Fortune 10 Technology Company Transforms Project Intake Across 2,500+ Projects and 19 Partner Teams

The Challenge | Managing 2,500+ Siloed Construction Projects

The client relied on an internal intake tool to manage thousands of global data center construction projects. However, the rigid system could no longer adapt to changing business priorities, evolving project requirements, or the scale of the organization’s portfolio.

System updates often took nine to 12 months, forcing teams to work with outdated scopes, incomplete information, and stale strategic inputs. Project managers invested significant time scoping, budgeting, and scheduling initiatives that no longer aligned with current needs. In some cases, projects moved into execution only to be canceled after substantial time and budget had already been committed.

Across more than 2,500 active projects, 1,000 users, and 19 partner teams, the platform lacked a consistent framework for grouping, evaluating, and prioritizing requests. Different standards, submission processes, and timelines created conflicting information, delayed approvals, and coordination challenges across the organization.

The tool also supported only a single level of project detail. Multi-phase initiatives—including scoping, funding, design, and construction—had to be submitted as separate requests. This fragmented related work and created duplication, confusion, and extensive rework at scale.

Off-the-shelf solutions could not provide the flexibility or granularity the organization required. Continuing with the legacy platform would have left the client dependent on a slow, manual intake process with limited scalability and insufficient visibility for confident, portfolio-level decision-making.

Our Solution | Custom Project Intake Application with Real-Time Portfolio Reporting

Quandary delivered a custom Quickbase application that gave the client a faster, more flexible way to manage intake across thousands of complex, high-value construction projects.

The low-code solution replaced the client’s rigid legacy tool with an adaptable platform that could be updated in days instead of months. It centralized intake data from more than 1,000 users and 2,500 projects, creating a consistent framework for evaluating requests, coordinating partner teams, and making portfolio-level decisions.

Related project phases—including scoping, funding, design, and construction—could now be grouped under a single intake record while progressing through distinct workflows. This reduced duplicate submissions, clarified ownership, and supported more coordinated strategic approvals.

Quandary also introduced centralized grouping across campuses, enabling multi-site programs to be managed as unified initiatives. Portfolio managers gained clearer visibility into workloads, overlapping schedules, project dependencies, and competing priorities across the organization.

Because the application was built in Quickbase, business teams could adapt intake rules and workflows without relying on lengthy IT development cycles. This allowed the organization to respond quickly to changing partner requirements, budgets, and planning priorities.

Key Features

Structured project intake: Converted incomplete requests into clearly defined projects with documented scope, cost, schedule, value, and ownership.
Role-based approvals: Assigned primary approvers, backup reviewers, and exception paths to accelerate decisions and strengthen accountability.
Interactive scheduling: Used Gantt-based timelines to provide real-time visibility into milestones, dependencies, resource constraints, and scheduling conflicts.
Requirements-based prioritization: Captured project scope, budget, strategic value, and business requirements to support more informed portfolio decisions.
Partner scope controls: Allowed partner teams to decline or redirect misaligned requests, helping them remain focused on high-priority work.
Multi-phase project management: Connected related phases under a single intake while preserving separate workflows, timelines, and approvals.
Campus and program grouping: Unified related projects across sites to improve coordination and portfolio-level reporting.
End-to-end action tracking: Recorded every intake activity from initial request through final approval, increasing transparency across all 19 partner teams.

Our Process | Rapid Development with Weekly User Testing

The client had already identified the core challenges and established a clear vision for the future intake process. Quandary was engaged to translate that vision into a scalable Quickbase application and validate the process design against real-world operational requirements.

We began with a focused discovery phase to assess existing workflows, data structures, approval paths, and reporting requirements. From there, we worked alongside the client’s stakeholders to design a unified intake process that reflected how projects were evaluated, prioritized, and delivered across the organization.

Key Steps

Designed a partner-first approval model: Captured strategic alignment and partner input before teams invested time developing project scopes, schedules, and budgets.
Unified global program workflows: Enabled multi-campus initiatives to move through intake as coordinated programs instead of dozens of disconnected submissions.
Developed through weekly sprints: Built and refined the Quickbase application through structured checkpoints, continuous feedback, and rapid iteration.
Validated directly with users: Tested each iteration with end users to identify friction, confirm requirements, and improve usability before launch.
Supported organization-wide adoption: Trained teams across regions to promote consistent processes and successful adoption among all 19 partner groups.

By launch, users were already familiar with the platform and prepared to scale it across the organization. Quandary also collaborated closely with the Quickbase ecosystem throughout development, ensuring the solution followed platform best practices and aligned with Quickbase’s long-term product roadmap.

The Roadblocks | Delivering a Production-Ready Platform in Weeks

The client’s teams used the waterfall approach for application development. Shifting to an agile process required new rhythms of collaboration, faster feedback cycles, and greater involvement from stakeholders across the organization.

The timeline was tight. They needed to replace their legacy intake tool quickly to avoid further misalignment on project approvals. We delivered a working solution within weeks, not months.

The bigger challenge was scale. The Intake Team served 19 partner organizations, each with its own workflows, priorities, and expectations. To drive adoption, we worked with the organization to gather feedback daily and build it directly into the evolving application.

The rollout also introduced structural change. Teams had to rethink how they scoped and prioritized work to stay within budget. The new approval process shifted decisions earlier in the cycle, which created friction. We coached team leads through the transition and reinforced the value of the new model.

The Toolstack

Quickbase

The application was built in Quickbase, selected for its flexibility, scalability, and support for complex approval logic across thousands of projects. Quickbase’s low-code environment allowed us to build modular workflows, adapt quickly to team feedback, and deliver working functionality in days (not months).

Google Workspace

Google Workspace provided the collaborative foundation for project communication, documentation, and stakeholder coordination across teams and regions. Its cloud-based tools enabled users to share information, gather feedback, and collaborate in real time, helping Quandary accelerate decision-making, support rapid development cycles, and maintain alignment throughout the project.

The Results | Intake Updates Reduced from 9–12 Months to Days

The new system reduced intake updates from months to days—or, in some cases, minutes. Standardized approval criteria accelerated decision-making, reduced unnecessary rework, and kept teams focused on projects aligned with current business priorities. The client also gained a scalable platform that business users could adapt without ongoing developer support.

Teams now have real-time visibility into scope, ownership, budgets, timelines, and approval status across more than 2,500 active construction projects. Related project phases can be tracked within a unified structure, reducing duplicate submissions and improving coordination across programs, campuses, and partner organizations.

Most importantly, project decisions now occur earlier and with greater context. Instead of investing time and resources in detailed scoping before confirming strategic alignment, teams can evaluate each request against business priorities before committing budgets or schedules.

This transformation helped the client regain control of its global construction portfolio and established a more agile, transparent, and accountable planning process across 19 partner teams.

Key Results

Reduced system update cycles from 9–12 months to days or minutes.
Enabled project-level visibility across more than 2,500 active initiatives.
Reduced rework by advancing only strategically aligned projects into detailed scoping.
Improved portfolio visibility for global leaders and partner teams.
Accelerated approvals through standardized criteria and earlier stakeholder alignment.
Increased accountability with phase-level tracking and comprehensive audit trails.
Enabled business teams to update intake workflows without developer support.

What’s Next | Continuous Optimization and Expansion

With the new intake platform in place, the client continues to strengthen how it plans, prioritizes, approves, and manages global construction initiatives. Current efforts focus on refining prioritization criteria, streamlining partner workflows, and expanding adoption across additional teams and programs.

Quandary remains engaged to support the platform’s continued evolution through technical enhancements, process optimization, and strategic advisory services. As the client’s global data center portfolio grows, the solution can adapt to new requirements while maintaining consistency, visibility, and control across the project intake lifecycle.

Client Overview:

The client is a U.S.-based multinational technology company specializing in cloud infrastructure, digital services, and consumer electronics. Its project planning team oversees large-scale construction programs across a global portfolio of data centers. Quandary partnered with the organization to modernize its project intake and portfolio management processes.

Industry: Internet Content & Information Software & Services

Location: Global

Size: 190,000+ Employees Worldwide