Atlassian’s Direct-Sales Pivot: A Wake-Up Call for Enterprise Buyers and Partners

By Sebastian Golz - June 2025

“Why is Atlassian calling me?”

That observation came up frequently during networking events this spring. Several enterprise leaders shared that, after years of being served exclusively by Atlassian Solution Partners, they were now being contacted directly by Atlassian's enterprise account managers - marking a noticeable shift in how the vendor engages with large customers.

Atlassian built its $4 billion‑plus Marketplace ecosystem on a flywheel of self‑service sign‑ups and partner‑led selling. Yet over the past 18 months the company has tilted its go‑to‑market model toward direct enterprise engagement - a shift symbolised by the January 2025 hire of former SAP “RISE” architect Brian Duffy as Chief Revenue Officer.

What does this mean for large customers and the partners who have long served them? Below is a practical field guide drawn from recent executive briefings, partner forums and on‑the‑ground client conversations.

1. From Flywheel to Enterprise Engine

• Legacy motion – Partner-led resale: Server, DC and cloud SKUs were primarily sold through certified Solution Partners. Customers received sizeable discounts and partners could earn commissions on cloud migration engagements. Atlassian’s direct involvement was minimal, with partners handling most sales and support touchpoints, especially in the mid‑market.

• Emerging motion – Vendor-led contracting: Atlassian increasingly manages enterprise contracts directly, a shift often described as “selling on Atlassian’s paper.” Partner compensation is moving from margin‑based discounts to influence fees tied to co‑sell success. Atlassian is also deploying dedicated enterprise account executives and industry specialists to provide deeper strategic engagement.

Why the change?

Atlassian's pivot is closely tied to its current fiscal strategy of deepening cloud-based annual recurring revenue (ARR). The company is prioritising direct enterprise engagements to drive adoption of bundled contracts, enterprise-grade features, and longer-term commitments.

At the same time, enterprise customers are raising the bar on compliance, security, and data governance. Many expect vendors to be fully accountable for how data is handled—especially when AI is involved. Atlassian’s leadership recognises that this level of trust cannot be delegated to third parties.

The company’s newest AI products, such as Rovo and Autodev, further underscore the need for a direct sales narrative. These tools are more effectively positioned and supported when Atlassian owns the customer relationship, rather than relying on fragmented partner-led messaging.

2. What Enterprise Buyers Gain - and Risk

Enterprise buyers benefit from a clearer commercial roadmap when they move to direct contracts. These agreements consolidate platform capabilities, AI features, and premium support into one master agreement, making forecasting and budgeting easier. Direct engagement also opens the door to faster feature access. Many early-access programs—such as those for Forge apps, Data Lake analytics, or BYOK encryption—require NDAs that are more readily managed under a vendor-customer relationship. Beyond operational perks, strategic alignment is another key gain: Atlassian now assigns executive sponsors who can escalate product gaps or compliance concerns directly, helping customers stay aligned with Atlassian’s evolving roadmap.

Risks

Negotiation dynamics are also shifting. The traditional discount cushion that partners used to offer is shrinking, and list-price transparency is rising. This means enterprise buyers may need to adjust their procurement expectations and prepare for more standardised pricing structures.

Another challenge lies in the fragmentation of the services chain. In the new model, license ownership and implementation services may be handled by different parties. This introduces risk when responsibilities are not clearly defined, particularly during incidents or escalations.

Finally, many smaller resellers are feeling the pressure. Tougher certification audits and slower onboarding processes are making it harder to keep up, pushing some partners to pivot away from resale entirely. This can leave customers over-reliant on a single boutique provider, increasing exposure to delivery risk.

3. Four Moves Smart CXOs Are Making Now

• Separate “paper” from “people”. Decide early who holds the commercial contract and who delivers the migration, customisation and ongoing support. Adding a clear Responsibility Matrix appendix to new MSAs prevents finger‑pointing when SLAs slip.

• Bundle advisory, not just hours. Shift partner compensation toward outcome‑based engagements - such as “zero unclassified incidents post‑migration”- instead of traditional time‑and‑materials. A practical first step is piloting a fixed‑fee “AI enablement sprint” tied to service‑desk deflection rates.

• Demand joint QBRs. Bring Atlassian account executives and partners into the same quarterly business review to surface roadmap gaps, adoption blockers and credit opportunities. A single‑slide structure - Roadmap • Adoption • Risk • Savings - keeps everyone aligned.

• Track value, not discounts. Replace the question “How much did we save off list price?” with “What ROI per user did we achieve?” Metrics like faster ticket resolution and shorter release cycles tame executive sticker shock as cloud list prices rise. Atlassian Analytics’ Data Lake makes those insights easy to surface.

4. How Partners Can Thrive, Not Just Survive

Partners seeking to remain competitive in Atlassian’s evolving ecosystem must reinforce their capabilities in both advisory and run services. As more enterprises migrate to the cloud, there is rising demand for support in areas like platform modernisation, security hardening, AI governance, and developer experience (DevX) pipeline optimisation. Customers are no longer looking for transactional support - they want strategic guidance that aligns with long-term goals. Advisory services that go beyond technical implementation to include risk management, compliance alignment, and cross-functional optimisation are where budgets are increasingly allocated.

Another key area is specialisation in Forge, Atlassian’s next-generation app development platform. Unlike legacy models, Forge runs apps within Atlassian’s own infrastructure, providing tighter integration, higher security standards, and better performance monitoring. Marketplace apps that are Forge-native can display a “Runs on Atlassian” badge, which has become a powerful trust signal - especially for enterprise customers with strict IT governance. For partners, investing in Forge development capability not only opens up new revenue streams, but also ensures long-term platform relevance.

To thrive alongside Atlassian’s expanding direct-sales approach, partners must also develop co-sell playbooks. Rather than acting as standalone vendors, partners should coordinate directly with Atlassian’s enterprise account executives (AEs). This requires aligned definitions of the ideal customer profile (ICP), shared account planning, and transparent pipeline management with agreed service-level expectations. Effective co-selling enables mutual success by ensuring that both parties bring complementary value to the customer journey.

Finally, partners should rethink their pricing models. As Atlassian emphasises value-driven sales and ARR metrics, partners can align more closely by shifting toward outcome-based pricing structures. This means tying fees not to hours worked but to tangible results—like improved system uptime, reduced incident response times (MTTR), or higher service-desk resolution rates. These metrics resonate with enterprise buyers who are under pressure to justify every spend with performance outcomes, and they map neatly to Atlassian’s own internal success measures.

5. The Road Ahead

Atlassian is clearly aiming to position itself as the go-to "System of Work" for more than 300,000 customers - a unified cloud platform where AI, data, and developer experience seamlessly connect. I believe that building direct relationships with Fortune-scale buyers is now a necessary step in achieving this vision.

At the same time, I don’t think Atlassian can get there on its own. From what I observe, successful execution still depends on the deep domain knowledge and delivery capabilities that partners have built over years. Whether it’s cloud migrations, regulatory alignment, or the design of domain-specific AI agents, the execution layer still needs strong, reliable service partners. So in my opinion, the game isn’t over - just the rules have changed.

Join the Conversation

How is Atlassian’s direct‑sales push impacting your organisation’s roadmap or partner business? Share successes, concerns or tactics in the comments.

Author’s note: This analysis draws on Atlassian earnings calls (FY 2025–26), Team ’25 keynote transcripts, and briefings with Solution Partners worldwide.