There’s a moment in every growing organization when the tools that once felt simple start to feel fragile. East River Electric, a regional power cooperative serving distribution co-ops across Eastern South Dakota and Southwest Minnesota, hit that moment when their capital work plan doubled in size and urgency.
Their old setup wasn’t equipped to efficiently handle the volume or the stakes. They needed a system built for operational pressure, not a collection of disconnected files. So, they turned to Quickbase to build something more flexible. A system that supported their teams instead of slowing them down.
Maria Anderson, Project Controller at East River Electric, joined us in our webinar “How Quickbase Customers Ditched Legacy Systems and Spreadsheets” to share how her team built a stronger, more dependable system using Quickbase.
Read on for the key takeaways from that conversation.
How East River Electric Rebuilt Its Process, One Workflow at a Time
The first process that needed streamlining what the submittal process. Previously, submittals were processed through email and at times became buried in crowded inboxes, stalling processes. This meant delays in approvals since they didn’t have a consistent, reliable way to see overdue or delayed tasks. For work tied to major capital projects, that level of uncertainty wasn’t sustainable.
East River Electric’s first Quickbase module changed everything.
Now, submittals run through a simple Quickbase form that outlines project details, assigned reviewers, and houses helpful files. From there, Quickbase automates alerts, triggers reminders, updates dashboards, and maximizes visibility. Submittals move on their own instead of waiting in someone’s inbox.
Maria and her team then optimized their workflows, adding change management, scheduling, work orders, financial tracking, and risk monitoring capabilities. Each piece was created in small steps, tested quickly, and refined as they went. Now, no one is digging through emails or guessing at final versions. Schedules, budgets, approvals, and risks all live in one aligned system.
The Quickbase Difference
It's an all-too-familiar pattern: legacy tools crack under the load of added stakeholders, more review cycles, and greater governance needs. Quickbase gave East River Electric a clearer, more dependable way to keep everything moving. The value came from a few core capabilities working together:
- AI Spreadsheet Import
Data from disparate spreadsheets became streamlined as they mapped fields and connected tables on Quickbase. - Grid Reports
Teams who prefer working in a grid didn’t need to give that up. The difference was that the data now sat in a relational structure with permissions and logic behind it. - Dashboards and Alerts
Approvals, deadlines, and priorities stayed visible. Quickbase handled the reminders, so follow-ups didn’t depend on someone remembering. - Role-Based Access
With Quickbase, stakeholders like contractors, field teams, internal project staff, and managers, see only what they need on a role-by-role basis. This way, permissions remain streamlined and easy to manage. - Integrated Risk Tracking
Risks are logged, scored, and escalated in one place. The team surfaces issues earlier and those issues aren’t buried in hard-to-locate files or email threads.
East River Electric's Quickbase dashboard includes change management, RFIs and submittals, schedule updates, and project lists, allowing them to keep track of each in a single source of truth.
The Impact: Time Saved, Costs Reduced, Work Clarified
The math tells a success story. East River Electric’s Quickbase system has delivered approximately $436,000 in annual time and efficiency gains. After factoring in their investment, they recorded roughly $165,000 in net savings.
Those gains came from:
- Faster submittal turnaround
- Less manual tracking
- Fewer project delays
- Cleaner handoffs
- Earlier risk detection
- Real-time visibility into spending and schedules
But these numbers are only part of the story. This was a team whose capital work plan had jumped from $70 million to $140 million in just a few years, without the staffing to match.
With P6 scheduling data feeding into Quickbase, staffing needs became clearer. This allowed work to move forward at a pace the organization required.
Why Teams Move from Spreadsheets to Quickbase
Many organizations start with spreadsheet-based systems because they’re familiar and easy to adopt. But as work becomes cross-functional and high stakes, spreadsheets become limited: permissions get complicated, data lives in different places, and teams rely on manual reminders to keep things moving.
Quickbase adds the structure and control that spreadsheet-based systems often lack as work ramps up.
| Spreadsheets | The Quickbase Fix |
|---|---|
| Data stuck in separate sheets | Connected, relational tables across workflows |
| Hard-to-manage permissions | Role-based permissions |
| Manual follow-ups and reminders | Automated notifications |
| Limited visibility across projects | Dashboards surfacing risks, schedules, and spend |
| Sheet sprawl and version drift | One governed system that replaces duplicate files |
| Hard to support complex workflows | Customizable apps with logic, dependencies, and automations |
It is not just a different interface. Quickbase is an upgrade built for operational complexity, high-risk projects, and cross-team collaboration.
The Next Step: Picking Tools That Scale with You
Every team eventually outgrows spreadsheets. Organizations like East River Electric need a system that can hold the full weight of their operations and that can scale with them. Quickbase keeps up when projects, people, and expectations get bigger, and when clarity is more essential than ever.
Our “From Busy Work to Better Work” webinar will walk you through this real-life example of how organizations can streamline workflows, reduce manual effort, and build processes that grow with you.
Want to hear the full story? Watch the webinar on demand here.
