Automating Acuity: A New Model for High-Volume Project Management

Alison White, Director and Co-Owner @ Acuity Research & Practice

100+ hours saved
per month
~90% automation
of project tasks across all initiatives
503 projects automated
with one SmartSuite solution
“Before SmartSuite, we were running Hive and duplicating everything. Now, I pick a date, press a button, and 244 tasks generate automatically. It’s finally working the way it should.”
Alison White, Director @ Acuity

Problem

Operational Complexity Stalling Scalable Growth

Acuity, a professional services firm managing over 500 active projects and 230 clients, was held back by fragmented systems and high operational overhead. The team split its project management between Hive—used for recurring fieldwork tasks—and SmartSuite, which handled contract-related workflows. This dual-platform approach led to redundant data entry, delayed updates, and bottlenecks in communication across departments. Teams found themselves duplicating effort and struggling to maintain consistency between systems.

With each client engagement generating between 16 and 20 monthly or quarterly deliverables, the sheer volume of tasks quickly became difficult to track and manage. Manual coordination couldn’t keep pace with their scale or service expectations.

To sustain growth and increase operational efficiency, Acuity needed a unified, scalable platform that could automate recurring complexity, eliminate redundancies, and bring clarity to cross-functional workflows.

Q1

Solution

Automating Project Delivery with a Unified Workflow Engine

Acuity collaborated with an external consultant to develop a fully customized SmartSuite solution named “New Hive.” This system centralized all project data and enabled task generation and dependencies through a single automated workflow.

Using a prerequisite junction table with over 500 preconfigured task rules, task sets could be generated automatically from a master trigger. Instead of manually entering each dependency and date, project managers now initiate full workflows by inputting a single start date.

SmartSuite dashboards were configured to act as user portals, limiting end-user access to curated views and task lists. Timesheet logging and workload tracking were embedded into the task management system, ensuring better accountability and data capture across departments.

Q2

Results

Smarter Systems, Leaner Operations, Stronger Visibility

Acuity fully transitioned off Hive, centralizing project and contract management into SmartSuite. The new solution automated the creation of all project tasks across over 500 active initiatives, significantly improving team efficiency and data reliability.

The automation eliminated manual setup, reduced cross-platform switching, and empowered the operations team with dashboards tailored to each department. Backend optimizations also reduced the volume of API calls required—an essential adjustment given their license constraints.

This transformation not only improved internal workflows but also enabled Alison’s team to scale operations without growing overhead. The shift to SmartSuite unlocked a single source of truth for project data, set the foundation for future system integrations, and gave leadership visibility into task progress and time tracking.

Download Customer Story PDF
Solutions used

Company Name

Acuity

Industry

Professional Services

Team

Operations, Project Management, Client Services, Leadership

Region

Europe

Company size

Small Business

Pain point

Poor inventory tracking and inefficient process management.

Products replaced

Hive, Excel

About the company

Acuity (arap.co.uk) is a UK-based research and consultancy firm specializing in the social housing sector. With over 26 years of experience, Acuity has conducted more than 3,500 surveys, interviewing over 1 million residents. They offer services such as resident satisfaction surveys, benchmarking, and consultancy to help housing providers improve their services.

Website

http://arap.co.uk

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