Brightside Academy provides early childcare and education programs to over 6500 children from 6 weeks to 12 years of age; they have 52 centers spanning New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The Academy builds and/or renovates, staffs and maintains their centers in economically disadvantaged communities, where subsidized education is the norm. Brightside employs over 1200 people, and continues to expand.
Challenge
Brightside was primarily using traditional on-premise Microsoft Office applications, Exchange and their own hardware. Employees were running into storage and archiving issues, and the Academy’s IT team was spending too much time and money managing their infrastructure and applications. Very little was based in the cloud, and IT costs were higher than necessary.
In addition to improving operational efficiency and collaboration, Brightside was looking for an alternative to Microsoft Project---to manage growth and development. Microsoft Project was used only by a few stakeholders, when many more needed access, visibility and accountability. The Academy was looking for a cloud-based project management solution to manage a large cross-functional team, a tool that offered participation and tracking for everything, including: licensing, education hires, construction, facility management, and property procurement.
Solution
Brightside migrated to a cloud environment; instead of Microsoft Exchange they now have a Google Business App Account. They signed on with CloudSherpa, and use Google Docs, Mail, Calendar and Sites (for their intranet). They use Tripit, SurveyMonkey and SmartSheet.
Before, employees used Microsoft Excel for a variety of tasks, data and lists; it was an easy jump to use Smartsheet that begins as a spreadsheet, but with miles of additional features and efficiencies. It was easy to use, and as a result, usage spread. They now use Smartsheet for all sorts of projects, tasks, deadlines and collaboration at Brightside.
Brightside has plans to standardize on iPads. This includes automating attendance within the academies, tracking meal services, and eventually replacing desktop learning centers with iPads. With Google Apps, Smartsheet and other cloud-based applications, Brightside students and employees will benefit from shared curriculum, calendars and collaboration.
Smartsheet is Brightside’s most-used Google App. In addition to managing the build-out of new Brightside academies, employees use Smartsheet for a variety of purposes, including:
- Project Management - Smartsheet is an ideal online collaboration tool for tracking new construction and/or retrofitting existing/older academies.
- Maintain Licenses/Credentials - Brightside needs to maintain business licenses, teacher and curriculum credentials and paperwork for government subsidies. Smartsheet helps track all deadlines and requirements per state, per academy.
- Performance Management - HR uses Smartsheet to track performance of employees, due to the efficiencies and features available beyond a standard spreadsheet. Brightside especially loves the alerts, calendaring and templates.
- Tracking Food Costs - Food at Brightside Academy is administered at the state level, but funded at the federal level. They use Smartsheet to track costs for reimbursement from the government.
Results
"Ultimately, migrating to a Google Apps and Smartsheet ecosystem enabled us to lower costs, improve collaboration, and empower the CIO as a critical business partner. Moving away from on-premise applications, meant paying for in-the-cloud, only-what-we-use,“ said Corky Tate, CIO and VP of Ancillary Services.
Employees benefited from increased flexibility, visibility and project management capabilities. Because Smartsheet is integrated with Google Apps, projects, documents and deadlines are managed clearly and seamlessly. Instead of long email strands, tracking varying versions of a given document or relying on separate calendars, Brightside Academy is now able to manage building projects, credential renewal and communications in a central, always updated location.
