Enhancing Global Surgical Missions with Smartsheet

Objective:

At Operation Smile, our mission is to bring safe, timely surgery to children in need. My role as the head of Global Information Technology is to find and implement solutions that eliminate barriers and amplify our team's ability to deliver on that promise. With medical missions in over 60 countries, we faced immense logistical hurdles that demanded a transformative approach. This case study outlines how we strategically implemented Smartsheet to revolutionize our operational framework.

The Challenge: Coordinating a Global Humanitarian Effort

The scale of Operation Smile's work is immense, involving complex coordination of volunteers, medical supplies, and mission logistics across dozens of countries. Our existing processes, while functional, created significant challenges:

• Decentralized Information: Critical data for mission planning and execution was siloed in different systems and formats across our global teams, making a unified operational view nearly impossible.
• Communication Gaps: Coordinating between international teams, volunteers, and local staff was often inefficient, leading to delays and potential misallocation of resources.
• Logistical Complexity: Managing everything from volunteer schedules to the shipment of surgical equipment required a level of precision and collaboration that our disparate systems struggled to support.

The Solution: A Centralized Command Center with Smartsheet

To address these challenges, our team partnered with Smartsheet to design and build a centralized, dynamic solution. As a key member of the implementation team, I helped architect a system that served as the digital backbone for our global missions.

The Smartsheet solution we built was designed to:

1. Centralize Global Data: We successfully consolidated essential data from 37 countries into a single, accessible platform, creating a single source of truth for all mission-related activities.
2. Streamline Communication: The platform provided unified communication channels, ensuring that every team member, from HQ planners to in-field volunteers, had the right information at the right time.
3. Enhance Team Collaboration: By providing shared visibility into tasks, timelines, and resources, the solution fostered a more collaborative and synchronized approach to mission planning and execution.

The Impact: Faster, Safer, and More Effective Missions

The implementation of Smartsheet marked a turning point for our operational efficiency and, by extension, our humanitarian impact.

• Accelerated Decision-Making: With real-time data at their fingertips, our leadership and planning teams could make faster, more informed decisions, adapting quickly to the dynamic needs of our missions.
• Optimized Mission Planning: The streamlined workflow significantly improved our ability to plan and execute medical missions, ensuring that resources and personnel were deployed with maximum effectiveness.
• Amplified Humanitarian Impact: Ultimately, this technological transformation enhanced our capacity to provide safe, timely, and well-organized surgical care to children around the world.

This project stands as a powerful testament to how thoughtful technology, when strategically implemented, can dramatically amplify the reach and impact of a humanitarian organization.

‍