Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night, suddenly panicked that you've forgotten to take care of something at work? You go in to the office the next day with the same nagging feeling – was that request emailed to you? Or was it a conversation you had with a colleague at your desk? Sorting through a scattered process is a real-life nightmare, stressful to say the least.
A little over a year ago, Stacey Hughes, Director of Advancement and Information Services at Loyola University was all too familiar with similar scenarios. Her team, the gift processing department, handles every single donation that comes to the University – and all of the personal information that comes along with donations. And as the keepers of such a vital database, they are barraged with data requests from all other departments.
"We had been using Excel and email to try and track all of these requests. It simply wasn’t working, we were drowning in data,” said Hughes. It’s no surprise that Smartsheet web forms changed the game for this team. “Smartsheet web forms have streamlined our department's processes. Now when others need data from us, they simply fill out a web form and the request goes straight into a sheet. Smartsheet saves us time, fosters accountability, and promotes a culture of transparency and respect."
Pretty slick, right? Here’s how you can follow in Hughes’ footsteps:
- Step 1: Import old Excel spreadsheet data request form into Smartsheet. For years, Hughes and her team had an Excel file posted on Loyola’s intranet for anyone to fill out and then email to the gift processing department when they had a data request. To begin the transition to Smartsheet, Hughes imported this spreadsheet to Smartsheet.
- Step 2: Customize your web form. Once a spreadsheet is in Smartsheet, creating a corresponding web form is straightforward. Click the ‘Web Forms’ button on the bottom tab of your sheet and the web form builder will appear.
Use the web form builder to customize the web form – turn column names from your sheet into detailed instructions on your web forms, make certain fields required for submissions, or re-order questions.
Hughes explained that one of the biggest hurdles her department faced was explaining to other departments all of the specifics that need to be included in a data request before her team can process it. With the Excel forms that Loyola had been using, there was a lot of room for user error, and as a result, Hughes and her team spent a lot of time clarifying requests and chasing down missing details.
Now, with Smartsheet web forms, request expectations are clear, and requests won’t make it onto the gift processing team’s sheet unless they are completely and accurately filled out.
- Step 3: Make web forms available to others. You have a variety of options to send your web form out to the masses: each web form has a unique URL that you can email to others or embed the web form itself on a frequently used resource page.
Hughes made her web forms available on Loyola’s intranet for anyone at the University to access when they have a data request for her department.
- Step 4: Use Smartsheet to stay organized and take action as web forms are submitted. Once others begin using web forms, inbound requests come directly into the University’s gift processing department’s sheet, rather than an email inbox. The team has Alerts set on their sheet to keep them up-to-date when a new request comes in. Hughes can assign a team member to complete a request, and team members use Smartsheet to track the steps to completing requests. Hughes and her staff attach completed requests to their corresponding rows, and then send the row to the requestor.
- Step 5: Share Smartsheet with others to keep communication open and maintain transparency. Other departments have access to the data request sheet. Now, when someone has a question about the status of their request, they can check Smartsheet for an update rather than interrupting their co-workers. Time is saved and communication is improved. Hughes also uses the Calendar View to show other departments what her team is working on.
“Changing the Way We Work”
“I’m addicted to Smartsheet,” says Hughes. “It’s the way that we work, I can’t imagine running my department without it.”
The benefits to Hughes and her department of using Smartsheet include:
- Unified formatting for all data requests. The gift processing team gets all the information from others that they need the first time around, saving time and frustration.
- No more information locked in inboxes. Now it’s all in Smartsheet, so the team can easily work together to complete requests.
- History is kept and steps are archived. When similar requests come in, the steps to completion are documented and easy to reference and replicate.
- Improved accountability. Switching to the Calendar view keeps the team on track and communicates to other departments clearly what the gift processors have on their plates
- Increased communication. Tracking everything in Smartsheet keeps all departments on the same page.
Streamlining the data request process is just one of the ways that Hughes and her team are using Smartsheet – read the Loyola University case study for the full story.
Welcome to the Web Form Hall of Fame, Loyola University!
- Kelly