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Zalaris improves efficiency, visibility, and cohesion in its payroll services
Zalaris connects its global offices, optimises talent and operations, and gains more visibility and cohesion with Smartsheet. It also improves project setup time by 99%.
instead of two weeks to set up a project
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“Smartsheet did a great job managing the complexities of our projects. It has been essential for project governance, giving us a comprehensive view of the business and helping us assess risks and overall health."
Global Head of Zalaris Consulting
Headquartered in Norway, Zalaris delivers HR and payroll services to businesses in 34 countries. “We cover everything from core HR and payroll services to recruitment, onboarding, goal-setting, compensation, and the full employee lifecycle from hire to retirement,” shares Mike Ellis, Global Head of Zalaris Consulting at Zalaris.
Siloed operations
Historically, Zalaris operated as seven distinct business units. Each region used different software, making it difficult to consolidate information across regions and get timely, accurate updates for payroll processing.
Ellis was tasked with bringing these units under one banner and harmonising operations across the organisation. “As we take on global projects, our clients need a consistent experience,” shares Ellis. “With more cohesion, we also aim to achieve economies of scale, increase shareholder value, and improve profitability.”
Ellis had already used Smartsheet in his previous role. So, he chose it as a unified platform to streamline workflows, standardise processes, and improve collaboration globally. “We knew from experience that Smartsheet would drive efficiency and improve project control. So, we began using it locally in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region,” he shares. With help from Platinum Smartsheet partner, InfoSpark, Zalaris started its Smartsheet journey with a simple solution: a pricing estimation tool. “The tool quickly became a critical component, and from there, the project management and delivery teams started exploring what else Smartsheet had to offer,” recalls Ellis.
Matching talent with need
Shortly after, the APAC team started using Smartsheet to track team capacity. “Smartsheet Resource Management is invaluable in many ways,” shares Ellis. “For example, it recommends available people for a project. It also identifies over or underutilised individuals, allowing us to rebalance workloads and prevent burnout.” This functionality is essential for a consulting firm where employees are the biggest expense, and inefficient resource use can significantly impact the bottom line.
“Given how challenging it is to find people with the necessary skills, planning ahead is essential. Hiring contractors on short notice is expensive,” shares Ellis.
“Smartsheet lets us estimate staffing needs for the next 90 days, down to the week, by role, location, and skill.”
This enables Zalaris to enter hiring requirements into its resource management tool in real time. This gives recruiters enough time to find the right tale
Optimise operations and reporting
InfoSpark was able to quickly understand Zalaris' needs given their expertise, and translate that into an effective implementation of Smartsheet and Smartsheet Control Center as part of a comprehensive solution to streamline operations, improve governance, and ensure consistency across regions. For example, it tracks the status of all deliverables and data—like deadlines, completion percentages, and any delays—automatically rolls up into a project dashboard in real time, empowering the team to stay on track. SCC also helped automate reporting on key metrics, such as the time teams spend on customer support, and ensure Zalaris meets customer commitments.
“Smartsheet has been essential for project governance, giving us a comprehensive view of the business and helping us assess risks and overall financial health. The dashboards provide a clear, unbiased snapshot without unnecessary complexity or subjective interpretation,” shares Ellis.
“With Smartsheet Control Center, instead of just looking at profits and losses, we can monitor if we’re delivering what we promised in our sales estimates, with a strong focus on how well we’re using our resources.”
Flexible solution, widespread adoption
To facilitate adoption across its global offices, Zalaris decided to adapt Smartsheet to different scenarios. “For example, Smartsheet Control Center enables project managers to create project plans and reports in the local language and roll them up into a global portfolio managed in English,” shares Ellis. Smartsheet has also accommodated different project management methodologies. “While some modules follow a waterfall approach, others are more agile,” shares Ellis. “Smartsheet Control Center allows us to set up projects of varying simplicity depending on need while still maintaining standardisation across the board. It’s quite powerful.”
Thanks to this effort, Smartsheet solutions were adopted by Zalaris teams across the globe. “The larger part of our business took notice of the benefits we achieved and followed suit,” shares Ellis. “The increase in our licensing in the past 12 months is a good indicator. You can also see it in the smiles on people’s faces.” According to Ellis, InfoSpark was instrumental in helping the company adopt Smartsheet globally. “InfoSpark quickly grasped what we were trying to achieve and translated that vision into reality,” Ellis adds.
Seamless data centre migration for compliance and scalability
As Zalaris expanded its use of Smartsheet beyond the APAC region, the company needed to ensure compliance with strict European data regulations. To meet GDPR requirements and strengthen data sovereignty, Zalaris migrated from Smartsheet’s US data centre to the EU data centre—a critical move to align with industry standards and maintain full control over data access.
Smartsheet experts from both Zalaris and InfoSpark worked closely together to formulate a plan to deliver a modernisation of the Smartsheet solutions whilst, ensuring a smooth migration to Europe. The execution featured a heavy use of automated tools, planning flexibility and diligent quality assurance processes; enabling Zalaris to maintain business continuity while unlocking new capabilities. The transition also allowed the company to activate Smartsheet Control Center, further standardising project management and reporting processes across its global operations. By making this strategic shift, Zalaris ensured it could fully leverage Smartsheet’s capabilities while adhering to regulatory requirements.
A real-time, complete picture
Today, Smartsheet provides all regional Zalaris offices with a unified solution, offering real-time visibility that empowers teams to make informed, accurate business decisions. “Previously, reporting was largely manual. Managing resources effectively, estimating employee capacity, or generating meaningful processes were all pain points,” shares Ellis.
“Today, we conduct weekly project, regional, and global reviews with live dashboards. I can drill into any project and assess risks and issues. Regional teams have dashboards integrated into their Microsoft Teams groups, letting them see what they’re working on for the next 90 days. It’s a game-changer.”
“We’ve witnessed improved collaboration among teams,” shares Ellis. Standardised processes, pre-built templates, and reporting maturity also bring more cohesion and even make it easier to onboard new team members. “The system guides our employees through the specific steps required to manage one of our projects,” Ellis adds.
99% more efficiency in project setup time
But the most important benefit has been improved efficiency and time savings in project management. “Before, it could take one to two weeks to get a project fully set up and hand it off to the customer. With Smartsheet Control Center, we can do that in under 30 minutes—or 99% faster. We just need to update the logo, set the start date, tweak the project plan, and the workspace is ready to go,” shares Ellis.
Zalaris has big plans ahead. “We want to integrate the Resource Management solution with our HR and timesheet systems. This will give us complete visibility of our workforce,” shares Ellis. He is excited about future Smartsheet features. “I’m looking forward to the use of AI to assist with formulas. Resource Manager also has so much potential,” concludes Ellis.
“I’m a big Smartsheet advocate. It’s a great solution, and I’d recommend it to anyone. It’s my tool of choice.”