Getting Others On-Board w/ SmartSheet

Slaight

I work with a team of contractors that are having a hard time wrapping their heads around SmartSheet. I say the word "SmartSheet", and you can hear a global "ugh" coming out of their brains. The team sees and understands the value - verbally - but left on their own, they immediately go back to default word docs/excel files - stuff saved to their local computer that changes, but nobody else can see the changes. Getting them to edit a sheet is like pulling teeth…

I know part of it has to do with the sheer number of sheets - but in some cases I create multiple sheets (typically reports) because they don't want to take the time to learn that changing a filter or view can give them exactly what they need. So - off I go creating a "view" for everything they want to hopefully make it easy for them.

To help, I've even bought a domain and have a simple URL that redirects to a SmartSheet Dashboard that serves as a Table Of Contents (a kind of Intranet but with a short URL). Then, we link to all the items they may need, broken down by the various projects. Reception has been lukewarm at best.

So the big question is this: How on earth do you get SmartSheet agnostics on board, and get them to see the value of live information? These aren't developers (they don't need to learn how to create sheets, add formulas, etc) but they are users that still resort to asking me questions (rather than just looking - it's all there) or simply ignoring this incredibly useful tool.

One example: We have a registration form for a multi-city event. I've created a report that shows exactly what staff members will be in which city. Last night, one team member sent a word doc that was saved to his PC, with staff members typed out, noting that he was missing some. ALL of them were quickly accessible via the report I had created. I mention that it's all there - and it's like talking to a doorknob.

Any suggestions? Thank you - and apologies for the post category - happy to move to a different category if better.