Republic Elite uses Smartsheet to support strategic growth and automate management of cabinet design and manufacturing projects

Republic Elite Multifamily Interiors has been designing, manufacturing, and installing cabinets and countertops for multi-family dwellings since 1975. The company provides fully installed cabinets, countertops, closets, and tub surrounds, delivered as turnkey solutions to customers across the United States. 

Republic Elite uses Smartsheet to streamline and automate its back office administrative processes in real time, giving key stakeholders visibility into the status of manufacturing and installation projects.

“Smartsheet provides more visibility, more transparency, and better collaboration to help us make business decisions based on universally accepted analytics,” says Sani Venkatesan, Smartsheet systems administrator and project manager for Republic Elite.

Previously, the organization’s executive leaders and other internal teams needed better transparency into customer projects across multiple divisions. To organize and manage this information, Republic Elite staff relied heavily on email, spreadsheets, and other disjointed and siloed communication channels. This led to inaccurate data, poor internal communication, duplication of efforts, and inconsistent processes. “We had very manual-intensive processes that caused a disconnect among our teams, including sales and manufacturing,” Venkatesan says.
 
Overcoming this challenge was critical because the company needed to better support its strategic growth plans. They are currently in 24 states, and one of their larger goals is to be a nationwide company, while also continuing to evolve and innovate. 

Tracking All Production, Manufacturing, and Installation Projects in Smartsheet 

In 2016, CIO Lupe Lucio was tasked with finding a solution to this issue.  several internal employees had discovered Smartsheet, using it for basic tasks. After researching the tool, Republic Elite realized it had much broader capabilities and could provide the visibility, flexibility, and streamlined processes the company needed.  Smartsheet was effective for a centralized data location and for processing standard business transactions and getting real-time view of project status and issues.

Republic Elite adopted Smartsheet in three phases, with guidance from Smartsheet. In the first phase, Republic Elite employees quickly developed the skills to create interlinked sheets, dashboards, and automated workflows. Following this phase, Venkatesan began managing daily IT inquiries, requests for system improvements and enhancements based on company growth initiatives. In the second phase of Smartsheet adoption, Republic Elite gained the ability to add new product lines independent of other product lines. Smartsheet Control Center blueprints for all product collections were added, allowing for Multi-tier product performance and demand management. In phase three, the company leveraged established Smartsheet templates to optimize quality and control indicators. The company also created robust and informative dashboards across departments to support better decision making. “The internal flow of information has been streamlined across departments and a comprehensive view of the project is finally available.” says project coordination manager, Ashley Lillevik. 

Currently, Republic Elite manages all projects related to producing, manufacturing, and installing cabinets and countertops. The company also uses Smartsheet to manage bidding, quoting, and estimating, as well as new product development. Smartsheet Dynamic View helps employees manage dates and key milestones by providing a comprehensive list of individual task assignments, task updates, and completion status. IT supports changes and updates to core templates as needed.

Using Bridge for Scale and Solution Management

As the use of Smartsheet continued to grow with over 44,000 configurations of countertops, Republic Elite incorporated new tools to assist in the scale and control of their Smartsheet solution. To better manage the high volume of data, Republic Elite developed a custom solution for cleaning up the backend data driving DataMesh workflows with Bridge by Smartsheet, developed with help from their Smartsheet Technical Account Manager. By boosting collaboration and streamlining workflows, Republic Elite continues to reduce the time it takes to complete a task or action and increase the ROI.

“Continuing to build upon the relationship between Republic Elite and Smartsheet is key to our success,” says Venkatesan.

“Today, 75 percent of development occurs internally with Republic Elite for the Smartsheet application and business needs. With more complex solutions, we work with a Smartsheet Technical Account Manager TAM who provides guidance on the best practices for all Smartsheet tools and capabilities.”

Bridge also supports the automatic provisioning and management of projects with Smartsheet Control Center to automatically move new projects into related workspaces with a simple click of a checkbox – saving the time of manually moving data from 20 projects into 15-20 project workspaces on a weekly basis. 

Additionally, Bridge helps Republic Elite scale to support fast-growing volumes of business data. “Using Bridge, we can easily track material for 44,000 different configurations for stone countertops. Smartsheet helps us input and track all this data, supporting our growth to scale,” says Venkatesan. “We wanted to solve the problem of scale, and Smartsheet does that while helping us continue on our growth trajectory.”

A Comprehensive View of Installation Projects

Smartsheet has streamlined the flow of project data across departments, giving Republic Elite full visibility into the status of all installation projects from inception to completion. “Our sales teams also have visibility into the opportunities and bids that are out there, so they can quickly follow up with clients.” Adam Sumrow, chief business officer for Republic Elite, adds,

“The enhanced visibility and real-time analytics we have gained through Smartsheet dashboards have allowed Republic Elite to accelerate our sales growth and elevate the customer experience.” 

More Collaboration and Increased Efficiency 

Republic Elite employees on different teams are collaborating more effectively by using Smartsheet. Employees in the sales, installation, and contracts departments now share consistent, updated project data. “As Contracts Manager, the department is similar to a central hub. In using Smartsheet, it allows for information to flow seamlessly across the organization by providing triggers and tasks in the workflow which improved overall efficiency from project initiation to project completion,” says Chalandra Harris, billings and contracts manager, Republic Elite.

Republic Elite continues to take advantage of new Smartsheet features to address business opportunities. Most recently, the company started using Smartsheet DataTable in conjunction with Dynamic View to take global product data from third party warehouses to connect it to sheets for the company’s billing team. They keep finding ways to push boundaries and find solutions to their issues.

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