UMass Memorial Health Uses Smartsheet to Facilitate More Efficient Project Delivery

UMass Memorial Health is the largest healthcare system in Central Massachusetts, serving a broad and diverse population across four hospitals, multiple ambulatory locations, labs, and affiliated provider practices. With more than 20,000 employees and a mission rooted in patient-centered, equitable care, the organization focuses on improving operations to align with its priority of delivering safer, high-quality care to patients while supporting caregivers, strengthening the community, and building a sustainable future.

At the center of much of this work is Information Services (IS), the group responsible for the systems, infrastructure, and digital platforms that clinicians and staff rely on every day. Within IS, the Shared Services Project Management Office (PMO) plays a critical role in turning strategy into execution. The PMO team of 51 people includes Managers, Program Managers, Project Managers, Business Analysts and Quality Assurance professionals. Together, they manage a wide-ranging portfolio that spans new clinical applications, Epic and Workday enhancements, infrastructure and security initiatives, facilities-related IS work, and an expanding slate of AI-driven projects.

Before Smartsheet, the PMO’s work was supported by disparate tools that were not designed to work together. This included systems for intake, day-to-day project planning, managing schedules, budgeting and housing of various documents. Information was spread across tools and locations, making it difficult to get a complete picture of project health. Financial reporting was especially challenging. “I’m always looking for ways to make it easier for my team members, so they can focus on the work versus on the project management tool,” says Jenann Self, Director, Project Management Office, UMass Memorial Health. “Previously, it was challenging for us to do our work efficiently.”

Centralizing projects, budgets, and communication in Smartsheet  

For the Shared Services PMO, the priority was clear: find a system that made project management easier while still respecting the organization’s need for governance and a central source of truth. Smartsheet, the intelligent work management platform, was selected as the solution. “It is streamlined, easy to use and intuitive,” says Self. Equally important was Smartsheet’s ability to coexist with ServiceNow. Through an integration built with the help of Smartsheet partner SoftwareX, project data flows seamlessly between the two platforms. ServiceNow remains the intake and system of record, while Smartsheet serves as the operational hub for planning, execution, and reporting.

Once a project request is approved in ServiceNow and cleared for resourcing, it is automatically pushed into Smartsheet. From there, the PMO uses Smartsheet Control Center to set up a standardized project workspace in minutes. Each workspace includes project schedules, budget trackers, risk and issue logs, change request workflows, and dashboards tailored to different audiences.

Budget management now lives in Smartsheet and each project manager manages their budget in a dedicated sheet that rolls up automatically into financial reports across the portfolio. 

Status reporting is another area where automated workflows in Smartsheet have improved daily work. Instead of navigating seven manual steps, project managers update a single status row. Smartsheet automatically generates and sends the status email, updates dashboards in real time, and triggers alerts if a project turns red or yellow. “That one sheet does a multitude of things. It sends alerts, feeds dashboards and flags escalations for our weekly meetings,” Self said.

Smartsheet dashboards are now a key part of project communication. Individual project dashboards provide steering committees and stakeholders with real-time visibility into milestones, budgets, risks, and change requests. Program-level dashboards roll up multiple projects for IS directors, while an enterprise portfolio dashboard gives leadership a clear view of what’s happening across an average of 93 active projects at any given time each year.

Efficiency Gains 

Since implementing Smartsheet, the PMO has seen significant efficiency gains. Across the PMO staff, Self estimates a reduction of 152 hours per week in administrative effort. Status reporting alone accounts for a substantial portion of that savings. Before Smartsheet project managers had 7 steps over 3 systems to produce and send a Status Report. With Smartsheet, updating and sending a Status Report is much easier. The project manager creates the status report whenever they want and checks a box when ready to send, automation does the rest.

“Smartsheet saves time for our project managers,” says Self. “They can also focus more on closing projects on time, which helps free them up to start the next project.”

Transforming Pharmacy Services

UMass Memorial Health also uses Smartsheet to manage its new home delivery pharmacy service. The project spans four phases over four years and requires tight coordination across construction, infrastructure, applications, and clinical systems. Multiple project managers from different departments are involved, along with 12 IS teams. The solution includes advanced automation, robotic prescription filling, and automated inventory management.
Smartsheet provides a single consolidated budget tracker to ensure spending stays on target. Risks, issues, and documentation are surfaced through a unified dashboard, giving leadership a consolidated view of the projects and immediate insight into progress and challenges.

Identifying Issues Faster and Supporting Strategic Objectives

With real-time dashboards and automated alerts, teams can intervene before small problems become major delays. “We had limited metrics before Smartsheet,” Self says. “Now we get more metrics that help us see trends, understand root causes, and take steps to solve issues. We’re catching things earlier, and more projects are staying on track. If something turns red or yellow, it’s on the dashboard. People see it and say, ‘How can I help?’ That visibility changes everything.”

Additionally, dashboards have considerably reduced meeting times. A weekly resourcing and risk meeting that once lasted an hour and a half now takes just 30 minutes, and prep time has been virtually eliminated. “The data is just there on the dashboard,” Self said. “We don’t have to pull it together manually anymore.”

Financial visibility has also improved. Finance teams can now see, in real time, how much has been spent across projects, without consolidating multiple spreadsheets. Cost center owners across IS can also track their budgets in one place and make informed decisions faster. IS Finance can also close each month faster.

“Smartsheet is a strong tool for us,” says Self. “It saves time, links everything together, makes everything consistent, and still gives our project teams flexibility.”