubleshooting, they would traditionally have to login to Jamf Pro and perform these actions manually. Fortunately, Jamf Pro offers integrations with leading service management platforms. These exist to provide a better end-user experience and to empower IT to quickly resolve issues with minimal context switching. While there are 300+ integrations on the Jamf Marketplace, we are going to look at three ITSM platforms that integrate with Jamf Pro.

Jamf for Jira by codefortynine

Atlassian's products help thousands of companies develop software, plan projects and support users. Not only well-known to many in the agile software development world, it’s also the front-end request system that many non-developers use. At Jamf, we use Atlassian products for both— and so do many of our customers. The Atlassian Marketplace offers integrations made by talented developers like codefortynine, who recently completed Jamf for Jira.

This integration provides an improved Jira Service Desk request experience for users and service technicians. When creating a request, users can see and select from their assigned devices. This allows the service desk employee to view live Jamf Pro device inventory information directly in Jira when viewing a request. In-product visibility of this data means less moving between products— although when it's necessary, Jamf for Jira has a button that jumps directly to the corresponding Jamf Pro device record.

Michael Lauricella helps manage partnerships at Atlassian and had worked with codefortynine on other projects. When customer demand for this integration became apparent, he introduced them to Jamf and the two started collaborating immediately. “Atlassian is proud of its diverse ecosystem of partners who solve critical problems for our customers through innovation," says Lauricella. "The work that codefortynine has done to connect Jamf Pro and Jira Service Desk delivers immediate value to our mutual customers and strengthens Atlassian's ITSM solution.”

Freshservice by Freshworks

Founded in 2010, Freshworks jumped on the the SaaS wave, and became a leader in easy-to-use cloud-first business applications. Their service desk application Freshservice was a revolutionary step forward for organizations to track the support needs of their users.

Freshworks built Freshservice to be integrated with other enterprise solutions. The first integration was with Jira just a month after launch in 2014. The Jamf Pro integration syncs information about all Apple devices in an environment and presents this data within Freshservice when needed, improving service agent efficiency. Connecting Jamf Pro to Freshservice provides a single pane of glass for IT requests and device information.

"The integration of Freshservice and Jamf Pro has proven beneficial to many of our customers," says Venkat Balasubramanian, Senior Director, Product Management, at Freshservice. "They are now able to manage the lifecycle of all their devices in Freshservice (including devices fetched from Jamf) and provide agents the information they need to perform their service desk operations efficiently."

askSpoke

While most ticketing systems exist to track requests and issues, askSpoke is different. Traditional ITSM platforms rely on emails or ticketing portals to start the support process and on humans to finish it. askSpoke, on the other hand, is a modern workplace service desk that combines powerful internal ticketing with chat, machine learning, and integrations so that internal support teams can resolve requests faster.

askSpoke encourages users to ask for any kind of help (HR, IT, Sales and Ops) in any way they want (chat, text, web, or email). askSpoke can just as easily connect users to a 401k policy as it can automatically lock a device with Jamf Pro. The built in AI automatically triages issues and can resolve up to 40% of incoming tickets. This lets service desk professionals put their time into the issues that really require their expertise.

Kyle Hoffman, Head of IT at Sendoso, was an early adopter of the Jamf integration. "What I really needed was a connected IT solution that brings together all our applications and enables my team to work efficiently while delivering excellent employee service," says Hoffman. "A game-changer for us is askSpoke and their Jamf integration. We can perform actions in other systems without ever leaving the ticket. If I get a ticket about a broken laptop, I could pull up that computer’s diagnostic information from Jamf with one click in askSpoke. I’ve never heard of a ticketing system that does this before.”

An ITSM platform is one of the most critical pieces of an IT support organization. At the most basic level, it is the way users communicate their needs. An ITSM platform can be used to spot trends and advocate for changes in process or resources. Advanced tools like those listed above take the concept of supporting Apple users further by connecting with Jamf Pro and offering contextual information or automated action.

Empower service desk employees and make support more effective by connecting your ITSM platform with Jamf Pro.

You can learn about Jamf’s ITSM and other integrations at marketplace.jamf.com.