What is Atlas?
Atlas is Spekir’s enterprise architecture platform. It keeps a shared architecture model that connects the business to its applications, data, technology and planned changes.
On this page
Atlas is free during Early Access, and creating applications or capabilities has no plan-based count cap. Your workspace permissions still determine which changes you can make.
Switch workspaces
Open Settings and use Active workspace to choose a workspace you can access. Atlas reloads Settings for the selected workspace.
Start with a real question
What would we need to change if we replaced our CRM? Begin with the CRM, the ERP it sends customer updates to, and the capability they support. Record who is responsible and which sources confirm the connection.
This small model gives you something concrete to discuss: an affected integration, the people to involve and the facts still to check. Add detail as the decision requires it. The manual setup guide walks through this example.
What you can do
To understand what the model can contain, open Settings → Fact Sheet Types. The type catalogue guide explains the twelve standard reference types, optional types, subtypes and current Atlas availability.
- Build a shared model. Record applications, ownership and supporting facts. Keep sources and evidence close to the records they support.
- Connect business and IT. Link capabilities, applications, data and technology to show how work gets done.
- Follow lifecycle and change. Record application lifecycle stages and integration phase dates, then connect planned work to the affected records.
- Explore impact. Before replacing your CRM, trace the integrations that carry customer data and identify the teams and capabilities affected. Use albums and views to discuss the relevant part of the model.
- Coordinate decisions. Work with change requests in Simple or Review mode. Open Governance > Change requests (
/changes) to review proposals, including those submitted by an AI client. An approved proposal and an implemented change are different states. - Work with AI. An enabled AI client can help analyse the model and propose changes. Available actions depend on the client, your role and the workspace’s change management mode.
The core model
| Record | What it describes |
|---|---|
| Application | Software used to support the business |
| Integration | A directed data flow between applications |
| Data object | A business information concept, such as Customer or Invoice |
| Business capability | An ability the organisation needs, such as managing orders |
| IT component | Technology used by applications or integrations |
| Organization | A team or group linked to the model |
| Initiative | Planned work and the parts of the architecture it affects |
Relationships connect these records. Business architecture adds processes and value streams to explain how capabilities contribute to business outcomes.
Who works with Atlas
Architects build and analyse the model. Application owners contribute facts. Portfolio managers and IT leaders assess priorities. Change owners and reviewers use the same context when proposing and evaluating changes. Workspace access determines what each person can do.
Where Atlas fits
Atlas models logical architecture and supports decisions about it. It complements operational monitoring, a CMDB and project trackers. Link the relevant sources so readers can check a fact and understand the reasoning behind a decision.
Choose your starting point
- Set up your first landscape manually around one question and a few applications.
- Onboard an existing landscape and check what the source records establish.
- Assess your application portfolio to check capability coverage, compare overlapping applications and record why both should be kept.
- Run your first AI analysis with an enabled client and a clearly bounded task.
The Relations tab on a fact sheet also lists what initiatives affect, what interfaces transfer and use, which initiatives support an objective and what user groups own, from both ends of each link. A note beside a row shows when the link is planned or has ended. You read these links here; editing them comes later.
Read Key concepts for the vocabulary used throughout these guides.
Keep edits in one change request
In the Atlas header, Active change request lets you choose one of your own Draft or Revision requests. The selection follows you between pages. A watermark and status chip on a fact sheet show when supported inline edits will become items in that request instead of immediately changing the live record. Choose Editing live in the header when you want to return to direct editing. On the request detail page, an eligible reviewer can reject or edit an item, or accept low-risk items while leaving structural items open. See Change requests and review.
Views
Views under Design has three tabs. My holds your personal pages. System opens first and holds three albums that Atlas draws from your model each time you open them, so they are never out of date: an integration map for each application, the landscape grouped by business criticality, hosting, data classification (trust boundaries), TIME, business capability or owning team, and data lineage for each data object. System also lists your saved viewpoints. Library lists pages shared with the workspace and the hand-built views, such as the landscape and the capability map.
Open the full TIME view at /views/time in Atlas to compare applications by technical fit (left to right) and business fit (bottom to top). The four quadrants are Migrate (high business, low technical), Invest (high on both), Eliminate (low on both) and Tolerate (low business, high technical). Bubble colour shows the recorded TIME classification; a dashed outline means that classification differs from the quadrant implied by the scores. Use the domain and classification filters to focus the view, and choose bubble size by integration count, equal size or annual TCO when cost access is available. Applications missing either fit score appear in Not assessed instead of on the chart. Select an application to open its fact sheet, expand the chart to fullscreen or download it as SVG.
Point at a box to follow its integrations, select it to open its fact sheet, and download a page as SVG. Where an interface uses an IT component such as a message broker, the broker is drawn as its own box; choose Hide middleware to draw the integration directly. Applications without a value for the page's axis are shown in a Not set group. When an album has no pages, or leaves an axis out because every application has the same value, the album tells you which data is missing.
The capability map in Library shows the whole capability model on one page, in Strategic, Core and Supporting bands, with each capability numbered by its Atlas no. Choose a depth (L1, L2 or L3) and a lens: APQC match colours each capability by how well its APQC reference fits, Improvement goals highlights the capabilities a goal points at, and App support and Alignment coverage show supporting applications and strategic coverage. Search by name, Atlas no., ext id or APQC number. Select a capability to see its facts and APQC references, then choose Open in BCM to work on it under Capabilities.
Atlas is still being redesigned, so some menu items open pages that have not yet moved to the new layout. This documentation describes the concepts and marks pilot features rather than assuming every screen is final.
Continue with Your first landscape.
When reviewing an AI capability map in Populate, inspect its proposed APQC references and reasons before accepting it. APQC supplies process references behind the capability map; it does not replace your company-specific capability hierarchy. A capability's primary reference is its APQC ext id; up to three secondary references can sit beside it. KPI suggestions await licence clarification.
Follow an initiative's plan
Open Initiatives for scope, owner, dates and linked change requests. Change focus describes the work; Initiative type is a separate classification. Plan documentation coverage counts scoped applications mentioned in linked requests, including drafts, and is separate from delivery or business value. See Initiatives.
Check proposed changes against live
Open Governance > Change requests to find a request, then open its detail page to see the value recorded before each item. On a linked application fact sheet, Compare with live puts the recorded, current and proposed values side by side and marks fields whose live value has moved. See Change requests and review.
Navigate and inspect work
The left navigation uses consistent icons with text labels. The selected page has a blue highlight and a heavier label. In Inbox, select a work item or an initiative to read its summary in Item details. Choose Open record to continue to the existing record page. Close the details with Close details or Escape while focus is in the panel. On small screens, the summary appears above the Inbox cards.
In the default menu, Model > Business Capabilities opens the capability map. Model > Business Contexts opens Value Streams, with links to Processes and Customer Journeys above each inventory.
Check cost completeness across Atlas
Application cards, dashboards, analytics, strategy rollups and report exports use the same cost-completeness language. Not recorded means that no cost value was supplied; a recorded zero remains zero. Partial cost and Known TCO (partial) mean that Atlas can total the known components but cannot claim a complete TCO. Open the application or Applications guide to inspect which components are missing.