On February 19, 2026, we were not only represented as a participant but also as an official sponsor at the Atlassian Connect High Velocity in Frankfurt, providing an ideal platform for exchange, inspiration and concrete impulses for our customer projects.
One of the highlights was the keynote speech by Rick Lefort. His central message: Service management is facing a fundamental change. With the Atlassian Service Collection, Atlassian shows how companies break down silos, use AI sensibly and create truly high-velocity organizations from the ground up.
The most important news at a glance
- AI agent RovoResponds to requests in real time, learns continuously through coaching and relieves teams.
- Asset Data Manager:Imports, cleanses and synchronizes data from over 20 sources for a central database.
- Omnichannel support:Integration e.g. with Amazon Connect for direct telephony and automatic transcripts in Jira.
- Seamless escalation:Tickets can be forwarded from the service desk to the development project with a single click.
- New IT Ops features:AI-supported alarm bundling and revised change calendar for faster incident resolution.
For us, this keynote was more than just a product update - it was a strategic outlook on what modern service management should look like.
The big issue: High-velocity through AI, context and collaboration
The central thesis of the keynote: Less time firefighting, more time innovating.
High-velocity doesn't just mean working faster. It means, more intelligent, more context-driven and networked across teams to act.
The key lies in three building blocks:
- AI-supported automation with Rovo
- A central, networked database with Assets
- An consistent platform, that connects development, IT ops, business teams and customer service
The magic behind it? The Teamwork Graph.Because AI is only as good as the context behind it.
The 3 core components of the Atlassian Service Collection
1. Customer Service Management: Breaking down silos between support and development
Classic problem: Support teams talk to customers - development teams work in the backlog - and the two worlds are separate.
Customer Service Management resolves this break.
What that means in concrete terms:
- Omnichannel support:
Integration with Amazon Connect enables phone calls to be processed directly in Jira, including automatic transcripts. - AI agent Rovo
The AI agent answers queries in real time, personalizes responses and learns continuously through direct coaching. - Seamless escalation:
With one click, a support ticket is transferred to the relevant development project in Jira without any loss of context.
The result:
Customers don't have to tell their story multiple times. Developers receive the full context. Solution times are significantly reduced.
2. Jira Service Management: Redefining internal services
Jira Service Management is no longer just an IT tool. It is the central platform for internal services - from HR to finance to facility management.
A value quoted by Forrester of 275 % ROI over three years shows: This is not about incremental improvements, but about real transformation.
Example: Employee onboarding
Instead of fragmented e-mails and Excel lists, the entire process runs in a central ticket:
- Rovo automatically suggests an onboarding plan
- IT receives tasks for laptop & accounts
- HR takes care of contracts
- Facilities organized workplace & equipment
- Everything transparently traceable
Innovations for IT Ops
New features such as AI-supported alarm bundling on mobile devices or a revised change calendar help Ops teams to resolve incidents faster and proactively avoid outages.
Or as Rick put it with regard to a Formula 1 team: „This is basically testing in production at 200 miles per hour. That's what I call business critical!“
3. Assets: The strategic database for everything
Perhaps the most strategically important message of the keynote:
Assets is no longer just a CMDB, it is the global data platform of the Atlassian world.
Assets managed:
- Digital assets (systems, applications, services)
- Physical objects (laptops, devices, infrastructure)
- Business properties of any kind
And crucially, it depicts their relationships.
This data flows directly into the Teamwork Graph and provides the AI with the necessary context.
Practical example: A museum planning an exhibition:
- Works of art
- Showcases
- Audio guides
- Service requests
- Logistics
Everything is modeled in assets and is visible platform-wide, for example documented in Confluence.
Important innovations:
- Asset Data Manager: is now available in all cloud instances
- Import, cleansing and synchronization from over 20 data sources
- Scaling up to 10 million objects
This creates a reliable ‚single source of truth‘ into which XALT also integrates your SAP, HR and other systems.
Our key learnings for XALT customers
Three clear fields of action can be derived from the keynote:
1. Think assets strategically - not just technically
Start modeling business-critical physical and digital objects in addition to classic IT assets. Use the Asset Data Manager to break down data silos and create a consistent database.
Our customers also use assets for compliance requirements - for example, in order to Container8 (DevSecOps-as-a-Service Platform) to track responsibilities for AWS accounts, monitor the lifecycle of accounts and escalate security issues to the appropriate people.“
2. Start AI in service pragmatically
Initially use Rovo internally for recurring customer or employee service requests. Start the rollout to the end customer step by step, check the performance of the responses and use the coaching function to continuously improve quality.
3. Building the bridge between support and development
Implement an end-to-end escalation workflow between the service desk and the development backlog. Measure:
- Reduction in solution times
- Quality of the feedback loop
- Customer satisfaction
Conclusion: High-Velocity is not a buzzword but an operating model
The central message of the keynote sums it up:
„With the Atlassian Service Collection, companies not only keep pace with change - they set the pace for the future.“
High-velocity is created where:
- Context is not lost
- Data are networked
- AI is used sensibly
- Teams do not work in silos
For us at XALT, one thing is clear:
Service management is becoming a strategic discipline and the basis for innovative capability.
The question is no longer, whether companies should transform their service organization. But rather how quickly they start.
Secure the future of your Service Management!
Check your ITSM Maturity Level, to find out where your company currently stands. Contact us XALT, and we will show you how to take your IT service management to the next level and use the new functions of the Atlassian high-velocity strategy successfully put into practice.
