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CASE STUDIES & USE CASES.

THE CLIENT Paramount Group is a Global Aerospace & Defence group of companies operating in the global defence, internal security and peacekeeping industries. Established in South Africa in 1994, it offers a range of military aircraft, armoured vehicles, maritime systems, equipment and training to governments. THE CHALLENGE • The new CEO wanted to significantly improve the visibility and tracking of performance, strategic priorities and financial KPIs across the organisation so that he and his leadership teams had one version of the truth they could all focus on. • Over the course of various sessions he outlined his vision for his ‘Common Execution platform’ and signing up to a new Smartsheet account two days before Christmas, set the challenge to launch this in early January to his executive team. THE SOLUTION • We co-developed a common dashboard that incorporated the latest monthly financial metrics, strategic Imperatives, projects, and business development pipelines that then rolled up into a consolidated dashboard for the entire company. • By leveraging the Smartsheet Silver Advance package, we were able to utilise Control Center, Data Shuttle and Pivot App as part of the solution which radically accelerated the time it took to implement it across the various companies. • Each company also had a common workspace structure housing all of their respective Board packs and they now run all of their board meetings across the group utilising this. This Workspace also contains all historic Board packs THE OUTCOME • They have taken their board meetings prep down by 70%, and their board meetings have gone from the whole day to 60 minutes, utilising a combination of the Common Execution platform and the board pack environment. Weekly and monthly meetings are all run using Smartsheet exclusively. No more PowerPoints are required for board meetings, weekly, monthly, daily scrums and quality management meetings. It is all contained in Smartsheet. CLIENT QUOTE “Rich built our Common Execution platform and related workspaces on Smartsheet from scratch in record time over the Christmas period. He and I designed this together and he was easily able to grasp our requirement, map and then build it […] Rich has an ability to devise more than one solution to our new ideas. He goes above and beyond for us at record speed. I highly recommend Prodactive to develop your Smartsheet workspace. He is incredibly knowledgeable with Smartsheet, Processes, Systems and Project Management.” Steve Griessel Group Chief Executive Officer Paramount Group Limited ADGM

Implementing a common execution platform

Case study on the implementation of a common execution platform

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THE CLIENT Gong cha is a bubbling global bubble tea company that's currently taking the world by storm. Headquartered in London, UK and with almost 2,000 stores in 22 countries, Gong cha is one of the fastest-growing tea brands out there, serving up high-quality, premium bubble tea drinks to tea lovers everywhere. If you're a fan of bubble tea, keep an eye out for Gong cha. THE CHALLENGE But even the biggest and best have their challenges! Gong cha were struggling to understand the voice of the customer from across their global territories. Initially, they started working with external mystery shopper agencies. However, due to the disparate methods of data collection and presentation, coupled with the fact that each store only received one mystery shopper visit per month, it was quickly evident that this programme was insufficient (and costly). Gong cha needed a cost-effective method to capture real-time qualitative and quantitative feedback from their real customers. THE SOLUTION Enter the solution! Gong cha made great use of Smartsheet’s automated data capture tools. After buying a drink, the customer can now scan a QR code with their phone, fill in the short feedback survey and within seconds the data automatically feeds into a centralised database and dashboard. Customers can also submit their own photos and videos of drinks and selfies of their experience, directly from their phones. THE OUTCOME The results are incredible! Gong cha can now visualise the feedback from a customer journey and experience of a bubble tea purchase, and create alerts for store managers, franchisees and corporate departments to act upon immediately. This streamlined the process has made it more efficient and eliminated the need for multiple parties to compile data each month. It’s a win-win for everyone in the process. As a result of this success, Gong cha has now started exploring wider use cases for Smartsheet across the company and adopted Smartsheet Advance as an enterprise-wide solution. CLIENT TESTIMONIAL Here's what Ahmet Baristiran, Global Business Transformation Director at Gong cha Global Ltd, had to say about Smartsheet: "Rich at Prodactive initially suggested some examples of how we could use Smartsheet to improve data collection, analysis and presentation activity at Gong cha. I was quite intrigued whether it was really true and so easy, so I gave him a challenge. Within a few hours he’d built me a solution with a powerful dashboard to receive my data and visualize it in a fraction of the time that would otherwise have taken me days to complete. Smartsheet has really helped us to streamline our processes to save a huge amount of time and provide instant updates. In addition to time, we have financial savings estimated at around US$1m by switching from the mystery shopper to running our own customer feedback programme. I can now see a myriad of areas where our teams can use Smartsheet to continue driving performance and gain competitive advantage in the global bubble tea industry." At Gong cha Global, innovation is key, and with Smartsheet at their fingertips, they're taking their business to new heights. Stay tuned to see what they come up with next!

Mystery shopper and customer feedback

Case study for the implementation of a Smartsheet solution to initially upgrade the collection of data for its mystery shopper programme to implementing a customer feedback solution

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THE CLIENT Bos Logistica, a privately owned specialist logistics provider operating across a range of market sectors including Off-Site Construction and Modular Buildings, Agricultural Equipment, Heavy Plant and Construction Equipment and Wide and Abnormal Loads for the Construction and Farming Industries. THE CHALLENGE (1) The client was dissatisfied with its existing logistics planning software as that did not adapt well to the complexity of the project-based jobs it undertook that involved the planning and execution of a high number of time-sequenced moves of specialist vehicles with specific criteria (2) Due to system limitations there was a lot of duplicative entry, limited visibility and no real-time-tracking (3) The client also wanted a better way to forecast future resource requirements to understand when it would need to expand its fleet THE SOLUTION Prodactive developed a bespoke complex solution combining the Smartsheet core app with Smartsheet’s Resource Management platform where the planners could easily create a new job from a template and enter the specific criteria for each specific item being moved, both timings and dimensions. Placeholder resources could initially be allocated for planning purposes, and if specific requirements such as escort vehicles and local authority permissions were required, these would be flagged Closer to the job, drivers would receive a notification to confirm their availability and then once on the job drivers were able to record specific timings and input when they arrived and left collection and delivery points via a simple interface on the drivers PDA, enabling the management to gather valuable information on the time it took to complete jobs relative to the time allocated THE OUTCOME Having all the information in one system has doubled the efficiency of the client’s project management and delivery administration. The planning and then subsequent amendments to project programmes is now very slick and the workflow automation in the background then ensures that all relevant parties are immediately updated with all changes. It also enables them to directly feed information back into the system without having direct access which is ideal for drivers and subcontractors CLIENT TESTIMONIAL “The solution that Rich developed has been instrumental in enabling us to develop our business and create a solid platform for future growth. At the outset there were a number of uncertainties and challenges that had to be overcome. Rich rapidly understood our needs and provided smart and highly practical solutions to the challenges faced. Rich was always available to deal with any queries and was extremely easy to work with. At the same time as creating our bespoke Smartsheet solution Rich also shared some of his vast Smartsheet knowledge with me; this means that we have the ability to make system changes or fix any minor issues that arise in real time. Working with Rich and Prodactive was a pleasure and I would highly recommend his services to anyone interested in utilising the Smartsheet platform.” Greg Bailey, Management Accountant

Logistics case study

Case study for the development of a bespoke Smartsheet solution for an international logistics company that was dissatisfied with its existing logistics planning software as that did not adapt well to the complexity of the project-based jobs it undertook that involved the planning and execution of a high number of time-sequenced moves of specialist vehicles with specific criteria

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THE CLIENT The Bromley by Bow Centre is community charity based in east London and they are closely affiliated with Bromley by Bow NHS Health Partnership. They have strategic partnerships with a wide range of organisations and funders in the local community, and together they design and deliver highly effective programmes that transform peoples’ lives. THE CHALLENGE (1) Implement a Project Financial Management System (PFMS) to enable better recording, tracking and cost allocation across their 40+ services, activities and community projects (2) Provide a simple and intuitive and repeatable solution for department heads to record monthly resource allocations to inform payroll and cost allocation without administrative burden (3) Maintain confidentiality around payroll whilst enabling approved people to view high level staff costs for each project THE SMARTSHEET SOLUTION A project master sheet tracks new and current projects with funding information; this can be accessed at all times by Finance and PMs. Finance imports confidential payroll information; various sheets and reports link the projects with staff whose time allocations can be input by PMs without compromising salary details, but which simultaneously give the team high level visibility over staff costings per project. Salary calculations are done automatically in a linked confidential sheet and Finance receive an exported copy to run payroll against. All information is automatically archived each month, enabling a full history and metrics to be produced. Multiple funding sources per project can be easily be tracked and changes to funding or project timings easily tracked. THE OUTCOME Whilst this appeared initially as a simple solution to build, data confidentiality complicated matters, requiring out-of-the-box solutions. The client is delighted as the project master sheet gives him full visibility over all projects and their status at any given moment; much time has been saved from just this with update requests facilitating the process. The cross-sheet references assist greatly with the easy time allocation of staff to projects by the PMs, ensuring managers are not over-allocating staff plus showing with report filters time and costs spent in each project. The payroll aspect is uncomplicated and intuitive, saving much time with historic data for salaries and project allocation retained for future use. CLIENT TESTIMONIAL "I’m delighted with the simple and intuitive solution Fiona and Rich developed for the BBBC. I researched various alternative options, but the solution and approach Prodactive proposed was by far the best option and demonstrated clear value for money. The outcome has exceeded my initial expectations They have designed a simple and intuitive solution that is saving us countless hours each month in managing the project-related payroll, as well as providing invaluable visibility and metrics across the projects and a much-needed history that we can refer back to. They were very easy to work with, responded quickly and were very flexible where we had to adjust some requirements over the course of the development. This has really opened my eyes to the power of Smartsheet and other solutions we can go on to implement with it building on these learnings and I have no hesitation in recommending Prodactive to others looking to develop time-saving solutions." John Axon, Interim Finance Director, BBBC

Payroll management case study

Case study to implement a Project Financial Management System (PFMS) for the Bromley by Bow Centre to enable better recording, tracking and cost allocation across their 40+ services, activities and community projects

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THE CLIENT Get Living, pioneers of the UK’s rapidly expanding Build to Rent (BTR) sector, and operators of East Village, the former 2012 London Olympics Athletes’ Village, among other neighbourhoods THE CHALLENGE: (1) Manage the first programme of its kind in the UK to upgrade 30% of properties of a 1,439-property portfolio in a live residential environment across 48 buildings spread over a 67-acre neighbourhood, carried out during the COVID pandemic, establishing a blueprint to enable the programme to be absorbed into Business as Usual. (2) Deliver the programme within budget with appropriate controls and with minimum resources (ie a project management team of one) and least disruption to Operations THE APPROACH (1) Develop and systemise a lean process to assess works required in each property and issue instructions to all parties (cleaners, furniture suppliers, building contractors, maintenance) to ensure all parties were aware of status and timings for all teams at all times to avoid any overlap in works, and turn around the properties in the most time-efficient manner. To then inspect and release completed properties back to Lettings to ensure availability for viewings and new residents (2) Develop a financial model to estimate the costs by work package based off limited available assumptions and to refine these as more data became available and to enable more robust forecasting for subsequent years (3) Conduct a limited number of trial properties and then release a set of control group properties to refine methodologies and determine the right works packages with maximum commercial benefit THE SMARTSHEET SOLUTION Given the complexity of managing a large number of properties that had to be turned around quickly and by multiple parties before being released in time for new residents to move into, the team needed a robust centralised tracker accessible by internal and external parties to act as one version of the truth at all times, where there was no risk of data being erased or modified by accident. Information on each property was being updated continually and it was imperative everyone could update their information in parallel without risk of version control. A central Smartsheet tracker was established, which was linked to sub-trackers for each team that took information from the master tracker and fed back updates in turn in real time. Leveraging automated workflows and notifications, relevant teams received alerts when action was required. Moving away from a traditional spreadsheet approach removed any need for updates to be sent and entered separately, and ensured that the weekly status review meeting focused on the work in hand, prioritisation and any challenges to overcome rather than on status updates. Information on the works, signed off inspection reports and any associated commentary and decisions for each property were recorded against each property, allowing a full audit trail and reference for decisions made – rather than these being held in a multitude of different places. THE OUTCOME 450 properties refreshed within budget and based on results, further funding secured from investors to continue the programme in 2021 and deliver similar number of properties, with the programme transitioned to business as usual. CLIENT TESTIMONIAL “Rich was instrumental to the success of the Refresh programme in Get Living’s East Village. Incredibly easy to work with, flexible and highly responsive, he rapidly digested the challenges and established robust systems and processes to ensure we could deliver the programme on time and budget with least impact on residents and operations, while ensuring all works were delivered to the highest standards and cost effectively. He pre-empted the business needs and decisions and made things happen seamlessly. Hugely accountable and highly recommended” Ian Gibbs, Director of Neighbourhoods

Property case study

Case study on managing the first programme of its kind in the UK to upgrade 30% of properties of a 1,439-property portfolio in a live residential environment across 48 buildings spread over a 67-acre neighbourhood, carried out during the COVID pandemic, establishing a blueprint to enable the programme to be absorbed into Business as Usual.

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THE CLIENT The Posterhouse is a boutique design agency dedicated to high-end creativity for the film and entertainment industry THE CHALLENGE • The Posterhouse is one of multiple design agencies providing artwork for new releases for a large online film and entertainment streaming provider. They were looking for a way to improve and manage more efficiently the way they received information and updates to the artwork they were tasked to provide. • Their main client, a Smartsheet user, made regular changes to the list of assets required and it was a challenge for the agency to keep track of and communicate efficiently all the client’s changes to their design team, especially as the master sheet was shared with multiple agencies and not owned by the client. • The client was connected with Prodactive by a Smartsheet account manager to explore options to address this challenge. THE SOLUTION • Prodactive demonstrated multiple solutions to the client after an initial consultation which would not only to improve their overall efficiency but also showed how they could share information more efficiently with their team using reports and dashboards. We investigated DataMesh as the lead option to copy and sync information from the entertainment streaming provider’s master sheet into a local copy of the sheet, which the agency could then use. • Having created a mirror copy of the master file and using a unique identifier for each line, a sync was set up with DataMesh that ensured when changes were made in the master sheet, these were then reflected into the local version. The team were then able to add additional columns to the local version to help with their management of the work that could then be used in reports where each team member could see all the items they needed to work on and in the order of priority. THE OUTCOME • The introduction of DataMesh, combined with leveraging the wider capabilities of Smartsheet to create ‘current user’ reports where individuals will only see their tasks, has significantly increased efficiency within the team and business overall. Whereas previously keeping track of changes made by the client created all sorts of challenges and duplication of effort, using DataMesh ensures the team members always have the correct information and dates available and so can be sure they are working on the right asset in the right order and avoid unnecessary rework. CLIENT QUOTE “Prodactive really helped us utilise Smartsheet to our advantage by helping us navigate what initially seemed a daunting task. With just a few chats with Rich, he immediately understood our needs and created a system that has changed our way of working tremendously, making it a much more streamlined efficient way of working and the team here at PH are VERY grateful!” Charlene Dias, Co-Creative Director

Keeping data in sync

How do you remain efficient when your data and instructions keep on being updated? This was the challenge Charlene Dias at the Posterhouse wanted to solve. And with the help of Smartsheet's DataMesh we did...

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