Zendesk integration as an MSP

How to integrate Panorama9 and Zendesk for MSP's

IT-Man avatar
Written by IT-Man
Updated over a week ago

With the Zendesk integration, issues detected by Panorama9 can generate Zendesk tickets, so you can easily manage who handles a case and track its progress. You may apply all the ticket management tools that Zendesk offers to any of the detected issues. And the Zendesk ticket will continually be updated with new information about the issue when Panorama9 detects changes.

As an MSP you may be interested in getting issues from multiple clients into a single Zendesk account. This is possible using the Zendesk setup found in the Panorama9 MSP Control Panel under the section "Templates" -> "Zendesk".
It works by setting up a Zendesk template and then applying that to the clients you wish to be using the same Zendesk account.

Configuring Zendesk settings

These are the settings that should be applied to clients to integrate them with your Zendesk account. Note if you've installed the Panorama9 App in Zendesk a template "Zendesk default" was created for you. Should you need multiple Zendesk configurations you can create a new template otherwise just edit the default template.

Dynamic requester name and requester email

For some fields it is helpful to be able to customize the value for each client. This is supported by inserting a special character sequence. Currently you can use these sequences in the "Requester name" and "Requester email" fields.

Supported sequences:

%C resolves to current client name, unchanged
%c resolves to current client name, lower cased and all other characters than basic alphanumeric (a to z, and 0-9) stripped.
%D resolves to current client display name, unchanged. For clients without a display name, it is the equivalent of %C.
%d resolves to current client display name, same rules as %c. If no display name, equivalent to %c.
%P resolves to MSP name, unchanged
%p resolves to MSP name, same rules as %c.
%% resolves to a literal % (it is a valid character in the local-part of an email address)
Let us use an example. If you enter this into the "Requester email" field:

Once the template is applied to clients, it would become for that client only:

The Wine Shop Inc. becomes: support-thewineshopinc@mspdomain.tld
LöcalProdücts+++(Organic!) becomes: support-lcalprodctsorganic@mspdomain.tld
Note that this is resolved at the time the template is applied to the client, so if you later change the client name, you must reapply the template before it takes effect.

Multiple clients to single Zendesk account

The field "Add customer id to" is required when using a single Zendesk account for multiple clients and you wish to use the Panorama9 app inside Zendesk (specifically if linking assets to tickets). This allow the Panorama9 App to search for asset across multiple clients Panorama9 Dashboards.

Apply the Zendesk template to clients

Once the template has been applied to your clients you can configure "Notifications" on each client and have issues detected by Panorama9 created in Zendesk.


You will still get the same features as using the one-to-one Zendesk integration.

  • Issues converted to Zendesk tickets and resolved when the issue gets resolved

  • User messages converted to Zendesk tickets ("I need help from IT" in tray icon/menu bar on devices)

  • The Panorama9 App inside Zendesk

  • Ability to add user asset information on tickets not created by Panorama9

Enable the Zendesk integration

To enable the integration you must login to Zendesk and install the Panorama9 App. Navigate to the Zendesk Marketplace through "Admin" -> "APPS" -> "Marketplace", select the Panorama9 App and click on "Install App".

Once installed you must connect your Panorama9 account to Zendesk. The connection allows Panorama9 and Zendesk to talk to each other and display information stored in Panorama9 inside Zendesk or the other way around. You can anytime revoke this permission - just uninstall the Panorama App. To connect click on the "P9" icon in the Navigation bar on the left side of your Zendesk dashboard.

When connecting Panorama9 with Zendesk you'll be presented with two options - connect with your existing Panorama9 account or sign up for a new. Select the option that matches your situation and fill in with any required information.

If you're signing up for a new account it's important that you select the "Enable the MSP Control Panel" option. This will provision a Panorama9 MSP account instead of a normal Panorama9 account. See here for more information about the different Panorama9 account types.

Once done with the setup process your Panorama9 MSP account is connected to Zendesk and you will see that the Zendesk extension on your Panorama9 MSP account has been enabled.

You need to follow the next step below for completing the setup

  • Apply template settings to clients

Appending user asset information to submitted Zendesk tickets (optional)

When a user submits a support ticket through Zendesk requesting your IT help desk to troubleshoot and fix an issue, Panorama9 can automatically add detailed information about the computer the user is currently using. If you're using the Panorama9 App in Zendesk this is done automatically for your and you may skip these steps. Are you for some reason unable to use the Panorama9 App then you can configure Zendesk to pull the required information when new tickets are created.

To enable that Panorama9 adds information about a user's asset you must create a "Target" in Zendesk that calls Panorama9 upon specific ticket events. Navigate to "Settings" -> "Extensions" -> "Targets" -> "Add Target" and select "URL target" from the list of available targets.

Required information to configure the Zendesk target:

  • Title: Name your Zendesk target here. We recommend something simple like "Panorama9".

  • URL:  Copy and paste link from the URL in the Zendesk settings.

  • Method: Should be set to "PUT".

  • Attribute Name: Set this to "value".

  • Username: Not required. Leave blank.

  • Password: Not required. Leave blank.

Once a "Target" for Panorama9 has been configured, you must create a Zendesk "Trigger" so tickets that match a defined criteria gets updated by Panorama9 with the appropriate asset details. Add a "Trigger" in Zendesk by navigating to "Manage"-> "Triggers & Mail notifications" -> "Add trigger".

Required information to create a Zendesk trigger:

  • Trigger Title: Give your trigger a meaningful name.

  • Conditions:  Set conditions that match the user submitted support tickets which you wish to append asset information to. This can be anything you wish. If you wish to have this appended anytime a ticket is created or updated, then you can select the appropriate conditions. If you want this to be a manual process, then you can have the trigger execute based off a certain tag being present on a ticket such as "Panorama9".

  • Actions: This should be set to "Notify target" and select the "Panorama9" target (or whatever name you gave the target) configured in the step above.

  • Message:  Set this to “##{{ticket.id}}:##{{ticket.requester.email}}”

Once configured any new support ticket that matches the specified conditions will trigger Panorama9 to lookup what hardware the user is currently using and add information about the device to the ticket. Note that this requires the user is using a computer with the Panorama9 agent installed.


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