We are excited to announce that Orange Tracker (OT) has migrated to an Atlassian cloud-based system, utilizing the Atlassian Jira Service Management (JSM) Cloud platform.   

OT data that migrated to JSM Cloud includes: 

  • All existing users (internal and external) 
  • All current projects  
  • All permissions  
  • Email addresses of all OT projects  
  • All filters and sharing settings  
  • All dashboards and sharing settings  
  • All tickets (see important notes in the “Email Reponses to Existing Tickets” section below), including attachments 

New Features and Functionality 

The new JSM Cloud platform provides a number of new features and improvements, many of which are available immediately, and others to be rolled out over the coming weeks and months. Below are some of the highlights of the Atlassian JSM Cloud migration that will be available upon completion of the migration: 

Improved Security: Logins will take place via Single Sign-On (SSO), which means credentials will be stored in a single place, making it more difficult for attackers to gain access. 

Queues: Rather than individual dashboards, agents will now find a new team-based “queue” feature, which will allow you to quickly see workloads, triage and assign requests as they come in. Default queues that are delivered with the migrated version can be modified or deleted. New queues can be created, based on individual team needs.  

Customer Portal: In the former OT environment, customers received email notifications from individual tickets and manage/communicate with the ticket through email. While email notifications will still be used and considered the primary form of communication in JSM Cloud, a new portal feature will allow customers to view and communicate with existing issue tickets. (The ability for customers to create a ticket and search the knowledge base will be made available at a later date.) 

Restricted Comments: Restricted comments are easier. With the new system, you’ll select the restriction first with the “Add internal note” or the “Reply to customer” buttons. 

New User Interface Layout: Internal users (consultants) now have a simplified layout when working in JSM. This includes a three-panel layout, which will contain all the major fields, consultant views (dashboards, filters), new work views and new project team functionality. 

Expanded Project Administrator Capabilities: Project Administrators will have expanded control over more Project settings.      

Future Improvements

The JSM platform offers many new features related to service requests and incident management. Please note all of the following are marked as future enhancements, as we will focus on these improvements in the weeks and months ahead. 

  • (Future) Improved customer help center, allowing customers to create tickets directly without emailing in, and search the knowledge base for self-help 
  • (Future) “Request participants” allows sharing your request with your colleagues and teams, so they can see the same information as you and add information to the ticket 
  • (Future) Customer satisfaction surveys 
  • (Future) Advance workflows tailored to a project’s specific service category

Known Migration Challenges, Issues and Updates

Email Reponses to Existing Tickets: The URL used for sending and receiving tickets will now be from atlassian.net. When a customer/reporter replies to an email generated prior to the migration, that email message may generate a new ticket in JSM Cloud. The message subject for the email will retain the existing OT ticket number allowing consultants/agents to manually add the email contents as a new comment in the migrated ticket. To help minimize occurrences of new tickets being created due to an updated URL, consultants/agents may create a comment in open tickets, requesting customers to reply to the new email for communicating with the ticket. 

API Connections to OT:  If you are using an API to access the current OT system, these scripts will need to be modified to continue working. Please reach out for support if you are using an API and have not already transitioned to JSM Cloud. 

Ticket Archival:  Tickets older than seven years AND not closed or resolved will be migrated to the data warehouse in the weeks following the migration. Please watch for additional communications regarding this future change. 

Open Tickets:  In order to help improve analytics and reporting available in JSM, please consider reviewing tickets and updating those that are open but should have a status of “closed” or “resolved” status. This effort may begin at any time, and you will be a step ahead as additional information will come out about ticket cleanup efforts in the near future. 

Getting Support   

  • You can learn more on the JSM Training Resources page.   
  • If you have any questions or concerns about your Jira projects and their workflows, please consult your OT project lead.  
  • For any issues you may come across after the migration, please email help@syr.edu or call the ITS Service Center at x2677.