Century Software employs Smartsheet for streamlined project management and serious savings

Century Software (M) Sdn. Bhd. A subsidiary of Censof Bhd., a technology holdings company specialising in financial management software solutions, has grown exponentially since its inception in 2008. Catering to clients ranging from local councils to federal and state governments, Century Software’s solutions are not limited to just financial accounting. It offers complementary enterprise solutions to provide comprehensive services for governments across Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Hong Kong. 

As Century Software's client base expanded, Ashikin Aris, Senior General Manager of Professional Services at Century Software, found herself overseeing close to 50 small and large projects at once. “Project management was manual, and there was no way for me to see what was happening on the ground,” recalls Ashikin. “I had to call each team member to get updates and details, which was time-consuming and inefficient.”

Century Software couldn’t customise its previous project management tool to meet the growing needs of the company. “We needed a central tool to help manage resources, track progress, and monitor timelines more effectively,” explains Ashikin. Upon expiry of the existing tool’s licence, Ashikin researched other options and found Smartsheet.

To Ashikin, Smartsheet's flexibility and customisation features were crucial. She adds,

“I need to be able to tweak my own data and presentation. That's the key factor that made Smartsheet appealing to me.”

Having tech support was important in the implementation as well. “57NETWORK, our local Smartsheet partner, was always available to help,” says Ashikin. Vivien Chong, Modern Work Management Specialist at 57NETWORK shares of their cooperation, “We mainly supported Century Software with training and addressing any challenges the team faced. It gave them space to work on other things while we handled the Smartsheet implementation and resource management.”

Transforming project management 

With Smartsheet, Century Software has successfully streamlined its project management processes. Ashikin says, "In terms of cost savings, we have saved about MYR100,000 yearly just from reducing the project management office (PMO) administration workload." By implementing Smartsheet, the company has improved data visibility, automated reminders, and increased resource productivity, allowing team members to focus on what matters—the clients. 

Higher efficiency is now seen in Century Software’s sales handovers, which are done through Smartsheet. “On top of planning and executing projects, our PMO heads can assign project managers through the platform and set automated reminders for resource allocations,” says Ashikin. “We keep everyone updated with a main sheet on a real-time dashboard, which ensures that our teams are well informed and prepared.”

Quicker access to actionable insights

In order to make informed business decisions, stakeholders like management directors often requested for project status reports.

Before having Smartsheet, it would take a week on a monthly basis to prepare a report that covered the project statuses, risks, and other sections. It was a hassle for admin people and sometimes the reports still had insufficient information for decision-making. 

“Since Smartsheet, we’ve streamlined the process of gathering and presenting information, providing a clearer picture for management. We now use real-time dashboards—this means team members save hours spent on project updates and meetings are more productive with the right data available,” explains Ashikin.

Expanding capabilities with integrations

With the operational improvements it gained through Smartsheet, Century Software saw an opportunity to go further. The company was using Acumatica, a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, to build one government accounting and financial system. 

Realising that Smartsheet could be integrated with Acumatica, Century Software decided to explore the possibilities further. It discovered that the integration of Project Cost Tracking in Acumatica with Smartsheet's project management features could help users expand their project management capabilities. Ashikin explains, "We bundled this solution as a package, expanding Project Cost Tracking in our government resource planning product to one of our clients. As a result, the client could better manage project managers and resources. They are happy with the results." 

With a successful integration, Century Software plans to explore more of such possibilities for clients in the future. “We are continuously evaluating our clients' needs and exploring new solutions,” notes Ashikin. “We’re looking into using robotic process automation to fetch data and communicate with Smartsheet more effectively.” Packaging these types of solutions involves a lot of integration, and Century Software has the expertise in API development.

“We plan to replicate the Acumatica package for other clients soon. I’m sure that with the help of 57NETWORK, we can work towards providing solutions of the highest quality to our customers,” Ashikin concludes.