Need to explain the value of a dedicated and experienced JIRA Admin

[Samuel Meadema]

Community - I am looking for some data points to support the business case for hiring a dedicated JIRA administrator who can really drive value out of the usage of JIRA at my firm. We currently have an Admin, but he is not certified, not an expert, not dedicated, and supports the tool side-of-desk (at best). As our org is moving towards more complex usage of JIRA, I see a gap in our model that I believe a dynamic Admin resource could fill. I need to persuade leadership of that, and am seeking some wisdom on why a strong resource would greatly improve our foundation and ensure the right guardrails for the future, We currently have minimal standards, consistency, controls, etc in place. It is very federated, leading to disparate usage of issuetypes, workflows, etc. I believe an Admin could assist in cleaning it up, driving consistency, and optimizing the tool. If we were continue down our current path of a free-for-all, what pitfalls would we eventually encounter? Any experience, advice, or observations would be greatly appreciated! 

[Marshall Walker Lee]

@Samuel Meadema OOC, how many active users do you currently have in Jira?

[Samuel Meadema]

About 800, and growing. Thanks!