Likelihood to Recommend If you are used to using apps such as Slack, Box or Harvest, you will have an easy time getting use to Flow's UI. Drag and drop features, messaging between users, @tagging for notifications that alert you not only on your desktop but your as well email are particularly useful. If you need projects done fast and easily between multiple teams this is a great application for your business. A particular scenario where Flow is NOT suitable would be if you are used to working soley from your phone. Flows mobile app is slow, not user friendly at all and hard to navigate. Also, you cannot use a mobile site because it directs you to using the app. This IMO is a great desktop project manager, but NOT mobile.
Read full review For teams and users who are very familiar with Excel and its mode of operation, Smartsheet will feel like a walkover. If you have a number of users who use Excel or Google Sheets for their personal project management then you will find this tool to be very useful and somewhat familiar.
Teams that may be used to other project management suites or styles would find Smartsheet a bit challenging to adapt to, as formulas and formatting can be challenging to adapt to.
Read full review Pros Design: very easy to discern what is important at a glance. The UX just works; it's very well thought out. Ease of use: onboarding was a breeze. Was up and running in less than an hour. Support: in-app support is great, nice website too to find exactly the solutions we needed. Read full review The easy to use dashboard has enabled us get comprehensive view of projects across the entire business. It has streamlined internal communication with ease of sharing information across different teams. Smartsheet automates our workflows, enhances collaboration and ensures there are no data silos. I like that it saves time for us and ensures we spend less time switching between apps. Read full review Cons Better integration with Google Calendar -- it could be a bit clunky The mobile app didn't have as much functionality as one would like - you had to download two apps to access the features used on a desktop version Read full review 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 Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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.
Read full review Usability 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
Read full review Support Rating 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.
Read full review Implementation Rating 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.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Flow, unlike Trello, offers its users a more organized interface and much more complete tools to carry out project management, which is why I consider that for the management of business projects of medium or large companies this tool covers the needs of each. In addition, its ease of use makes it much easier to adapt to this tool because it does not require a very learning curve
Read full review 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!
Read full review Return on Investment Our biggest issue prior to flow was scrambling at the last minute to meet a project deadline. Flow has helped us manage tasks towards a deadline to execute more successful events and projects. Since Flow is being used across our entire organization, the speed at which we can collaborate cross-departmentally has increased. This is especially true of our communication and collaboration with our Marketing team. Flow has allowed our leadership team to be able to see the progress of a project at any time just by looking at that projects dashboard. This has both given them confidence as well as let them know when they need to intervene. Read full review This has really opened up collaboration across teams. A lot less working in silos. It hasn't fully replaced any one tool so it means having to go to another place. Hopefully, we can eliminate a tool or two in the next six months. Read full review ScreenShots