Creating Operational Efficiencies for Existco with Jira and JSM

The Opportunity

Existco, a leading provider of specialised software solutions, offers an extensive range of system design capabilities for electronic hardware and PC software. Despite its success, Existco encountered significant operational hurdles in managing service requests and billing processes, even with the Atlassian platform in place.

Eli Abitbol, Managing Director at Existco outlined some of the key business challenges which included:

• Inefficient Service Desk Management: Fragmented handling of client requests related to feature tracking and bug resolution led to delays.
• Manual Billing Processes: Billing required extensive manual efforts, often relying on email and internal follow-ups, making it unscalable, especially as client requests surged post-COVID.
• Departmental Silos: Disconnection between accounts and service departments caused delays in client billing and service delivery.
• Redundant Tool Usage: Multiple subscriptions, such as HubSpot for contact management, led to data duplication and unnecessary expenses.

These issues affected not only Existco’s operations but also the customer experience, as delays and inefficiencies impacted client interactions.

The Solution

Elegance Group implemented a tailored solution using Jira and Jira Service Management (JSM), addressing Existco’s critical needs with precision. The key components of the solution were:

• Accounts Department Integration: The accounts team was incorporated into Jira, enabling automated invoicing workflows directly linked to service tickets, streamlining the billing cycle.
• Automation and Unified Communication: New automation features and forms were introduced to connect the service desk with the accounts department seamlessly, minimising manual processes in service requests and invoicing.
• Real-Time Data Capture: An enhanced asset deployment structure was built to enable real-time data management, ensuring relevant invoicing data was readily available within the system.
• Centralised Contact Information: Customer data was consolidated within Jira Assets, removing the need for multiple subscriptions and reducing data duplication.

Key Steps to Success

The project started with an analysis of the current issues and processes, including discussions around current pains and goals. All the findings were documented and agreed.

A new environment was then set up by the EG team, including securing the product licences, loading data for usage and running testing and user acceptance.

Once the new system was live the Existco and EG teams carried out some fine-tuning to ensure everything was fully functional, optimised and that users were happy.

Finally, documentation was created and shared for the new products.

Eli commented “This was a significant project for us and we’re pleased the implementation went really well. We involved all our internal teams early on in the process to ensure buy-in around the proposed process, issues etc and the expected results. This proved to be key - the outcome was a guaranteed success once we had that buy-in. The feedback and review process we used also helped for the teams to have their say.

Our Jira and Confluence set up with its add-on module is much more structured and defined and has been cleaned up and improved with proper processes”.

The Impact

This solution resolved Existco’s initial pain points and delivered an integrated approach that bridged departments, improved data accuracy, and ultimately enhanced the client experience.

Eli says “Working with the team at Elegance Group was great - they are professional, friendly, knowledgeable and provided outstanding value to both our development and management teams. They really know what they are doing when it comes to Atlassian products and business processes - and they have the know-how to deliver what we need.

The team loves the changes! They were deeply involved the whole way through and were able to openly provide feedback and suggestions.

The new changes have increased productivity, improved visibility, improved sprint management and review, and also improved overall operations across the business.”

Key Benefits Achieved

• Operational Efficiency: Automations and departmental integration reduced manual workload and internal inquiries, making service and billing processes faster and more reliable.
• Scalability: The system now supports higher volumes of client requests, accommodating Existco’s growth trajectory.
• Accelerated Payment Processing: Streamlined operations expedited billing and payment processing, improving cash flow.
• Cost Reduction: By optimising native Jira functionalities, redundant tools like HubSpot were eliminated, decreasing operational costs.
• Data Accuracy: Centralised contact information improved data reliability, reducing billing and service errors.

Looking Ahead

The Existco teams continue to have review sessions to fine tune the new solution, further improving outcomes and benefits for the business.

Following the project’s success, Existco is exploring further enhancements, including integrating MYOB directly with Jira for an even more streamlined invoicing and payment notification system which will include automated billing notifications and reminders, service and warranty features, and improved reporting.

Talk to one of our team today about creating operational efficiencies in your organisation. Contact us here.