Notifications were created to help keep us on track and in the know, but as with anything in life, they can be too much of a good thing.

Being interrupted with a constant stream of notifications can often derail productivity. After a notification forces a worker to switch between tasks, it can take them about 23 minutes to get back to the task at hand, according to Harvard Business Review. It can be challenging for teams to weave through the noise and make sure they are paying attention to the key information related to their work.
​
Use these four tips to help improve your experience with automated alerts and requests from Smartsheet:
1. Personalize the Frequency
2. Add Context to Subject Lines
3. Only Include Relevant Fields
4. Choose How You Want to Receive Them
​

The short-term benefits of automating repetitive, manual workflows are well known: saving time, saving money, and increasing efficiency. But there are lesser-known, long-term benefits of automation, too, and they can have a profound and lasting effect on the success of your business.
​
Here are three ways in which automating processes can transform your business for the long haul.

1. Focus Employees on Innovation  
2. Reduce Risk
3. Make Better Decisions
​

It’s important for workers to have the opportunity to improve work processes and increase efficiency so that businesses can consistently move faster and innovate. Automation can help free workers up to focus on more valuable, high-impact tasks that help propel their teams, departments, and organizations forward.

• Automate Data Collection to Eliminate Error. 
• Automate Approvals to Move Processes Forward. 
• Automate Updates to Increase Team Throughput.

​

by Staff Writer
​

Digital transformation is touted as a leading force driving IT and business decisions. Despite the hype, it’s not delivering on the promise. In spite of surging investments, fewer than one-third of digital transformations succeed at improving a company’s performance, according to McKinsey & Company.  

Yet the effective employment of digital strategies drives key benefits and across business lines, from improved productivity that fuels innovation to better business insights  – but only if you approach digital transformation the right way.

It’s not the underlying technology that accounts for the poor performance of so many digital transformation projects. Rather, a lack of organizational readiness is a frequent culprit, including underestimating or not understanding the work and resources required, and factors such as poor data governance and executive cohesion.
​
Here are three key ways to beat the odds and achieve digital transformation success.
​

by Renee Coulombe
​

Digital transformation (DX) is an important step in a company's ability to stay competitive in today’s evolving business landscape. But what exactly is digital transformation?

Some people think digital transformation is providing the newest and most relevant technologies to their employees in order to increase productivity levels. While digital technology is a major part of digital transformation, the concept itself is more complex.
​

by Stephen Danos

Across all industries, IT departments provide the essential infrastructure for companies to operate more efficiently and effectively. They often coordinate and implement technology on a tremendous scale and ensure business continuity, from installing hardware upgrades to setting up single sign-on to improve data security.

IDC recently reported that when considering a work execution platform, IT departments add adoption criteria that move beyond cost, customer validation, and implementation time. Among these necessary checks are enterprise-grade security, scalability, long-term use, APIs and integrations, and the platform’s access to a partner ecosystem.
​

When stakeholders want to secure buy-in for new SaaS platforms, IT leaders want to outline value added, quantifiable benefits, and understand why stakeholders need the platform in the first place. However, IT teams that use Smartsheet can access several add-ons, templates, and integrations and Connectors that help improve planning, increase throughput, and streamline operations.

IT leaders can see immediate value for numerous team functions such as organizing your IT help desk, implementing software migration plans, tracking unresolved tickets, and developing new software. Smartsheet provides multiple approaches for streamlining existing IT workflows and managing projects with real-time, executive visibility. Here are seven Smartsheet solutions IT teams can use today:
​

by Katie Bouwkamp