Strategic Software Sydney: 5 Key Takeaways

Strategic Software Sydney: 5 Key Takeaways

The Strategic Software series has brought together IT and business leaders across the region to tackle one of today’s biggest challenges: reducing SaaS waste, simplifying tooling stacks, and getting more out of Atlassian tools. For the finale in Sydney, we wrapped things up with a session that combined practical strategies and future insights.

Big thanks to everyone who came through, asked hard questions, and stuck around to swap stories. For those who missed the event, here are the five takeaways…

1. Consolidation pays. Fast.

Speaker: Raj Bhuva, Global Head of IT, Harrison AI

Case in point: Harrison AI x Annalise. Post‑merger, the team aimed to align systems, policies and tools. Multiple Atlassian Cloud sites were driving cost and fragmented collaboration with a two‑year run‑rate approaching ~$790k AUD. Enterprise licensing was considered, but a longer‑term play won out. Elegance Group consolidated everything into a single Atlassian environment and moved to the Teamwork Collections Premium Bundle (Jira Premium, Confluence Premium, Loom, and Rovo agents).

Outcomes:

• Avoided an extra 7.5% price uplift by beating the deadline
• ~$230,000 AUD cost avoidance over 24 months
• ~4:1 ROI with payback in about six months
• Better collaboration across one shared space

“Normally they say pick two of cost, quality and speed. Somehow we achieved all three.”

The tech lift was complex, but the real challenge was people change and cross‑team coordination. Strong planning, clear communication, and a daily joint cadence made the difference. A key pivot: rather than migrating Annalise into Harrison, the team flipped the direction to reduce complexity and timeline, then rebranded and switched the IDP.

Keep an eye out for the full success story!

2. A single system of work cuts waste and lifts morale

Speaker: Jono Ross, Head of Work Management, Teamwork & Human‑AI Collaboration (ANZ), Atlassian

Atlassian’s research shows a tough truth: executives estimate only a quarter of work maps to mission‑critical goals, while teams feel increasingly disengaged. A clear system of work connects goals, planning, delivery and knowledge.

What helps:

• Align work to goals people can see
• Plan and track in one place with Jira, Confluence and Loom
• Share knowledge that is searchable and reusable
• Reduce meetings that exist only to transfer information

Breville’s value‑stream model showed how organising around customer value speeds decisions and shrinks handoffs. The All Blacks analogy landed too: purpose first, then execution.

3. Put AI where the work lives

Speaker: Rick Earl, Co‑Founder & Principal Consultant, Elegance Group

AI delivers real value when it sees the work, not when it sits on the side.

Seen on the day:

• Voice commands and approvals from meetings: Approve or comment in a Loom recording and watch Jira update automatically.
• Ideas Director: Feed a meeting recording to an agent that extracts, deduplicates and creates ranked Jira Product Discovery ideas with context.
• Rovo for onboarding: Auto‑creates a personalised plan, tasks, approvals and status for each new hire, with humans in the loop where needed.

The pattern is simple: Work in the platform, let agents action the boring bits.

4. Service Collection is here

Speaker: Mark O’Shea, Product Director (Jira Service Management), Atlassian

Update from Atlassian Team ‘25: Jira Service Management now ships as part of the Service Collection alongside Assets and the new Customer Service Management capability.

What this means:

• Existing JSM customers get CSM added at no extra cost
• Asset entitlements increase with cheaper unit costs
• Rovo agents accelerate triage, summarisation and self‑service
• Atlassian is doubling down on scale, reliability, admin experience and analytics

Heads‑up for highly regulated environments. FedRAMP and HIPAA support for CSM are on the roadmap.

5. Start small. Start now.

Our Teamwork Intelligence Accelerator (which Rick talked to) plugs Loom‑first, AI‑powered workflows into your current ways of working, then tunes them to your goals.

Event Offer: Free Atlassian Tooling Roadmap

Get a clear view of your Atlassian environment and uncover hidden value.

• Licensing Audit — understand what you’re paying for and what you’re not using
• Discovery Session — explore how your teams use Atlassian and related tools
• Tooling Roadmap — identify opportunities to consolidate, optimise spend, and unlock more capability

The result: a tailored roadmap to streamline your tooling, reduce waste, and maximise ROI.

Final word

Doing more with less is not a slogan. It is consolidation plus a system of work, amplified by AI that acts where the work happens. If you want a quick look at where the savings and time back are for your teams, reach out.

Keen to explore:

• A tooling roadmap
• A Teamwork Collections or Service Collection quick start
• An AI use case pilot using your meetings and tickets

Reach out and we’ll set up a short session.

If you want to replay any of the sessions in full, keep an eye out for the recordings coming soon.