By Casey Hollins, Rappahannock Electric Cooperative

When Rappahannock Electric Cooperative’s (REC) communication staff expanded its team to include vendors, contractors and interns, they needed an efficient way to share files, review documents and have electronic conversations all in one convenient location. Introducing Trello!

“Email became cumbersome and overwhelming to manage as we began working with new contractors and interns,” said Casey Hollins, communications specialist at REC. “When we found Trello it helped us streamline projects, improve communications and increase efficiency.”

Trello is a web-based project management application and collaboration tool. In one glance Trello tells you what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where something is in the process.

Imagine a white board, filled with lists of sticky notes, with each note as a task for you and your team. Now imagine that each of those sticky notes has photos, attachments from other data sources, documents, and a place to comment and collaborate with your teammates. Now imagine that you can take that whiteboard anywhere you go on your smartphone, and can access it from any computer through the web. That's Trello!

“At first the biggest timesaver for us was reducing the amount of time spent in our email inbox,” said Hollins. “I didn’t have to sort by subject line, search for the right sender, or try to remember when the last email was received. Every conversation about our projects were located in one place, including feedback, change requests and final approvals.”

REC organizes it’s Trello account by team. At REC those teams might be a graphic design contractor, a creative communications firm, or a student intern. Each team has a series of boards that are active projects. Within each board are specific assignments, drafts, feedback, design elements, checklists and more.

Try Trello for free or with a subscription plan. Check it out to see how your team could benefit from using Trello.