Go2Group CRM Plugin Atlassian JIRA add-on for CRM Systems - Upgrade Guide Go2Group CRM Plugin Overview The Go2Group CRM Plugin is the first bi-directional integration of JIRA and different customer relationship management (CRM) systems. The Go2Group CRM Plugin allows organizations to extend their collaboration between Sales, Support, and Development teams by integrating their CRM tool with their development tool, Atlassian JIRA. These otherwise disparate groups are now able to communicate more efficiently, using already familiar software applications. The bi-directional nature of the Go2Group's CRM Plugin provides several valuable points: Developers no longer need to periodically export the issue status from JIRA to update management and sales teams Quickly finds test cases related to specific JIRA issues Provides a free flow of information between developers and testers Salesforce data in a JIRA issue
Use Cases Who can use the plug-in? All members of the Sales, Support, and Development Teams including: Teams using a CRM System for their sales and support needs Developers using JIRA Peer review participants What products are involved in the integration? Atlassian JIRA CRM System Salesforce, SugarCRM, etc. Questions Being Answered: Which state is a specific customer s issue in? What steps remain before resolving customer s issue? What discussion activities have taken place? What information is available for developers? Which developer is responsible for issue tasks? Use Case Example (Sales) Sales team opens a case in the CRM System Sales team pushes case to JIRA for development review Developer is assigned the issue in JIRA Developer performs work on issue Sales team reviews issue state, comments, and progress Use Case Example (Support) Customer opens a support case in CRM System Support team cannot resolve customer case, pushes case to JIRA for deeper review Developer is assigned the issue in JIRA Developer performs work on issue Support team reviews issue state, comments, and progress
Customer is notified of progress Upgrading the Go2Group CRM Plugin Upgrading the Go2Group CRM Plugin is easy. Begin by downloading the Go2Group CRM Plugin installer file for your specific environment (Windows shown below). Run the installer. When the installer requests to overwrite the crm_field-3.0.jar file, select Yes, as shown in the image below. This will upgrade the CRM Plugin to the latest version. On the next screen, select No to overwrite the salesforce.properties file, as shown in the image below. By selecting No, the configuration changes to the Go2Group CRM Plugin remain intact.
On the next screen, select the Cancel button. By cancelling the installation at this point, the Go2Group CRM Plugin is now updated without changing the configuration file. The installer prompts the user to confirm the cancellation of the installation process. Select Yes to exit the setup.
Security The transfer of proprietary information across any wide area network, including the Internet, poses a number of risks. All communication protocols and authentication mechanism are susceptible to crackers, hackers, sniffers, and spoofers. The approach taken to secure the information transferred between JIRA and the CRM system using the Go2Group CRM Plugin includes: 1. Implementation of all security concerns as requested by Salesforce. 2. Transferring data is encrypted = communication is only allowed via Secure Socket layer (SSL) communication. 3. All user access is between authorized users via the internal systems login mechanism, ie, user IDs and passwords (or other secure mechanism such as session ID) are passed within the encrypted channel. 4. Spoofing attempts are defeated by ensuring the source of the information request is as expected. The remote connections to and from Salesforce are made only via an authorized Salesforce server through introspection of sessions headers originating address. 5. Ajax security concerns have been addresses using the recommended mechanism (i.e., XML). 6. Passwords are stored and communicated using a 512-bit RSA algorithm
Performance The performance tuning of any web application is crucial to its acceptance by users. The Go2Group CRM Plugin s performance is addressed in a number of areas: 1. Data requests to Salesforce (or other CRM systems) are throttled by the number of connections to these external systems. Currently only one connection is left open to Salesforce and all queries and updates are synchronized through this one connection. In the future, a connection pool may be implemented with a limited size (five is expected). 2. Query results are cached in memory so an identical query is not repeated until the item in the cache expires (a configurable time limit). 3. Queries for information from the external system may be limited by two settings in the properties file: a. The number of rows returned from the query, b. An addition to the where clause of the query, eg, account.type= Active Customer could be specified. 4. The DHTML screens (actually programmed in the velocity template language) can pre-populate lists of accounts, leads, etc. from a query all of the external CRM system. This method is not preferable for a user with thousands of accounts. An Ajax interface has been developed allowing the user to type the first character of the item in interest (i.e. E for all accounts starting with E), and only a query for accounts starting with E will be searched, as shown in the image below. Ajax-included search for increased performance JIRA data in a Salesforce case
Extendibility The initial implementation of the Go2Group CRM Plugin in was developed to integrate JIRA with Salesforce but once it was realized this same integration device could be used as a general interface to external CRM systems, the code was re-architected to allow expansion. A java interface has been defined (called DataProvider) whose goal is to provide an extension mechanism, i.e., the interface defined to support data transfer to a new CRM system, the name of the new class is entered in the properties file, and a new CRM system has been integrated with JIRA. The following interface makes several assumptions: 1. Information from the CRM system is structured as records, with each record containing a unique id (a primary key). 2. The entities in the CRM system (eg Accounts, Contacts, Products, etc) are structured as parent entities, and child entities. For example, Salesforce uses Account as a parent entity, and Contact as child entities of Account (ie, Contacts are listed for or within Accounts). 3. The entities to be queried, and the fields to be queried for each entity type are controlled by settings in the properties file, i.e.: account=id(primary),name, phone, AccountNumber, BillingStreet contact=id(primary),accountid(parent-account),phone 4. Each method return a list of found records, and each record is represented as a map where the key is the field name (eg BillingStreet ), and the value could be 10 Main Street. The methods that must be defined for a new integration are defined the DataProvider java class. User Interface Currently the AJAX style interface is used to provide a useful and efficient interface. In the future, a more compact interface is anticipated, where more of the width of the page is utilized, instead of the length (the standard JIRA approach to displaying information).
Pricing Details The Go2Group CRM Plugin is priced at USD$995.00 for a single license. A Go2Group CRM Plugin license sits between one (1) instance of Atlassian JIRA and one (1) instance of a CRM System, irrespective of the number of users. A license purchase entitles the end-user to 12-months of complimentary support and maintenance from Go2Group. Support is provided by Go2Group through an online issue tracking system, email, and telephone support where needed. Maintenance includes all updates and upgrades complimentary during the initial 12-month period. Additional maintenance can be purchased following the initial 12- month period. For an additional fee, Go2Group will provide CRM Plugin installation, customization, training, and support. Go2Group provides discounts when service is purchased in tandem with new license. Technical Details To install the Go2Group CRM Plugin, you will need the following: Atlassian JIRA Enterprise, v3.11 or later Salesforce CRM, Professional, Enterprise, or Unlimited editions SugarCRM, v5.1.0a or later In addition to the technical requirements above, you will need administrator-level permissions for Atlassian JIRA and the CRM system.
What To Do Next The Go2Group CRM Plugin is available for a 30-day evaluation at no charge. Simply request access to the Go2Group Support site and follow the quick and easy steps to get started: Review the Go2Group JaM Plugin documentation and the Go2Group CRM Plugin FAQ, Download the latest CRM Plugin installer, Request a 30-day license key to begin your evaluation today! Sales Support Go2Group provides sales support for its entire line of products. Go2Group sales support is available by telephone, email, and a Go2Group product-specific customer support ticket system: By telephone: (877) 442-4669 By email: sales@go2group.com By ticket: support.go2group.com A customer login is required to access the support site above. Please contact Go2Group for your login credentials. Learn More For more information on Go2Group, its products, and its services, please visit our website at: For more information on JIRA, please visit the Atlassian website at: http://www.atlassian.com For more information on Salesforce, please visit the salesforce.com website at: www.salesforce.com For more information on SugarCRM, please visit the SugarCRM website at: www.sugarcrm.com