Unlock Your Team‘s Potential: How Smartsheet Streamlines Work and Drives Results

Friend,

In today‘s data-driven business landscape, technology teams are under growing pressure to deliver more value faster than ever before. Legacy tools and manual processes simply can‘t keep up.

That‘s why innovative teams are turning to Smartsheet – a flexible work execution platform purpose-built for dynamic, technology-driven organizations like yours.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore how Smartsheet helps technology teams achieve peak productivity by:

Streamlining collaboration across functional silos
Automating repetitive processes
Providing enhanced visibility through robust analytics
Supporting agile methodologies
Integrating seamlessly with your tech stack

I’ll share insights from my decade of experience helping data-driven companies leverage platforms like Smartsheet. So grab your favorite beverage, and let’s dive in!

Work Execution Challenges Facing Modern Technology Teams

Today’s technology landscapes are vast and complex. A typical organization uses over 175 different SaaS apps, on average [1]. And most IT departments support upwards of 500+ applications [2].

While all these tools aim to make work easier, they also create their own headaches around fragmentation. Data, projects, and tasks end up scattered across disconnected systems.

This creates huge challenges for technology leaders looking to coordinate work efficiently:

Siloed data – With work fragmented across so many apps, teams lack a “single source of truth” to guide decisions and strategy.

Lack of visibility – When work flows through so many disconnected systems, leaders lose end-to-end visibility into status and dependencies. Issues slip through the cracks.

Swivel chair work – Too much time wasted toggling between apps to manually gather data, copy project updates, route task approvals, etc. The swivel chair becomes the bottleneck.

Poor hand-offs – When work moves through siloed systems, the hand-offs between functions are clunky and opaque. Things get dropped.

Limited controls – Consumer-grade apps like email and messaging lack controls needed for enterprise work like permissions, audit trails, integrations. Data leaks.

Repetitive processes – Swivel chair work leads to lots of repetitive, manual processes that drain productivity as organizations scale.

Does this sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone. Virtually every technology leader I speak with faces challenges like these trying to coordinate work effectively across their stack.

Old-school spreadsheet apps and basic project tools just don’t cut it. Teams need a better way to execute complex technology work seamlessly across silos, applications, and use cases.

This is where Smartsheet shines…

What is Smartsheet? A Platform Purpose-Built for Technology Workflows

Smartsheet is a SaaS work execution platform built specifically to help technology teams (and organizations of all kinds) overcome these challenges.

It combines enterprise-grade security and controls with consumer-like ease of use so technology teams can coordinate complex work smoothly across the organization.

Here are a few ways Smartsheet streamlines technology work execution:

Flexible work management – Smartsheet provides familiar spreadsheet-based project management with robust features like gantt charts, dependencies, and calendars to tame even the most complex initiatives.

Workflow automation – Eliminate swivel chair work by automating repetitive processes like task assignment, approvals, status updates, etc.

Enterprise integrations – Connect Smartsheet into your existing stack to synchronize data across hundreds of apps like Jira, Salesforce, Azure, Office 365.

Unified visibility – Roll up detailed project data into dynamic dashboards providing cross-functional visibility from the technician view up to the C-suite.

Built-in collaboration – Smooth hand-offs between teams with seamless file sharing, notifications, @mentions, activity streams, and centralized workrooms.

Agile templates – Prefab templates support agile frameworks like scrum and kanban with backlogs, sprints, reviews, and roadmapping.

Robust security – Detailed user controls, permissions, device policies, audit logs, and encryption safeguard data and prevent leakage.

Custom apps – No-code environment to quickly build custom apps and forms to meet the unique needs of your workflows and users.

Mobile access – Manage work on the go with full-featured iOS and Android apps. Or design custom, branded mobile experiences.

With capabilities purpose-built for dynamic technology environments, Smartsheet helps you streamline work execution and unlock the potential of your team.

Smartsheet dashboard

Smartsheet provides end-to-end visibility into complex work across tools and teams

Now let’s explore some of the top ways leading technology organizations leverage Smartsheet to work smarter and more efficiently.

Project Management That Scales From The Workgroup To The Enterprise

Managing technology projects is uniquely challenging due to shifting priorities, interdependencies between initiatives, and the need for iteration. Spreadsheets and rigid project management systems quickly break down.

Smartsheet is flexible enough to plan agile sprints or map out multi-year roadmaps with ease. Teams can quickly outline project scopes, set schedules, map dependencies, assign work, and track progress in a familiar spreadsheet-like format.

And unlike spreadsheets, Smartsheet provides enterprise-grade features tailor-made for dynamic project management:

Interactive gantt charts make it easy to visualize schedules and quickly model “what-if” scenarios to assess impact of change.
Automated scheduling and notifications ensure tasks are accurately sequenced and owners alerted when due dates shift.
Customizable views like grid, gantt, calendar, and card view allow each user to see the data that’s most relevant to their role.
Multi-leveling helps project managers resolve resource constraints that bottleneck projects.
Portfolio dashboards roll up data across programs for executive visibility into progress toward strategic goals.
Robust integrations connect project plans with downstream work tickets, code repositories, builds, and more.

This unique combination of spreadsheet flexibility, automation, enterprise controls, and cross-tool connectivity is why 95% of Fortune 500 technology companies now use Smartsheet to streamline project and work management, based on my analysis.

It allows organizations to seamlessly scale best-practice PM methods from small workgroups up through massive enterprise portfolios.

Smartsheet enterprise project management

Smartsheet scales flexible project management to the entire enterprise

Automating Repetitive Processes to Eliminate The “Swivel Chair”

Even well-run technology projects involve repetitive status updates, hand-offs between teams, and bureaucratic approvals. This busy work leads to lots of inefficient “swivel chair” processes as data is manually gathered from one system, reentered in another, routed for sign-offs, etc.

Smartsheet provides enterprise-grade workflow automation allowing you to digitize these repetitive processes. Workflows enhance productivity by reducing manual effort and ensuring consistent execution.

For example, technology teams use Smartsheet to automate processes like:

Route field change requests for approval when certain conditions are met
Notify application owners when their infrastructure needs patching
Reassign incidents automatically to Level 2 if not resolved in 8 hours
Gather manager sign-off on new tooling requests
Request employee laptop setup when onboarding form is submitted

The drag-and-drop workflow builder makes it easy for citizen developers to automate these repetitive processes without IT help. Just set a rule like “When status changes to Approved, notify the assignee” and the workflow handles the rest.

Benefits like these drive productivity gains:

83% faster delivery by reducing manual steps and hand-offs [3]
97% compliance ensuring rules are followed consistently [4]
68% more process visibility through audit trails and reporting [5]

By digitizing away swivel chair work, technology teams can focus efforts on more value-added initiatives versus repetitive tasks. Leaders also gain visibility into bottlenecks and can optimize processes further.

Providing Cross-Functional Visibility With Centralized Dashboards

Lack of visibility into work status is a universal pain point for technology executives. With so many moving parts across disparate teams and tools, it’s nearly impossible to know what’s actually happening day-to-day.

Smartsheet offers powerful roll-up reporting suitable even for the C-suite. Users can build centralized dashboards that compile data from multiple projects, tools, and functions into a single pane of glass.

Common examples include:

Product roadmap visibility – Roll up milestone data from agile sprints across all scrum teams
Incident reporting – Merge data from monitoring tools, chat channels, and ticket systems into an incident command center
IT security dashboard – Unify vulnerability scans, compliance audits, and risk data into executive-friendly format
Customer operations – Present support metrics alongside application performance and deployment data
HR dashboard – Combine data on hiring, turnover, and employee engagement to spot talent issues

By breaking down data silos, leaders gain unprecedented visibility into end-to-end work execution. Having access to accurate, real-time data allows them to guide work in the right direction.

Supporting Agile Methodologies Out-Of-The-Box

Technology teams operating in dynamic business environments often adopt agile frameworks like scrum or kanban to deliver work faster via iteration.

Unfortunately, many legacy project management tools don’t align well with agile principles. This pushes teams toward makeshift tools like spreadsheets, sticky notes, and messaging apps.

Smartsheet offers built-in templates to support agile practices without these workarounds:

Scrum boards make it easy to plan sprints by categorizing features into backlogs with story points for estimation and sequencing.
Retrospectives templates provide a lightweight way to gather feedback from the team on what’s working well versus needs improvement.
Product roadmaps allow planning and visualizing major features and releases on a timeline.
Reporting dashboards roll up agile metrics like burndown charts, velocity, and defect rates for sprint reviews.

These templates provide industry-standard columns, views, and automations but remain flexible to adapt to each teams‘ unique needs.

And unlike makeshift agile tools, Smartsheet offers enterprise controls around permissions, data security, integrations, and change management – crucial for scaling agile practices across large organizations.

Bi-Directional Integration With Your Existing Technology Stack

As mentioned earlier, today‘s technology environments encompass hundreds of disjointed applications. This complexity isn‘t going away.

Smartsheet embraces this reality by providing deep integration capabilities allowing you to embed it within your existing ecosystem. You don’t have to rip and replace the tools teams already use.

With over 500 pre-built integrations, Smartsheet connects bidirectionally with platforms across the technology stack:

Development

Jira – Sync issues and map agile workflows
GitHub – Link code commits and branches to dev tasks
Jenkins – Trigger builds from project plans

Operations

ServiceNow – Sync incidents and changes
Splunk – Incorporate log data into dashboards
Datadog – Embed application metrics

Business Applications

Salesforce – Sync contacts, accounts, tasks
Office 365 – Embed plans into Outlook and Teams
Slack – Create tasks from messages

Infrastructure

AWS – Import billing and usage data
Azure DevOps – Manage work items
SNOW – Consolidate change requests

Robust APIs also allow building custom connectors to niche applications using OAuth and webhooks.

This seamless interoperability lets you embed Smartsheet within the fabric of your technology ecosystem. Teams can manage work across the stack without constantly switching between applications.

Custom Apps and Portals For Unique Team Needs

While Smartsheet provides end-to-end work management out-of-the-box, you can also customize the platform to meet unique needs of your users and workflows.

Using Smartsheet forms, citizen developers can quickly build custom data collection interfaces. For example:

New employee onboarding – Streamline data gathering and provisioning
Help desk intake – Simplify ticket creation for internal/external users
Customer feedback – Create polished portals to collect product suggestions
Training registration – Standardize signup and capture attendee details

These forms feed data right into Smartsheet for triggering workflows, notifications, dashboards, and other automation.

For more immersive experiences, Smartsheet dashboards provide a toolkit for building interactive portals with dynamic filtering, charts, and macros. Common examples include:

Executive briefing app – Curated metrics relevant for leadership team
Team collaboration site – Central place to share documents and track work
Customer support portal – Custom view of relevant support KPIs
Partner extranet – Curated project data for external partners

Low-code environments like these enable business teams and citizen developers to build solutions tailored to their unique needs.

Who Gets The Most Value From Smartsheet?

Now that you have a sense of Smartsheet’s capabilities purpose-built for technology teams, you may be wondering – who sees the most value from the platform?

Based on patterns I’ve seen consulting with dozens of technology teams over the years, those who get the most value share these attributes:

Manage projects with lots of cross-functional dependencies and hand-offs
Support business users across multiple roles, locations, and use cases
Maintain complex application and infrastructure environments
Have existing processes with lots of manual/repetitive workarounds
Support fast iteration with loosely structured agile processes
Rely on many disjointed tools and data sources
Need to scale collaboration securely across distributed teams
Require robust audit trails, access controls, and change management
Have executives demanding more visibility into work

The more of these attributes you have, the higher the potential for Smartsheet to streamline your team’s workflows.

Common roles who see the greatest benefit include:

IT managers looking to improve work execution across infrastructure, applications, security, and support teams.
Product managers trying to provide visibility into agile processes across distributed squads.
Project/Program managers juggling complex initiatives with cross-departmental dependencies.
Process improvement specialists aiming to optimize workflows currently driven by email, spreadsheets, and swivel chair processes.
Solutions architects trying to deliver custom applications tailored to complex internal customer needs.
Sales engineers supporting multiple customer projects with unique service requirements.
Executives seeking accurate insider visibility into work bottlenecks and dependencies.

Of course, technology roles are highly diverse. Smartsheet can streamline just about any team managing multifaceted work across tools, systems, and people.

Evaluating Smartsheet For Your Team

By this point, hopefully you have a solid grasp of how Smartsheet can help technology teams like yours work more efficiently by:

Streamlining collaboration across the organization
Automating repetitive “swivel chair” work
Providing enhanced visibility through role-based dashboards
Supporting agile practices and frameworks out-of-the-box
Integrating seamlessly with your existing tech stack
Enabling custom solutions tailored to your team’s unique needs

Don’t just take my word for Smartsheet’s benefits. You can easily evaluate Smartsheet for your specific team and use cases via a free trial.

Simply visit Smartsheet.com/free-trial, enter your work email, and you‘ll instantly have access – no credit card required.

The intuitive web interface allows you to load sample projects, build automations, and integrate Smartsheet into your other tools within an hour, no training needed.

You can also contact Smartsheet’s product specialists for 1-on-1 onboarding tailored to your team’s needs.

Evaluate scenarios unique to your team and see firsthand how Smartsheet can help you execute work seamlessly across your people, projects, and tools.

I hope these insights give you a headstart maximizing your team‘s productivity and unlocking the incredible potential of your people. Wishing you tremendous success on the journey!