An interview with an Atlassian IT expert
In this post, we talk to Technical Customer Success Manager Jake Churcher about Clearvision's Atlassian support offering.
- June 30, 2021
How long have you been at Clearvision?
“I’ve been at Clearvision for 7 years now, having joined as a Post-Sales Support Engineer. When I started in 2014, Clearvision was at a less mature stage of its support offering. The global customer base was there, but a few things were missing, like strict SLAs, expert Atlassian knowledge, and customer service.
After seizing the opportunity to scale the support offering to enterprises, I became the IT Services and Operations Manager with a transatlantic team of 6. Today, the support team is a slick operation with over 80 customers worldwide, and I have progressed into the role of Technical Customer Success Manager, ensuring clients get the most out of their investments.”
How many people are in the support team?
“As it stands, there are 5 members in the support team with 1 position being advertised in the US. The team consists of Atlassian Certified Application Support Engineers and AWS Certified Cloud Specialists with an internal IT function. Every day the team is on hand to provide technical support and application administration to clients. Duties can include anything from configuring workflows in Atlassian Cloud to performing a root cause analysis on a Jira Server outage.
While primary roles are designated to individuals, our technical skills are hybrid. This is the result of having a close-knit team with continuous knowledge sharing.”
Do you still get involved in the support of Atlassian tools?
“Absolutely! I was once a troop on the ground, so I can empathise when complex issues arise. Given I used to be the escalation point for the team, there are times where I or the Chief Technology Officer, Matt Muschol, need to help with troubleshooting or reviewing tickets. I’ve gained a lot of experience with Atlassian tools over the years, and I am continuously learning as the software evolves.”
Name some of the reasons customers come to Clearvision for help with their Atlassian tools.
“Our clients are more often users than Administrators. Some of the IT Managers we speak to are drowning in support tickets, they don’t have time to get back to their users for a small Jira or Confluence issue nor do they have the Atlassian skillset in their teams to do so. That’s where our highly-trained team comes in as an escalation point.
Software in any business is like the oil that keeps the engine running smoothly; without it, things get messy.”
What do you make of bot-based support?
“Customers need fast, efficient support with a personal touch. Pre-programmed bots that suggest answers to user problems can be frustrating if the AI isn’t up to scratch. A generic response or link to a KB article isn’t always enough. Talking to a person, however, who has the experience and technical knowledge in the subject area is far more beneficial. It’s the personal touch that is remembered.”
Is bot support something Clearvision offers or will in the future?
“We are exploring a live chat feature to enhance our communication channels, but someone will always be at the other end.”
With the end of the Server edition, how will customer needs evolve?
“As we shift to Atlassian’s Cloud-first mentality, a lot of customers are switching to a Cloud focussed model. Whilst we support all Atlassian applications on Server, Cloud, and Data Center, Cloud will be the primary version used by most. That’s why we offer support for Cloud and administration. An administration package enhances the support you have with Atlassian to perform changes on your behalf, rather than a question-answer approach.”
To speak to Jake or another Atlassian specialist about your support needs, book a call via this link.
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