Success in today’s business environment depends more on technology than at any time in history. The average enterprise uses dozens of platforms, solutions, and services to power everything from software development to marketing to customer support. 

Every aspect of an organization is fundamentally dependent on technology, and a growing percentage of companies worldwide are adopting Atlassian solutions to manage their work. But when a business buys a platform to manage their work, who’s managing the platform?

The Atlassian suite comprises nearly a dozen core components, along hundreds of apps and connectors that aim to make the environment even more powerful and efficient. In fact, most Atlassian customers use more than 20 apps alongside their core Atlassian tools in an effort to make the platform as extensible and widely used as possible. 

While a vast array of tools provides an even wider range of capabilities necessary for sustainable business growth, it also makes it increasingly difficult to adequately manage, maintain, and support each one. Every app or system presents its own unique challenges, requiring varying levels of expertise to properly address them. 

In fact, Atlassian Jira alone can have more than a thousand custom workflows or forms and millions of issues across a business, stretching even the most experienced in-house tech teams beyond their limits to resolve every one of them in a timely or cost-effective manner.

As a result, more organizations of all sizes and in almost every industry are turning for help outside their organizations. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to overcome the limitations of shrinking IT budgets and growing demands. 

Limited time, limited resources, unlimited headaches

Atlassian is the go-to choice for tools that help businesses run more efficiently, but are often frustrated by too many demands on their time. It can be difficult to effectively manage every aspect of each app and system to reap the full benefits of the platform. 

The easy fix would be to simply hire more workers or endeavor to find ways of managing time and work more efficiently. But, most IT budgets these days are geared toward development and expansion rather than support and troubleshooting. 

And when time and budgets are low in supply but high in demand, defining priorities gets more difficult. Every task or project becomes the most important, potentially creating conflicts or simply stymying growth and innovation rather than furthering a company’s progress. 

Worse, limited resources mean that no team can be fully responsive to customer needs — for either internal or external stakeholders— internal or external, which shows up as disgruntled clients and employees and could grow into irreversible profit-draining issues.

Managed Services in the Atlassian Environment

These challenges are compelling many business leaders to turn to Atlassian Platinum Solution Partners for help keeping their critical systems running smoothly. Atlassian partners can assist with everything from licensing and initial configurations to continuous optimization and security updates to minimize the risk of a data breach. Some even have their own apps that integrate with Atlassian products to enhance the user experience.

These services providers are uniquely positioned to take on the most time-consuming and repetitive Atlassian-related tasks given their years of experience, rigorous training, and stringent certification requirements. Plus, because they’ve overseen and been involved with so many deployments, an MSP specializing in the Atlassian ecosystem can also help you uncover deeper, potentially problematic issues and create a detailed plan for overcoming them. 

Fortunately, MSPs exist to save time and to free up talent to focus on revenue-generating projects, all while fitting neatly within most budgets. For Atlassian admins, an MSP can be a lifesaver, unburdening internal teams by taking on systems monitoring and ongoing optimization. 

The diversity of skills and talent within Atlassian Solution Partner teams means they can assume responsibility for everything from tool configuration and deployment to app troubleshooting, custom workflow development, and even bolstering cybersecurity efforts to protect against breaches or unplanned outages that cost businesses as much as $300,000 in a single hour. 

Beyond support and troubleshooting, there are other areas MSPs can benefit an organization. For example, they can also help with training, which is vital when working with a product like Atlassian that releases consistent and thorough updates. Just a quick look at the release notes for Confluence’s latest upgrade and it’s easy to see how under-the-radar business functions like internal tool training — which directly impacts tool adoption and ROI — can be difficult to stay ahead of on your own. 

Gaining an edge with an Atlassian MSP 

For the better part of two decades, progressive organizations that identified early on the need for outside help were able to gain a significant competitive advantage over organizations that insisted on facing their challenges alone. 

Today, the managed services industry as a whole is expected to continue growing nearly 10% each year, as more businesses begin to realize that even just within the Atlassian ecosystem there are too many moving parts to manage all on their own. They’re concluding that their ability to survive — and thrive — in an ever-changing global business landscape will depend not just on the quality of their products and services, but also on their ability to quickly capitalize on new opportunities and stamp out threats to every element of their operation. 

Learn more about how MSPs can help streamline key operations and move your business forward in our latest eBook, “Unshackled: How managed services are key to unlocking Atlassian’s full potential.”