Skip to main content

Connecting a Third-Party Application

An integration connects Amplify to another application your organization uses, such as Jira, Azure DevOps, or SAP, and brings its data into Amplify automatically — such as work items as tasks on an initiative's schedule. Integrations keep that data up to date as it changes in the other application. They're managed under Administration > Integrations.

This article covers both the Advanced and Simple Models. Managing integrations needs administrator access, or an admin role with access to Integrations — see Admin Roles.

Why connect your other applications

Teams often track their day-to-day work in their own tools, while progress is reported in Amplify. Without an integration, the same work has to be entered twice, and Amplify only shows it as of the last time someone updated it. Connecting the two means:

  • One place to see progress — data from other tools shows alongside Amplify's own, such as on an initiative's schedule or its registers.
  • No entering data twice — teams keep working in the tool they already use.
  • Up-to-date information — changes in the other tool flow into Amplify, so dashboards and reports reflect the latest position.

Deciding what to bring in

Amplify is where initiatives are overseen — their progress, delivery, and value. Bring in the data that helps with that, and leave the detail in the tool your teams work in:

  • Bring in — the information that shows how initiatives are progressing, such as key deliverables, milestones, epics or features, costs, and risks, with their dates and status.
  • Leave out — the day-to-day detail, such as individual sub-tasks, bugs, or comments. It stays in the other application, where the team manages it.

Keeping to what matters makes schedules and registers easier to read, keeps dashboards focused, and makes each sync quicker.

How integrations work

  • Each integration is set up for your organization — Amplify-Now works with you to understand what you'd like to bring into Amplify, and sets up an integration for the application you use.
  • It can bring in any kind of item — such as tasks, initiatives, benefits, costs, or RAID items, created or updated in Amplify from the other application.
  • Each item stays matched — every synced item keeps a reference to its match in the other application, so it's updated rather than duplicated at each sync.
  • It connects to your account — each integration uses a connection to your organization's account in the other application.
  • It syncs on a schedule — and whenever you sync it by hand.

Setting up an integration

Integrations need to be turned on for your organization. To set up an integration for an application you use, speak to your Customer Success Manager. Amplify-Now works with you to agree what the integration brings in, and sets it up. Once it's ready, it's listed under Administration > Integrations.

Connecting an application

An integration needs a connection to your organization's account in the other application. To connect it:

  1. Navigate to Administration > Integrations.
  2. Select the Connections tab.
  3. Click Connect next to the application.
  4. Sign in to the other application, and allow Amplify to access it.

The connection shows as Connected. Where the other application asks for it, enter your workspace name too.

Connections can expire. The connection shows its Token expiry date — before then, or once it's expired, click Reauthenticate to connect it again.

Running an integration

An integration is Active while it's running, and Inactive while it's stopped.

  • Start and Stop — start the integration, or stop it syncing.
  • Sync Frequency — how often it syncs. We recommend Daily.
  • Sync Now — sync straight away, without waiting for the next sync.
  • Last sync, Last attempted sync, and Last started — when the integration last synced successfully, last tried to, and was last started. Where the last attempted sync is later than the last sync, the most recent sync didn't succeed.

Synced data

Synced items appear in Amplify just like items created in Amplify — synced tasks on the initiative's schedule and in its task registers, and other items in their registers and dashboards. Each one stays matched to its item in the other application, so it's updated at every sync.

Make changes to synced data in the other application, not in Amplify. A change made in Amplify may be replaced the next time the integration syncs. For synced items other than tasks, don't change the External identifier, as it's what keeps the item matched.

See Schedules and Register Views.

Deleting an integration

Deleting an integration that brings in tasks also deletes every task it brought into Amplify. It can't be undone. To stop syncing but keep the data, stop the integration instead.

To delete an integration:

  1. Navigate to Administration > Integrations.
  2. Click Delete Integration next to the integration.
  3. Confirm.

Other ways to connect