By Word of Mouth

My introduction to Confluence was the tool that introduced me to Atlassian. Prior to April 30, 2012, I had never heard of Confluence, let alone, Atlassian. Now, I function as an AUG Leader in my city. 

When I arrived to perform the duties as a Technical Writer for the company I am currently employed by, I was introduced to the wiki environment; Confluence. This tool was growing organically and had just become identified as the tool of choice for publishing our system documentation; the task for which I was to apply my skills as a writer each day. This is where I was introduced to Confluence.

Ah, the memories. 

April 30, 2012- told to me by my coworker

“Confluence is made by a little software company called Atlassian. They are located in Australia. The last sign of support found here in the USA was closed a couple of years ago.” “There really isn’t any strong presence here and, well, we will be rolling out SharePoint in the future, so don’t get too used to working in this limited environment.” 

Wow, it is now June 6, 2016, and yes, the company I work for is making efforts to rollout SharePoint, but the effort is moving very slowly. Confluence is here now; it is being used by more than just the technical writers. Oh, did I share the fact that my coworker is no longer contracting with the company and I was brought on permanently? Sorry for the oversight.

During my first year, I continued to hear negative comments from my coworker about how small Atlassian was and how weak the Confluence wiki editor was. Not being one to let others drive my thoughts on a subject, I did my own research.

What I discovered about Atlassian

In 14 years they have grown via word of mouth to an international software company. Actually in less than 14 years, Atlassian was in their 11th year when I was first introduced to them. By that time, they were already an International company.

If I may describe them this way, Atlassian is Australia’s Microsoft. I mean this only in terms of popularity of product and strength of influence within their community. 

At the heart of Atlassian are some very strong core values. Values that let the customer know who they are working with. 

At the Core

What makes Atlassian different from other software companies? That is a good question. One of which requires discovering Atlassian’s five core values.

The following image was taken from the Atlassian.com/company/values website.

These are values ever company should embrace when doing business. However, these values cannot be faked. If these core values do not come from the heart of the company, living in each person who works there, the truth will be revealed over time. Well, it has been 14 years now since the core values emerged in the world of IT and the growth of Atlassian has not peeked. 

Back to my Research

Let’s bring this blog back on track by sharing what my research revealed. I discovered Atlassian is a company that strived to maintain transparency, was growing stronger every day and was focused on providing the world with software that aided teams around the world to work together.

So the idea that Atlassian was some small Australian company may have been true in 2002, 2003 and possible 2004. But to sit and describe them in 2012 that way was totally off the mark.

As I published system documentation in Confluence, I also functioned as the Front-end Administrator supporting and training the Confluence users, my fellow co-workers. During this time, each new version of Confluence brought with it editor improvements, as-well-as, other user experience improvements.

The improvements that really grabbed my attention are listed below.

• Out-of-the-box templates were transfigured into powerful Blueprints
• Macros were masterfully configured to create a Knowledge Base;
• Content by Label, Page Property, and Page Property Report macros
• Greater control of the page layout was released

All wins from my perspective.

Of course, there are more improvements than the ones I have listed above, but to say ‘the user experience is enriched', is putting it mildly.

Success via Experience

Atlassian’s growth happened through word of mouth. Take a minute and let that statement sink in.

With no sales force to speak of, and the opportunity to try before you buy; Atlassian allowed you to take the software for a spin around the cyber-block. You didn’t even have to provide any credit card numbers. 

I find this very appealing. The only other industry that offers this arrangement is the auto industry, however, they do their best to prequalify you before they hand you the keys.

I believe the old adage; ‘the proof is in the pudding’ can be applied here. Atlassian’s successes are in the tasting. I mean, testing. Let’s face it; people won’t buy anything they are not happy with.

Atlassian is not small or unsupported. They are, in fact; a large international and well supported Software Company with two offices located in the United States, one office in Manila, Japan, and Amsterdam. Of course, the home office is located in Sydney Australia.

Just in case you did not know, Atlassian reached their 50,000^th customer last August (2015). That is a whole lot of testing and proving.

In the end, I could say, 'Atlassian software is out of this world' and it would be true since Atlassian also has software on mars.

But don’t just take my word for it; consider testing the software out yourself. Visit Atlassian.