UNSW Sydney smashes silos with workflow management platform

UNSW Sydney reconfigured its internal communication and collaboration platform to improve productivity and unify external communications.

The Division of External Relations is a small team that handles all external marketing and communications for the university.

Work comes in from 6000 staff across a variety of other divisions and teams.

It had previously been using project management software from Wrike to visualise, track and report on projects, but found the implementation and use of the system was inadequate for its evolving needs.

After reviewing the division’s requirements and consulting with stakeholders, project officer Dave Rorke and production and traffic manager Nancy Peaty decided to continue using Wrike’s solutions but with a new structure and a purpose-built training program developed with the vendor.

The key to the new implementation was clarity and ease, Rorke said, which in turn improves consistency across workflows and reporting.

For teams who are initiating new work, Wrike request forms have streamlined the process.

Using required fields and dropdown options, the forms save time by gathering all the information upfront, reducing the need for back-and-forth emails to collate all the needed details for projects.

Another simplifications was a redesign of request forms with required fields, drop-down options and progressive questions to increase the accuracy of information gathering before projects begin.

Custom statuses and workflows also notify stakeholders as projects progress, saving Rorke and the team hours of administrative work keeping everyone up to speed.

Communication on the central platform had improved following the training,

“Things are a lot clearer now, which makes working across the division a lot easier and faster,” Peaty said.

“Having everyone properly trained and understanding how the system works means that we work together more effectively and deliver more efficiently.”

UNSW’s open day served as a test for the new implementation, with thousands of prospective students attending the annual event.

“Typically, it requires management from start to finish. It’s a massive project that touches every faculty member, every division, and every team within,” Rorke said.

“I am so glad that we have Wrike as opposed to having information in hundreds of spreadsheets going around thousands of emails or worse, just in people’s heads.”