Resolving service management tickets is often a lengthy, complex process that requires digging for IT asset data, which can be difficult to find. Once service teams collect the information, they have to enter it manually into their CMDB system before they can take action. However, because it's a manual process, IT data is usually missing or inaccurate, delaying time to issue resolution and impacting productivity - both for the IT service desk as well as for the end users.
By leveraging IT asset discovery, CMDB management benefits from accurate asset data, and the ability to map relationships between assets and how they're interconnected. When a ticket is created, the IT asset discovery system can automatically fetch details about the affected hardware, software, or network components from the CMDB. This information is then made available to support teams, enabling them to diagnose and resolve issues more efficiently.
Laurens Coppens, Atlassian Practice Lead at Axians, was looking for a way to integrate IT asset discovery capabilities with Jira, a widely used project management and issue tracking software developed by Atlassian. A global Information Technology and Services company, Axians helps customers across many industries streamline internal processes so they can more efficiently and effectively deliver services both internally and externally.
"While Jira's primary function is not a CMDB, Jira Service Management premium and enterprise customers can access that capability within the platform through a feature called Jira Service Management Assets," Coppens said. "This feature enables organizations to create and maintain a centralized repository of information about its IT assets."
The problem, however, is that data has to be entered into Jira manually, a tedious, time-consuming and error-prone task. "Jira Assets CMDB is very flexible and does what a CMDB should do perfectly; however it lacks asset discovery capabilities," said Coppens. "Atlassian has its own discovery tool, which they incorporated into their offerings following an acquisition, but it doesn't add much value."
The Need for Robust IT Asset Discovery
To that end, Coppens needed a robust IT asset discovery solution that could be easily integrated with Jira. Although he evaluated other solutions, he settled on Lansweeper. "We had already had previous experience with Lansweeper as had many of our customers, plus the price was right," he said.
Coppens noted that Lansweeper adapts to fit the needs of any size company, as well. "Many of Lansweeper's competitors only aim to serve the enterprise, so they don't have a solution for the lower range," he said. "Lansweeper is, in my opinion, a fit for all sizes of organizations, and that's why we decided to build the integration."
Lansweeper's agent-based and agentless deep scanning and credential-free device recognition (CDR) technology continuously and automatically scan the network to discover all of the connected technology assets across an organization. This includes IT, OT, IoT, shadow IT, rogue devices, and idle devices, even ones that only briefly connect to the network. After discovering the devices, Lansweeper creates a comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date IT asset inventory in real time that includes detailed information about the devices themselves, installed software, location and more.
Instant IT Asset Insights from within Jira's CMDB
The Lansweeper App for Jira Service Management seamlessly integrates extensive Lansweeper's IT discovery and inventory capabilities with Jira Assets CMDB, providing automatic and immediate access to detailed IT asset data. The app automatically synchronizes Lansweeper with Jira Assets CMDB based on the user configuration. Information about the device, location, installed software and more is all viewable at-a-glance from within the Jira issue, and users can filter the information by asset type. If the user wants to investigate the asset further, they can simply click an embedded link in Jira to be taken to Lansweeper.
Thanks to the app, Jira users can also perform Assets Field Configurations to filter the fields of an asset for synching with Lansweeper data. Lansweeper App for Jira Service Management provides statistics for the syncing process, including start and end time along with status updates.
Access to Accurate IT Asset Data, without Delay
By integrating their Jira instance with the Lansweeper App for Jira Service Management, Axian's customers can:
- Leverage up-to-date information on assets and incidents for faster issue resolution
- Eliminate manual, error-prone data entry and ensure data accuracy
- Track and manage all of your IT assets and configurations from within Jira
- Prioritize issues effectively based on impact and criticality
- Improve collaboration and communication between support staff and end-users
According to Coppens, the biggest benefit of the Lansweeper integration is gaining insight into the root cause of issues. "Let's say you get 10 tickets off of devices because network connections are failing," he said. "If you can see at-a-glance that all of the devices are connected to the same network switch, then you can easily come to the conclusion that the switch is broken. By linking all that data together, you can eliminate a lot of investigative work, and resolve all 10 tickets, simply by fixing that one switch."
Coppens said the integration is helpful because it enables you to link users to devices, as well. "If we can link a user to a laptop, we can immediately see their laptop ID or mobile device, and all of the information available in Active Directory," he said. "All the user needs to do is say 'I have a problem' and we can figure out all the details in seconds."
By providing customers with the option to integrate Lansweeper with Jira Assets CMDB, Axians gains a competitive advantage. "Aside from Atlassian's IT discovery tool, which provides limited capabilities, Lansweeper is the only real option for our customers," Coppens said. "Being able to offer this integration is a significant differentiator for Axians."
Get Started Now
The Lansweeper App for Jira Service Management is available in the Atlassian marketplace. Lansweeeper also offers out-of-the-box integrations with a number of other popular CMDBs, including Service Now, FreshService, Halo ITSM, 4me and Seerevicely.ai, with more to come.
Browse our integrations to learn how you can leverage a complete and accurate IT asset inventory and granular IT asset data from Lansweeper with your mission-critical systems.
