In large organisations, where multiple departments must work together seamlessly to achieve common objectives, collaboration is often a challenge. Silos, miscommunication, and lack of visibility can lead to project delays, missed opportunities, and inefficiency. Smartsheet, a flexible work management platform, has become the go-to solution for many large organisations seeking to foster better cross-department collaboration.
Through a combination of real-time updates, customisable workflows, and a centralised hub for project data, Smartsheet helps teams across departments stay connected and aligned. Let’s explore why Smartsheet is a preferred choice for large enterprises, drawing on real-world examples and statistics.
How a Global Manufacturing Company Streamlines Operations with Smartsheet
Background: A global manufacturing company with over 10,000 employees faced significant challenges with cross-department collaboration. Each department—ranging from product development to supply chain management and sales—used separate systems to track projects, creating bottlenecks and slowing down decision-making processes. To scale operations efficiently, the company needed a platform that could serve as a unified collaboration hub.
The Smartsheet Solution: The organisation adopted Smartsheet to centralise its project management efforts. By using Smartsheet dashboards, teams could visualise progress on projects across departments in real-time. Integration with other enterprise tools like Microsoft Office and Salesforce ensured that data flowed seamlessly, reducing manual updates and minimising the risk of miscommunication.
Results:
- Improved Collaboration: Teams from different departments could now track dependencies, timelines, and resources through a single platform, ensuring everyone was working from the same data.
- Reduction in Delays: The use of automated workflows helped eliminate bottlenecks in approval processes and ensured faster decision-making. This led to a 25% reduction in project delays within six months (Happily Marketing).
- Greater Visibility: Smartsheet’s reporting features allowed executives to generate comprehensive reports on progress, helping them make more informed decisions about resource allocation.
This case study is one example of how Smartsheet has helped large organisations streamline collaboration across departments, leading to improved operational efficiency.
The Importance of Cross-Department Collaboration in Large Organisations
A study by the Harvard Business Review found that employees spend almost 80% of their time on collaborative activities, such as meetings, responding to emails, and using messaging platforms (Similarweb). However, poor collaboration can lead to significant costs. Research from McKinsey shows that effective collaboration tools can increase productivity by 20-30%, especially in large organisations where teams are spread across departments and geographies (Databox).
How Smartsheet Fosters Cross-Department Collaboration
- Centralised Data and Visibility: Large organisations often struggle with data silos—where each department uses its own tools, leading to fragmented information. Smartsheet solves this by providing a centralised platform where all project data is stored and accessible to everyone. Dashboards and reports give teams real-time insights into project progress across departments, improving transparency. According to a report by Forrester, companies using Smartsheet saw a 15% increase in cross-team visibility, enabling faster identification of risks and bottlenecks (Databox).
- Customisable Workflows for Each Department: Different departments often have unique workflows, which can make collaboration difficult. Smartsheet’s flexibility allows teams to create custom workflows that meet their specific needs while still integrating into a broader company-wide project plan. For example, marketing, sales, and finance can all use the same Smartsheet workspace but customise their views and processes for their tasks. A survey by Smartsheet found that 75% of businesses reported smoother interdepartmental collaboration after implementing custom workflows (Similarweb).
- Real-Time Updates and Automation: In large organisations, delays often occur when information is not updated in real-time or when approvals are held up. Smartsheet’s automation features ensure that once a task is completed, the relevant departments are immediately notified. This speeds up workflows, reduces the need for constant manual updates, and ensures that everyone is always working with the most up-to-date information. In a large retail organisation, an automated workflow could alert the sales department when a product is shipped from the supply chain team, streamlining the process from stock management to customer delivery. A study by TechRepublic highlighted that teams using automation in Smartsheet experienced a 30% improvement in project delivery times due to faster approvals and fewer manual errors (Happily Marketing).
Integration with Enterprise Tools for Seamless Workflows
Large organisations typically use a range of enterprise systems—such as Salesforce for customer management, Jira for development, and Microsoft Teams for communication. One of Smartsheet’s major advantages is its ability to integrate with these tools. Data flows smoothly between platforms, allowing teams from different departments to work in their preferred environments while staying connected to broader company objectives.
In a financial services firm, Smartsheet’s integration with Salesforce allowed the marketing, sales, and customer support teams to access the same customer data in real-time, eliminating the need for manual data transfers and improving customer response times by 40% (Similarweb).
Conclusion: Why Large Organisations Trust Smartsheet for Cross-Department Collaboration
In today’s interconnected work environment, large organisations need tools that can bridge the gap between departments, ensuring that everyone is aligned on project goals and timelines. Smartsheet’s centralised data, real-time collaboration features, and customisable workflows make it an invaluable tool for fostering cross-department collaboration. With the ability to integrate with other enterprise systems, automate routine tasks, and provide comprehensive project visibility, Smartsheet is the future of efficient project management for large organisations.
For businesses that require expert assistance in setting up or optimising Smartsheet, Apollo Work Labs offers tailored solutions to ensure that your team maximises its collaborative potential. Whether you’re just getting started or need to refine existing workflows, Apollo Work Labs can help transform your collaboration efforts across departments.