Smartsheet Roll Out

CHarrison

Does anyone have advice on how to successfully roll out Smartsheet in a smaller company (30 people)?  We purchased the deployment package but I'd like to hear from other users what challenges you encountered and how you overcame them.  Does anyone have a project sheet they used for deployment they can share?

Paul Newcome

We currently have just under 30 users. One thing I have found that did help is the development of a "Smartsheet Council of Champions". A small group of people who is tasked with being as knowledgeable as possible about Smartsheet, and we have a few people from a few different departments on the "Council". We then built a sort of ticketing system where other users can submit their questions and someone from the "Council" will pick it up and help them out.

 

We also hold monthly meetings to brainstorm and discuss new ideas on how Smartsheet could be implemented into other departments.

 

Additionally, each person on the "Council" has set aside an hour each week for one-on-on assistance to include general instruction using the training modules available in the Center for Excellence. 

 

The form we built for help requests and the availability calendar are both on a dashboard that we published to everyone.

 

Build a sheet that is total overkill on automation and use that as a demo. When people see how many emails they WON'T have to send anymore, they get really curious.

 

The biggest challenge I have faced has been a resistance to change. I have found two ways to get past this, one more effective than the other.

 

The first would be to force the change. People HAVE to use Smartsheet. Might get a little push-back from this one...

 

The second is to spend a little extra time building something that shows the usefulness while taking advantage of certain Smartsheet specific features. If all you're showing people is spreadsheets, well that's what Excel is for, and they don't have to learn anything new. But if you show them how easily they can automate, pull reports, build dashboards, collaborate (really big here), etc, then they will be more likely to WANT to learn.

baddams

My suggestion would be patience, and to create directions from the beginning. If you are creating any sort of status report, having that sent weekly to the appropriate team members will help quickly connect the dots. I did that 5 months after launch, and some people acted as if it was so amazing even though it had existed the whole time. Once they understand the value people buy in pretty quickly. It is the initial engagement that is most difficult. 

Be cognizant of the email notifications, they can quickly get out of hand. We are managing over 400 projects as an organization of 40 people. I initially had each sheet notify a person daily then weekly that something was due. People only saw the emails and were overwhelmed. Instead, I created individual reports for them that send all overdue items in one pdf once a week. 

With those that are more hesitant or resistant scheduling regular meeting times to review the system and have them start small and dive in more deeply over time has been helpful.

JeremiahHorstick

I like Paul's suggestion. 

I recommend the Center of Excellence also. 

Richard Rymill SBP

Cathy

you have some great advice there. 

What I would add,  is to map out the processes you would like Smartsheet to support,  and in doing so, identify your colleagues PAIN with existing systems.

Focus on what will really benefit your team immediately, so colleagues see the benefit straight away and take away their pain! That way you will have plenty of enthusiasm from your colleagues, yes resistance to change can be an issue, but a well designed workflow that Saves Time, Saves inputting the same info in 3 different places etc will win the hearts and minds. 

The Software needs to drive forward your business processes and support them, so Users can interact easily with them. If the software Workflow is not intuitive to use, the design is not good enough! so be hard on yourselves! 

Good luck, happy to hep if needed. 

RichardR

SBP. 

 

 

JeremiahHorstick

Hey! Looking forward to hearing about how the roll-out is going. 

JeremiahHorstick

I came back to this because I've been rolling out Smartsheet at an association off 300 business owners. (300 chiefs) which presents challenges because everyone has their own system and doesn't want another login. I have been debating functionality and features with multiple people. It has really come down to this:

1. Start Small - One sheet which is easy to use with what everyone wants. Give them just a little taste. Information overload deters adoption and makes the process overwhelming.

2. The council (Core Group) : focus in on a core group of leaders who produce content everyone else wants to consume. They will be the starter log and drive interest and adoption.

3. Empower the users: Once they have had a taste, show them the power and 101. I organized some of the 2-min YouTube videos into a dashboard so everyone could see for themselves with non-committal bite size intros.

I say this because I made mistakes and learned.

-Have a regular rollout meeting (weekly)

-Don't force it, let people realize the benefit on their own.

-Pace the Roll-Out 

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