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Benefits of Smartsheet

Apr 21, 2023

Collaborate and manage your workflows smarter, faster, better with Smartsheet. There are many project management tools available to dive into and it can be a little overwhelming to understand if or which tool will really get the job done. While Smartsheet is a tool that is spreadsheet-based, it’s a very complex project management tool that is very powerful that will result in almost immediate ROI. Exploring Smartsheet has many benefits to ensure projects from end to end are successful and efficient within an organization. Let’s dive into the many capabilities Smartsheet has that will drive success into your next project. Integration and Collaboration With many teams still working remotely, having a productive collaboration and project management tool is key to ensure tasks and milestones are completed efficiently throughout projects. One of the primary benefits Smartsheet offers to users is its ability to share sheets with internal or external team members. Even if some users don’t hold a license, users can still collaborate which is definitely a cost-effective approach when you have multiple projects going on simultaneously with many decision-makers who need access. The access level can also be controlled by administrators which is a critical feature if you have a lot of people involved, but not everyone should necessarily have editable permissions to shared sheets. Smartsheet also has many connectors with key tools users already work with such as Microsoft Dynamics 365, Salesforce or Jira. For example, by using a connector with Microsoft Dynamics 365, users can create workflows and apply filters that control the rows that sync to objects in Dynamics 365 for the purpose of including data only on certain rows with a particular status or value. Workflows also have the ability to sync automatically to keep records organized and updated. As connectors are put into place, it’s critical to also utilize and review user permissions to ensure syncing is working properly and that users are constantly saving changes so only the latest version is viewed on sheets. See an issue? A records history is also kept to review any changes that have been made and the user associated with that workflow so it’s easy to identify the source of any errors. There’s a number of other tools available that allow users to collaborate even further and connect existing databases, CRMs and ERPs with Smartsheet’s Data Shuttle. Data Shuttle is an add-on that allows users to automatically import data from software systems and databases directly into Smartsheet such as actual hours worked from external time tracking tools or expenses from external accounting systems. Data Analytics and Reporting Smartsheet’s utilization reporting is another benefit to managing all of the resources involved in projects. One of the key factors to consider in project management is to gather information regarding inefficiencies or who is doing what for each project. Key stakeholders usually always want to know how much time a project is going to take and the time it’s taking for each step along the way and Smartsheet takes the guesswork out of hours incurred for projects and forecasting. Gone are the days where key stakeholders are making decisions just based on opinion. Data should be backing every decision along the way in order to move forward successfully. If you were to ask a project manager to estimate how long it will take their team to complete a project, they will likely underestimate the actual amount of time it will take which leads to a lot of frustration and a prolonged time to market. Once that real-time data is being collected in Smartsheet, visual dashboards can also be created to visualize a project’s performance when considering various metrics and depending on who is viewing that data. Custom reports can be created to filter out the critical data points needed for each group within an organization. Data visualization is a very useful tool to take advantage of to easily identify issues earlier for preventive measures and to easily translate data into a language that can be easily understood among different groups. Improve Operational Efficiencies With the previously mentioned benefits Smartsheet offers to members within an organization, the benefit of improving and streamlining operations is a given. With the data analytics and tracking of resources involved with a project management tool like this, operational efficiencies will occur organically as long as that data that’s being collected is acted upon. The insights provided with project management tools is in a way priceless when it comes to being able to pivot where necessary when reviewing the reporting provided to support business growth and to avoid issues that before would not have been seen without understanding and bringing all of this data together on one shared sheet or dashboard. To clearly see inefficiencies in any project will allow stakeholders to make critical decisions quickly to decrease time to market instead of prolonging projects and missing deadlines. A comprehensive project management tool should not be seen as a luxury, but a necessity at a time especially when many teams are likely to still be working remotely and to keep track of how critical resources are spending their time and how long tasks are taking. The survey results for PMI’s Pulse of the Profession® revealed an average 11.4 percent of investment is wasted due to poor project performance. And organizations that undervalue project management as a strategic competency for driving change report an average of 67 percent more of their projects failing outright. A project management tool is the solution to eliminating poor project performance and management and organizations can’t see these valuable tools as optional – it’s a critical asset to the business to ensure your business still has a pulse and isn’t on the fast-track to fail. Many organizations especially now work quite lean with resources doing more than one job who have a whole portfolio of ongoing projects going on at any given time. Smartsheet not only give insights to key stakeholders, but it gives your teams the tools to help manage their own time and tasks to avoid micromanaging. Smartsheet is a dynamic tool for various industries to increase output and work more efficiently internally and externally. Multi-layered Security It’s always great to know that a software tool you’re planning on using has access to all of your organization’s databases and how they can talk to each other seamlessly right? Well, for some, especially IT, that may raise some red flags when it comes to possibly increasing the risk of a data breach. With Smartsheets, security is built into the product to ensure that the organization’s data is being protected with multi-layered access permissions and quarterly access audits. Smartsheet also has policies and procedures in place to ensure an organization’s data is backed up in multiple locations with a team constantly evaluating security threats and implementing countermeasures to help prevent unauthorized access or downtime. Among Smartsheet’s multi-layered data security strategy, it also uses encryption to protect data with NIST approved ciphers. According to Statista, reports indicate that there were just over 1,000 data breaches and millions of records exposed in the U.S. last year. When looking at a tool that has access to this much data, an organization should ensure that they are working with a comprehensive data protection strategy that is nothing less than the gold-standard. Not sure where to start? A Smartsheet platinum partner like New Era Technology can help guide your organization through implementing this powerful tool throughout the business and removing any apprehension that comes along with making that first step. The only regret there might be is that this tool wasn’t implemented from day one.

Cage Match: Google Analytics 4 vs Universal Analytics

Aug 24, 2022

Marketers at mid-market companies are going through the stages of grief over Google Analytics 4. Some are still in denial (“Whatever, we have Universal Analytics until July 2023, and they will probably extend the deadline.”) and others have moved on to anger (“Google Analytics sucks!”) If you’re actively wrestling with the transition, you’re probably squarely in that cage match stage. We get it. Our team has been helping businesses with GA4 implementations since it first rolled out, and making the switch isn’t easy. Along the way, we’ve found four key matchups that might help you avoid getting KO’d by your Google Analytics 4 transition. Google Analytics 4 vs Universal Analytics Google Analytics 4 Universal Analytics Round 1: Tracking Users Events Sessions Goals Round 2: Data Engagement Bounce rate Round 3: Interface Low clickability Drill down analysis through setting up secondary dimensions High clickability Drill down analysis through ad hoc clicking in results Round 4: Reports Explorations Embedded reports Round 1: Tracking In Universal Analytics, we track metrics by sessions tied to behavioral goals. Here’s one common scenario: Patricia visits your website home page on her phone one day and bounces. A few days later, she scrolls an article from your site on her desktop and bounces. The following week, she reads a case study on her iPad while waiting in the carpool pickup line and fills out a contact form. At this point, UA documents three sessions, and one goal achieved. But is that the best way to document what actually happened here? Google thought not, and pivoted. Google Analytics 4 tracks metrics according to users and events. Using the same scenario, GA4 documents that one user took four actions on your website: home page, article, case study, form fill. You see the progression, and the impact your site has, at a more granular and yet more holistic level. With GA4’s user-based data model, you see what users do when they interface with your brand — regardless of the device they use, location they come from, or platform they visit. Instead of goals per session, you’re now able to see events per user. Round 1 winner: GA4 Round 2: Data When July 2023 rolls around, a lot of people are going to be caught by surprise when they can’t just upload their Universal Analytics data directly into Google Analytics 4. Next, they will try to export their data from UA to GA4 and that will…also not be possible. Sorry, folks, it simply will not work. The data models are different, and Google has not laid down a path to make a simple data port happen. How can you counter that punch? Your best move is to get started in GA4 as soon as possible, so you can begin to collect new data and understand how those metrics will influence your overall reporting. And the sooner you start collecting GA4 data, the sooner you’ll be able to use it in your year-over-year metrics. Because the data points aren’t the same, your old UA data won’t be of much use in year-over-year comparisons. Learn more about how switching to GA4 impacts YOY reporting >> The shift that impacts almost everyone changing over from UA to GA4 is the shift in bounce rate. Long used as a benchmark for user engagement, UA’s bounce rate metric didn’t make it to GA4 in quite the same format. Instead, GA4 measures engagement in more absolute terms. GA4’s new “engagement” metric takes the guesswork out of bounce rate. Instead of saying “people are leaving immediately, probably because the content wasn’t relevant or the load speed lagged,” GA4 tells you how many people stay on the site long enough to take another action. Before, a low bounce rate could mean someone read your entire blog archive going back to 2007 OR that they had 39 tabs open for a week. Now, you’ll know if a site visitor was idle or active — giving a clearer picture of whether or not they were truly engaged. The bottom line is that GA4 offers a little more accurate view of engagement, but your UA to GA4 bounce rate numbers won’t match up. Your stakeholders are still going to ask about it for a while, and that’s going to be annoying to handle in reporting meetings. Round 2 winner: draw Round 3: Interface If you’re a long-time user of Universal Analytics, you’re probably used to being able to dig into your data as the mood seizes you. Wondering which URLs drove the most traffic last month? Click, click, answer. Want to find out how you got so many hits from Denmark yesterday? Click, click, answer. Puzzled as to why your website suddenly ranks for terms like “can horses drink beer” (or maybe that’s just us)? You get it. The UA interface’s high degree of clickability that enables ad hoc analysis. Not so with Google Analytics 4. When you log into your dashboard, you’ll see a similar view, but all of your clickability is gone. No digging into traffic cohorts. No in-the-moment drill-downs. But all is not lost. If you click the plus sign on a measurement in GA4, you can set up secondary dimensions. So if you want to check which referral URLs are driving traffic, you can build that query in. Maybe you want to set up secondary dimensions to narrow down data here and dig in deeper there. With some time and patience, you can eventually get to a view similar to something you might have seen in UA. But your “click, click, answer” days are over. Sorry about that. Round 3 winner: UA Round 4: Reports We know people who have used Universal Analytics their entire working lives and never built a custom report. If you open your UA account, you’ll find dozens of out-of-the-box reports to meet your needs. While most mid-market to enterprise businesses do have some custom UA reports, they certainly aren’t required to use the tool. Now open your Google Analytics 4 account. Where UA shows you report after report to help you review your website health, traffic, campaigns, networks, landing pages, and so forth, GA4 shows you an overview screen and…two reports. Two. If that prospect leaves you feeling like you got the wind knocked out of you, you’re not alone. Once you get over the inability to migrate your data from UA to GA4, you’ll need to plan to migrate your reports. And that’s going to be a bigger problem for a lot of medium- to large-sized businesses. Take a deep breath and start by cataloging every report you use in your UA account. Map out exactly what you measure, and how the results are displayed. Note how you use the results, and which business units rely on the outputs for operational and strategic decisions. Then, start building custom reports in GA4 to answer those needs. Learn more about building reports in GA4 >> No, it’s not going to be a one-for-one replication. Yes, it’s going to be time-consuming and frustrating. Depending on your timeframe, budget, and bandwidth, you might need to look into partnering with a third party to get this work done right and in time for the switch. On the bright side, though, this process may alert you to reporting you’ve used out of habit that wasn’t exactly right. Building new reports offers you a fresh start, and a chance to really understand what your analytics needs are, and how data can help drive better decisions across the business. Round 4 winner: draw Spoiler alert: GA4 wins Ultimately, the Google Analytics 4 vs Universal Analytics match isn’t a fair fight. Come July 2023, Universal Analytics is out for the count. But what you choose to do in the meantime could mean the difference between emerging victorious or limping out of the ring with broken ribs (proverbially speaking, we hope). Your approach to the GA4 transition could make all the difference. Increase your odds of GA4 success by checking out our (cage-free) resource: 6 steps to a successful Google Analytics 4 migration.

Fuse Highlights: Food for thought

Apr 20, 2022

Every few weeks, we share insights with our Fuse subscribers along with news and trends we’re following across the web. Here’s a compilation of some of our key insights from last quarter. If you want content like this delivered directly to your inbox, we’ve got you covered. Subscribe to the Fuse here. Data literacy: Food for thought How do you get from buzzwords like “data literacy” and “data culture” to confidence that data is driving better decisions across the business? If Peter Drucker was right — and he’s Peter Drucker, so he probably was — culture eats strategy for breakfast. It’s not enough to build a business case for data. You need a business culture to support it. In our experience, success starts with aligning people, processes, and business goals with purpose-built data and technology solutions. When people understand what data makes possible and how it impacts their job — where to find it, and how to read and interpret the data they need — convincing them to use it to drive better decision making is a much easier lift. Easier said than done? You bet. We love a complicated algorithm or elegant data architecture, and we’re basically ninjas at selling business cases (if we do say so ourselves). But there’s a reason Fusion stakes a claim on being people-focused. Because we don’t just love data. We love when it works. Get smart: If you’re looking for an overview of data culture and a baseline for building data literacy across your organization, we recommend Be Data Literate by Jordan Morrow. Although written as a primer for individuals, the book’s framework could easily be used as a springboard for helping your whole company level up its data acumen. Read the full Fuse: Data for March. A one-brain approach to B2B marketing In AppleTV+’s bizarrely compelling drama Severance, employees’ brains are modified to separate their work memories from their off-work thoughts. Of course, what makes the show sci-fi is the fact that no one really has a “work self” and a “life self.” So, why does B2B marketing often seem to assume that consumers and business purchasers are different people? Compare your IG feed to the LinkedIn ads you’re served. One platform shows you talking Australian lizards. The other shows you text about processing speeds. When you need insurance, you remember where to go. When it’s time to make a CMS platform decision you…probably should have made a note. We want to believe that our B2B customers make purely rational decisions, but experience and data suggest otherwise. Whether it’s B2C or B2B, people predominantly buy from emotion, not stats and features. Creative marketers who are willing to push the envelope can capitalize on this idea to stand out in the sleepy B2B marketing landscape. It’s hard to argue with results. One of our clients, a pharma sales enablement company, saw 3x lead growth when they pivoted from standard B2B ads to a brighter, more engaging campaign direction. Your B2B targets don’t come to work as a separate persona. Creative marketing captures attention with a whole-brain approach. Ready to ditch the sinister work-life lobotomy assumptions? We’re always ready to talk about how to set your brand apart, whether it’s new creative or a streamlined martech stack. Let us know how we can help. Get smart: Wondering how to sell creative marketing internally? We’ve been reading The Human Element: Overcoming the Resistance that Awaits New Ideas and thinking through the authors’ framework for overcoming our natural resistance to change — especially as it applies to organizations. If you’re struggling through a shift, this book could be worth your time. Read the full Fuse: Marketing for March. Put your technology on a balanced diet Tech creep is kind of like strolling the cereal aisle with a four-year-old (or a 34-year-old, no judgment) who begs for the choco-sugar-neon-behavior-bombs instead of the sensible-fiber-nut-loops you had planned. When it comes to building your tech stack or stocking your pantry, “it looked cool” isn’t really a strategy. And yet, for many companies, an enterprise architecture hodge-podged out of whatever looked good at the time often gets the job done. Until it doesn’t. A move to the cloud, a new data privacy mandate, or even the increasing demand for speed and agility to stay competitive might expose the imbalance in your tech stack. How do you get back to a more wholesome view? Realigning your solutions with your organizational goals and objectives is a great start. Regardless of how long you’ve been using it, does every piece of your technology still fit your plan? You might need to let go of sunk costs and admit that a tool has gotten a little soggy for your current needs. You might need to put your appetite for shiny new solutions on a diet. At the risk of straining our balanced breakfast metaphor past the breaking point (too late?), we recommend putting a healthy strategy on the menu. As guidelines change and organizations shift to keep up, this is a great time to reassess your tools and processes. In its simplest form, a refreshed technology strategy includes a current state audit, an ideal state articulation, and a plan to bridge the gap. Whether your internal culture skews Team Sugar-Bombs or Team Fiber-Loops, we can help you take a strategic view and bring your technology stack back into balance. Get smart: We get that it’s a little bit ironic for a bunch of tech consultants to recommend a book like Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism. But hear us out. Newport’s approach to consumer technology – that tech and platforms should have to earn their place in your life by proving that they help you meet your goals and values – has some merit for the business world as well. We’ve all seen what Newport terms “maximalism” at play in sprawling, bolted together legacy architectures. Maybe the time has come for a more minimalist, goal-driven tech stack. Whether you’re ready to start over or looking for ways to modernize what you have, we’re always happy to talk technology strategy. Read the full Fuse: Technology for April.

6 ways accessibility will impact businesses and website design in the future

Oct 30, 2020

Most people take websites for granted. They pay bills, book flights, and download white papers online with relative ease. But not everyone assumes that digital tools are designed with them in mind, and that’s a failure for everyone. One in four U.S. adults report having a disability that impacts major life activities. That’s 61 million friends, neighbors, and family members who deserve a digital experience that is just as user friendly as anyone else’s. Integrating website accessibility into your design process and culture is a step toward addressing this very human problem of exclusivity. And while a sense of justice is enough to move many organizations to act, there is also a strong business case. Offering a user experience that caters to only a select group of users alienates potential brand advocates and carries serious legal risks. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act Title III Regulations, public properties, including public websites, have to adhere to accessibility parameters. In other words, your digital presence must be designed and coded so that people can carry out their desired tasks, from completing a form to making a purchase. This should extend beyond your basic site to search tools, mobile apps, and social media. Organizations often find themselves on the wrong side of this issue. Rather than proactively carving out a path to invite accessibility in as a priority, they are reacting to negative feedback and even lawsuits. These companies are well-meaning but don’t know what to do to ensure compliance. To help keep you up to speed, here are six ways accessibility will impact businesses and website design in the near future: 1. Lawsuits will escalate From 2017 to 2018, the number of website accessibility lawsuits filed in federal court under Title III of the ADA shot up from 814 to 2,258. This trend will likely continue as more users hold noncompliant websites and other digital tools accountable. Recent high-profile lawsuits have called out Winn-Dixie, Beyoncé, Burger King, Rolex Watch, and Amazon. In a particularly unsavory 2019 story, instead of fixing its online ordering feature, Domino’s pizza responded to a blind customer’s lawsuit with a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court to quash the case. 2. Standard design processes will change To achieve a more inclusive user experience, designers and developers follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) for web standards. It’s part of their process, showing up as captions on videos for people with impaired hearing or spoken versions of site copy read aloud by screen readers. Before accessibility can become an intrinsic part of the website design process, organizations will have to rally their troops and emphasize its importance. In the near future, writing alt-text for images, ensuring all content can be accessed with a keyboard, and making sure text can be viewed at 200% without impairing readability will be second nature. While we aren’t there yet, the additional steps needed to build a compliant site will become standard procedure over the next few years. 3. Know-how will develop fast Remember the 1990s when accessibility ramps were tacked onto commercial buildings like ugly metal afterthoughts, function-rich but design-poor? Today, ramps are architectural features, such as switchbacks crisscrossing wide flights of stairs, and curving slopes that add to a structure’s beauty. In digital, we aren’t working with hammers and drills, and we’ve had 29 years to appreciate the precepts of the ADA. The speed at which website accessibility can and should evolve will be much faster than its brick-and-mortar counterparts. Plus, adherence helps companies compete more effectively for the more than $645 billion of disposable annual income that Americans with disabilities control, creating an additional layer of urgency. 4. Site facelifts will facilitate compliance Organizations regularly upgrade their websites and apps to make them faster, more secure or better optimized for search. Add accessibility to that list. When talking to our clients about site improvements, accessibility is at the forefront of conversations about website facelifts. These are often great opportunities to ramp up (pun intended) inclusion efforts. 5. Someone will own accessibility Who on your team will lead an initiative around accessibility? How will this person develop knowledge and implement more stringent ADA accessibility user testing? Is this a role for design/development or someone in HR/legal? More organizations are asking themselves these questions, and many are looking to outside partners to help them get and stay compliant. Whether it’s handled internally or externally, accessibility will become part of someone’s job description. 6. Audits will head off future legal fights ADA lawsuits and subsequent news stories can burn through an organization’s brand equity, repel customers, and rack up hefty legal expenses. When performed by a trusted digital partner, an audit can bring to light web accessibility infractions so that you can deal with them before they impact your audience. (One caveat: beware of predatory auditors. Scammers have been known to offer auditing services and then threaten to expose noncompliant clients to the ADA if they don’t sign on for follow-up projects.) As organizations take first steps to prioritize accessibility, initial results might look and feel like that ugly ramp from the 1990s. At Fusion Alliance, the growing pains have been worth it to ensure that our user experience offers everyone the same level of respect and compassion. Making accessibility part of your digital design conversations now will better serve every human in the future. Don’t wait to talk to your team. And if you need help, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Insights

Insights

Articles about Digital

Google’s Decision to Keep Third-Party Cookies: Implications for Marketers

Benefits of Smartsheet

Cage Match: Google Analytics 4 vs Universal Analytics

Fuse Highlights: Food for thought

6 ways accessibility will impact businesses and website design in the future

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