Adobe Workfront, acquired by Adobe in late 2020, is a web-based project-management tool. It is designed for both IT and marketing teams, but can be implemented for any kind of project. Workfront offers all the features standard to project management platforms, as well as resource allocation, automation, and agile workflow.
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Smartsheet
Score 8.3 out of 10
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Smartsheet is an online project management and collaboration tool. It includes automated alerts, instantaneous updating and sharing across team members, resource management, nested tasks organized in a hierarchy, a Gantt chart view, exportable and automated reports, and integration with email.
I wasn't with this company when the buying decision was made. However, Workfront replaced Mavenlink, and what I could gather is Mavenlink was liked by users, but the owners and administrators wanted more reporting and more automation. For me, Workfront is far superior to MS …
JIRA and Clarizen were too complicated and did not offer an integrated document review and proofing system. Microsoft Project did not handle multiple small projects and resource allocation as well. Smartsheet was too limited for large teams and required too much manual work.
Far easier to use than MS Project, easier to navigate and learn, but far more complex (albeit more functionally sophisticated as well) than Smartsheet.
When I was employed at a smaller company, Basecamp and Smartsheet worked well. It's been several years, but I'm not sure they would scale to enterprise. My current company implemented Workfront prior to my arrival, but I believe everyone is generally happy with the decision. …
Adobe is very intuitive in its workflow automation and creation of the task workflows that can be used as templates for employees. That is harder to create in Teams unless there is [the] integration of another Microsoft product and more time spent on it by an IT professional. …
Workfront is more robust and versatile than Asana and Smartsheets, which is why we did not go with those tools. It is pretty comparable to Wrike in many ways. We use Workfront over Wrike because we are set up in Workfront already.
Workfront offers more features than lower cost options, allowing us to scale our business and not have to shift with each jump in headcount. it also provides more financial data support compared to simpler tools. It integrates into accounting software as well.
Workfront is one of the most expensive tools in the market but it offers a lot as well. From budget management to resource management, to support levels, reporting, usability, and even the mobile app. All of those things combined made for a great tool that was easy to use and …
They don't compare... People say that MS Project is easier to use... But where's the reporting? You can't perform resource allocation with a drag and drop, nor can you build the dynamic reports that Workfront provides. Not to mention automatically distribute those reports at …
Our previous system was home-brewed Sharepoint, mostly for note-taking and online tracking as we routed physical job jackets, scanned documents and emailed them to one another. It was fine for its time but as we expanded not just in volume but in location (offices went from NY …
Workfronts document hosting and timeline generation are two of the biggest reasons we have stuck with Workfront for so long. The visibility of project updates and communication tracking with each project is also has allowed for more effective collaboration. Workfront also has a …
Program Manager - Enterprise Information Management
Chose Adobe Workfront
Workfront is the only tool I want to use.... have used MSProject Server online, PlanView, Innotas, Clarity, SmartSheet, and a few other ridiculous tools.
Smartsheet is a unique data and project management collaboration tool that sets itself apart from its competitors. Teams have the ability to create extremely customized dashboards that have data flowing to and from multiple worksheets and workspaces. Smartsheet has the ability …
Depending on your use of the software Smartsheet may be the perfect choice for you. If you use a Mac forget about MS Project because it does not support Mac. If you need for real-time collaboration Smartsheet excels at that. Smartsheet also supports sheets way beyond project …
I was attempting to do all I've described with Google Sheets & SharePoint. Google Sheets didn't have all the functionality we needed. SharePoint was too difficult to set up and doesn't work well with Mac users. None of the solutions I listed could match Smartsheet's versatility …
Features
Adobe Workfront
Smartsheet
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Workfront
7.3
418 Ratings
5% below category average
Smartsheet
9.1
129 Ratings
17% above category average
Task Management
8.5417 Ratings
9.8126 Ratings
Resource Management
7.4375 Ratings
9.9108 Ratings
Gantt Charts
6.5330 Ratings
9.0109 Ratings
Scheduling
8.0369 Ratings
9.8111 Ratings
Workflow Automation
7.5376 Ratings
9.2100 Ratings
Team Collaboration
8.1399 Ratings
10.0122 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology
6.8271 Ratings
8.881 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology
7.2279 Ratings
9.079 Ratings
Document Management
7.3377 Ratings
9.2101 Ratings
Email integration
7.2319 Ratings
9.1100 Ratings
Mobile Access
5.7309 Ratings
8.096 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking
7.7295 Ratings
9.762 Ratings
Change request and Case Management
7.3297 Ratings
8.169 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management
7.1255 Ratings
8.175 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
Having requests for immediate work being routed directly to the team members who perform the function. Proofreading needs to happen fast and turnaround quickly while retaining visibility everywhere. Through reporting and statuses, we can show progress at every stage. A large campaign organization means multiple requests and documents going between departments. By using requests alongside related rejects, we have everything in one place.
Smartsheet shines for collaboration. When you have multiple people involved with planning events Smartsheet makes it easy to share and collaborate. For instance, multiple people can be in Smartsheet working at the same time. Also setting permissions for exactly those who need to know is quite easy with Smartsheet. For data analytics and general spreadsheet purposes Excel is better but for project management and event planning Smartsheet is superior
Its hard to overstate the value of familiarity. Being able to use a tool that has some familiarity takes away the time needed to train and orient employees on a new tool and allows an organization to hit the ground running.
Smartsheet covers most of the basics of a project management tool, the usual tasks, milestones and project viewing options.
For data viewing, you get multiple data viewing options including a calendar view (good for marketing teams and those who work around scheduling), Kanban, Gaant etc
Smartsheet set up is similar to Excel, yet when you upload an Excel file, things like conditional formatting are lost. Smartsheet has its own conditional formatting, and you have to reinstate the rules. It would be great if those would apply automatically once a file is uploaded
Some Smartsheet management and access rules can take some tweaking to work properly. This may be a case of offering more info to admins so they can apply these better and with more efficiency
Workfront is sometimes a bit clunky to use, but overall it works well for our teams when it comes to project management and collaboration across multiple, involved teams. It also has flexibility that allows us to adapt it to diverse use cases, some of which aren't necessarily always the first things that one would think of using workfront for.
It definitely meets our needs as far as organizing and archiving our tasks and files. As we train more staff to view it, I see opportunities for more improvement, which I am sure this program can handle. I look forward to seeing continued improvement from Smartsheet on their capabilities and functionality.
Workfront is overly complex, but it is functional as a tool to keep track of projects. It is a shame that sometimes it takes a lot of clicks to find anything. Workfront is slowly modernizing its interface but at the same time, hides certain information away thus making the experience feels worse.
Smartsheet is very easy to learn. However, while I have been able to pick it easily, Microsoft Excel and Project super users that I have trained on Smartsheet get bogged down in the differences and can find it frustrating. Explaining the differences ahead of time and why Smartsheet is being chosen instead of a different software seems to counteract those reactions
I have found that Adobe Workfront is a reliable resource, because in the post 6 years of using it, rarely has it been unavailable to our team. I think I could count on one hand the number of times the site has been down over my time using it with my team.
I think overall, Adobe Workfront performs well. There have been some times when it doesn't load or run as quickly as our team would like. This is frustrating when it is such a crucial tool that our team utilizes on a daily basis. It can show our workflow when it lags.
I know that this particular company has it's own Adobe Workfront employee that builds out things they need from the software, and meets with them regularly to troubleshoot. I'm not part of this process, but it's refreshing to see Adobe provide this level of customer service to people, and they're expedient.
I give this rating because it fills a niche in the market. MS Project scares many away from proper task management but there are limited tools our there, especially cloud-based that are mobile-friendly. Smartsheet fills this market gap, especially for small to medium-sized businesses. IT is not fair to compare it to MS Project, but fairer to see what gaps it fills.
The training is very easy to use and you can simply choose the topics included in the course(s) that are most important to your training needs. After each training course, you are tested on what you have learned. If you need a refresher course, they provide Course Catalogs as well as instructor-led courses & workshops.
Most people learn as you go, a lot of this stuff requires trial and error throughout so my suggestion is to provide as much information in the upfront and keep it as simple as possible. You can add other tools and features as you go but everyone should have the basics down so no bad habits can start to develop. Be persistent with everyone, and don't be afraid to correct and talk through steps again so everyone is on the same page
It's absolutely paramount to take a few minutes to actually play with the software. It's nearly impossible to do anything wrong or make a mistake which cannot be fixed easily. Under the help menu is Live Training option. After you familiarize yourself with the commands, watch the live training for some in depth understanding of how to make the software fit your needs perfectly.
Adobe Workfront blows the other systems out of the water. It just delivers more - out of the gate, and at every quarterly update. Innovation is top of mind, and meeting customers' needs is key. We have been extremely satisfied with Workfront and look forward to all the new features on the horizon, especially AI.
Jira and Redmine are much more robust and technologically advanced project management solutions. I enjoy using either when managing a very large project. However, I prefer to use Smartsheet for my smaller to medium sized projects. As for Google Drive - I would say that Google sheets and Smartsheet are almost identical in my opinion when it comes to functionality. Personally I prefer to manage smaller projects via Google Drive, but it is a personal preference!
As I stated earlier, I didn't have to pay for Workfront myself- I'm a user under a large organization. I know it's not cheap to implement, I don't know how the price scales for a small-business, but I do like the product enough that I'm going to look into it in the future for my own company.
Our organization has thousands of users that use Workfront and it seems to hold up very well. I have not encountered any issues using it and I think it makes it very easy for multiple people to be involved in a project and keep things organized and clear for everyone involved.
Resource Management - Year over year, we were able to validate time and money saved by the implementation of Workfront by more than 2%, saving in non-working dollars and 9% savings in working media dollars.
Organization Restructuring and Automation- We also restructured our teams and implemented automation based on our analysis of how and what we spend our time on and the ROI for our respective business units.