Leading Wireless Retailer Switches from Zendesk to Jira Service Management

One of the leading exclusive premium retailers for Verizon, offering a full range of wireless devices including phones, tablets, mobile broadband, wearable technology, accessories, and product insurance made the switch to Jira Service Management (JSM). With over 1,000 locations, this retailer has a stellar reputation for excellent customer service and has even been recognized by Verizon as an Agent of the Year. As such, having a reliable ticketing system for customer service issues, as well as technical support, human resources and other critical aspects was non-negotiable.

Poor Customer Service/Communication

This retailer was using Zendesk as its ticketing system for internal employees with a total of 12 portals for various business functions. The Zendesk contract was coming up for renewal and they were having significant issues communicating with Zendesk sales representatives.

Migration Needed with Fast Turnaround

With just a few weeks before their contract was set to expire, there was the risk of either discontinuing the Zendesk contract and losing over 300,000 data records or renewing at a hefty price tag just to have the account long enough to migrate their data off the platform.

Limited Customization

This retailer was unable to achieve some of the customizations they needed through their use of Zendesk. They needed a partner who could turn around a large migration, replicate their custom environment, test to ensure functionality, and build a knowledge base that would enable requesters to do self-service if possible.

For this special project, Praecipio was selected for their depth of knowledge with Jira Service Management, and confidence in their ability to deliver a migration from Zendesk to JSM on an aggressive timeline. Jira Service Management enables employees to submit tickets over the internet or via email. Additionally, not only was it a more affordable option, but JSM was also able to provide the unique customizations to their environment that the retailer needed.

Custom Built Jira Service Management Environment

To complete the migration, Praecipio engineers met with the retailer’s representatives to get their requirements, review their Zendesk instance, and build out the Jira Service Management environment per their requirements. This project required 12 service desk portals for employees to create tickets for various departments within the company.

Specialized Migration Done on a Tight Deadline

Praecipio migrated 11 projects from ZenDesk to JSM, including a build out of 12 new Service Desk projects in Jira with associated fields, screens, workflows, email handlers. With over 300,000 records needing to be migrated--the history, field data, attachments, and more--this challenge would’ve been difficult, even in the best-case scenario. Praecipio performed the bulk of changes outside of normal business hours to avoid any business interruption.

Created a Knowledge Base & Conducted Post-Project Support

Praecipio created a Confluence knowledge base linked to Jira Service Management Projects. This knowledge base was created to host articles that can help employees solve their issue directly before submitting a request. This saves the IT department time and reduces the number of IT resources needed to support employees. Praecipio also provided expertise on 3rd party apps to help enhance Jira Service Management functionality and provided post-project support and guidance on best practices.