Let's start by explaining the characteristics of a "Magic Spreadsheet". Virtually every organization has a spreadsheet that is "owned" by an analyst, assistant or coordinator that contains critical information that keeps a function of the organization operating efficiently. The function could involve procurement timelines, task tracking, recruiting schedules - it could be just about anything. The "owner" has developed a spreadsheet over time and it exists separate and apart from any CRM system. This spreadsheet is often stored in OneDrive or, potentially, simply on the computer's hard drive. It is maintained by a single person, which obviously limits the collaborative element from the equation.
Enter Monday.com.
If you are new to Monday.com, you have likely already heard of this workflow management tool. Maybe you have seen a commercial or a billboard about Monday.com. Maybe you have friends or associates who have used the tool before and make it part of their daily work processes. But, you may not be familiar with this tool and you may not understand how it can benefit you and your organization.
If you are not a Monday.com user, it could be a little daunting during your evaluation. Monday has a hierarchical structure that includes workspaces, folders, sub-folders, boards, groups, items, sub-items and columns. And there are a lot of column types that you can use - status columns, person columns, date columns, formula columns, timeline columns, number columns, and text columns, among many others. Then, there are automation recipes and integration opportunities, not to mention dashboard elements and the ability to import and export content. Having said all of that, the Monday.com interface is very visually-based and the tool is both intuitive and easy to configure.
A good place to start is to import a Magic Spreadsheet. You will need to create a board to receive the import, structured similarly to the format of the spreadsheet. But, if you set up your Monday.com columns as triggers for its built-in automations, you will suddenly be able to minimize the manual chore of maintaining the spreadsheet, freeing the "owner" up to perform more meaningful work. I call this "moving from manual to meaningful".
And, when the Magic Spreadsheet is imported into Monday.com, you now have a cloud-based solution that is constantly replicated and backed-up by Monday.com, so there is no additional impact on your IT services section. Further, you will now have a collaborative board that can let other team members view or update the board - it's all in how you decide to set up the security for the board.
Lastly, the automations will now do so much work for you. You want a notification sent to a project manager 3 days before the due date? There's an automation for that. You want the Legal Team notified, when a drafted contract is available for their review? There is an automation for that. You want an Executive to have one place to go to check on all projects under his/her purview? Monday can support that through either dashboards or through connect boards with mirrored columns. And, believe me, that's only the tip of the iceberg.
If you want to explore Monday.com and assess how it can help you and your organization, let me know. Or, if you are interested in in-person training on the tool, I can help you with that too. Just let me know .
Thanks.
David
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