Better project tracking for economic development: How SelectCobb moved beyond spreadsheets with Bludot

For economic development teams, project tracking has to do more than hold information. It has to support day-to-day execution, make reporting easier, and give the team a clear view of what is active, what has changed, and what needs attention next.

That is difficult to do in a spreadsheet.

For SelectCobb, a public-private partnership housed in the Cobb Chamber in Cobb County, Georgia, that challenge was becoming more obvious. The organization serves as a single point of contact for economic development in Cobb County and works with regional, state, and local partners to recruit and retain businesses, support local companies, and help build a stronger talent pipeline. On the project side, the team’s work focuses primarily on industrial and headquarters recruitment and manufacturing retention and expansion.

Before Bludot, that work was being tracked in Excel. The data was there, but the system around it was limiting. It took more manual effort to maintain, more effort to report on, and more effort to adapt to the different types of projects the team was managing.

Bludot gave SelectCobb a better way to structure that work, especially through Projects. Instead of forcing the team to manage complex economic development activity inside a spreadsheet, it gave them a system built for tracking real project workflows, preserving important context, and making the data easier to use across the organization.

Moving from spreadsheet tracking to a system built for project work

A lot of economic development teams reach the point where spreadsheets stop being good enough. They may still contain the core information, but they start to create friction around data entry, reporting, consistency, and long-term tracking.

That was the issue for SelectCobb.

“Prior to Bludot, we tracked projects in a very outdated and antiquated way on an Excel spreadsheet. While we had all of the same information and data we would input it into the spreadsheet, you were limited to only the information that is asked and the data being inputted. We would also have to manually set up each formula to generate data totals and derive metrics.” Katie Scott Troy, Economic Development Manager, SelectCobb

That quote gets to the heart of the problem. The issue was not that SelectCobb lacked discipline or project data. The issue was that the structure they were using made the work harder than it needed to be.

Bludot changed that by giving the team a project-based system that could support how economic development work actually happens. Instead of relying on a single static spreadsheet, SelectCobb now uses Projects extensively to track activity across different workstreams, timelines, and reporting needs.

Why project tracking for economic development templates made the system easier to use

One of the clearest improvements for SelectCobb has been the use of Project Templates.

For economic development teams, not every project starts from the same point or requires the same information. Recruitment work looks different from retention work. Different team members need different fields, statuses, and types depending on their role. When that structure has to be recreated manually every time, adoption slows down and consistency suffers.

Bludot helped solve that for SelectCobb by making it easier to start projects in the right format from the beginning.

“Now our team heavily utilizes the ‘Project Templates’ that are set up for each person/ role. For example, the team member that focuses mainly on recruitment will only be adding recruitment style information to create a ‘Project’. This employee now has a ‘Project Template’ that will already be formatted for recruitment project information.” Katie Scott Troy, Economic Development Manager, SelectCobb

That means the project can already be assigned correctly, carry the right status and type, and include the relevant custom data from the moment it is created. The impact is operational, not just cosmetic. It reduces the setup burden on staff and makes it much easier to enter data consistently.

“This saves time and incentivizes our team to regularly input data as it is quick, easy, and visually less overwhelming.” Katie Scott Troy, Economic Development Manager, SelectCobb

That matters. Teams are much more likely to use a system consistently when the workflow feels clear and manageable. Project Templates help SelectCobb reduce friction at the point of entry, which in turn improves the quality and reliability of the data inside the system.

They also add accountability. Because the team can see which user manually added the data, they are not relying only on who a project is assigned to when questions come up later.

Keeping the team’s existing logic instead of forcing a new one

One of the more important parts of this case study is not just that SelectCobb moved into Bludot. It is that the system was set up in a way that respected how the team already thinks about its work.

That often gets overlooked in CRM implementations. A platform may be technically flexible, but if a team has to abandon the categories, formats, and project logic it has relied on for years, the transition becomes harder than it needs to be.

SelectCobb avoided that problem.

“Our team was also able to edit and create a system of data input and tracking that we were previously used to. Being able to utilize the same language and data formats that have been in place for years, made the transition and implementation much smoother.” Katie Scott Troy, Economic Development Manager, SelectCobb

That continuity is especially important for a team that needs to break projects into categories and subcategories based on completion timelines and yearly reporting periods. A recruitment project may begin in one year, remain active, and then be won in a later year. SelectCobb needs to capture that lifecycle clearly, not flatten it into a single moment in time.

That is where Bludot’s Projects structure becomes especially useful. The team relies on Project Types, Project Data, and Custom Project Data to distinguish projects, track their progression, and present real-time information as the work moves.

“Our team heavily relies on ‘Project Types’, ‘Project Data’, and ‘Custom Project Data’, to distinguish, track, and present real time data for economic development projects that are being worked.” Katie Scott Troy, Economic Development Manager, SelectCobb

That gives SelectCobb a more practical way to manage both active work and reporting requirements without losing the internal logic that already matters to the team.

Why this matters for quarterly and yearly reporting

For SelectCobb, project tracking is tied directly to reporting. The team is responsible for reporting on current project activity quarterly and yearly, including active projects, wins, and losses.

That means the system has to support more than simple visibility. It has to support the full lifespan of a project.

“We are responsible for reporting current project activity quarterly and yearly, including the active projects, and wins and losses, therefor, being able to see the lifespan of a project is crucial to our reporting.” Katie Scott Troy, Economic Development Manager, SelectCobb

This is one of the strongest examples of why project structure matters in economic development. A team does not just need to know whether a project exists. It needs to know where it sits, how long it has been active, how it should be classified, and how it should be reported based on the organization’s process.

Bludot gives SelectCobb a way to do that in real time, rather than reconstructing the story later from spreadsheet updates and manual formulas.

The Properties module made site-related work faster

Projects are the core of SelectCobb’s use of Bludot, but the Properties module has become an important supporting piece of that workflow.

For organizations responding to RFPs or managing site-related submissions, property information often creates unnecessary drag. Teams may be pulling site details from multiple places, re-entering information for frequently submitted locations, or trying to match project activity to property data manually.

Bludot gave SelectCobb a cleaner way to manage that.

“The new ‘Properties’ module has also been crucial for making our work easier and quicker. Having a specific place to add property data and information makes RFP submittals much quicker, especially with sites that are submitted often.” Katie Scott Troy, Economic Development Manager, SelectCobb

That is already a meaningful gain, but the connection between Properties and Projects is what makes the module especially useful in this case.

“Being able to match those properties to specific projects also helps to easily view all moving parts when looking at a project.” Katie Scott Troy, Economic Development Manager, SelectCobb

That connected visibility matters in recruitment and site selection work. It helps the team see more of the context in one place instead of managing project records and property records separately.

A smoother implementation because the setup fit the team

SelectCobb’s experience also reinforces an important implementation lesson: smooth onboarding usually depends on both platform support and internal ownership.

Katie Scott Troy pointed to the role of a primary internal team member who managed implementation on SelectCobb’s side. That created a consistent path for questions, knowledge-sharing, and platform customization.

“Having this team member be the primary contact with Bludot created an easy transition and a consistent system for questions, knowledge, and customizing the platform to our needs.” Katie Scott Troy, Economic Development Manager, SelectCobb

She also emphasized the responsiveness of the Bludot team and their willingness to support improvements and updates over time. That matters because implementation does not end once data is moved over. The platform needs to continue adapting to the way the team works.

One system, multiple uses across the organization

Although Projects is the primary SelectCobb use case, the organization is using Bludot more broadly as well.

Katie Scott Troy noted that their team also uses the platform for workforce initiatives, including tracking Partners in Education partnerships, school information and needs, and business contributions. The contact organization within Bludot also helps the team manage people serving different purposes across different roles. SelectCobb is also in the process of using Bludot to track certain applications and additional BR&E support.

That broader usage shows what often happens when a platform fits the core workflow well. Once the team trusts the structure, it becomes easier to expand the system into adjacent use cases.

A better system for real economic development work

SelectCobb’s experience with Bludot is a strong example of what economic development teams need from project tracking.

They do not need a generic database. They need a system that reflects how projects move, how teams report, and how staff actually enter and use information. For SelectCobb, that has meant replacing spreadsheet-based tracking with a more structured Projects workflow, making data entry easier through templates, preserving long-standing reporting logic, and speeding up site-related work through the Properties module.

That is what made the transition valuable. Bludot did not ask the team to reshape its work around a generic tool. It gave SelectCobb a system that could better support the work they were already doing.

For economic development organizations still managing complex project activity in spreadsheets, that kind of structure can make a meaningful difference.

Want to see what this could look like for your organization? Schedule a custom demo today.