Suggestion on improving data accuracy and consistency in the custom field called Customer Account

[Henry Bada]

Hey Atlassian Community Team,

I wanted to run this issue we have by this group to see if anyone here who has experienced something similar and has found a solution.  I am making improvements to the way Jira was setup before I arrived at my current company.

What is our problem?  

In Jira Cloud, we are using a custom field called Customer Account to manage our customer reported bugs.  This was setup as a free form option in the custom field.  When our Support Team logs bugs, the free form field causes many to type different variations of a customer's name, so the data entered has become a problem.  For example, Bank of America could be entered in different ways:  BankofAmerica, BofA, BofAmerica, BankofA...etc.  This has caused records in Reports (through Jira and EazyBI) to be duplicated by creating multiple customers which should be the same.

Our Support Team uses ZenDesk for issues logged between them and the customers.  The customers have access to ZenDesk.  Our Sales Team uses Salesforce as this is the source of truth for accurate customer information, including the correct entry of the customer name.

Approaches I am looking into?

1. Maintain Current Approach
   1. Bring better awareness to the Support Team when entering the data and refer to Customer List from Salesforce
2. Move from Free Form to Fixed Drop Down Customer Account Custom Field
   1. This requires a setup of a new custom field using Customer Account field by using the Salesforce list and using the drop-down list
      1. Unclear what the max number will be in Jira, will investigate shortly
   2. A bulk move of all similar names pertaining to the customer will need to be conducted
3. Look at integration tool such as Connector for Salesforce and Jira
   1. Based on what I have seen in the Marketplace, this may be an option but will come with a cost
   2. Will continue to investigate
   3. A bulk move of all similar names pertaining to the customer will need to be conducted
      
4. Look at integration tool such as a ZenDesk plugin for Jira
   1. Not the best option since we Salesforce contains the full list of customers
5. Use Jira automation?
   
   1. Have looked at ways automation would work
   2. Not the best options

If anyone in this community has come across a similar situation and has found a solution similar to what I have outlined or a better solution, please let me know.  

Thanks

Henry

[Mark Segall]

Hi @Henry Bada - There's no way around it, you're going to have costs when you're dealing with data integrity.  Whether that is a soft cost that is hidden in some poor user's agonizing efforts to maintain manually, or in hard costs such as the plugins you raised.  Ultimately, you just need to put a quantifiable number to your options and go with the one that makes the most sense.

Being an Atlassian forum here, I would be remiss if I didn't raise another option of looking into migration from Zendesk to Jira Service Management.  In addition to all of your ticketing needs under one solution, the JSM Premium license includes Insight which is a great option for storing external content. 

[Henry Bada]

Hello @Mark Segall , I never considered migrating from Zendesk to Jira Service Management and I am glad. you brought that up.  I will add this to my list of approaches to further investigate.  Thanks f or your insight and your response!