Datasite is widely recognized as a leader in software for mergers and acquisitions, serving the most demanding dealmakers in markets where speed and clarity matter. To stay ahead, the company realized that its internal system of work needed to match the agility and transparency that customers expect. The solution they pursued was not a tool swap or a process tweak, but a full reset of how strategy connects to day to day work and how leaders see what is happening across the business in real time. The transformation centered on Atlassian’s Strategy Collection, with the goal of unifying goals, portfolios, intake, discovery, delivery, and measurement in a single connected flow. By building on the Atlassian Cloud Platform and adding AI capabilities through Rovo, Datasite established a system that allowed teams to focus on outcomes, not status reporting, and gave executives a live factory floor view of operations. In this blog, we unpack what changed at Datasite, why the Strategy Collection mattered, and how the outcomes were achieved. We also highlight practical lessons any enterprise can adopt, regardless of industry or current maturity, and we close with a blueprint that leaders can apply to accelerate their own journey. If your organization struggles with scattered plans, slow decision cycles, or meeting sprawl, the patterns described here will feel familiar and the path forward will be concrete. The story is not theoretical, it features specific changes, notable results, and a shift in culture that emphasizes working systems over slideware, and live metrics over stale summaries.

Challenges Before Transformation

Fragmented plans and documentation across tools
Teams maintained strategy in a sprawl of slide decks, spreadsheets, and disconnected point solutions, which made it hard to know what was current and where to find it. When goals and initiatives live in different places with different owners, every review requires a hunt for facts and a reconciliation of versions. That fragmentation also blocks traceability, since leaders cannot easily follow a thread from top level objectives to the specific work underway. In fast moving markets, this introduces lag in decision making and a reliance on narrative summaries over data. The lack of a single source of truth becomes a tax on focus and alignment, especially as work scales across portfolios and functions.
Lack of real time visibility for executives and teams
Because updates were not live and systems were not connected, people worked from reports that lagged reality and decisions often relied on dated information. This pushed executives into more meetings and more manual check ins, as they tried to close the gap between what was reported and what was actually happening. The organization felt the drag of status sessions that repeated information rather than changing outcomes, and the cadence of planning slowed as a result. Without a factory floor view, leaders struggled to see how goals translated into delivery and teams lacked confidence that their work was reflected accurately. Over time, this mode of operating creates a culture of defensive reporting rather than a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
Overwhelming number of OKRs and inefficient planning
The company had more than two hundred OKRs in flight, an amount that made it difficult to prioritize, align, or act with conviction. When goals proliferate, focus diffuses, and the signal that leaders want to send is lost in the noise. Teams spend time mapping work to a long list of targets rather than directing energy to the handful of outcomes that matter most in the near term. Planning becomes a mechanical exercise rather than a strategic one, and progress becomes hard to measure across portfolios. The result is a heavy cycle of aggregation and aggregation adds little value when goals are too many and too loosely coupled to delivery.
Need for a live, unified dashboard
Executives asked for a single live dashboard that would let them see the system as it runs, from strategic objectives down to the ticket level. The request was not for a new deck or a static report, but for a source of truth that could be explored in real time without gatekeepers. This type of dashboard does more than show status, it reorients conversations around trends, bottlenecks, and tradeoffs. It also enables leaders to self serve, which reduces meeting load and shortens decision cycles. The absence of such a dashboard had become a critical constraint on speed and accountability.

Team working together with large gears symbolizing collaboration and productivity.

Implementing Strategy Collection

Partnership with Atlassian Advisory Services
Datasite partnered with Atlassian Advisory Services to plan and execute a transformation that would unify strategy and execution, with an emphasis on measurable outcomes and an operating rhythm built on live data. Advisory Services brought field tested plays for standardizing goals, standing up intake, and aligning teams on a single language of work. Together they designed a factory floor view for leaders, so that the executive experience would be self serve and grounded in real time data. This kind of partnership compresses time to value because it avoids digitizing chaos and instead sequences the rollout around a clear operating model. The program centered on Atlassian’s Strategy Collection as the backbone of the new system.
Unifying strategy and execution in a single workflow
The heart of the change was a connected flow that links goals, portfolios, intake, discovery, delivery, and measurement. Strategy now lives close to the work, which means leaders can click down from objectives into initiatives and down again into the tickets that carry the work. Teams plan and prioritize in one place, then deliver and measure in the same environment, which maintains context from idea to impact. This unification reduces translation errors, eliminates duplicate artifacts, and supports continuous planning since decisions are informed by live trends. The work became the report, so people spend less time summarizing and more time building.
AI powered insights with Rovo
Rovo gives leaders the ability to ask questions in natural language and get live answers, such as which initiatives are affecting churn this quarter or where delivery risk is rising. Instead of waiting for a status cycle, executives can generate a fresh view and drill into the underlying data, which changes the tempo of governance and the depth of inquiry. Rovo also supports scenario analysis, allowing decision makers to explore tradeoffs and what if questions without convening a working group. This marks a shift from static reporting to conversational analytics, where the system can be queried like a colleague. The AI capabilities depend on clean data and connected systems, which the Strategy Collection provides out of the box.
Centralized work hub on Atlassian Cloud Platform
By consolidating on Atlassian Cloud, Datasite created a single hub that hosts strategy, intake, discovery, delivery, and analytics. The cloud platform brings unified identity, search, governance, and extensibility, all of which are essential for cross functional work at scale. A centralized hub also simplifies adoption because teams converge on one way of working rather than stitching together local solutions. With data in one place, the organization can index, analyze, and automate process steps that previously required manual effort. The platform foundation made it feasible to deploy executive self service at scale and to maintain a single source of truth across the enterprise.
Real time operational visibility
The system provides a live snapshot of operations, enabling leaders to trace an objective down to the epics and issues that contribute to it. This kind of visibility exposes blockers earlier and clarifies accountability since every metric is backed by specific work in progress. It also empowers teams, since their efforts are visible and the connection to outcomes is explicit. Real time visibility is the prerequisite for continuous planning, because it lets organizations adjust investment and focus based on current data rather than monthly or quarterly cycles. In practice, this replaces status meetings with decision sessions grounded in up to the minute insight.
Idea to Impact framework using Jira Product Discovery and Atlassian Analytics
Ideas enter through Jira Product Discovery, where they are prioritized and aligned to strategic goals so that only the highest leverage work moves forward. Approved initiatives convert into projects and issues that teams deliver in Jira, keeping the thread intact from the first idea to customer value. Atlassian Analytics provides dynamic measurement across portfolios, with dashboards that attribute progress back to goals, funding, and teams. This flow makes it easy to spot where investment is paying off and where to pivot, since the data ties directly to the work rather than living in a separate reporting stack. The result is a measurable, repeatable pipeline from idea to impact that scales across the business.
Best practices for digital transformation
The implementation followed a few guiding practices. Unify strategy and execution so that plans live close to delivery and measurement. Leverage cloud based analytics so that insights propagate across the system rather than sit in local files. Integrate AI where it enhances inquiry and speeds decisions, and design for executive self service from day one. These practices embed continuous planning into the operating rhythm and reduce reliance on manual status cycles. They also create conditions for compounding improvement, since every decision feeds back into the same connected system of work.

Person pointing at a target and growth charts representing goal achievement.

Tangible Results and Impact

Meeting efficiency gains and reduction in attendance
Attendance for OKR and monthly business review sessions dropped from one hundred twenty five to twelve, which in turn reduced more than four thousand meetings over five months. The productivity gain was estimated at five hundred thousand dollars in that period, which amounts to a return on investment of roughly ten times the program costs. Fewer meetings did not mean less alignment, rather it meant that alignment moved into the system itself and was maintained through live dashboards. Leaders shifted time from status collection to decision making and coaching, which raised the quality of conversations across the business. This change in cadence is one of the strongest predictors of sustained impact because it frees capacity at the top and propagates focus through the organization.
Streamlined OKRs and improved strategic clarity
A sprawling set of two hundred sixteen OKRs was rationalized to three objectives and twelve key results, each traceable to live work. This reduction created a crisp narrative about what matters now, and it improved prioritization by removing ambiguity. Teams could see how their work mapped to the goals and could decline work that did not align, which reduced fragmentation and context switching. With fewer goals, the organization could invest deeper in the critical few and measure progress with confidence. Strategic clarity is not minimalism for its own sake, it is the discipline of aligning energy with outcomes that matter most in the current context, reinforced by live data in the unified system.
Rapid adoption and viral use of new tools
Jira Product Discovery spread quickly as teams realized that the path from idea to delivery was now visible and actionable. License counts doubled as engagement grew, driven by the fact that work was easier to find, prioritize, and connect to goals. Viral adoption is a marker that the system reduces friction for practitioners, not just leaders, and that it creates value in daily use. When teams flock to a tool without mandates, it signals that the workflow matches how they think and moves them faster. In this case, adoption was bolstered by the transparency of the pipeline and the feedback loops created by Analytics.
Enhanced decision making and executive self service
Executives can now self serve answers to complex questions, using AI and live dashboards to explore performance across portfolios. This shifts governance from a pull model to an on demand model, where leaders interrogate the data directly and follow threads without waiting for a team to assemble a report. Faster answers shorten the time from signal to decision and increase confidence in tradeoffs that affect funding and sequencing. Self service also removes the need for parallel reporting processes, which are expensive to maintain and prone to drift from reality. The combination of Rovo and connected analytics made this level of autonomy feasible and sustainable at scale.
Cultural shift: the work is the report
A simple mantra took hold across the company. The work is the report. This replaced slide based narratives with a habit of pointing to the live system, where reality is visible and traceable. It encouraged teams to keep data current and to treat dashboards as shared instruments, not artifacts produced for leadership only. The cultural shift reduced status theater and put attention back on building, learning, and improving. Over time, this mindset becomes self reinforcing because it rewards transparency and creates shared language across roles.
Real time dashboards and decision speed
Real time dashboards and executive self service did more than improve transparency, they changed how quickly the organization could act. With a factory floor view, leaders could spot bottlenecks, reassign capacity, and validate impact within days rather than weeks. The feedback loop between goals and work tightened, which improved forecasting and reduced surprises. Teams learned to expect questions grounded in current data, which raised the rigor of planning and review. These changes seeded a culture of accountability that felt enabling rather than punitive, because everyone could see the same information at the same time.

Outcome area	Before	After	Measured impact
Meeting cadence	Heavy status meetings with large attendance	Focused decision sessions with small attendance	Over four thousand fewer meetings in five months, five hundred thousand dollars productivity gain
Strategic goals	Two hundred sixteen OKRs across portfolios	Three objectives and twelve key results	Higher focus, clear mapping from work to goals
Executive insight	Delayed reports, manual fact finding	Live factory floor dashboards, AI queries	Faster decisions, reduced dependence on static decks
Tool adoption	Fragmented planning artifacts	Viral use of Jira Product Discovery	Doubling of licenses, easier intake and prioritization
Culture	Reporting theater and slide narratives	The work is the report	Shared language of work, accountability by default

Lessons Learned

Standardize goals and intake before automation
Do not digitize chaos. Take the time to clarify the language of goals and to set up a consistent intake that captures the right context. This makes it possible to prioritize on merit and to tie work to outcomes from the start. Automation becomes effective only when the inputs are clean and consistent across teams. Starting here prevents rework and establishes a foundation that scales.
Centralize intake and unify work language
A single intake channel reduces duplication and ensures that every idea or request is evaluated against the same strategic frame. Unifying the language of work across functions prevents local dialects from obscuring intent and value. When every team uses the same definitions for goals, initiatives, and measures, analytics can cut across the enterprise. This lowers the barrier to self service because people do not need to translate between systems and labels. Clarity in naming yields clarity in execution and measurement.
Demonstrate live dashboards early for buy in
Show leaders a working factory floor view as soon as possible to make the benefits tangible. Seeing an objective map to specific work and live health indicators shifts the conversation from theory to practice. Early demonstrations generate momentum and help resolve skepticism about the feasibility of self service. They also surface gaps that teams can address before broad rollout. A visible win accelerates adoption and anchors the change around value.
Design for executive self service
If leaders cannot self serve, they will invent parallel processes that erode the system of work. Build the executive experience with care, from navigation to the questions that matter most, and ensure that common queries can be answered in a few clicks. Self service reduces the need for briefings and frees teams from creating slideware that goes stale. It also shortens the path from insight to action because decisions do not wait on a reporting cycle. Treat the executive view as a product with users, use cases, and adoption metrics.
Start with lighthouse teams and scale
Identify a few teams that are ready to adopt the new flow and can demonstrate value quickly. Lighthouse implementations create credible examples that others can follow, and they help refine the approach through feedback. By focusing on real work and real outcomes, the change feels less like a program and more like a better way of operating. Success stories travel fast and lower resistance, especially when peers share the benefits they experience. Use these early wins to guide sequencing and to inform training plans.
Provide training and clear communication during the shift
Transitioning to real time dashboards and self service changes habits and responsibilities, so invest in practical training and crisp guidance. Explain how the system changes roles, what data quality looks like, and how teams should engage with the new workflows. Communicate in plain language and reinforce expectations through office hours and playbooks. Make it easy to ask for help and to share tips that improve adoption. Sustained communication turns a rollout into a movement that improves over time.

Online learning illustration with one team member on a screen and another using a laptop.

Blueprint for Modern Work

Modern enterprises win when they replace silos with connected systems that keep strategy and execution in one flow. In a unified system of work, teams do not need to translate plans into local tools or repackage status for leaders, and leaders do not need intermediaries to see what is happening. Data travels with the work from intake to delivery, so analysis and insight are part of the process, not bolted on after the fact. This creates conditions for continuous planning, where roadmaps adjust in days rather than quarters and investments follow evidence rather than inertia. The result is a more resilient operating model that can absorb shocks and seize opportunities.

Data and AI elevate this blueprint by making inquiry fast and always on. When leaders can ask questions in natural language and see the answers backed by live data, the organization learns faster and operates with greater confidence. AI does not replace judgment, it amplifies it, by surfacing patterns and scenarios that humans can validate and act on. Analytics then closes the loop by revealing how choices perform in the wild, feeding the next round of planning. Together, data, AI, and connected workflows turn the system into a learning engine.

Continuous improvement becomes part of the culture when the system itself makes improvement visible and rewarding. Teams see their impact in dashboards tied to goals, so small gains accumulate and leaders can recognize progress where it occurs. Because work and measurement share the same platform, experiments are easier to run and easier to evaluate. Over time, this raises the baseline of performance and frees capacity for innovation. The blueprint is not a destination, it is a way of operating that compounds value as more of the enterprise participates.

Conclusion and Call to Action

Datasite’s journey shows what becomes possible when a company unifies strategy and execution on a single platform and commits to operating with live data. The gains were visible across metrics that matter, from fewer meetings and faster decisions to sharper goals and broader adoption. Leaders moved from a world of static slides to a world where the work is the report, and teams felt the benefit in reduced friction and clearer alignment. The executive experience became self serve, powered by AI and analytics that answer real questions in real time. These outcomes did not require custom builds or heroic effort, but rather a disciplined adoption of the Strategy Collection and a focus on goals, intake, and measurement that the platform enables.

For organizations facing similar challenges, the path is clear. Start by standardizing goals and intake, stand up a live factory floor view, and design the executive experience as a self serve product. Use lighthouse teams to prove value, then scale using a shared language of work and a connected flow from idea to impact. Invest in training and communication during the shift so that habits change with the system. With these moves in place, the benefits will accrue quickly and open doors to new capabilities, including conversational analytics and agent driven reporting.

Interested in learning more? Contact Atlas Bench to book a complimentary consultation with our Certified Atlassian Experts.

Unlock real-time clarity with Atlassian’s Strategy Collection today.

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Atlas Bench is an Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner with deep Cloud Specialization, helping Data Center customers move beyond migration and fully transform on the Atlassian Cloud Platform. We deliver Atlassian’s System of Work end to end through four collections: Strategy, Teamwork, Service, and Software, connecting planning to execution, aligning teams around outcomes, modernizing service delivery, and accelerating software development.

We are also recognized as an Atlassian World Class Software Development Partner of the Year (Americas), and we bring AI leadership to every engagement. By leveraging Rovo for automation and purpose built agents, we reduce manual work, unlock knowledge across tools, and speed up decision making so organizations realize measurable value faster in cloud.

How Datasite Transformed Its System of Work with Strategy Collection