8 Questions with Nick Sommerfeld about Isos Technology Professional Services

Nick Sommerfeld joined the Isos Technology Professional Services team two years ago, and since then, he’s been hard at work leading projects ranging from Cloud migrations to Jira Service Management implementations for both technical and non-technical teams.

We recently sat down with Nick to learn more about what the Professional Services team does, why he likes working at Isos Technology, and his presentation at Atlassian's Team '22.

1. Nick, what does the Isos Technology Professional Services team do?

Generally, clients have specific projects in mind, like an implementation or migration, and our engagements are centered around those deliverables. We also do a lot of projects that are focused on helping customers evolve or advance the way they use their existing Atlassian tools. As we work through the process with the customer, things come up along the way—we often uncover issues, find efficiencies in their processes, or consult on best practices so they can really get the most out of their investment in the tools.

2. Why do companies need Professional Services? Can’t they do these projects in house?

The projects the Professional Services team works on are often highly technical and require advanced knowledge of Atlassian. Plus, we bring best practices to the table, as well as a lot of knowledge gained from working with so many companies across a variety of industries. Many organizations may have people who are capable of doing some of the work, but they’re often focused on day-to-day tasks or have more critical demands on their time, so they’re not able to support these larger projects.

3. What do you like best about working on the Professional Services team?

I really enjoy the whole end-to-end consulting process. I like the up-front fact finding just as much as the problem solving. It’s really interesting working with such a diverse client base, I get to see how different companies and teams operate. While there are a lot of similarities in how IT and development teams use the tools, they all have their own ways of working. I recently worked on a non-ITSM build—implementing Jira and JSM for a big marketing team—and it was eye-opening to see the similarities and differences between that project and how technical teams use the tools.

4. What does Isos Technology bring to the table that sets them apart from other Atlassian Professional Services providers?

At Isos Technology, we treat every client like a partner. We want what we do for them to be as successful as if it were something we’re building for ourselves. We learn as much as we can about their processes and goals and develop a solution specific to them, relative to best practices—we don’t try to make them conform to a predetermined set of processes.

5. You mentioned implementing JSM for non-technical teams. Sounds interesting—can you tell me more about that?

Yes—we’re seeing more companies take an Enterprise Service Management approach where teams across the company are leveraging IT expertise and tools to manage the intake and completion of work. As Atlassian has been enhancing its tools to better support this trend, we’ve been seeing more non-technical implementations. There are some real practical advantages to having fewer software stacks in terms of support, visibility, collaboration, and things like that.

6. What kinds of non-technical teams can use Jira and JSM—and what kinds of problems can Atlassian tools solve for them?

Whether you’re an IT team or a marketing team, there’s a fundamental way that most service teams work—they receive requests, assign them, and work on them until they’re complete. A lot of teams rely on email to take in requests and spreadsheets to track work, and that can get out of hand fast—everyone gets bogged down in email!

The goal is to get teams out of that cycle and into JSM and Jira where there’s visibility and traceability across the organization and it’s easy to keep people updated. With Jira, you can view everything that’s being asked of you and prioritize it, so the most important work gets done quickly.

7. What do you like most about working for Isos Technology?

It was very refreshing to come to Isos and be trusted to do what I was hired to do—there’s a level of freedom to do whatever I need to do to get things done that I really appreciate. Given the nature of our project-based Professional Services work, every project is different, so there’s always something new to learn and do.

8. I heard you spoke at Atlassian's Team '22. Can you tell me more about that?

You bet! I presented on Isos Technology's partnership with Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU). The first project we did with them was helping to clean up their Jira Software and Confluence instances. It was a really cool project that not only helped them work more efficiently right out of the gate, but also helped prepare them for a migration to Atlassian Cloud. In fact, the project made such a big difference that they were able to migrate much earlier than they had planned. And now that they're in Cloud, Isos is helping them implement JSM for better collaboration and service across teams. 

Thanks for talking with us, Nick! It was great to learn more about you and the work you do on the Isos Technology Professional Services team.

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