Insight

How Our Team Uses Smartsheet to Manage Corporate Real Estate Projects

October 30, 2019  |  BY Jon Bonkoski

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Imagine being pulled into a meeting to answer questions about a major project with the top stakeholders at your firm. Would you have the answers you needed at the tip of your fingers? Would you have the tools to share the status in the palm of your hand? Now imagine you do. A single tool and a single place to provide a detailed account of a project, or a status update at a glance.  

But that’s not how the modern digital workflow works in most offices works. You copy and paste between programs, hunt for that important email, upload and download attachments, and perform spreadsheet surgery because you and your client have different versions of Excel. I could go on, and I’m sure you could too.

A Better Tool

A key component to all of our projects is a web-based tool called Smartsheet. It’s a central hub of communication that houses all of a project’s documents — a multi-purpose tool that eliminates the need for the toolbox. There’s no more worrying about where an attachment is saved. No more spreadsheet surgery. 

For our clients, that means everything they need is on one simple project dashboard: schedule, budget, a calendar of key decisions, and milestones. The dashboard is completely customizable, providing access to relevant project data so that you can see what you want when you want it. Want to set up a webcam to monitor construction on-site? Need a quick snapshot of decisions due? Want to find project percent complete and other financials for a board presentation? Or a countdown to when the project will be complete? Everything you need to coordinate is at your fingertips. The cross-chain email confusion — and all the cleanup that comes after — is a thing of the past.

Building a Culture of Collaboration

Smartsheet has changed our workflows and processes, both internally and externally. We’re able to cross-reference and find documents quicker than ever before, and we’ve seen firsthand that our office has become much more collaborative. The approach of each project manager has been refined to include a holistic view of workflow and information management. 

Fostering that spirit of collaboration is one of the biggest reasons we’ve invested in Smartsheet. Our partnership with our customers and vendors is our main priority. Smartsheet seamlessly integrates the client and the vendor into our process, transforming what it means for them to be equity stakeholders and giving them an assured  sense of ownership in their project. 

Managing in Smartsheet also provides leading indicators of potential issues, and it easily allows us to interact in real-time with both clients and vendors to come up with solutions. There’s no need to wait for a third party to set up a conference call to get everyone together. The relevant information is there for all to see, so that we can all take action.

Earning Your Trust

With our integrated suite of services, Cresa aims to be your real estate partner. Real estate is a complex industry with a lot of unknowns: How long will it take to renovate an existing space? Will costs go up?

That’s why we’re committed to transparency and clarity at Cresa. Our clients see the same data we see. That’s important to us. 

For years, we’ve been changing the traditional game in corporate real estate. No hidden figures, surprise costs or confusing transactions. As we build long-term partnerships with our clients, we want to make sure we’re in the driver’s seat together.