Smartsheet

It does help us track projects and the alerts we've set up help keep users aware of deadlines. So for that, Smartsheet works well. We've found a workaround for the one area we've paid extra for--the reporting--that is deficient. The biggest selling point is its approachability: anyone that is familiar with a spreadsheet application should be able to intuitively understand how SmartSheet basically works. That at least removes the biggest obstacle for a project management solution being ignored: the difficulty of use.

Puntos a favor

SmartSheet allows individuals and teams to work projects together, plotting milestones and critical paths, tracking tasks, creating alerts, and using gantt charts to quickly view how various team members are allocated and intersect. It does a good job of integrating with Office 365, allowing you to share links to files in OneDrive and to Skype within SmartSheet. The revamped interface makes it closer to working in Excel, which is the really the whole premise to Smartsheet: providing a familiar spreadsheet interface for working projects. To that end, there is a wealth of functionality for formatting cells to indicate project stages, task completion, etc. You can even apply conditional logic to have cells change color when a task reaches a certain stage. There are good controls for determining levels of access, so you prevent changes to your sheet except by authorized persons. Overall, it's a good tool for managing projects.

Puntos en contra

The reporting functionality we paid extra for is a joke. Instead, we've resorted to pulling data into Microsoft's Power BI to create reports and visualize data. And like many other Cloud-based services, there's a core product and then tiers of functionality that cost significantly more. Smartsheet is a capable product, but I'm frankly unsure it's cost is justified by its maturity. I've had the feeling I've been paying for what's coming, not for what's already there. But since we've invested in it, I guess we'll stay the course.

Project management is a very important part of any Business operation and as such, its important to explore options. Smartsheet appeals to us because we have a strong background with Microsoft Excel and adopting it has been easy.

Our goal is finding a project management solution that works for our teams and ensuring that they actually use it. While everyone has their personal preference, SmartSheet was a better fit as a lot of our teams already use Excel extensively.

Puntos a favor

SmartSheet is a good project management tool that has an interface similar to Excel.
Pros:

1. Multiple Project Views - Project managers will appreciate the multiple viewing options such as Gannt and Kanban, standard spreadsheet and even a calendar view. Many options for different managers.

2. If Spreadsheets are your thing, SmartSheet is worth a try - If you and your team use spreadsheets a lot, you may appreciate that SmartSheet is based off the concept of spreadsheets, you can adopt and add different sheets for a variety of projects. So whether basic or advanced, a host of users can easily adapt to Smartsheet if they know how to use a spreadsheet, even to the point of adding formulas and formatting of cells. This is a huge selling point which makes SmartSheet a good option.

3. As Good as Project Management tools get - As a project management tool Smartsheet covers the basics. You get milestones, task management, comments, collaboration and project management and as mentioned before the view options.

4. You can add collaborators to a project for free - A good thing is that you can add multiple “users” to access Smartsheets without paying extra. If you do need to give them more privileges, there are options to set them up.

5. Support for Smartsheet is stellar - There is a thriving community of users and help guides and videos if you ever find yourself stuck and not sure what to do.

6. Smartsheet also integrates well with Microsoft Office 365.

Puntos en contra

There is not a lot to gripe about SmartSheets other than on occasion, the app can lag or suffer an error and finding what error it is and how to fix it can be a little frustrating.

There is a limitation with exporting reports. If you want to display data in a visual way, you may need to manually extract the data and then add it into another application. If the reports feature could be improved and maybe export in a usable format it would be a solid winner.

My overall experience with Smartsheet has been exceedingly positive. I particularly find the project management tool with Gantt charts very useful and they have helped me bring significant projects to completion. They have many useful templates such as task lists, forms, sales pipeline, and project management or you can easily create your own. I often pin photographs and logos to various rows. There is an important reminder function which I utilize heavily and the ability to share this application from teammates and ask for updates greatly facilitates collaboration

Puntos a favor

Smartsheet is very intuitive to use. Anyone familiar with spreadsheets can get up and running immediately. The ability to pin documents and URLs and comments to any row is an important productivity feature because it makes information easily available when you want it. While in Business School we used a number of collaboration software products to work on projects with our teammates but when I was introduced me to smartsheets I decided that that was the tool for our company and I'm glad I did.

Puntos en contra

I have experienced no cons with this project.

I work for a small construction company who used to keep all their information "in their heads, or on the back of a fag packet"!!! This has revolutionised the way they work and not only stopped them from forgetting things but also given them the ability to look at live costs and income.

They now have a dashboard to see the 'big picture', individual Reports to show their own specific projects, an automated transfer of information to accounts when they mark a job as complete, reminders, comments so they can stay up to date with any info added by other people, and so many other little 'life hacks' that make their lives easier.

Smartsheet has changed the way we all work immeasurably for the better. I couldn't recommend it more highly.

Puntos a favor

I love the Smartsheet Community who will help you find ways to adapt Smartsheet to suit each individual need you may have. I've been using the software for years and every time I've wanted to use it for something new we've found a way! Sometimes there have been delays due to the capacity not being there YET, but it's easy to submit a Product Enhancement Request.

There are updates and innovations ALL THE TIME and while they're not shoved down your throat, there's plenty of support out there if you want it, not only from the Community but also videos and webinars (live or recorded). If you've got the motivation and imagination then I think the possibilities are unlimited, without needing to be a programmer or have any coding knowledge.

Puntos en contra

There's not much I can say that's bad about Smartsheet. I find it slightly difficult that it's very US based and I'm in the UK, but that's true of most comparable software.

I'm also not keen on the Learning Centre as it sometimes assumes a level of knowledge that is beyond me and I find it incomprehensible! It's not a problem though as I can easily turn to the Community!

One of my team members was able to create a content calendar for a broad editorial group within the platform and it worked great and had excellent adoption from a cross-functional team. Vet it carefully for your particular needs before making an investment -- SS has a lot to offer for the right projects.

Puntos a favor

SmartSheet provides a lot of great features: easy-to-use "card view", quick Gantt charts and easy entry of tasks. I really like the simplicity of the tool as it feels very much like Excel at first blush. The two levels of access -- one for power users and one for light editors -- helps keep the tool in a very affordable price range. I absolutely love the ability to create a web intake form within minutes that can be published live for use without a login to the system. The form is highly configurable and is a great way to grab structured feedback or details from individuals.

Puntos en contra

SmartSheet is not a fantastic project management tool for software development. While the web-based intake form is decent for reporting bugs and it is a relatively simplistic tool, tracking items from beginning to end and creating validation loops should be easy but is not. Granted, we were using the tool for something it wasn't technically designed for, but much of the functionality is available within the platform for "light" development teams. Unfortunately, the implementation of specific task-driven items simply wasn't where it needed to be.