Shopware + Atlassian
With the help of Jira tickets, everyone can keep an overview, collect information to collaborate across teams, and easily organize and assign subtasks to other teams.
Markus Merkwirth-Thimm
Partner Marketing Manager Technology
About Shopware
Shopware, founded in 2000 in Schöppingen, Germany, offers a holistic omnichannel digital commerce platform with high flexibility and a wide range of options for B2C, D2C and B2B as well as service-based use cases for demanding companies, especially in the mid-market sector. Shopware is one of the market leaders in its segment and is particularly well positioned due to its positioning in the DACH region and a rapidly growing North American business.
Industry
Internet & Software
Location
Europe, Middle East, and Africa
Company size
<1,000
Number of users
400
Shopware AG’s marketing teams optimize collaboration with Jira and Confluence Cloud
Challenge: The six teams in Shopware's marketing department all used their own tools. This made it difficult to organize, coordinate, and collaborate on cross-functional tasks.
Solution: Since extending Jira and Confluence from development into marketing, team members can keep track of upcoming tasks, easily collect information, and collaborate successfully.
Impact: With greater transparency, more comprehensive documentation, and better structuring of joint work, Shopware’s marketing teams are collaborating more efficiently and effectively.
A German ecommerce leader shops for a new cross-functional collaboration solution
Six teams within one department, each with their own tools. This can quickly lead to difficulties when working together – as Shopware AG experienced firsthand. To solve this challenge, they introduced their marketing organization to Atlassian.
There's no question that the tech industry is dominated by U.S. companies, with Microsoft, Apple, and Meta being the most well known. But there are also success stories in Germany, such as Shopware AG. Founded in the early 2000s as a traditional, online agency, the company is now a successful developer of modular ecommerce systems.
Shopware employs around 400 people across two locations in Schöppingen, North Rhine-Westphalia, and New York City. In these locations, more than 10% of employees work in marketing. Although the company’s six marketing teams focus on different tasks and areas, they have to work together intensively on campaign planning, content creation through execution in digital marketing channels, event implementation, and more. The various teams are in continuous coordination, and their processes build on each other.
This cross-functional collaboration has helped Shopware succeed, but it also regularly led to challenges. Each marketing team had been using their own tools to manage their work, which made it hard for team members to get a clear view of joint projects or the status of individual components, nor proactively identify resource bottlenecks. Shopware recognized they needed a new solution.
We had been working intensively with various Atlassian solutions for some time, and both Confluence and Jira are used by many employees on a daily basis. It, therefore, made sense to also use Jira in Marketing to restructure our processes.“
Markus Merkwirth-Thimm
Partner Marketing Manager Technology
An existing solution brings new opportunities for marketing collaboration
As Shopware evaluated potential solutions, they looked for a product that would offer teams the ability to get started quickly, iterate as requirements evolved, and integrate with their other tools. Marketing managers suggested considering a tool that was already accepted throughout the organization.
Jira fit the bill. Shopware’s developers had been using it since 2010, so many employees, marketing managers, and IT admins were already familiar with it. With requirements met and trust already instilled, Shopware saw no need to consider alternatives.
"We had already been working intensively with various Atlassian solutions for some time, and both Confluence and Jira are used by many employees on a daily basis. It therefore made sense to also use Jira in marketing to restructure our processes," explains Markus Merkwirth-Thimm, Partner Marketing Manager Technology.
"With the help of Jira tickets, everyone can keep an overview and collect information. This enables cross-team collaboration, such as organizing subtasks and assigning them to other teams. The functionalities within the tickets, such as components, tags, and reminders, also help enormously. We can work with the tool exactly as we need to."
[Jira] enables cross-team collaboration, such as organizing subtasks and assigning them to other teams. The functionalities within the tickets, such as components, tags, and reminders, also help enormously. We can work with the tool exactly as we need to.“
Markus Merkwirth-Thimm
Partner Marketing Manager Technology
Preparation paves the way for a successful Jira rollout
Marketing and IT began collaborating on preparation and planning in June 2021. This process lasted around three months.
Shopware initially used Jira on premise for marketing teams, then migrated to the cloud. IT led the migration and configuration of boards, issue types, and custom fields. Marketing provided feedback at several stages, which IT took into account when iteratively adapting the custom fields.
As part of this rollout, IT and Marketing worked together to redefine internal marketing processes and set up Jira to support them, ensuring optimal task organization and capacity utilization. Using a kanban approach, marketing set up Jira to align with their work stages:
- Backlog: Unsorted and unprioritized collection of upcoming epics, stories, and tasks
- Initiate: Pre-selection of upcoming tasks with preliminary prioritization, primarily done by the team lead
- Clarification: Enriching issue types with relevant information (briefings, accompanying materials, etc.)
- In Work: Tasks that are currently in progress
- In Review: Tasks that are under review
Done: Completed tasks
Better transparency, documentation, and structure lead to high satisfaction
To support the rollout and encourage adoption, Shopware employees had opportunities to attend Jira training sessions, where they learned the basics of agile working methods, as well as tips and tricks for daily Jira use.
Shopware subsequently offered regular office hours, when employees could ask questions to Jira administrators from the Marketing Department. A specific Slack channel continues to provide a place for people to ask ad-hoc questions and share best practices. For new, larger adjustments, such as mapping the company's internal communication roadmap, team members received additional training.
Over time, employees felt empowered to set up team-specific and cross-team filters and dashboards so they could keep track of stories and tasks. This comprehensive support has led to high satisfaction with Jira. Team members have also learned that diligent use helps them get the most value out of the tool.
With greater transparency, more comprehensive documentation, and better structuring of joint work, Shopware’s marketing teams are now collaborating more efficiently and effectively, and many of them can’t imagine working without Jira.
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