Standardizing the New Retailer Onboarding Process for Global Automotive Business with Smartsheet Control Center
Optimum designed and implemented a standardized New Retailer Onboarding Process for a Global Automotive Business, leveraging Smartsheet Control Center and Dynamic View.
About the Client
As a global automotive company with a family of brands across the US and beyond, this client is passionate about assisting millions of car shoppers, 40,000 auto dealer clients across five continents, and others within the automotive industry. They offer a fully automated, online eCommerce solution that revolutionizes the deal process.
Business Challenges
The client engaged Optimum to develop a standardized approach for tracking the onboarding process for their customers. Prior to Optimum’s involvement, the client’s process lacked consistency in internal tracking of new retailers. The onboarding process was managed manually and inconsistently for each new client. The high annual influx of retailers and absence of standardization led to a lack of visibility for leadership into the onboarding process. Consequently, the client couldn’t accurately assess the status of retailers at various onboarding stages (in flight, on hold, or completed) at any given time.
Optimum’s Involvement
The engagement began with Optimum conducting multiple workshops to grasp the current state process and design a future state process tailored to the client’s onboarding needs. These workshops necessitated collaboration from the client’s team to ensure all process components were addressed. Subsequently, Optimum spent several weeks crafting the solution with input from client stakeholders. Following the solution’s initial development, the client underwent user acceptance testing and training to ensure comprehensive understanding of the Smartsheet solution.
A significant challenge in the client’s previous process was the lack of visibility into all onboarded retailers. The absence of insight into retailers’ onboarding stages hindered the team’s ability to oversee their work effectively.
Upon the implementation of the Smartsheet solution, Optimum collaborated closely with the client to devise a change management plan. Recognizing the solution’s departure from the previous workflow, Optimum provided training and documentation to support the team post-implementation. Additionally, Optimum conducted biweekly office hours to offer user support and address any lingering queries.
Implementation Process
During the discovery phase, Optimum’s development team evaluated the current state of the client’s operations, collaborating with their stakeholders to pinpoint pain points and optimization opportunities. Internally, the Optimum team crafted a proposal outlining the solution architecture and detailed user stories, which was then presented to the client for review, initiating the development phase.
Throughout development, Optimum maintained regular communication with key stakeholders to create templates forming the core of the new Smartsheet solution. Following each sprint, developers presented these templates to the stakeholder team, incorporating feedback as necessary. Once all solution components were built and internal testing was completed, the client underwent a thorough round of user acceptance testing guided by Optimum. Upon approval, Optimum conducted admin and end-user trainings to ensure the client’s team was equipped to utilize and manage the solution effectively post-launch.
Finally, Optimum delivered comprehensive documentation alongside the finalized product.
Project Outcomes and Benefits
Optimum successfully developed an Onboarding solution using Smartsheet Control Center, enabling the team to operate within a unified system. Workshops led by Optimum yielded an efficient process for tracking new client onboarding across the organization. This facilitated alignment and comprehension within the client’s brand regarding retailers’ onboarding stages. New retailer requests are centralized in Smartsheet, with the onboarding process managed through interconnected sheets. Users are prompted to input key dates and other information at specified intervals, with timelines readily visible on project and portfolio-level dashboards.
The integration of Resource Management, a Smartsheet Premium app, provides insight into allocation across active onboarding retailers, aiding strategic support throughout the onboarding process. The client also utilized Dynamic View, a premium app, to disseminate data snippets to multiple team members across the onboarding lifecycle. Team members can input and edit role-specific information, facilitating progression through the onboarding stages.
Optimum’s team collaborated closely with the client to ensure the Smartsheet solution met their business needs, delivering it efficiently and within budget. The client expressed enthusiasm for the project dashboards and dynamic view functionalities, facilitating easy tracking of retailers’ onboarding stages and providing team members with tailored views to manage their assigned retailers effectively. Streamlined updates on key dates further enhance communication and progress tracking across multiple retailers.
About Optimum
Optimum is a national Software Consulting firm, and a Smartsheet Platinum Partner, helping organizations accelerate efficiency and solve business challenges. We deliver robust software solutions and amazing client experiences!
As a Platinum, Certified Smartsheet Partner, our consultants define, automate, and optimize processes and implement advanced Smartsheet solutions to help clients achieve work efficiency and productivity. From development of customized templates and advanced dashboards and workflows to the full implementation and support of Smartsheet Control Center and other accelerators, our team helps clients maximize their ROI in Smartsheet and increase user adoption and productivity of their teams.
Contact us for a free discovery session to identify and discuss the best solution option for your work automation and project management needs.
Contact us: info@optimumcs.com | 713.505.0300 | www.optimumcs.com