The Challenge

The engineers at European Electronique predominantly work on site, providing engineering tech support to schools and colleges. With different engineers working on different sites, visibility of availability was poor and project planning was a challenge. The team needed a central hub to improve communication and track resources across the team.  After Initial licence purchase, the client found they needed a little assistance in configuring both areas to provide a well structured PMO solution that integrated with the Resource Management module.

Our Solution

We worked collaboratively with the client to help build and set up a Project Management Solution in Smartsheet.  We then helped configure a Resource Management module to integrate with the PMO. 

Once this was up and running we then provided training across the team on how to use it. 

The Benefits 

• Increased visibility across multiple projects
• Single source of data shared among the team 
• Reduction in duplication of work
• Effective resource management 
• Streamlined the management of the projects

Testimonial

“From the start the support I have received from Debbie and the team has been great. It can be quite demanding sometimes when you have users that want to run before they can walk and I am no exception. Idea generation and training have been provided throughout and also with a friendly smile, it is always nice to be valued, and the team certainly made me feel that way – thank you.”

Richard Howes- Head of Project Management Office- European Electronique

The post European Electronique Takes PMO Solution To The Next Level appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

The Challenge

As a private finance company, compliance requirements at Cidel are very stringent. Risk and compliance measures are closely tracked and reviewed annually. 

In order to manage these efficiently, individual employees are assigned ownership of particular risks. It is their responsibility to track these, to make sure each risk has been reviewed and rated and complies to the relevant regulations.  

The challenge was to manage how these risks are assigned, and make sure each employee has access to the relevant regulations pertaining to that risk. With hundreds of risks and regulations to keep track of, Cidel needed a transparent, robust system to ensure the correct risk is assigned to the correct employee with all the relevant information available to them. 

In addition to this, each risk owner needed to be able to delegate their assigned risk. The system needed to let them grant risk assessment permissions to other employees when required.

Our solution 

We created a bespoke system from the ground up. We adapted out Smarter Dashboard Solution to create a website that enables any Cidel user to log in via Smartsheet and view any risks assigned to them. They can then examine all the information that’s relevant to that risk, assign the level of risk, and even specify what controls are in place to mitigate against it. 

The product has the capability to handle hundreds of employee logins, either as the risk owner or if the risk has been delegated to them. As a cloud based system it has the advantage of allowing the team access whenever they need it, and the efficiency of information updating in real time. 

We worked closely with the client and adapted the solution to fit their requirements as part of an ongoing development process.

The Benefits

• A coherent, flexible system that tailors the relevant information to each individual log in.
• Intuitive and accessible. Minimal training required to use.
• Unique. This one of a kind solution is designed to fit the client’s specific requirements.
• Comprehensive. The system stores and tracks hundred of risks, making each one instantly available when needed.

The post Cidel Bank Takes No Risks with Our Bespoke Smartsheet Solution appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

We learned a lot in 2020 about hygiene, about ourselves, about what we are good at and less good at. We realised the value of human interaction and the importance of mental health, finding ways to cheer ourselves up when the news is so awful. 

We learned a lot about CHANGE. We humans have a reluctance to embrace change for good reason mostly, because it involves risk, stepping into the unknown and that only becomes attractive when the status quo is so bad, anything must be better?  

So what have we learned? 

That commuting takes time, dressing from the waist up is quicker, that by collaborating with colleagues and playing team, gets things done faster, sharing innovative ideas and bouncing ideas about produces results. The more we achieve, the more we want to do more, hey this is addictive. 

When all the normal restraints are taken away, our minds start buzzing, what else can we do? Closed restaurants become busy takeaways, shopping for groceries becomes click and collect and they put it in your car for you how good is that! 

Using Zoom or Teams we see and talk to colleagues around the world and get decisions made in  minutes that would have needed days away from home, flights and hotels. Ok, some of us enjoy that, 1st class travel to exotic places, food and drink to die for… but having just proven we didn’t need to do it, will we ever go back to that? 

Change, when it works out well, is addictive and having seen what science can achieve by mass collaboration, producing vaccines in short order, has opened our eyes to the potential.  Software and data have been used in ways not seen by many before, Even government bodies not normally noted for their agile ways or openness have taken to Zoom and presented daily graphics that help us to quickly see the problem and make good decisions.  

Yes there have been some cockups, excel data being lost?  mistakes in calculations, talk about algorithms when trying to elevate their data above what we all know is simple maths.  But hey… governments moving quickly? Not a natural synergy? We all now realise that we no longer have to procrastinate or wade through glue to get things done. Brexit has happened, Elections concluded, Vaccines are being administered. 

Having worked with Smartsheet, a tool (for collaborative work management) for businesses for the last 10 years, we have seen companies achieve great things when they can work better together in short order and seen the power of addiction to continual innovation but never at the scale of what we have seen in 2020. 

For my team, working efficiently remotely has been our bread and butter for years and it’s been fun watching the rest of the world realise the same benefits. 

So what is coming next? Well good news… now, the world is no longer fearing change but embracing it, our minds are open to new ideas, using our access to good quality, easily consumed dashboard data,  we are happy to evaluate new ways of working especially if that means less time working and more time with family. 

Good news is that AI or Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning are now practical realities which will do the heavy lifting for us, presenting us with those easy to understand graphs and charts that make decisions by us humans easy to make.  

Software has gone from being a “pain in the butt”, to being our servant (at last).  It has to operate on any device we choose, wherever and whenever we wish to use it, be intuitive and helpful and save us 2 hours a day and if it doesn’t? We find a solution that does. 

So in 2021 we have lots to look forward to, software that serves not to annoy, human in person meetings because we value them, not because ‘that’s what we always do’. =  More time with those we love.  And yes we will be able to travel again ….. But for fun and holidays and enjoy time with our friends.  Yes, 2020 taught us a lot, but let’s move on and benefit from our learnings. 

No longer will we be happy to put up with technology that doesn’t make our lives easier, nor go back to commuting for commuting sake when we can spend more time with those we love doing the things we enjoy. 

This is more than just the “ Fourth Industrial Revolution” or the “Internet of things” and 5G on our phones….

2021 is the year we embrace change, be that in ourselves in working smarter or in climate change solutions to make our world a better place for our children. It took a pandemic to shock us into this fabulous opportunity so let’s make the most of what we have learned. 

Bring on 2021 we can’t wait to make Progress!

The post Bring on 2021 appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

Let’s turn what is at least a huge inconvenience into an opportunity? By using a good remote conferencing tool like Zoom, we avoid the need to travel and meet in person, which in itself saves hours, travel money and reduces risk. By implementing Smartsheet for collaborative work management you get the work done faster, improving collaboration and visibility across timezones, so it matters not if your workers are doing late hours or live in another continent, the work continues and the potential productivity opportunity is huge, (typically 20 to 40% saved). 

Never has there been a better time to try out these tools. Zoom and Smartsheet offer free trials, our team can help you to ramp up fast with their use if need be? We hope this suggestion has helped? Good luck to all at this difficult time.  Request your free Smartsheet 28 day trial OR Contact us for further information – we’d love to hear from you!

For more about remote working See Forbes conversation with Smartsheet CEO Mark Mader 

The post A Deep Dive into Remote Work for our Future of Work appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

Construction project management diverges from a typical PM role by demanding and incorporating extensive knowledge of the construction industry, a unique and complicated field. Construction PMs average around 120 responsibilities, which means they have to be more strategic and thoughtful in working with a slew of moving parts and constant change.

To ensure each responsibility is met and every architect, contractor, and supplier remains on schedule and budget, effective construction PMs should utilize tools and strategies that streamline their work. Fortunately, construction management has become more technical with the development of new tools to simplify many processes. It’s how you implement those tools that counts. These five strategies go beyond PM basics to prepare you for the intricacies of the role and direct your efforts toward success.

1. Create a flow of communication

Among the most important elements of all project management, communication is essential to every phase of any construction project. Good news and bad news are equally important when preparing and implementing a build, so you need to establish a flow of communication with everyone on the ground — and every stakeholder and supplier in the plan. This transparency will make the process smoother and will reduce the number of emails and phone calls whenever a problem arises.

One of the simplest ways to create a flow of communication is a collaborative work management (CWM) tool. By syncing discussions, attachments, and calendars, you can monitor news, budgets, and scheduling changes as they occur. A good CWM tool also allows you to relay these changes to other managers and accounting offices in real time, providing a nearly email-free method of project management. That means more time for you to spend at the construction site meeting contractors to coordinate the next stage of work.

2. Make a habit of continuous planning

Construction project managers should start planning long before actual construction begins, and continue revising and developing plans until the project ends. The design, pre-construction, and procurement stages of a construction project each require extensive planning — and each may need to be revised as the next stage unfolds. Anything can happen at a construction site. If you encounter unexpected environmental problems during the pre-construction phase, the design may need to change. Even slight adjustments can affect the overall plan and timeline.

This remains true during the actual build. You will be working with seasoned professionals, often with decades of experience in electrical engineering, plumbing, scaffolding, and carpentry. While your contractors should be trusted, they still need focused direction to coordinate their efforts with each other. You’ll often need to work with them throughout the timeline to develop and refine plans as delays and equipment failures arise. Like any PM, you will execute and monitor developments, but the planning never ends in construction project management. Collaboration shouldn’t either.

3. Observe and ask questions

There is no industry in which PMs will be found just sitting at their desks, removed from the project and his or her team. Every good project manager becomes an integral part of the process, working figuratively and literally alongside others. Construction project management requires more attention and integrated effort than most industries, because the work is so physical. Field elements can drastically affect the workflow of construction projects. There will be many times when you need to actually see an issue in person before you can resolve it.

Familiarizing yourself with the construction site and the duties of every professional working under you will make you a better project manager. Construction is a constantly evolving industry, with new equipment, practices, and advancements every year. You need to continually educate yourself and learn from others in order to administer and manage a successful project. A great deal of communication may be streamlined, but the work still requires regular site visits and conferences with the contractors and designers on the ground.

4. Use tools to monitor costs and budgets

Most PMs have to think about money constantly, but the permits, wages, materials, and equipment of construction projects in particular are often exchanged between an array of financial sources. From the initial bidding process to the project closeout, construction PMs are responsible for tracking and monitoring all costs, especially as they relate to initial budgets. Ideally, you will have an accounting department for managing contractor invoices, but even then, you have to work alongside your accountants to ensure all direct and indirect costs are recorded.

Considering every other responsibility of a construction project manager, tracking and monitoring finances manually without the assistance of software isn’t practical — or feasible. Even relatively small construction projects contain hundreds of moving parts and individual costs, so to remain effective you need to use software that can also manage costs and budgets. A good CWM tool should allow you and other collaborators to input costs, budget changes, and other calculations to keep track of your project’s finances, alleviating the need to coordinate with every participant or to calculate your budget. Additionally, integrating DocuSign reduces time spent collecting signatures for every invoice, which means you and your contractors can devote more attention to the task at hand.

5. Implement automated reporting systems

No construction project manager has the time to reply to hundreds of emails a day — or use the phone to call and address every question about budgets and progress. In addition to concentrating discussions and schedules on one CWM, you can cut down further correspondence by implementing automated reporting systems. Construction project management requires the weekly distribution of various spreadsheets and status reports, and automated delivery tools will save significant time over the span of the build. This automation will ensure the right reports go to the right people on time, allowing you to focus on other tasks and communication. Other reporting systems, like Safety and Health Management, can prevent hazards, track incidents, and streamline worksite analysis when issues do arise.

A CWM tool like Smartsheet benefits not only construction project managers, but also their teams, partners, and stakeholders. Smartsheet fosters transparency at every level for real-time updates, automated reporting, and integration with apps (like Docusign) to streamline processes that could otherwise hold up the next phase. Your software should be a tool that helps you work more efficiently. But, the skills and strategies for effective construction project management require a more in depth look at the industry as a whole, and a better understanding of how your role fits into an overall build.

Try Smartsheet for free or contact us to arrange a free initial consultation to discuss your Smartsheet optimisation – we’d love to hear from you!

The post 5 Strategies of a Successful Construction Project Manager appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

We’ve seen a wholesale change in thinking by businesses large and small, both in the US and UK, all eager to embrace low cost, intuitive cloud solutions and the improved efficiencies they bring.

Excel has always been and will continue to be the tool of choice for deep number-crunching, but as a management tool, it has limitations.  Fast growth companies need real time information and a spreadsheet type solution that provides collaboration and visibility on any platform and device.

Resistance to change is common but those who have embraced new ways of working are now seeing the efficiency and cultural gains

So what are some of these winning solutions?

• Smartsheet alongside Excel and Google sheets.
• DocuSign for Digital Transaction management for NDAs Contracts and Sign off.
• ProofHQ for Reviewing any digital copy through to approval in real time.
• Microsoft 365 implementation and integration as a cloud based solution, means we are helping clients to merge processes to work together… at low cost.
• OverDRIVE provides an Internal Web Portal, that acts like an Intranet or Digital Asset Library and works beautifully in conjunction with Google for Work Apps.

What were our clients’ challenges?

“Skilled resources are not easily acquired, so we needed to provide the existing team with better tools to allow them to do more in less time and take away their repetitive processes, replacing them with intuitive solutions that were enjoyable to work with and got immediate results”.

“ As business grew fast, increasing orders meant we had to become more efficient to fulfill them.”

“We needed Real Time information to get out to our key workers who could be out on site, or in countries in different time zones and languages, so a tool that looks and feels just like Excel, takes uploads from Excel (or MS Project) then provides an almost endless list of new solutions not found in Excel Desktop or 365 was key”.

The solutions Smartsheet provided in response to our clients’ challenges

• Secure access of key data for dissemination and feedback  on any device. 
• Audit trail discussion on any row or sheet.
• Uploads of any file type for review and use. 
• Collaboration, Reminders, Alerts that solve a host of needs.
• Automated Reports and Graphs that provide Real Time status 
• Planning projects has never been easier and no “ology” needed. 
• Resource planning has never been easier 
• Even those who are hooked on MS Project find that working Smartsheet alongside for collaboration and feedback makes their lives easier and results quicker.

If you can identify with any of the above, contact us to arrange your free 1 hour consultation to discuss your challenges.  We’d love to hear from you!

Empower your business with smarter business processes

The post Technology Innovation Adoption – A Quiet Revolution appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

“We recently had a short notice need for an OverDRIVE site,  which would allow us to share data to an external company via a virtual data room.  Putting in an urgent request,  we had an OverDRIVE site up and running in less than 3 hours.  A totally responsive product delivered by a totally responsive team.”     Michael McHale, Head of IS & Technology –  PegasusLife

Request your Free Trial now or Contact us to discuss your needs – we’d love to hear from you !

The post OverDRIVE keeps projects running smoothly and teams connected appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

Duration in minutes, hours and weeks, as well as critical path, bring Smartsheet to the next level of project management and team collaboration. You’ll have greater control over project schedules, ensuring that your timeline stays on track and remains accurate. You’ll also be able to easily identify the most important tasks in your project, keeping everyone on the same page and meeting deadlines.

How to Benefit….There’s a lot to Learn…..Talk to us about:

• Smartsheet Consultancy
• Smartsheet Training:  Getting to Grips with Project Management in Smartsheet,   Smartsheet Discovery,   Advanced Smartsheet Super User
• Project Migration:  Project Development Consultancy  Workflow Process Improvement

Get in touch to arrange your  Free initial consultation  where we can discuss the change processes and how they will improve your workflows…. . Or  Book one of our training courses  for your management  users.  

Here’s more information about the new features:

Enter Project Duration in Minutes, Hours, or Weeks

You now have a new level of granular control over project schedules by specifying duration of tasks in minutes (‘m’), hours (‘h’), partial days (0.5d), or weeks (‘w’). You can even mix and match units, like 5d 2h or 3d 45m. Just type the unit of time after your duration and Smartsheet automatically adjusts your schedule, on desktop and on mobile.

These new duration options also mean that milestones will no longer be a full day — you now have the ability to add zero-day milestones to your project schedules. And if your typical work day is less or more than the standard eight hours, you can specify that as well, by setting the hours in a working day. Your whole timeline automatically adjusts so you can stay nimble and specific to your business needs.
To use the new task durations:

• In the Duration column in your sheet, simply enter a number followed by the unit: ‘m’ for minutes, ‘h’ for hours, and ‘w’ for weeks. For partial days, enter ‘0.5d’ or ‘2.5d.’

To set the hours in a working day:  

1. Toggle to the Gantt chart view (make sure your dependencies are enabled).
2. On the right-hand side, in the Gantt view, click the gear icon.
3. Under Dependency Settings, in the section called Working Days, click Edit.
4. Under Length of Day, enter the number of hours in the workday.
5. Click Ok to close Working Days, and Ok again to save your project settings.

Automatically Calculate Critical Path

In any given project, you may have hundreds of tasks and dozens of dependencies. And it can be almost impossible to identify the most important tasks — the ones that, if missed, will impact the entire project and its completion date. With critical path, you can automatically identify these critical tasks, the ones that you really need to worry about to make sure you meet your deadline.

With the click of an icon, all of the tasks that directly impact your project completion date will be outlined in bright red on the Gantt chart. The critical path will change in real time, reflecting any changes in live data. And, it will work seamlessly across desktop and mobile, and with any colour settings in your sheet.

To use critical path on desktop:

1. Enable the Gantt chart view.
2. On the right-hand side, in the Gantt view, click the far-right critical path icon (it looks like two red Gantt bars).
3. On the Gantt chart, the tasks that are on the critical path will be outlined in red.

To use critical path on iOS and Android:

1. Enable the Gantt chart view.
2. On the bottom of your screen, click the critical path icon (it looks like two red Gantt bars).
3. On the Gantt chart, the tasks that are on the critical path will be outlined in red. Tasks that are on the critical path will also be highlighted in red on your task list on the left side.

Note: In order to enable critical path, you must have a fully networked Gantt chart. In other words, you must enable dependency settings. 

Huge Advances for Project Managers

Duration in minutes, hours and weeks, as well as critical path, bring Smartsheet to the next level of project management and team collaboration. You’ll have greater control over project schedules, ensuring that your timeline stays on track and remains accurate. You’ll also be able to easily identify the most important tasks in your project, keeping everyone on the same page and meeting deadlines.

For more information about this release, read our external release notes. 

Talk to us about Managing the Changes within your organisation and about application integration set-up and training.  We’d love to hear from you.

The post New in Smartsheet: Critical Path and Duration in Minutes, Hours, and Weeks appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

We’re pretty excited that Gartner Inc., one of the most prominent technology research companies in the world, decided to name Smartsheet as a “Cool Vendor” for 2015.

How cool is that?

Each year, Gartner selects companies in critical technology areas and publishes a series of reports detailing why these products and services were chosen. Or, essentially, why they’re pretty cool.

Cool Vendors are selected because they are innovative, unique, and have a real market impact. Smartsheet was one of just four Software as a Service (SaaS) companies included in the 2015 Program and Portfolio report.

Click here to download the Report

So, What Makes Smartsheet So Cool?

• It helps anyone get more work done.
• It provides transparency and visibility into projects.
• It combines the most powerful features of Excel, Dropbox, Microsoft Project, and email.

Boost Productivity and Drive Results With Smartsheet

If you’re using Smartsheet, you know we have a familiar spreadsheet interface and an abundance of intuitive collaboration features to help people, teams, departments, and entire companies coordinate anything.

We’re fortunate to help industry-leading organizations like Cisco, Google, Bayer, Groupon, HomeAway, DHL, and others get work done, easily, and more efficiently. With six million users worldwide, we help companies boost productivity, streamline communication, and drive results.

Now, that’s cool.

Read the Cool Vendor Report by Gartner to learn more.

The post Gartner Names Smartsheet a ‘Cool Vendor’ in Program and Portfolio Management 2015 appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

Unclog your email and keep track of every detail with ease when you pair Smartsheet and Outlook together.

Key Features:

• Convert any email into a shared item that instantly appears as a row in a Smartsheet project or sheet for all collaborators to see and act on.
• Create or edit a Smartsheet item or task, then assign it to someone, schedule it, or add comments and other relevant details from the email.
• Attach the entire email as a discussion associated with a Smartsheet item.
• Search Smartsheet for the right sheet or project.
• Add all or selected email attachments to a Smartsheet item.

From the Smartsheet for Outlook app, you can either log in to Smartsheet using existing Smartsheet credentials, or request a free trial of Smartsheet 

Talk to us about remote support and onsite Training on MS apps including 365 and integration with Smartsheet

At Build 2015, Smartsheet  also showcased a fully functional prototype of how its work management platform can be integrated with multiple Microsoft Office apps such as Outlook, One Drive and Contacts using the unified API.

This merging of data helps organizations visualize how people are working together, on what initiatives and the status of the work. “Being able to see a picture of who’s working with whom on what work has been invaluable to our customers. Now layering in the Microsoft Office 365 data into that visualization takes it to a whole new level,” Mader added.

As a trusted provider to many of the world’s industry-leading organizations including Cisco, Google, Bayer, HomeAway, Facebook, Groupon, DHL, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), and more than 60,000 other companies in 170 countries, Smartsheet is making significant strides towards becoming the global standard for work management.

Smartsheet pairs the familiar, easy to use spreadsheet interface with capabilities like real-time collaboration, work automation, Gantt chart features and integration with leading cloud productivity tools, leading to a flexible, highly functional project management tool that is becoming incredibly popular. It is used to collaborate, plan and execute a broad spectrum of work, including marketing campaigns, product launches, business operations, manufacturing processes, strategic planning and HR initiatives.

Contact us about your work managment requirements, we’d love to hear from you!

The post Clients are loving Smartsheet for Microsoft Outlook appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

In the time it took you to read this sentence, 20 million emails were written.

There’s no question we all receive too much email (over 100 billion emails are sent and received each day). But, no matter how many times we complain about time wasted over email or the sheer amount of messages in our inbox, the truth is, we actually like it. And science can prove it.

We get a rush of dopamine to the brain’s pleasure centres every time a new email comes in. Researchers believe that our compulsion to constantly check email is driven by the dopamine releases that occur in anticipation of receiving good news.

Along the sames lines, our sense of value gets inflated the more emails we receive. According to award-winning author and recognized technology authority Phil Simon, “we secretly love email. We tell ourselves, “Look at how essential I am to the company!’”

Simon’s new book, Message Not Received, examines how we communicate and often misuse language and technology at work, especially email. Via extensive case studies, he demonstrates how business professionals are embracing simpler language and new technologies to communicate in a more effective way.

Smartsheet got a chance to interview Simon about business communication mistakes, trends, and best practices.

Here’s the conversation:

Q: What are the most common mistakes in communication you see happening in business?

A: There are two key mistakes to emphasize: too much email and too much jargon.

In mid-2014, a large software vendor released a press release on its new, next-generation, big data platform as a service. In the first sentence, there were 61 words. It was totally confusing.

I’m not against changes in language—language changes very organically, but many, many people are using more jargon and confusing people more than ever. And, when we get that jargon in emails, we just shut down. We make mistakes and we don’t understand what we’re supposed to do.

Q: Has email always been an ineffective communication channel? Was there a turning point?

A:  It’s not always effective or totally ineffective. Communication has always been contextual. Certain mediums can be better than others. Marshall McLuhan famously said, “The medium is the message.” He’s absolutely right.

I’m not anti-email; I’m anti-inefficiency. Productivity usually suffers on incessant email chains.

Let me make it more concrete. Let’s assume that 80% of emails are actually clear and you receive 10 emails per day. That means two don’t make any sense to you. That’s manageable.

We actually get 120 to 150 emails per day. More than 20 times per day, you receive a message that doesn’t make any sense to you.

Email was never designed to be a collaboration tool. You can’t search your inbox as effectively as you can search 25 trillion web pages. It usually takes us less than one second on Google to get what we want. Our inboxes contain 20,000 messages. At least a few times per day, we can’t find something in our inbox.

Brass tacks: Email should not be our default communication tool.

Q: Do you have a general rule-of-thumb about when it’s best to email, use chat, or talk in person?

A: First, I have a three-email rule. After three, we talk in person. Second, I pick up the phone if I want to catch up with someone or explore different opportunities. Third, it drives me crazy if someone sends me multiple attachments via email. I like collaborating in real time. And lastly, I will not engage in a difficult ‘conversation’ over email.

Q. What does the future of business communication look like?

A: The future of business will be split. You always have your early adopters, people who won’t manage a project over email and go with tools like HipChat, Jive, Yammer, Smartsheet, and many others. Early adopters will maintain an advantage over companies that refuse to embrace truly collaborative technologies. Organizations that use antiquated tools are missing out. More and more companies will embrace collaboration tools; they have to.

Simon closes by saying, “There is not one best tool. I want people to think carefully about what we’re saying and how we’re saying it. I want people to ask questions about whether or not they’re communicating efficiently.”

About Phil Simon

Phil Simon is a frequent keynote speaker and recognized technology authority. He is the award-winning author of seven management books, most recently Message Not Received. He consults organizations on matters related to communications, strategy, data, and technology. His contributions have been featured on The Harvard Business Review, CNN, Wired, NBC, CNBC, Inc. Magazine, BusinessWeek, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, Fox News, and many other sites.

The post Life by Email: An Interview with Author Phil Simon appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

Businesses today are demanding more efficient technology processes from marketing agencies. In a recent survey, nearly 40 % of companies reported declining to work with an agency because they felt the agency did not have the right tools for collaborating and managing work. By having efficient tools and processes in place, agencies have a tremendous competitive advantage that will help them to not only win customers, but retain their business for the long term.

The Problem

An agency’s lack of effective collaboration tools can mean the difference between winning/retaining or losing a customer. Review and approval is an important collaborative process that has become a pain point with customers as traditional email and paper-based proofing methods cause major delays in collateral production. When this happens, the customer loses money and customer satisfaction suffers.

The Solution

Online proofing streamlines review and approval by enabling agencies to share online proofs, which customers easily markup and comment on, making the process exponentially more efficient and resulting in shorter project delivery. The time, effort and costs saved provides tremendous value to agencies and their customers.  See Video 

The Benefits

• 56%* faster project delivery for quicker speed to market
• Integrated development of multi-channel marketing
• Real-time collaboration and feedback across global teams
• Greater visibility into project bottlenecks
• Approval accuracy and time-stamped audit trail
• Average number of revisions reduced from 3.9 to 2.8*, a 29%* reduction
• Streamlined proofing reduces time spent managing reviews by an average of 59%*
• On average, Internal Rate of Return is 4,441%*

Raves from marketing agencies

Here is what marketing agencies say about productive ProofHQ proofing tools and automation.

“Using ProofHQ has accelerated turnaround time by 30-40%.”

Avinash Keshan, Managing Partner, Innomedia Creations

“Since implementing Proof HQ it has been an invaluable resource for our design team. The ability to discuss our concept designs all-in-one place with all the client stakeholders, instead of keeping track of multiple email chains means, has proved to be a great time saver and allows us to create designs that realise our clients vision.”

Mark McKeever, Director, bit10 Ltd

“ProofHQ have been amazing; they are very supportive and very attentive and take our needs into consideration. Customer service is key and that is an area where they excel.”Alis Polatyan, Vice President of Agency Services, Kane & Finkel

Contact us to arrange a screen share demo or to request a free 14 day trial – we’d love to hear from you.

The post Online proofing for marketing agencies appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

Ignorance may be bliss, until we realize there is something drastically more efficient and effective out there. Then, ignorance becomes a costly, time-consuming oversight. Case in point: Excel spreadsheets.

The traditional spreadsheet has been around for nearly 30 years and almost a billion people use them today. But, their usage has evolved from being a data analytics and number crunching tool with formulas and functions to a work and project management tool.

In fact, 60% of spreadsheets in use today contain no formulas. Instead, Excel spreadsheets are being used for list management, project tracking, and basic work coordination.

Excel may be one of the most widely used tools for work management, but is it really the right tool for managing your tasks and projects?

Here are five important questions you need to ask yourself before using Excel for your next project:

1.  Can my colleagues and I work on a sheet at the same time?

Excel is locally hosted, whether it’s installed on a server or on each user’s individual machine. This means that the file must be constantly synced or carefully sent around via email to ensure all members of the team have access to the most up-to-date version. If one person forgets to email out some changes, a whole team could be out of sync. Some people rely on using a shared server like Microsoft Sharepoint to ensure version control, but that process can be time consuming for users and only one person and can work on the file at a time. And unless everyone accessing the file uses the proper methods of Sharepoint (i.e. ‘checking out’ and ‘checking in’), then it becomes a moot point. Microsoft has launched its Office 365 version of Excel, offering services in the cloud, but it still lacks the advanced sharing and collaboration features that you need to truly work real-time with other team members and it only works for the Windows platform.

Solution: You need to make edits at any time, and update those changes for everyone else working on the same platform. And you need to have things like the ability to have more than one person working at one time on the project plan, options to start discussions, ability to attach relevant content files, and the option to link to content that lives on other cloud-based apps like Evernote or Google Drive. Most importantly, the tool you use needs to accommodate work done on multiple devices, with multiple platforms, from any location.

2.  Can I identify who made changes or additions to a file?

Excel sheets are constantly being modified and change hands across emails dozens of times a day. As such, it can be extremely difficult to keep track of where the project was six months before, let alone years ago, and identify who made certain changes and when.

Solution: Look for a tool that offers full project history and can automatically notify you each time someone makes a change, so you always know who is working on what.

3.  Do I have easy, customizable tracking capabilities? Or the ability to visually see who’s working on what and with whom?

Excel has no built-in reporting, so project managers need to manually generate reports and graphs. In addition, certain reports you can build in Excel (like Gantt charts and project roll-ups) may be beyond the skills and capabilities of some project managers.

Solution: Save valuable time with software that has one-click reporting and customizable tracking abilities. For example, the capabilities to identify work patterns, track employee productivity, and monitor tasks to help set individual or team priorities. You can even have the ability to create a visual workmap: a graphical, interactive way to show who is working on what, with whom, and with what content. This gives you a quick way to see what projects are getting the most attention, who your high performers are on the team, and the status of who’s engaged from other departments.

4.  Can I quickly view project status and progress in a dashboard?

Managers often need an easy-to-digest overview of what is happening. Excel does not lend itself to a quick understanding of project status. You would need to create additional views or reports to see summarized information from Excel, or sift through detailed information to find the one number you need.

Solution: Choose software that features a dashboard where you can view the most important information in one place. As an added bonus, look for a customizable dashboard, where you can choose what information shows up (reminders, assignments, to-do lists, or recent files).

5.  Can I create specific to-do lists for different team members?

Excel is great if you’re flying solo as it only shows one view, typically for the project manager. It doesn’t provide individual team member with his or her own to-do list for each project. And, everyone has access to the same information in one Excel sheet. An intern can see the same data as senior management and can easily make changes that aren’t tracked.

Solution: You need different views and different access capabilities for different people. The best tools allow you to customize what each user can or cannot see, and lets you distribute specific tasks and to-dos to certain people. It also gives you the ability to set up auto-reminders to each individual so they know when their tasks are due.

Save Excel for the Number Crunching

Excel has always been the tool of choice for deep number-crunching. But as a management tool, it’s limited to a list of tasks with columns detailing specific milestones or target dates. While that information is helpful, it just scratches the surface. Don’t hold back productivity and collaboration by using Excel for important tasks it was never made to do.

 Learn more about Smartsheet as an Excel alternative that will help you get more done, more effectively.

Request a demonstration, free trial or free initial consultancy or simply Contact us to discuss your needs – we’d love to hear form you!

The post Is Excel Right for Managing Tasks? 5 Key Questions You Need to Ask appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

The modern workforce is clearly embracing this shift. According to the American Community Survey, telecommuting has risen 79% between 2005 and 2012. And companies are benefiting from home-based employees — they work 9.5% longer and were 13% more productive than office workers, based on a 9-month experiment conducted by a Stanford University professor.

With telecommuting here to stay, companies are looking for effective ways to accommodate their virtual employees. How do you maintain accountability between remote and office employees? How do you conduct effective meetings with employees around the world?

A New Generation of Collaboration Tools

A wave of new technology is cropping up to make location irrelevant. These applications are designed to mimic in-office experiences, like holding impromptu brainstorming sessions or checking in on progress in real time. And while remote workers may miss out on 70% of nonverbal communication, like facial expressions, voice tones, and eye contact, technology is getting smart enough to mimic these natural, flowing conversations online.  See More…

The post Why Collaboration Tools are Necessary To Keep Up with the Remote Workforce appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

The Challenge

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The Solution

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