Pricer optimizes teamwork and boosts productivity with Smartsheet

Founded in Sweden in 1991, Pricer AB is the global leader in in-store digital shelf-edge solutions, helping over 18,000 stores in more than 70 countries enhance store performance and shopping experience. At the end of 2019, the company embarked on a transformative journey to build a project and program management solution that would modernize its workflows, foster team alignment, and reduce content sprawl.

Simplifying the document flow

Before the transformation, many Pricer departments were mired in sprawling spreadsheets and buried in tangled email threads. In addition, the lack of a standardized collaboration solution disrupted communication and information flows. All this led to project slowdown and fragmented cooperation.

“We needed a tool to support project and program management because we were being crushed under the weight of emails and files in different locations,” says Giacomo Crucinio, Head of Professional Services at Pricer. “We always wanted to have a document management system because when we do installations, customers need to verify what we have done. For each part of the project, we have several documents, which used to be handled manually with pen and paper.” Pricer turned to Smartsheet and Platinum Partner AMX. 

“Everyone was working with spreadsheets, and so we were looking for a way to bring all the spreadsheets together and roll up all the information on country level, account level, and executive level. This third level would give us a program management view with a list of all the projects that highlights the ones currently being addressed or delayed,” Crucinio explains. “So, that’s what we did by using Smartsheet as the foundation to build a proprietary project management platform called ProMETEOS.” 

“Our system starts with Control Center and the multi-tier setup, which allows rolling out all data and details in a multi-layer view,” continues Crucinio.

The platform offers dynamic dashboards with insights based on a user’s role and privileges. Each employee and subcontractor can only access the information they need to complete their work, which helps ensure data security. Additionally, keeping everyone abreast with the dashboards generates significant time savings.

“Our project meetings used to take at least an hour. Today, they last 20 minutes because we can go through all the information available on the dashboards together,” says Crucinio.

"What we achieved building ProMETEOS was a project management solution tied to the process so messages are being sent out when a task should be performed, and the system is keeping track of the status of the project. There is no need anymore to keep the latest status in your head since they will always find it in Smartsheet from now on," notes AMX Solutions Consultant Victor Broberg.

Working smarter with automation

The solution uses open application programming interfaces (APIs) to integrate with third-party systems such as Salesforce and Microsoft Teams. This results in productivity improvements, as Crucinio explains. “We wanted to review account data within our SalesForce, especially regarding details that may have changed over the years. We came up with an idea to download data into SmartSheet and this allowed our order team to find and resolve inconsistencies in one day instead of one month.”

The order team also benefits from automated workflows that standardize tasks and help eliminate errors, leading to faster, more efficient order processing. “The platform has been integrated with our order management system to fetch the order data. When field workers go into the store and do the product count, we compare the products needed in the store with the ones in the order. If discrepancies occur, the order team is automatically notified,” says Crucinio.

Pricer also takes advantage of Smartsheet to spin out smaller projects tailored to specific teams. One example is a newly released HR tool, Pricer People. It manages all interactions with new, existing, and transferring employees.

“Using automated workflows, we can exchange information back and forth very quickly. When we send out a contract that needs to be signed and returned, we save time on checking and verifying it. Putting everything into Smartsheet cuts the contract processing time by 60%,” explains Crucinio.

Smartsheet also powers Professional Services’ activities. “Before, all requests used to arrive via email or a phone call,” describes Crucinio. “Using Smartsheet, we built a solution that collects all the requests through an internal portal. We have eliminated all emails activity requests, and we keep all the details in one place.” The solution uses conditional logic which shows or hides specific fields based on the person’s selection to previous fields. This helps ensure they’re only asked to answer the questions that are relevant to their submission. Additionally, some values can be pre-loaded from basic HTML. All of that simplifies filling out forms and helps save even more time.

Joining the quest to achieve more

Pricer continues its pursuit of productivity goals with Smartsheet: getting everyone on the same page, working efficiently, and eliminating communication frictions. The journey is ongoing, with new projects continuously emerging.

Currently, the company is working on the DocuSign integration to streamline document approval with digital signatures.

“DocuSign delivers trust and structure in the document management workflow by allowing all stakeholders to have a crystal view on the process and strong control over the documents,” mentions Crucinio.

“The great thing about Smartsheet is that you can find common ground with anyone using the workflows, formulas, and forms to build enterprise solutions,” sums up Crucinio. And Pricer is using that potential to the fullest to elevate the work experience for their people.

For more information about this story, please see our case study.