Atlassian's JIRA Service Desk now helps employees help themselves

Universal search gives internal customers a single place to turn for answers

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The unified portal in Atlassian's new JIRA Service Desk

Imagine a service desk, and chances are you envision a team focused on helping and supporting external customers. But often overlooked are equivalent services that are focused instead on serving an organization's internal customers -- helping employees find the answers to their questions and the people they need, for example.

That, however, is precisely the area targeted by Atlassian with its JIRA Service Desk, and on Wednesday it gave the product a key update.

"For the last 10 to 15 years, a lot of the focus has been on CRM and improving the experience for the end customer," said Sidharth Suri, a vice president of marketing for Atlassian. "We think the needs of employees have been underserved. The success of your company depends on empowering and enabling them."

With that in mind, JIRA Service Desk 2.3 introduces a new, universal portal so that employees no longer have to figure out ahead of time who within the company is most likely to be able to help them. Instead, a Google-like search bar allows any employee with a question to simply type it in and get what they need, wherever those answers may come from.

"Essentially, the product gives a simple way for me to go to one central place regardless of my question," Suri said.

Say an employee needs to onboard a contractor, for example, but isn't sure how to go about it and doesn't know who to ask.

Now, "I can ask the question and self-serve if the answer is already there," he said. If it's not, the employee can input the question and know it will go to the right person, with prioritization and tracking capabilities, he added.

JIRA Service Desk 2.3 is now available. Pricing is based on the number of employees who have rights to answer queries and provide referrals.

Delivered as a cloud service by subscription, it costs $10 per month for each of the first three agents and then $25 per agent per month after that. One-time perpetual pricing is $1,500 for up to five agents; $3,000 for up to 10 agents; $30,000 for up to 100 agents; and a new $45,000 flat fee for unlimited use.