Infosys Uses Smartsheet to Drive Efficiency and Accelerate Win Rates for Global Consulting and Implementation Projects

Infosys, a global leader in information technology services and consulting, has built its reputation on delivering large-scale, complex transformation programs for clients across multiple industries. The company has a workforce of more than 350,000 employees in over 60 countries, working on projects ranging from $500,000 to over $1 billion in scope.

The company’s offerings span digital transformation, ERP implementations, cloud migration, and managed services, often involving hundreds of resources across multiple geographies. Delivering these programs consistently and efficiently is naturally challenging given the complexity and varied tool architectures that different clients employed. lack of consistency and integration often created silos and inefficiencies. Jeff Keller, Program Management Center of Excellence Global Leader at Infosys, says, “We saw a plethora of tools being used, but we didn’t have a consistent, single view of the projects across those tools. We had bits and pieces of the program in various tools, and we were constantly trying to stitch them together.”

This fragmented environment led to inconsistent methodologies, with consultants bringing their own approaches from their own experiences to the table, and slow project ramp-up times, with project managers often scrambling to set up processes while projects were already underway. Project managers also had limited project visibility, and clients did not have a single source of the truth for program status, risks, and deliverables.

To serve their clients better, Infosys recognized the need for a unified, scalable enterprise-grade intelligent work management platform that provided consistency, security, and visibility.

Working with Prodactive to Build a Smartsheet-based Program Management Solution 

To jumpstart development of the solution, Infosys engaged Prodactive, a Smartsheet partner, to design and deploy a Program Management Control Center (PMCC) based on Smartsheet. Smartsheet is the Intelligent Work Management Platform that unites people, data, and AI to accelerate enterprise execution at Fortune 500 scale.

The solution was designed to standardize program management processes across Infosys’ global workforce, integrate data from multiple tools into a single platform, enable rapid deployment of project workspaces, and provide dashboards and governance tools. Prodactive has been an important partner in Infosys’ Smartsheet journey, providing expertise, templates, and ongoing support.

Infosys uses its PMCC solution for portfolio management, using a template approach for tracking active projects and managing the pipeline in Smartsheet. Infosys leveraged Prodactive’s PPM template for portfolio-level visibility. Projects managed in the solution include large-scale ERP implementations involving hundreds of offshore and onshore resources, along with clients and other third-party implementation partners. 

“Smartsheet provides the overall platform that allows us to deploy all our project management capabilities and support our practitioners,” Keller says. “We mandate the use of the solution as part of our deal review process and maintain an overall PPM portfolio view of each project in a separate workspace.”

The company relies on automated workflows in Smartsheet to streamline project approvals and notifications. “We developed a deliverables approval tracker. When a deliverable is completed, it copies over to another sheet where you can have multiple levels of approval. Each approval step gets sent via email to the actual approver, and they can accept or reject it, add commentary, and then submit. Clients love this feature,” says Charles Prudente, Global PMCC Lead, Project Management Center of Excellence, Infosys. “It showcases how powerful the automations and workflows are in Smartsheet.”

Additionally, Infosys uses Smartsheet dashboards to consolidate milestones, deliverables, and risks into a single view internally and for clients. 

“The dashboards really impress clients. In 10 minutes, we can show them how everything is accessible in real-time. It reinforces and instils confidence in our program delivery model and tools” Prudente says. 

The Infosys PMCC also leverages Smartsheet premium capabilities including Data Shuttle, Bridge, Dynamic View, and Calendar to deliver a comprehensive program management ecosystem.

Projects Ready to Go on Day One

With the pre-configured approach enabled by its PMCC solution, Infosys can support the velocity of work by kicking off major projects faster, reducing delays and improving client confidence. “The approach we take with this tool is, if we do this right, we stand this up so it’s ready to go on day one of the project. Consultants have their RAID logs, their high-level project plan, a change request tracker—all ready to go,” Prudente says. “Assuming the client doesn’t have a lot of their own requirements and are willing to accept our defined processes, we get up and running very quickly. The project runs from day one much more efficiently than if we're trying to stand things up and decide which tool to use.”

Driving Consistency Across Programs and Increasing Win Rates

With the PMCC, Infosys has a single, unified, standardized platform solution in place that gives employees more consistency across different programs so they can focus on managing work and delivering projects instead of trying to find the data they need in multiple tools. With this single source of truth for projects, Infosys consultants are more productive and efficient. “When I joined Infosys, there was less standardization. It was a matter of going into my hard drive, finding an option or two, talking to a colleague, and figuring it out at the beginning of the project,” Prudente says. 

“With this approach in Smartsheet, we’re standardizing the process. Our teams have access to our PM CoE portal where they have a ’one-stop’ shop for all methods vis a vis program management. If they worked with our tool on one previous project, they will know how to use it on the next project. It’s really driving efficiency into the way our teams work.”

By integrating its projects management tools into a single solution, the company has also increased visibility. “The PMCC gives us not only a program management ecosystem, but also a view into our systems development lifecycle where we can see testing and development, quality management, requirements management, and traceability,” Keller says. “With Smartsheet, we have more visibility, and we can share what’s going on ‘real time’ with our clients’ senior stakeholders, including those at the ‘C Level’ in an easily consumable format.”

As a result, Infosys is gaining a competitive advantage. “We’re seeing improved win rates and program execution on projects by using the Smartsheet solution. Clients are choosing our tool over competitors, and it’s helping us build momentum and credibility in the marketplace,” says Andrew Brader, Managing Partner and Global Delivery Excellence Leader for the Digital Platforms practice at Infosys Consulting. In addition, the flexibility of Smartsheet helps Infosys better respond to its customers’ needs. 

“Smartsheet is very flexible and easy to customize and update, and that flexibility resonates with our clients and our teams, because you can pretty much do anything you need to do,” Prudente says. “That means our teams are highly responsive to client requirements, and we can deliver their needs quickly.”

Innovating with AI 

As it continues its journey with Smartsheet, Infosys is experimenting with AI to create innovative new features. Prudente explains: “We created a focus group to explore AI. It was amazing what that group came back with—developing AI-driven widgets and prompts that extend Smartsheet’s capabilities,” says Prudente. “We’re leveraging that work to push out these capabilities out to our projects.”

Infosys plans to continue its close relationship with Prodactive as it moves into the future. “What’s so fantastic with the Infosys team is the level of innovation. They’ve really embraced the tool, constantly asking, ‘How can we?’ and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible,” says Rich Coles, Managing Director and Founder of Prodactive. Adds Brader, “Smartsheet is an industry-leading platform that gives us the ability to leverage rather than create from scratch. While we are in the software business, we’re not in the workplace management platform software business — we’re in the business of delivering value to our clients. Smartsheet enables us to do that at scale.”

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