Finoa + Atlassian
Atlassian helped us become faster, more productive, and more flexible. Being able to use cloud services is of tremendous help for us.”
Fabian Plato
Director of Business Operations
0
TBD
Annual cost savings by moving to Atlassian Cloud
About Finoa
Finoa is a regulated custodian for crypto assets, servicing professional investors with custody and staking. The platform enables its users to securely store and manage their crypto assets, while providing a directly accessible, highly intuitive, and unique user experience, enabling seamless access to the ecosystem of Decentralized Finance (DeFi). Reference customers include the world’s most renowned Venture Capital firms, large corporations, and financial institutions.
Industry
Financial Services
Location
Berlin, Germany
Number of Users
100
Atlassian Products
Solutions Partners
How Atlassian Cloud Enterprise helps Finoa scale their team and increase efficiency
Challenge: As a licensed and regulated financial institution managing customers’ digital assets, Finoa is in the business of trust. Between the novelty of cryptocurrency and the large institutional investments managed by the firm, trust is a requirement, not a luxury.
Solution: Finoa looked to Atlassian to take their team operations to the next level and accelerate the growing productivity of their workforce in the cloud. With consultancy from Platinum Solution Partner Valiantys, Finoa implemented Jira and Confluence Cloud Enterprise to standardize their teams' ways of working.
Impact: They increased the visibility of the different teams’ work thanks to Jira, and improved efficiency across the organization. Learn how the company is using Atlassian to innovate and scale like a startup, while operating like a long-established financial institution.
Innovating in financial services is more complex than in many other industries due to the sector’s stringent compliance and regulatory requirements. It’s even more challenging when dealing with a new asset class in a jurisdiction with one of the most advanced crypto regulations (Germany). It takes an especially nimble, experienced team to successfully navigate an environment like this, and Finoa is rising to the challenge.
The company knew that growth was inevitable, and they wanted to scale thoughtfully with Atlassian Cloud Enterprise. Finoa was operating with two specific goals in mind: unlock their teams’ productivity and efficiency as they scaled; and keep their teams' work secure and compliant. By using Atlassian’s products, their team is innovating with the speed, flexibility, and visibility of a startup, along with the organization and security controls of an established financial institution.
Valiantys was a tremendous help…We worked closely with Valiantys and Atlassian to achieve our migration goals via Atlassian Enterprise. This is the best outcome for us.”
Fabian Plato
Director of Business Operations
“On-prem wasn’t a suitable option anymore.”
Between the novelty of cryptocurrency and the large institutional investments managed by Finoa, trust is critical. “There is zero tolerance for mistakes in the crypto world, which is why information security is very important to us,” says Director of Business Operations Fabian Plato.
As Finoa researched infrastructure, the team looked for an agile solution that would also help them deliver faster, collaborate better, and increase transparency in the workplace. They had been using tools from various third parties and an on-premise wiki for productivity and collaboration, but the information was often difficult to find, and few people outside of the technology and product departments used the wiki because it wasn’t intuitive.
Fabian says, “We wanted to shift away from on-premise tools so we could simultaneously work on the same docs while being able to ship faster. It’s also a lot more internal work to maintain on-premise infrastructure, which means we would either need to shift more resources or hire more people. After carefully considering a variety of solutions, we came to the conclusion that on-prem wasn’t a suitable option anymore.”
As Finoa started comparing options, the team’s familiarity with Atlassian, along with its Cloud Enterprise features, convinced them it was the right fit. “We wanted our processes to be more automated and our teams to become aligned. For example, we couldn’t see what each team was working on or how quickly projects were completed on average,” Fabian says. “Some of our team members had experience with Atlassian, and we saw how Cloud Enterprise could meet our needs. This is why we chose it.”
Cautiously optimistic about the improvements ahead, Finoa decided to implement Atlassian into its productivity landscape and reached out to Solution Partner Valiantys to start their journey to the cloud.
Collaborating on the quest for compliance
The team surrounded themselves with smart specialists who could work together to implement a system that would meet their needs. For technical expertise, Finoa turned to Atlassian’s account managers. For advice on how to implement Atlassian properly, they engaged Berlin-based Valiantys GmbH, one of the leading Atlassian Platinum Solution Partners in the DACH market and the first to achieve the Atlassian Cloud Specialized designation in the region.
“Valiantys was a tremendous help. They were a mediator and partner to us. Since Finoa is a smaller company with a lower user tier, we worked closely with Valiantys and Atlassian to achieve our migration goals via Atlassian Enterprise. This is the best outcome for us,” Fabian says.
On top of the technical challenges, Finoa had to prepare their employees for the migration to new, cloud-based tools. They provided workshops and video training, shared resources from Atlassian and the community, while also encouraging learning by doing. Anytime users had questions, Atlassian was there for support. “I had never used Atlassian before. Every week I spent a couple evenings learning more about it. I reached out to our account manager with questions, and she always replied in half a day,” Fabian attests.
As Atlassian was rolled out and employees learned the system, teams quickly realized how much easier it was to find the information they needed, work faster, and collaborate more. On top of the internal improvements, Finoa was delighted to learn that their decisions and hard work had paid off in building trust with their customers and community.
Navigating uncharted waters
Today, every department at Finoa uses Jira, Jira Service Management, and Confluence Cloud in their daily work. Fabian says employees have been “tremendously supportive” thanks to the increased speed, visibility, and security the tools have helped them achieve.
“Operational compliance is fundamental to the way we do things, and that means ensuring we have all the documentation that is required of us, in the way it needs to be done, while still being agile. Atlassian helped us become faster, more productive, and more flexible. Being able to use cloud services is of tremendous help for us,” Fabian says.
Having a centralized knowledge base has not only improved collaboration, but also increased visibility and control for project leads. “We have certain processes, like procurement, where a lot of stakeholders are involved. Each of those departments have their own processes. Prior to Atlassian, we used email or third-party tools. With Jira, the work is more visible to all the people involved and to the organization, so we all know where to look and can align on priorities,” Fabian says. “Plus, we’re transitioning our organizational handbook to Confluence, so it’s easily accessible for our employees and for external auditors, if required.”
Finoa continues to navigate uncharted waters on a mission to become the top crypto custody platform for institutions. They may not know exactly what’s ahead, but they know they have the right people, platform, and partners to reach their destination.
Atlassian is dedicated to helping our customers operating in EMEA, and specifically within the financial services industry, with tools and technical solutions that facilitate the navigation of regulatory requirements. For more information please visit our Compliance Resource Center.