Spinnaker Edge Consulting: Lean, Virtual, Global

Like most small business owners, I am always on the look out for the next new thing. Some tool that will help me run my company, Spinnaker Edge Consulting, more effectively.

My criteria for effective include:

web-based
short learning curve
feature rich - yet not bloated software
distribution
user permission setting
dynamic content sharing
..and most of all inexpensive.

I found all of these aspects and more in Smartsheet. As a full service web strategy consulting firm, we help corporations, universities and non-profits optimize their web assets (websites, social media, web apps). Many of our clients are US based, but our design and development teams are dispersed across the globe. It is essential that we use a single web-based collaboration tool to communicate requirements, manage project costs, track time and expenses, track and update status on issues. After experimenting with several web-based collaboration apps, we have found that Smartsheet met all of our requirements.

Secondly, we share sheets with clients, vendors and internal staff, all of whom "get" the concept of a spreadsheet. Hence the transition to Smartsheet has been uniformly smooth. The plethora of Help documents and the in-depth videos along with the discussion forums have been invaluable in getting everyone up to speed.

So what do I like and use the most about Smartsheet?

Row Attachments - Invaluable in providing additional explanations for a particular requirement or issue. When we deal with software issues, the system testers will simply attach a screen shot of the error message and send across to the Developers to fix. So much simpler than a phone call or back and forth e-mail exchange.
Notifications - we have so many different moving parts - requirement gathering, maintenance requests, time and expense entries etc. I use the notification feature extensively to keep up with changes on any part of my operations.
Row Level Discussions - This feature is particularly useful when brain-storming and finalizing solutions. Frequently, the rationale for a particular decision is lost or buried in e-mail chains. Row level discussions preserve all the thinking that goes into making the decision.

The one piece of advice I have to users and potential users is to insist that people use Smartsheets rather than abandoning them half-way and picking up with e-mails. A simple change in work-habits will have huge pay-offs. The best part is, I just got back from a two-week working vacation and was able to keep on top of the company's operations, without having to carry my laptop with me. Speaking of laptops, recently, my laptop crashed, but I didn’t miss a beat thanks to Smartsheet.

I have worked on many projects in the past where beautiful and intricate MS Project plans were pasted on the walls of project "war-rooms". While, quite impressive looking, they were of questionable real value since they were not living documents. Smartsheet is the antithesis of this. It is light-weight, dynamic and most of all EFFECTIVE.

Sonali Shetty - Principal, Spinnaker Edge Consulting