Internal Atlassian App Team Efficiencies From Streamlined Enterprise Technical Strategy And Planning

Evidence and data. Interviewees said that after developing a roadmap with Advisory Services, their organizations’ internal app development teams saved time both in managing the process and the execution of the plan. They reported the following benefits:

• Strategic Alignment And Roadmapping

  • Interviewees said Advisory Services translated business objectives into technical roadmaps for Atlassian adoption.
  • Advisory Services helped define multiyear strategies, including transformation timelines, integration priorities, and governance milestones.
  • The information lead for banking said: “[Advisory Services] gave us a roadmap that aligned with our business priorities. Without that, we’d have been guessing.”

• Future-Proofing And Scalability

  • Interviewees said Advisory Services anticipates future needs (e.g., scaling to tens of thousands of users or integrating with enterprise systems).
  • Advisory Services offered insight into Atlassian’s product roadmap, ensuring technical decisions wouldn’t block future capabilities (e.g., Atlassian Intelligence, Atlassian Rovo).
  • The head of change management for luxury goods reported, “[Advisory Services] helped us design for scale so we don’t have to rip and replace in two years.”

• Risk Reduction Through Planning

  • Interviewees described Advisory Services as playing a critical role in risk assessment and mitigation, especially during cloud transformations and consolidations.
  • They said Advisory Services provided contingency planning for data integrity, downtime, and compliance risks.
  • They also said Advisory Services planning helped avoid production-impacting mistakes and saved months of rework.
  • The information lead at a banking organization said, “Without their planning, we’d have had outages and broken workflows.”

• Technical Architecture And Integration Strategy

  • Interviewees explained that Advisory Services guided decisions about instance architecture, identity management, and integration patterns.
  • Those from companies with complex ecosystems said Advisory Services helped map dependencies and design integrations with HR systems, continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, and ITSM tools.
  • The engineering leader at an automotive organization explained, “They helped us architect the whole ecosystem, not just Jira.”

• Benchmarking And Best Practices

  • Interviewees said Advisory Services brings together lessons from other enterprises, which includes benchmarks for performance, governance, and automation.
  • They also explained that this external perspective validated internal strategies and accelerated decision-making.
  • The VP of service operations for a fintech organization said, “They showed us what other Fortune 500 [companies] were doing, [which was a] huge confidence boost.”

• Executive Communication And Stakeholder Buy-In

  • Interviewees said Advisory Services supported executive-level presentations and helped technical teams articulate the value of Atlassian investments.
  • The strategic input from Advisory Services often helped unlock budget approvals and reduce resistance from leadership.
  • The head of engineering for a financial services organization said, “They gave us the language to get leadership on board.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• In Year 1, the composite dedicates four FTE resources (product managers, team leaders, IT managers) to working with Advisory Services to manage and execute workstreams. In Years 2 and 3, it dedicates one FTE to this.

• Throughout the three-year analysis period, the composite has five FTEs develop and deploy workstreams.

• With Advisory Services, the composite moves 25% of its internal app team members to higher-value roles.

Risks. Factors that may affect app team efficiencies may include the following:

• The average salaries of the organization’s app team members.

• The number of FTEs committed to working on app team development.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $388,000.

Avoided Technical Debt And App Optimization

Evidence and data. Interviewees reported that working with Advisory Services to streamline their organizations’ enterprise technical strategies had a significant business impact on reducing technical debt.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• On average, each of the composite’s Atlassian app users saves 2 hours per week through improved solution design.

• The average fully-burdened salary or an Atlassian app user is $100,000.

• The composite expands its Atlassian apps user base from 14,000 in Year 1 to 18,000 in Year 3.

• The composite recaptures 50% of the time saved for additional value-added work.

Risks. Factors that may affect this benefit may include the following:

• The organization’s number of users.

• The average fully-burdened salaries of employees.

• The organization’s level of use of Atlassian apps.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $1.5 million.

Enterprisewide Efficiencies From Improved Adoption Of Atlassian Apps

Evidence and data. Interviewees reported that working with Advisory Services allowed their organizations to give workers access to newly deployed solutions earlier.

• They said users became an average of 8% to 12% more efficient with Atlassian apps.

• They also stated their organizations gained the ability to deliver new functionality to users 12 weeks sooner than they could without Advisory Services.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite delivers new functionality to users 12 weeks sooner with Advisory Services.

• For modeling purposes, the benefit attributed to Advisory Services is limited to this 12-week reduction in deployment time. Thereafter, benefits accrue to the organization from the adoption of Atlassian products themselves.

• The composite continuously deploys a steady stream of new innovations for users.

• The organization’s Atlassian users spend about 50% of their time using Atlassian products.

• The composite organization develops new functionality for a broader set of users across the organization. This user base grows from 14,000 in Year 1 to 18,000 in Year 3.

• In Year 1, all users are impacted by the composite’s cloud transformation. In Years 2 and 3, the composite delivers new functionality to about half of the users.

Risks. Factors that may affect this benefit may include the following:

• The number of users across the organization.

• The average fully-burdened salaries of employees.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $9.6 million.

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:

• Faster and more successful cloud transformation efforts. The preexisting pain points were particularly prevalent for teams attempting to plan and execute a cloud transformation. One interviewee said their organization previously paid about $550,000 in costs that could have been avoided if the company had engaged with Advisory Services from the start. Others described failed attempts that caused their organization to reverse course, regroup, and start over. The head of change management for a luxury goods company said: “We had a false start. We spent a lot of money with the vendor and didn’t get to migrate even 1%. It was really bad. So then the team was transferred to me, and I stopped everything and said we cannot continue with this vendor. … [Advisory Services representatives] gave us governance, a blueprint, and the support we needed to make the transformation happen. Honestly, they weren’t just advisories; they’ve been my partners.”

• Enhanced collaboration with third-party vendors. The director of Atlassian ecosystems for a financial services organization said: “A few weeks ago, we had a plug-in issue that was blocking our [Atlassian] Confluence upgrade. Atlassian stepped in and escalated the problem directly with the third-party developer. That kind of vendor support gave us more leverage than we would’ve had as a single client, and it ultimately helped us get the issue resolved.”

• Improved standards and processes. The VP of operations at a fintech organization said: “They helped us with some foundational stuff we needed to tackle first because, if the team isn’t enabled, the business won’t be either. It starts with us. Once the team has what it needs to succeed, everything else can follow.”

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might work with Advisory Services and later realize addition uses and business opportunities, including:

• Building flexibility into workstream efforts.

• Alerting customers to best practices.

• Having advanced knowledge about new product development efforts within Atlassian products.