The client is a Montreal-based software acquisition group that specializes in acquiring and growing vertical market software companies.

Challenge:

The AP/AR helpdesk ticketing process depended on nearly 180 individual mail flow rules in Exchange Online, each designed to forward emails from specific entities to Jira for automated ticket creation and assignment.

As the company expanded and onboarded new entities, this setup became unsustainable because of the following:

• Exchange Online Rule Limit: Microsoft’s 300-rule cap in Exchange Online was nearly reached, threatening the ability to integrate additional companies.
• No Vendor Flexibility: Attempts to increase the rule limit through Microsoft support were denied, leaving no room for policy exceptions.
• Operational Complexity: Managing a large number of rules introduced unnecessary complexity, increased administrative overhead, and heightened the risk of misconfiguration.
• Scalability Constraints: The existing setup lacked scalability, making future growth dependent on manual intervention and prone to bottlenecks.

The challenge was to redesign the AP/AR ticketing process to support continued growth, reduce complexity, and stay within Microsoft’s platform limits, without disrupting daily operations for helpdesk agents and finance managers.

The primary objective was to simplify and future-proof the AP/AR helpdesk ticket assignment process by consolidating mail flow rules through strategic grouping of companies by portfolio. This aimed to:

• Reduce rule complexity and administrative overhead.
• Ensure compliance with Microsoft Exchange Online limits, enabling continued growth.
• Maintain efficient ticket handling for AP/AR helpdesk agents with minimal disruption.
• Improve long-term maintainability by removing outdated or unused rules.
• Clearly communicate these changes to finance managers and helpdesk teams for a seamless transition.

Solution:

To address the limitations of the existing AP/AR ticketing system, the ticket assignment process was redesigned by grouping companies into portfolios managed by their respective finance managers.

Instead of maintaining nearly 180 individual mail flow rules in Exchange Online, the rules were consolidated into approximately 40 portfolio-based rules; each covering multiple companies.

This significantly reduced system complexity and ensured compliance with Microsoft Exchange’s mail flow rule limits.

In parallel, Jira was updated to support the new structure. A new custom field for “Portfolio” was added, along with corresponding queues and automation rules to assign tickets based on portfolio assignment.

Outdated and unused mail flow rules were also cleaned up to further streamline the configuration.

The implementation followed a phased, five-week rollout to ensure stability and minimize disruption:

• Discovery Phase (Week 1): All existing company email integrations were extracted from Exchange and mapped to their respective portfolios. This mapping was validated through collaboration with the finance managers and the integration team.
• Communication Phase (Week 2): Clear, detailed communications were sent to finance managers and AP/AR helpdesk agents outlining the upcoming changes, expected responsibilities, and project timeline to ensure transparency and readiness.
• Jira Deployment Phase (Week 3): A new portfolio field was introduced in Jira, along with automated rules to route incoming tickets. New queues were created for each portfolio, the company integration form on the IT Helpdesk was updated, and extensive testing ensured reliability before launch.
• Exchange Rules Deployment Phase (Week 4): Around 40 consolidated mail flow rules were implemented in Exchange, replacing the original individual rules. Redundant and inactive rules were removed to clean up the environment.
• Go-Live & Monitoring Phase (Week 5): The updated system went live with active monitoring of ticket flow and queue assignment. Helpdesk agents and finance managers were supported during the transition to ensure continuity and effectiveness.

Impact:

The project delivered a streamlined and scalable AP/AR ticket assignment process, resulting in several key improvements:

• 66% Reduction in Mail Flow Rules: The number of Exchange rules was reduced from nearly 180 to around 40, freeing up capacity for future company integrations and staying well within platform limitations.
• Simplified Administration: Outdated and unused rules were eliminated, significantly reducing the risk of misconfiguration and lowering administrative overhead.
• Improved Maintainability: The new portfolio-based structure simplified ongoing rule management, saving considerable time previously spent updating and troubleshooting individual rules.
• Uninterrupted Operations: Clear communication and structured deployment ensured that AP/AR helpdesk agents experienced no disruptions during the transition.
• Scalability Enabled: The portfolio-based design supports continued business growth by maintaining an efficient and sustainable ticketing workflow.