Our Solution

NSD selected monday.com as its time and resource management platform and partnered with Sphere to design and implement a solution tailored to their internal IT workflows.

Sphere began by deeply understanding how work flowed through the organization – from project request to execution, time tracking, and reporting. The discovery phase revealed patterns in how requests originated, how priorities were set, and where information was lost or duplicated as work moved from business stakeholders to the IT team and back.

The solution focused on three core areas:

1. Project Intake & Governance

A structured project intake process was built in monday.com to replace the informal request channels that had evolved over time. Incoming requests from Salesforce were integrated directly into monday.com, carrying with them the business context, requester information, and initial priority markers that had previously been communicated through email or verbal conversation.

Authorization and gatekeeping workflows ensured only approved projects moved forward. Each request passed through defined review stages where the Director of IT could evaluate scope, assign initial effort estimates, and determine whether the work aligned with current capacity and strategic priorities. Clear project statuses provided visibility into intake, approval, and execution stages, making it possible for anyone in the organization to understand where a request stood without needing to ask.

The intake structure also created a shared language for categorizing work. Enhancement requests, bug fixes, infrastructure projects, and support escalations each followed their own pathways, with appropriate review gates and approval thresholds built into the flow.

2. Resource & Time Management

Projects were broken down into tasks and assigned to specific IT resources based on skill requirements, current workload, and project timelines. This breakdown happened in the same system where engineers would track their progress, eliminating the translation step between planning and execution.

Engineers logged time directly in monday.com against the tasks they were working on. Time entries connected immediately to projects, which connected to business requests, creating a complete chain of accountability from hours worked back to business value delivered. Resource allocation and capacity were visible in real time through dashboard views that showed who was working on what, how much capacity remained, and where bottlenecks were forming.

Automated rules ensured time entries were completed on schedule. Engineers received reminders when time hadn’t been logged, and managers could see completion rates across the team. The Friday timesheet deadline became enforceable through automation, removing the need for manual follow-up.

The system also enabled forward-looking resource planning. The Director of IT could model scenarios, see the impact of adding new projects to the queue, and make capacity-based commitments to stakeholders with confidence in the underlying data.

3. Salesforce ↔ monday.com Integration

Salesforce was integrated with monday.com to eliminate duplicate data entry and ensure both systems remained synchronized as work progressed. Project requests submitted in Salesforce appeared automatically in monday.com with all relevant fields mapped and ready for IT review. Updates made in monday.com flowed back to Salesforce, keeping business stakeholders informed without requiring separate status communications.

monday.com became the operational system of record for execution, while Salesforce remained the system of engagement where business users initiated and tracked their requests. This division of responsibility meant each system could be optimized for its primary purpose without forcing users to work in unfamiliar environments.

The integration also closed the feedback loop. When engineers marked tasks complete, when projects moved to testing, or when deployments went live, those milestones were reflected in Salesforce automatically. Business stakeholders gained visibility into IT execution without needing access to monday.com or requiring separate status meetings.

The flexibility and customization capabilities of monday.com allowed Sphere to configure workflows that matched NSD’s actual processes rather than forcing the organization into rigid, off-the-shelf templates. Custom fields captured NSD-specific information. Automations reflected NSD’s governance requirements. Dashboards surfaced the metrics leadership cared about most. The platform adapted to the organization, not the other way around.

Implementation and Rollout

Sphere worked closely with the Director of IT to configure the system, test workflows with real requests, and refine the structure based on feedback from the team. Engineers were trained on the new time logging process and shown how their daily work connected to broader project visibility. The transition from spreadsheets to monday.com happened incrementally, with historical data migrated where it added value and legacy processes retired as the new system proved itself.

The rollout included clear documentation, hands-on training sessions, and a support structure for questions during the first few weeks. Adoption was tracked, and adjustments were made based on how people actually used the system rather than how it was designed to be used.