On Tuesday Atlassian released a highly-anticipated update to their very popular enterprise wiki software, Confluence. The update, version 4.3, is packed with plenty of exciting new features, and we're here to help you unpack them!

With the new release it's clear that Atlassian focused on getting to the heart of what draws users to their software. For many organizations Confluence offers the ability to vastly improve productivity among teams and entire companies. Atlassian estimates that the average worker will spend around 31 hours per month refocusing after checking email and switching between messages and other tasks. Confluence offers a way of cutting out this wasted time and version 4.3 makes it easier than ever to achieve outstanding results.

Take, for instance, the enhanced notifications menu. Atlassian calls it WorkBox, but what it means for you is less context switching. Why leave a page to find out what updates were made or which new tasks were assigned to you? No more checking email or wasting time in your inbox- go ahead and close that tab.

What if you want to take action on those WorkBox items and move forward, but you bemoan team meetings and more wasted time? In-line actions makes it easy to take a notification and add it to your task list or make comments and likes on any action item. We like this feature for its ability to keep us focused on the task at hand and for scheduling later items.

And speaking of adding action items to task lists, Confluence 4.3 has done a fantastic job of making such lists work better for users. Unlike traditional task management apps (which draw you away from where you're actually working), the task list in Confluence gives context to items. You have instant access to your tasks from notifications, assigned projects and personal tasks. There's no better way to stay on track and deliver results.

Finally, we're pumped about Atlassian's seamless integration of all of these features onto a mobile platform. Better yet? It doesn't require any installation. Just open Confluence within your mobile Safari on iOS and eliminate another barrier to productivity.

We're big fans of Confluence 4.3, with all its WorkBox and mobile goodness, and we think you will be too.

About CustomWare

CustomWare offers industry-leading support and services for Atlassian products. As Atlassian's first and most active services parter we've successfully deployed Atlassian solutions, including training, workshops, projects, support and plugins, since 2003. Companies like Salesforce.com, Zendesk and Box partner with CustomWare to deliver the most important services needs for their customers.

CustomWare has extensive experience with Confluence and upgrades, we can make any transition hassle-free for you! From providing Health Checks on new versions to 'best practices' training, customers have looked to us for years when implementing Atlassian products. We've also developed some of Atlassian's most popular plugins and connectors, including products for Confluence like Scaffolding, Reporting and Composition.

Contact us to discuss your Confluence implementation or upgrade- we'd love to help you get going on the best Confluence release ever!