"Smartsheet has been a Godsend!"

The 10,000 Virtual Assistants who are part of Tawnya Sutherland’s online social networking community support businesses on every continent but Anarctica.

“They hang out, learn, work and ask questions,” explains Sutherland, an earthy and earnest Vancouver-based entrepreneur, whose five-year-old Web site, VAnetworking.com, is the largest of its kind. “Hey, we have to keep the world organized, don’t we?”

Yes, they do. But who organizes the organizers?

The answer is Smartsheet.

Indeed, Sutherland has totally embraced Smartsheet’s cutting-edge collaborative productivity software and now uses it in every nook and cranny of her friendly and far-flung global enterprise.

“Smartsheet has been a God-send for us,” says Sutherland. “We offer our members a ton of resources so they can be in the know and do their jobs better. But without Smartsheet, I really don’t see how any of us could do our jobs nearly as well.” Sutherland deploys Smartsheet in four key ways: 

Taming the Octopus

When it comes to projects requiring many arms and legs, Sutherland increasingly depends on Smartsheet’s ability to manage collaborative tasks through real-time reporting of status updates, responsibilities and deadlines.

Every week, for example, VAnetworking.com presents an online eSeminar for its members.

“It’s like putting on a big show,” says Sutherland, “and it used to be chaos with people scrambling to find old e-mails and spreadsheets, which were probably out of date anyway. Now, we’re a smooth, well-oiled machine, and we’ve got four people working virtually and seamlessly together on 15 standard tasks for each weekly seminar. It’s all up there on Smartsheet, and it’s great.”

Sutherland and her team also use Smartsheet to crank out a colorful and informative newsletter each week as well as ongoing press releases. Each of these publishing endeavors is seriously task-intensive and requires input and editing from a number of people around the world before completion and distribution. VAnetworking.com attaches newsletter subscription lists and media contact information for the press releases to its Smartsheet templates so that everything is centrally located.

Getting It Right Globally

Sutherland lists the weekly tasks she wants accomplished on Smartsheet and then lets her team of Virtual Assistants, who live in different time zones, handle each item. The virtual management system works well because Sutherland can track real-time progress – from start to completion – by simply logging on to her computer in Vancouver.

“I think we’re definitely making fewer mistakes at VAnetworking.com because Smartsheet allows us to stay so current,” explains Sutherland. There’s also an important digital comfort level with Smartsheet. “Everybody on our team is so used to e-mail and spreadsheets,” adds the entrepreneur, “and we’ve found that Smartsheet is a very natural and intuitive tool for all of us because it builds so firmly on those technologies.”

Managing Data Deftly

Sutherland uses Smartsheet to handle a number of databases that are essential to her business. In addition to listing and monitoring all the important employment information and work responsibilities currently being undertaken by her team of global volunteers, she also keeps track of website advertisers – what they’re spending, when they’re paying and what they’re buying – on a Smartsheet template.

Sutherland also deploys Smartsheet to make sure she really understands what’s going on with her paying VAinsider Track members, VA’s who want to receive valuable business resources and information on job openings around the world.

“I use Smartsheet almost like a real-time money-management tool,” explains Sutherland. “I can keep up-to-the-minute tabs on which members are paying me, when I need to activate their memberships and when those memberships are about to expire. It really helps with our revenue picture.”

One of Sutherland’s favorite databases on Smartsheet is the list of contest winners on VAnetworking.com. “We choose the best Blogs and Web sites in the VA industry and feature them each week,” says the entrepreneur. “And I keep it all on Smartsheet so I can track my interaction with these folks. They’re so talented and I want to make sure that others worldwide get to know them.”

Building a Better Workforce

Many aspiring VA’s around the world come to Sutherland’s Web site for on-the-job training. And so VAnetworking.com offers an VAintern program that helps place these entry-level applicants with a client for a trial run. Sutherland and her team help manage this relationship in its early stages, to make sure both parties are flourishing. But this requires a lot of task tracking, and that’s where Smartsheet comes in.

“This is complicated but very worthwhile,” says Sutherland. “We have to stay in touch with the clients who want a VAintern, map out the scope of the VAintern’s work once the relationship is agreed upon, and then make absolutely certain that the work is getting done, job by job. Thankfully, all this is on one centralized Smartsheet template. Nothing slips through the cracks, and of course it’s great when the VAintern graduates to the next level.”

Tawnya Sutherland is obviously a huge Smartsheet fan. So much so that her spouse is now using the software solution to help run his business, which imports carved mahogany airplane models from the Philippines.

She also deploys Smartsheet around the house for her spouse’s “honey-to-do” list. Says Sutherland: “We’re very efficient at work – and at home.”