Testimonials
"Paula has proven to be an invaluable asset to All City and the way we run our business. Her comprehensive knowledge of the Smartsheet System has been instrumental in streamlining our trade resources and data management within our company. Her professionalism, willingness to help and continual support has played a huge part in the successful collaboration between our trades and management."
– Craig, All City Bathrooms and Kitchens (Melbourne)
"Our challenge at APA was managing our internal resources in the field. We needed a transparent process to manage our projects and Smartsheet solved this. Paula created a training programme and implemented Smartsheet into our team who had varying computer skills seamlessly. She set up our reports, dashboards and helped us problem solve to ensure Smartsheet worked in our environment."
– Julie, APA Group (Brisbane)
"Supa Group Pty Ltd is a home extension company building multiple projects across greater Melbourne. We contacted Chess Consulting some 12 months ago to implement Smartsheet in order to address growth within the business.
Having been referred by a joinery supplier who had used Paula Mandile we have not been disappointed.
Paula has been attentive, pleasant and patient in implementing Smartsheet for our business. She is a genuinely nice person who is a pleasure to work with.
She also understands fully the capability of the Smartsheet Program and has been able to tailor it to our needs. She is an effective trainer and communicator which reinforces the efficient use of the program.
The transparency this has given us across the building department and the ability to flag resourcing issues and bottlenecks has been an enormous benefit. When we extend the rollout to our trades and clients the lines of communication will be clear and transparent to all stakeholders.
We are at the point now where the system is working well for us and the benefits and flexibility of the Smartsheet Program have given us confidence in our resource allocation during this difficult trading period with COVID restrictions creating bottlenecks".
- Adolfo, Building Manager, Supagroup (Melbourne)
"AnglicareSA is South Australia’s largest social services provider. Our 1,800 employees and 400 volunteers support more than 50,000 people each year through a broad range of programs and services including housing and homelessness, NDIS services, aged care, foster care, emergency assistance, financial counselling and literacy, Aboriginal services, and support for children, youth and families.
With many projects occurring within each of the program areas, we needed a project management solution that would provide a practical and consistent framework for all projects and give steering committees, project managers and teams the appropriate governance structure, transparency, collaboration, and real-time reporting.
In the past, our projects were managed using a combination of different applications, including Excel, Project, and SharePoint, with Word used to pull together periodic project status reports. This was a labour intensive and time-consuming process that did not provide a transparent, or real-time representation of what was happening across our projects.
We identified Smartsheet as the ‘right fit’ product for our needs and engaged Chess Consulting Australia to help us with the solution design, implementation, and training.
We already had a well-developed project management framework and methodology and worked with Chess to create a system solution to support our business requirements. This included a solution architecture to support our reporting/dashboard needs, and templates for: project plans, risks and issues management, budget and resource reporting, and dashboards at the project, business unit and enterprise levels.
A key success factor of our transition was training, including procedure creation, and a central PMO dashboard bringing together all key information and workspace links into one place. Chess Consulting Australia provided comprehensive and well-received Smartsheet Training, tailored around our solution for our champions and super-users – this opened our eyes to other potential uses of Smartsheet within the organisation. Chess provided a set of system procedures and documentation, and a PMO central dashboard with key process information, workspace, and training links to promote a smoother transition and to improve user adoption of the new PMO System.
Our Smartsheet Portfolio Project Management (PPM) solution now provides project information accessibility and transparency in real-time. It promotes accountability and visibility, enabling quicker problem resolution in a coordinated and collaborative manner. Our metrics and reports are accessible via dashboards, and we save a significant amount of time in the preparation of periodic project status reports.
Working with Chess has allowed us to leverage their depth of Smartsheet product knowledge and business systems experience to create an effective PMO solution that met our objectives. Their training and ongoing support has been invaluable. Consequently, AnglicareSA highly recommends Chess Consulting Australia as a Smartsheet solution partner".
- Gary, PMO Manager, Anglicare South Australia (Adelaide)
"Paula is very adaptable and thoughtful about the way she adapted the training to our specific needs. Paula was very keen for us to use the program rather than just present which was very helpful. The session was excellent and will be using Chess Consulting Australia again."
– Melanie, New Data Solutions (Melbourne)
"We have been using Smartsheet for some time, across a couple of areas of our organisation. Although it's been useful, we never felt the need to expand its use further into the organisation. Training hadn't been featured since we started using the system so we thought we should look into doing some key training. As Smartsheet is a US-based company, we felt it would be better to have face-2-face training, which could be focused on our training needs. I was thrilled to find Paula and Chess Consulting Australia, who set up a one-day session for 5 of us. I've had many hours of training during my long career, but I have to say this was one of the very best. Paula very quickly understood our individual and team training needs, she worked at a pace that suited all of us and most importantly, she introduced us to the many other options for using Smartsheet. We are now in the process of arranging for Paula to meet with our CEO, with the aim of spreading the use of Smartsheet across the organisation. We will, without doubt, ask Paula to return to provide further training. Thanks so much, Paula!"
– Kathryn, Sacred Heart Mission (Melbourne)
"I was manually updating, tracking and creating dashboards for our service reporting data until we found Smartsheet which could automate a lot of this work. Paula's tailored training helped us set up a solid foundation for our service's needs and we learnt so much more of Smartsheet's functionality along they way. I can't wait to see Smartsheet's full potential for our service be reached, knowing I can call Paula for assistance at any time."
– Sarah, Waminda Womens Health (Nowra, NSW)
"Paula is one of those people who successfully combine people skills, technical excellence and boundless motivation. I was fortunate to cross paths with her while we both working at Orygen, the National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health. Paula’s work at Orygen was invaluable. She led some very large and challenging change processes and was a key contributor to performance improvements across a wide range of products and services. She developed an amazing suite of standard operating procedures that have had a dramatic impact on the quality of our delivery. She utilises both complex quantitative data and qualitative information from small group discussions and forums. Paula managed the implementation and staff training for Smartsheet and also systematised our file management processes. She has excellent communication and interpersonal skills and is well known for her infectious enthusiasm and drive. As a consequence, Paula is an excellent facilitator and is well respected for her capacity to create mutually acceptable solutions from sometimes difficult problems. She has a high level of emotional intelligence and has a very warm personality."
– Ian, Orygen Youth Mental Health (Melbourne)
