Access the Atlassian podcast to explore how Carahsoft simplifies co-terms, contract management, renewals, discounts and procurement requirements while Clovity accelerates software delivery and implementation.
Cameron Starman
Today, we're going to talk a little bit about strategic licensing. Again, my name is Cameron Starman, Senior Director of Client Management for Clovity, Platinum Solution Partner. We'll hand it over to Anuj and Kevin to say hello as well.
Anuj Sachdeva
Hey guys, my name is Anuj Sachdeva, I'm the Chief Executive at Clovity, we are an Atlassian solution partner, as Cameron mentioned, predominantly serviced in the public sector space, which is federal government, SLED, which is state, local, and education, and then we service the whole gamut from Jira to JSM to Confluence to Jira Online Strategy Collection.
Kevin Howard
And my name is Kevin Howard, I'm the Team Manager here at Carahsoft for our Atlassian practice, and I've been doing Atlassian here for about eight and a half years.
Cameron Starman
And Kevin is very important to our business, so as a solution partner, one of the key things that we do, especially in the government space, is providing licensing, and there's a very strategic component in terms of ensuring the right delivery, the right timing, as we are doing implementations, migrations, cutovers, things like that, there's just a lot of importance. So the collaboration with Carahsoft is very important to Clovity, and so we wanted to kind of take some time today to talk a little bit about it. And I think one of the things is, how do our clients, along with our help, strategically plan, procure, and implement Atlassian licenses in a way that delivers lasting value?
So today we're going to kind of bring a little bit of the procurement lens, a little bit of the technical lens, and then we'll basically see where the conversation takes us. So a little bit, I think we can maybe start about co-terming and license management. I think that's a really important thing that Carahsoft takes care of.
I think it's really important to keep the customer platforms running and no drops in service. Yeah, Kevin, anything you can add about that, just in terms of that importance, or how you guys view that as Carahsoft?
Kevin Howard
For sure. So I would say there's some uniqueness to Atlassian licensing in the government, but regardless of the software manufacturer within the government, obviously co-terming and license management is essential not only for the end users, but for Carahsoft, but for some of our partners that are working with us on the deals as well. Something unique of Atlassian is how they have marketplace applications or co-terms or upgrades or downgrades depending on the customer's need, along with the deployment type as well.
The most interesting thing of Atlassian within this marketplace is they have about 12 to 15 core tools that are associated alongside of about 2000 plus marketplace add-ons that are able to be purchased alongside these core products, but enhance the out-of-the-box tool, which is awesome.
Anuj Sachdeva
Yeah. No, I just want to double-click. Having first-hand experience of leveraging Carahsoft for licensing and leveraging Atlassian for commercial licensing, I mean, I honestly, Carahsoft makes it super simple, right?
It's almost like hiding all the complexities of, like Kevin mentioned, like the complexities of the apps, complexities of the co-terming, the multi-year, I mean, the start dates, the renewals, I mean, all of that is hidden with Carahsoft being on the front. I mean, I honestly, I mean, that's like a blessing in disguise because it saves so much time just to make it more seamless for us. And the turnaround is much faster, actually.
At times, it's much faster than actually reaching out to Atlassian and going through that process. Carahsoft process is much faster.
Cameron Starman
For sure. For sure. Especially, I mean, you know, just kind of when we touch on, you know, cloud, data center, there can, and especially hybrid environments, right?
And, you know, we were just talking about this before we got on, right? You know, all the different elements that kind of go into procuring those pieces, right? And, you know, some of the discounts that we're able to pass down to our clients as well.
Obviously, sometimes Carahsoft is helping us make sure we secure those. So it's pretty awesome.
Anuj Sachdeva
Not to mention, obviously, I mean, Carahsoft is the sort of the government sort of biggest licensed marketplace beyond Atlassian. So they bring all that learnings of what they do with other sort of products within Atlassian, right? So that's another thing, right?
You get to see sort of the complexities of the big, other big products to this, and then to make sure the whole licensing piece is much more simplified and easier for us as partners.
Cameron Starman
Sure. Sure. I mean, Kevin, I think one of the kind of really important things about, you know, also working with you guys is the contract element, right?
And obviously, we've just joined you recently as a services partner, which we're really excited about because, you know, as a, you know, medium sized business and growing, it's not always easy to get on all of these federal contracts and, you know, keep them going. So, you know, anything you kind of say in there, I know, obviously, there's some complexity there, which, again, I think you guys help kind of hide as well, you know. But, you know, yeah, anything from the contract support section that you'd want to call out?
Kevin Howard
For sure. So as Anuj was saying, not only we try to become experts or master our expertise in these different software manufacturers and how they work and how they are shaped, but from a contract standpoint as well, of becoming not only you guys are experts in kind of the implementation and the delivery side of it, but trying to expert or become experts in contract management and government procurement cycles and how a customer needs to transact in terms of conditions and red line agreements. So we have a full team dedicated to managing those contracts and kind of walking us through very similar that we've done recently as well.
Anuj Sachdeva
Yeah. And that's it. I know we were talking to Stacey earlier today, right?
The interesting part is, I always say commercial is all about relationship and public sector is all about efficiency. And here it is. Right.
So we're talking about thousand pages of contract, right? I mean, like sometimes it's like you have to give like literally the thousand questions you have to go through that. I mean, it's best to have an efficient team within sort of Carahsoft who can tackle with that because it's so much paperwork.
And the fact that we are far away and we can leverage their vehicle and all for all the partners out there who can leverage their contract vehicles for services. That's again, that's just that's besides the licensing. That's amazing.
Right. You can add that's an added value which can quadruple the business. I mean, it's sort of the efficiency can quadruple basically.
For sure.
Cameron Starman
I mean, you know, not you're not not what no one person is good at every single thing and no company or entity is also good at every single thing. It's that level of partnership, right, which I think kind of brings this all together. And I think one, everybody can kind of play the position that they know best.
And that can really kind of, I don't know, just just it helps elevate the entire process, I think. And that's something, you know.
Anuj Sachdeva
You summed it exactly. We do the services. I mean, the partner ecosystem does the services, Carahsoft does the licenses.
And just by the virtue of the licenses, they have all these contract vehicles which we can now leverage and sort of be focused on our core. They focus on their core and together we win.
Cameron Starman
Kevin, you had something?
Kevin Howard
Exactly. I mean, it's kind of the triple header of having Alassian involved in the customer from a solution partner involved in the customer and Carahsoft as well, of kind of knowing the license model and how it's been procured in the past kind of helps get this from from A to Z.
Cameron Starman
That's true. And I think, you know, just as kind of like a final point, I think there is a really great thing that, you know, because of, you know, us as solution partners working with you guys, we are able to, you know, discount some of those licenses. Right.
So we're able to provide further value back to to our government customers. Right. You know, obviously, as they're growing, we kind of.
Also because of that.
Anuj Sachdeva
So that's kind of how the ecosystem, I would say, I call it triangle, the AEs, the Carahsoft and the solution partner should come together and give the best value, because that's when you upsell. That's when you cross sell. That's when you upgrade also.
So it's a win win for everybody. Exactly.
Kevin Howard
Kind of the hammer on the nail. What I was kind of saying earlier, it's that kind of triple effect, triple effect or triple header of having Atlassian's involvement, a solution partner and Carahsoft. It kind of goes back to some of the core values that we've always been learned from Atlassian of collaborating within or unleashing the potential of all of our teams, of as Anuj was saying, of some of that missing information that could be living with one party is not living with the other and allowing to collaborate together and making sure that the customer is getting the best value at the end of the day is what we're all here to do.
Cameron Starman
No, definitely. And I agree. I think and just that ability for, you know, I think all of us to ask questions when, you know, people come to you with technical questions or people come to us with contracting or, you know, something that's maybe a little out of our scope.
We know that we can pull each other in and we know that we can kind of rely on each other. And I think, you know, I kind of said that before. It does just elevate overall that process.
And I think no matter what the clients do feel that maybe they don't know it, maybe they don't exactly see it. I think sometimes in certain cases, right, they do see us all, you know, jumping in on something. But, you know, sometimes that magic kind of happens, you know, that Carahsoft magic happens in that background.
But I think, yeah, together, together, it really kind of ensures that we can really deliver. And, you know, I think how you start an engagement is very important. And I think a lot of that leads into to that start.
You raise a very valid point.
Anuj Sachdeva
And look at it. I mean, I was telling more from inside out. But now if you look at it outside in, for a customer to see the three parties are unified, then they also get the confidence that they're being served in the best way, in their best interest.
Right. Because a lot of times, I mean, I have seen with not in this setup, but in my previous sort of setup, that the customers that either they can play on with each other or they don't get the confidence that the two, three parties are not talking. So that's another, I mean, the inside out and outside in is both sides.
It's of invent.
Cameron Starman
Sure. Sure. Definitely.
Yeah. Just to, I mean, kind of summarize, I think, you know, one of the things that we kind of kept touching on today is that none of this happens by itself. I think you need good partners.
You need people that you can rely on. You need subject matter experts in a number of different ways to really focus on both sled and federal markets and even working with companies, let's say that that service, you know, those as well, because there's also that nuance that that always comes in.
Anuj Sachdeva
But in needless to say, on the other side, we have to deal with the ticket system. But here we, you know, you get to get answers quickly. So no.
Yeah. So that's been it's been a great partnership. And for all the audience and the other partners out there, there's there's it's nothing better than this model.
Kevin Howard
Thank you. And it's great working with you guys as well. I think what we kind of hit on throughout the day was licensing is strategic.
It takes kind of that triple header, that triple head effect to get the job done and making sure that the customer is happy with what they're getting at the end of the day. So I want to thank you guys and thank Alassian as well.
Cameron Starman
Yeah. Well, thanks for taking the time out. And thanks for offering your space.
We obviously got to really enjoy that today.
Kevin Howard
No problem.
Cameron Starman
Thanks, everybody, for joining us.