Atlassian consulting & license management for a climate solutions provider

Solution

Our tech consultants worked closely with the climate company's Atlassian admins and department heads to deliver the solution addressing their business challenges. We performed an audit, license management, Jira and JSM configuration, and other support activities.

Audit

We suggested the following steps and activities for the customer and our teams:

	Customer	Itransition
Goal setting	Identify goals Provide answers to questions Give access to the artifacts	Interview the customer’s admins Define business and technical requirements
Analysis	Provide access to current Atlassian configurations and settings	Analyze the current processes and infrastructure Check compliance with Atlassian’s best practices
Improvement road mapping	Prioritize requirements Distribute roles and responsibilities between the customer and Itransition with Itransition taking up nontrivial tasks demanding more time and effort Validate and approve the roadmap and deliverables	Draw a list of improvements Develop a flexible roadmap Architect the solution Model business processes and data flows Make a support plan taking on non-trivial tasks
Implementation & support activities	Prepare and carry out training sessions	Provide the customer with structured knowledge and documentation for training purposes

We analyzed the routine work of the customer’s Atlassian admins and the tasks they performed. As a result of the audit, we suggested an improvement plan and fixed the most urgent issues right away, such as:

• Run ongoing audits of the customer’s current Atlassian settings and licenses and scale the system up in line with their evolving needs while staying within the budget
• Configure JSM projects for the customer’s teams and implement improvements
• Automate operations and streamline processes for different departments
• Perform smooth handover of projects to the customer’s teams using Jira daily, including documentation and user training
• Implement Jira automation and report features, enabling the customer to make the most out of their Atlassian suite with rich data and operational efficiencies
• Provide ongoing technical support and bug fixes 

Jira & JSM

Itransition’s team performed the following actions:

• Implemented Atlassian best practices and JSM configurations
• Created customizable workflows to match different departments’ workflows for the customer
• Extended configurations of incoming and outgoing email notifications for JSM projects
• Improved support team’s user request management flows for different departments
• Developed custom Jira plugins targeting specific user groups

Itransition’s team integrated different service and development projects using automation and RESTful API. We have also developed an integration between the customer’s HR software and Jira, as well as an integration between the accounting project and external services.

To organize task tracking, the customer’s HR specialists use both the third-party HRIS and Jira. Itransition’s team suggested unifying task management in a single Kanban board via an integration between the HRIS and Jira. Using native integration possibilities such as webhooks, we built a custom integration between Jira and a third-party SaaS HRIS used for pre-boarding and onboarding workflow management, employee performance reviews, paying compensations, etc.

Itransition analyzed the customer’s workflows, gathered the HR team’s requirements, and defined the processes to streamline. The integration features the following functionality:

• Incoming events
  When a user creates a new task in the HRIS, the same task in Jira referring to the HRIS task is created automatically.
• Resolution events
  When a user resolves a task in Jira, the related HR task is automatically marked as Done.

For example, when there’s a search to fill a vacancy, the HR software triggers task creation for the most common workflow steps:

• Trigger onboarding actions
• Review visa requirements
• Send offboarding checklist
• Confirm resignation details 
• Trigger offboarding flow 
• Send resignation confirmation letter 
• Send end-of-week feedback 
• Prepare maternity leave confirmation letter 

Now, HR specialists can conveniently track and manage all the HR-created and Jira tasks in one space. The integration allows the customer to save up to 10% of the time on HR management processes. 

Accounting JSM project

The climate company has a multi-location globally dispersed accounting department handling hundreds of requests per week and up to 20 request types.

Also, they had dozens of workflows impossible to standardize, so they had to be customized to fit each request type, team, and accounting specialist. The department’s workflows, including sending bills, assigning tasks, giving instructions, and setting deadlines, were processed via email. Due to the company’s growth, the financial flow and processing had to be automated, streamlined, and optimized.

To do that, we helped the customer launch an extensive service project based on Atlassian’s best practices. We gathered requirements for the solution and configured Atlassian settings in line with them, setting up JSM projects and automating the business workflow.

The accounting project now processes hundreds of requests a week featuring 20+ request types for 40+ teams.

Team dashboards

Each company department has large teams dispersed globally, with department headquarters responsible for different locations. When a request comes in, it must be rerouted to the relevant team and dashboard.

We created and implemented separate dashboards for different departments with assigned and unassigned tasks and multiple filters, custom fields, and task types, totaling hundreds of objects. Our team also set up a dashboard report to filter the information users require based on certain criteria, saving them time for reports search. Now, complicated data is available in a one-page format. Dashboard filters help decision-makers responsible for dozens of tasks to focus on aspects of their choice and better manage and structure the work of their teams. In all, team dashboards are used by 8 departments on various projects.

License management

Itransition’s team performs end-to-end Atlassian license management for the customer, constantly reevaluating packages, setups, configurations, pricing plans, and feature packages to provide the most fitting ones, maximizing the solution’s performance and minimizing costs.

Itransition’s experts performed a detailed audit analyzing deployed instances to gauge relevant statistics and identify underused or unused licenses. We also conducted a cost optimization audit quarterly or upon request, investigating how licenses are used and which ones can be revoked. Due to the customer’s changing business needs, we also made sure to check if the current business requirements match the ongoing Atlassian setup. Then, we created a report describing pain points, providing a list of recommendations, and breaking down the particulars of current and future costs and implementation details. After the customer’s agreement, we implemented the recommendations.

Thanks to constant support and tune-up of Atlassian solutions provided by Itransition, the customer gained the following benefits:

• They don’t waste time and money on the wrong subscription and configuration
• They are informed about changes and offered cost optimization decisions in advance
• We tweak the solution to fit their current offering and business needs
• We handle license procedures, paperwork, and direct payments

Overall, cutting down on unused licenses allowed the climate company to reinvest the saved funds into growing their global teams 1.5 times in 8 months.

Customer support

Itransition’s team acted as a technology consultant helping the customer try different Atlassian solutions and analyze their pros and cons. For example, we supported them during the Jira Software Premium plan trial and guided them through additional features, including Sandbox and Assets.

We also provided mini Q&A sessions during our sync-ups whenever there was an admin issue or new interesting expertise to share. The customer’s Atlassian experts also come to us for consultations on non-trivial issues, and we suggest workarounds.

Additionally, we continue to help automate JSM projects for the customer’s different departments with unique needs. We also performed SLA management for the customer.