PATH Streamlines Project Execution to Accelerate Health Equity

PATH’s Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access (CVIA) is responsible for developing and introducing lifesaving vaccines for the most vulnerable children and communities around the world, explains Jennifer Greenough, CVIA Project and Portfolio Management Deputy Director. “Our core work is vaccines and that’s what we want our teams to focus on,” she says. “Our people perform incredibly hard work, including coming together to establish and implement complicated cross-functional plans for projects that can last for years. We want tools to support them in the work that they do—and not become the work that they do.”

Smartsheet fills the bill. “When we have a new project come into our organization, we establish that project via Control Center and have the project manager enter basic information,” says Greenough. “And just like magic, you hit the button, it spins up the project, it gets all those templates ready, it puts all the summary information that you have already entered into Control Center there, it applies the appropriate permissions, and the workspace shows up with all the templates ready to go.”

Devin Groman, a CVIA project manager, appreciates how Smartsheet automatically updates the sheets she uses and enables sharing of information “in a controlled way, from one master sheet . . . so that we have one source of truth, but can share information to the different members of the team who want to see the information differently, in a flexible way.”

Collaboration is another key Smartsheet attribute, says Groman. “Smartsheet is really helpful because it is dynamic, and you can collaborate in the project work space. Anybody can go and look in it and see where we are in the project, without people having to come to me, constantly asking for updates. They can go and access that information for themselves.”

With a mission of making lifesaving vaccines globally available to women, children, and communities, Greenough says the CVIA organization relies on Smartsheet for consistency in managing projects and to avoid internal miscommunication. “We want to make sure that our donors are clear that we are using their funds efficiently and effectively,” she says.

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