How Rindle Helped Ability Now Bay Area create a more efficient project management process.

When Alva Gardner started as the Small Business Vocational Coordinator for Ability Now Bay Area, keeping track of the work her staff was doing to support entrepreneurs in the Small Business Development Center wasn’t easy. There was no system in place to track who was working on what.

Before I was hired and implemented Rindle, there wasn’t a central system or way of tracking what all 13 people were working on at the same time.

Staff either had a written to-do list that they were working from or they had it in their head. It made it difficult to streamline processes. It was chaotic. If any one person was sick or on vacation, it brought most things to a screeching halt. The rest of us didn’t know what each person was working on.

Staff were used to working a certain way and, as a result, Alva’s first attempt to get a project management solution in place didn’t work.

Because I was always putting everything into LiquidPlanner myself, people didn’t see when I updated their to-do lists. They weren’t engaged in the process. Sometimes, they didn’t log into it all week.

Because of the unique requirements of the people they work with, Alva and her team also had to be able to account for specific needs that went along with each individual entrepreneur.

We work with people with disabilities and help them develop and structure their businesses in a way that works for them in their current living-logistics reality.

It was chaotic. If any one person was sick or on vacation, it brought most things to a screeching halt. The rest of us didn’t know what each person was working on.

After their attempts to use LiquidPlanner didn’t work out, discovering Rindle was like a dream. Everything about the platform was perfect for Alva, especially the service she received.

Rindle made the process so easy. They did the imports for me and took care of a lot of the heavy lifting. They also took the time to talk with me about the work we do and brainstorm ways to effectively utilize Rindle.

For Alva, the fact that Rindle was willing to spend so much time helping her set up and personalize the system to fit her organization’s specific needs made a big difference.

We’re a small non-profit. The Small Business Development Center has only six staff. To have somebody who took that much time and that much genuine care and effort on such a small account for them was just really incredible.

Because Alva had such great help getting Rindle set up, she was able to quickly get her team excited and onboard about using Rindle.

I did a demo to my team and showed them the basic ins and outs of Rindle. Right after that, they were off using it. And it’s so intuitive that no one has had any significant questions about how to use it.

Alva and her team are also able to use Rindle to tailor every solution to the entrepreneurs they are working with.

We use Rindle to help the participants we work with. We help them track what they’re working on in their businesses, and being able to tag tasks with things like ‘Benefits’ or ‘Has attendant needs’ makes that so much easier. For example, when we create a task that says,‘This person needs to go to the Social Security office to report their business income,’ we are able to apply a custom tag that indicates, ‘This is benefits related.

Rindle made the process so easy. They did the imports for me and took care of a lot of the heavy lifting.

Almost immediately, Alva has noticed the difference. Her staff embraces Rindle, and user engagement has skyrocketed by 80%.

The biggest change I saw when we implemented Rindle is the number of times that my coworkers have been talking to me and say, ‘We’ve gotten this much done. This still needs to happen, but I’ve already put it into Rindle.’ I’m amazed, honestly, every time I get that response. That was never the case before Rindle.

Alva now has a complete view of what her team is doing without having to chase them around.

People are using it. That’s the biggest thing. They’re actually taking the time to put upcoming tasks into Rindle. They’re taking the time to assign it to the correct team member, so we have a running list of what needs to be done when that person is out or is doing something else.

Her people are using Rindle without being prompted and they are able to get the customization they need.

With Rindle, we got all the features we needed and they offered us a nonprofit discount, which LiquidPlanner did not. So, with the discount, we got unlimited users and unlimited customization and unlimited storage. It was a no-brainer to make the switch.

The level to which Alva’s team adopted Rindle has made her job as the project manager at Ability Now Bay Area more efficient than ever. By her estimate, Rindle has helped boost team efficiency by up to 40%.

Rather than waiting for her to input things, the way they used to, her team is taking control. They are entering tasks as they arise when they are working with entrepreneurs.

I’m the main project management person. I really manage Rindle, but the number of times my coworkers have said, We finished these six things. Now, we’re working on these four tasks. It’s all updated in Rindle. I hear that at least four times a week now.

People are using it. That’s the biggest thing. They’re actually taking the time to put the upcoming tasks into Rindle.