How to get integrated

In xMatters, creating a workflow (or tailoring an existing integration) is as easy as 1-2-3. The overall steps are the same whether you want to enrich the information sent in the signal from the source application before sending it in a notification from xMatters or you want to link one application to the next in a powerful, automated incident resolution process.

Of course, if you want a plug-and-play integration with one application, we have a bunch of integrations built into xMatters that only require basic setup to get started.

1. Figure out your workflow

The first thing you need is a workflow. The workflow defines the framework for related information, alerts, and system activities — things such as flows, message templates, available alert properties, possible response options, and what happens when something changes. It also controls permissions and the ways you can kick off an alert (for example, from the Messaging tab in the user interface, from a form in the mobile app, or programmatically from an integration).

If you don't need to change the information, format, or available responses for messages, you can use one of our built-in workflows. If you need to tailor the messaging or logic to your particular scenario, you'll need a workflow, and there are a few ways you can get one: install one of our packaged workflows, create your own from scratch, or even try an experimental xM Labs integration if you're feeling adventurous.

Once you have a workflow, some of the alterations you might want to make are:

  • Changing which properties are brought into xMatters from the source system, which ones are available to use in a particular form, and which ones are sent in any messages from the integration.
  • Editing the content and appearance of messages sent to on-call resources (for example, putting things in a table or matching your company's branding).
  • Customizing response choices and actions to suit your requirements.

2. Inject information into xMatters

To use information from a source application in notifications or in flows, you first need to get the information into xMatters. Again, there are a few ways you can do this.

For built-in workflows, which deal with a signal from a single source, simply set up the source application to send a signal to xMatters.

For packaged workflows, you can use email triggers and HTTP triggers in Flow Designer to send information to and create alerts in xMatters. Using Flow Designer, you can simply trigger an alert and send notifications, or you can parse incoming data, enrich it with flows steps, and finally create an alert to send notifications if needed. If you want to see how it's done, check out our example flows initiated by email and HTTP request.

Some packaged workflows might use legacy inbound integrations in the Integration Builder. These continue to work as before, but you can also convert them into HTTP triggers to let you use more of the features Flow Designer offers.

3. Trigger the next steps

Finally, if you want to truly unlock the power of an automated workflow to facilitate your digital services availability and incident resolution processes — while still using the tools you already use every day — you can design a flow in Flow Designer. In Flow Designer, you add a trigger to kick off a series of actions across different tools, drop in ready-made steps for each of those actions, and connect the steps to set up how key incident resolution information is passed from one step to the next, and even into other applications.

Example, please!

You could set up a response option (say, "Start Major Incident Management") and use the Responses trigger to initiate a flow. When the on-call resource selects "Start MIM", xMatters creates an issue in your ITSM application, including information from the application monitoring tool and the alert information from xMatters; xMatters then creates a channel in your chat tool using the ITSM incident number in the name, so your team can collaborate on resolving the issue quickly; and xMatters updates a status website if the issue is customer impacting. All from your on-call resource selecting a single response in the notification from xMatters.

Learn more about the triggers, including examples of when you might use each one and what information is passed along, or you can check out our built-in steps.

4. Go further

But you said it was easy as 1-2-3? It is, and if you stop here you've still unlocked the power of integrating with xMatters. But there's more you can do if you want to.

After you have a workflow, and you're initiating alerts and triggering flows, we provide you with the toolkit to tailor this to your unique workflows.

What does that mean in the real world?

Here's an example:

Say you have a custom-built monitoring tool that you want to initiate alerts in xMatters... we won't have an integration with that tool, but you can use our Integration Builder to create one. Or maybe you're required to flag any signals injected by said tool that have "blueberry" in the summary and send them to a special project in a service desk application — you can use a custom step in Flow Designer to search for blueberry and decide what next step to take based on whether it's there or not.