Data Tables, Data Shuttle and Dynamic Reporting with Portfolio WorkApp

Zeb Loewenstein

We recently implemented the Portfolio WorkApp as a part of a new program in our Control Center configuration. Within the new Portfolio WorkApp-enabled program, I duplicated the blue print structure that previously existed.

With this structure we can no longer leverage Dynamic Reporting for existing projects (without migrating old projects onto the new Portfolio WorkApp program) as each blue print would compete against each other for the newest data.

Our business objective is to find a way where we can have consolidated portfolio reports but migration is not technically possible without being done manually (30+ projects, greater than 100 hours effort). An example portfolio report would include all RAID Trackers added / removed dynamically and grouped based on priority.

Is it possible to somehow leverage a Data Shuttle / Data Table workflow where Control Center templates are connected or somehow upload data automatically? Any other options where we can upload / pull template data to create reports? My understanding is Data Shuttle only works with external sources (not Smartsheet content).

Looking for creative solutions.

Best,

Zeb

Julio S.

Hi @Zeb Loewenstein ,

I understand that you are trying to consolidate information from both Programs/Blueprints in Control Center. At the moment, Reports can only be used to include Sheets in their scopes and not other Reports.

When you have a moment, please submit your feature request to the Product team by signing in to the online Community (the Community uses your Smartsheet account to sign in) and create an Idea post in the Smartsheet Product Feedback and Ideas topic. 

Posting your enhancement in the Community will allow other Smartsheet users to see and vote on your idea! The top-voted posts in this category are reviewed monthly by the Product team and you'll receive an email notification if a status changes for a post you've created or voted on. 

The DataTable flow that you mention doesn't sound like an effective option in this case as this would only collect information from attachments and stores it as raw data that can then be used to create new assets.

From my perspective, it sounds like you would need to keep duplicated versions of Reports for each Program/Blueprint. Without having looked into your Project structure, I don't see why duplicates of the same templates used in your older Blueprint could not be used to report on the Portfolio Workapps, the information contained in these Reports would of course only relate to the projects provisioned through this blueprint but you could add notations to each Report name to distinguish ones from another. This is based on the fact that the former Blueprint will continue to be used to provision new projects. Otherwise, it should just be a matter of using the same template folder in the newer Blueprint and stop using it in the former.

I hope that this can give you some insight on how to proceed, although given the complexity of your environment, I understand these suggestions may not be fully viable/applicable.

Cheers!

Julio