Each day, thousands of commuters make their journey between central London and the Essex coast with c2c – renowned as one of the UK’s most reliable and well-liked train operators. The service runs a busy, high-frequency route between Fenchurch Street and Shoeburyness, calling at 26 stations throughout East London and South Essex. With a team of around 700 staff – including drivers, conductors, and a close-knit group at head office – c2c plays an essential part in keeping London’s commuter network moving smoothly and punctually.
The problem
At c2c, meetings play a vital role in the day-to-day running of the organisation, with around 150 different types taking place across departments such as finance, compliance, operations, and commercial. Until recently, these meetings were managed manually. Staff took notes by hand, shared updates via email, and relied on memory to keep track of decisions and assigned tasks. This often led to information becoming siloed or going missing. “We lacked a dependable, centralised system for escalating decisions or communicating outcomes back down the chain,” explains Sam Fowler, Project Management Office Lead at c2c. With no shared visibility, many people attended meetings without sufficient context, which caused delays, misunderstandings, and a lack of alignment.
However, c2c was using Smartsheet for project management with support from Cheetah Transformation. Fowler had the idea that their project management tool can also fix their meeting woes. The idea was shared with Cheetah, who quickly got the vision and worked with Fowler to begin shaping a bespoke Smartsheet solution.
“We don’t need to spend time digging through months of emails to find a particular discussion from a meeting or chase meeting participants for status updates. Those micro-frustrations used to add up and slow everyone down. Now, everything’s in one place, saving us time.”
Sam Fowler, Project Management Office Lead at c2c
The solution
The solution to too many meetings with no structure? Clearly defined meeting purposes and an automated system to track actions and escalate risks as needed. With staff buy-in and careful implementation, c2c has saved time and improved accountability.
Fowler believes that Cheetah played a key role in making the implementation a success. “I’ve loved working with Cheetah, they’re fantastic at actively listening, interpreting our vision—even when we’re not using technical language—and translating that into a functional solution,” he shares.
Silva regards this to be Cheetah’s secret sauce. “To do this job well, you need to understand how the company thinks and what they’re trying to achieve. The key is acting like an internal collaborator, not just an external vendor,” he shares. “We’ve really embedded ourselves in the team, they’ve come to see us as part of the c2c family. By now, we can already anticipate what they’re aiming for.”
Read the full story to learn how this bespoke Smartsheet solution improved c2c’s efficiency.
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