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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor

    Score9 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    The Lightning Conductor is a content aggregation tool for Microsoft SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams. Users can build rich, modern content reports based upon SharePoint lists, SharePoint Search, Microsoft Graph or Microsoft 365 Groups. Content can be aggregated from lists and libraries, and other applications such as Planner, To Do, OneDrive, and Teams.

    $2,200

    per year per installation

    Podio

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/APodio is a cloud-based platform for organizing team communication, business processes, and reporting in project management workspaces; also it may be used as a light CRM platform. It enables workflow automation and integrations. It includes a free version and paid packages with additional features.

    $14

    per month per user

    Pricing
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorPodio
    Editions & Modules
    Lightning Conductor WSP
    From 1950
    per year One WFE
    Lightning Conductor Enterprise Edition
    POA
    per year Four or more WFE
    Lightning Conductor Online
    From 2200
    per year per installation
    Lightning Conductor Plus (Includes Data Viewer)
    From 2500
    per year per installation
    Lightning Conductor Online Enterprise Edition (>10,000 users)
    POA
    per year per installation
    Plus
    $14
    per month per user
    Premium
    $24
    per month per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorPodio
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsPrices stated are minimum per installation for "stock" products. $2.20 per user/year on top of base price. Enterprise editions can be amended to suit business needs if deemed necessary, additional costs incurred and TBD. All packages include free technical support. Free upgrades available to latest versions of tool as they are released. (online version)A discount is available for annual pricing.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorPodio
    Considered Both Products
    Lightning Tools
    No answer on this topic
    Progress ShareFile
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    89%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    86%
    Delivers good value for the price
    6 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    89%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    86%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    75%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    Features
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorPodio
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor and Podio
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor
    8.6
    2 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Podio
    7.7
    28 Ratings
    0% above category average
    Task Management8.82 Ratings8.026 Ratings
    Search8.42 Ratings00 Ratings
    Resource Management00 Ratings9.522 Ratings
    Gantt Charts00 Ratings2.09 Ratings
    Scheduling00 Ratings6.523 Ratings
    Workflow Automation00 Ratings10.026 Ratings
    Team Collaboration00 Ratings7.528 Ratings
    Support for Agile Methodology00 Ratings9.016 Ratings
    Support for Waterfall Methodology00 Ratings9.012 Ratings
    Document Management00 Ratings8.524 Ratings
    Email integration00 Ratings6.022 Ratings
    Mobile Access00 Ratings6.523 Ratings
    Timesheet Tracking00 Ratings7.014 Ratings
    Change request and Case Management00 Ratings9.019 Ratings
    Budget and Expense Management00 Ratings9.017 Ratings
    Professional Services Automation
    Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor and Podio
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor
    -
    Ratings
    Podio
    6.3
    14 Ratings
    20% below category average
    Quotes/estimates00 Ratings6.010 Ratings
    Invoicing00 Ratings6.010 Ratings
    Project & financial reporting00 Ratings8.010 Ratings
    Integration with accounting software00 Ratings5.07 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorPodio
    Small Businesses
    Flock
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Any.do
    Score8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Troop Messenger
    Score9.8 out of 10
    KanbanFlow
    Score7.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    Microsoft To Do
    Score7.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorPodio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    2.7
    (42 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (17 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    7.2
    (6 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorPodio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Lightning Tools
    Having experience of SharePoint On Premise and also SharePoint Online, there isn't an out of the box app/webpart that enables you to 'roll up content' from a variety of source's (in my case SP Lists, but there are many other data sources it works with) across site collections with an easy to use and intuitive interface which is what Lightning tools excels at.
    Read full review
    Progress ShareFile
    [Citrix Podios's] customer support is very quick and they provide you an option to convert your
    project into small tasks so that you can better assist your team and extract
    maximum work out of them hence I will totally recommend its usage. I could not think that keeping track of tasks could be this much easier and smart. It is a fully customizable tool that manages my tasks efficiently and deal with them effectively.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Lightning Tools
    • Aggregate documents across SharePoint site & libraries
    • Filtering for owner/person responsible & due dates
    • Ease of end-user filtering on columns
    • Color-coding & other formatting
    Read full review
    Progress ShareFile
    • Very easy for people without coding or technical skills to set up and maintain information in "Apps".
    • Platform is very easy to learn and adopt--it's intuitive.
    • Project management potential is awesome--instead of having to fit your projects into a structure that is industry specific, you can build an app that tracks what you want, in the order you want it.
    • Has a "relationship" field that allows you to relate an individual item or record to a record in another app. It effectively gives some of the functionality of a relational database.
    • Very useful for information sharing when staff members are in different regions or places.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Lightning Tools
    • Mobile Friendly
    • Calendar/Gantt views
    • Complex/Custom Logic
    Read full review
    Progress ShareFile
    • More filter options for calendars.
    • Customizable views for Relation fields.
    • Full featured Podio mobile App for iPad.
    • A customizable profile status – would love to work with Podio in silent mode (logged in while working, but "not available" for requests when in heavy work mode)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Progress ShareFile
    Podio customer service is great. The cloud and mobile service is fast (almost instant, continuous syncing). With a solid user base, and backed by Citrix, this is a serious business solution. They're also constantly working on improving and making it more powerful. I anticipate it only getting better
    Read full review
    Usability
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Progress ShareFile
    It takes a while to understand how to wield the power of 'relationship' fields and unlocking the flow of data across Podio apps and workspaces. Once the lightbulb comes on, the options and builds are effortless and limitless. Because of the unrestrained customization, you truly start with a blank slate and must endure a potentially frustrating learning curve to crack to (no)code. But once you get it, all the power is readily at your fingertips.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Progress ShareFile
    I have not experienced any down time
    Read full review
    Performance
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Progress ShareFile
    It works all the time and if I have a question, support get back to me ASAP
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Lightning Tools
    The Lightning Tools support team responds quickly, and team members are very friendly and helpful.
    Read full review
    Progress ShareFile
    Podio support was always responsive and very quick to provide answers and assistance during the history of using this product, their support team has always been top notch. There have been several cases where calling podio support a feature was not available and they provided either workaround solutions or added the features straight into their roadmap.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Progress ShareFile
    Could of got more help sooner and mapped out structure after the 1st month. Future planning
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Lightning Tools
    I haven't found another product to compare this one to. Only in SharePoint Online which has a similar App 'Highlight Webpart' ... it's far too complicated to set up and requires learning yet another language and exporting and importing via PowerShell to get any real results that would be useful.
    Read full review
    Progress ShareFile
    I have not yet found a permanent solution that meets all of our needs. We continue to use different tools across our different departments, and none of our tools really communicate with one another to our satisfaction. We remain optimistic, however, that a company will emerge that embraces an abstract, highly customizable interface and also provides exceptional customer service with an open-minded development team that does not simply say no to everything by default.
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Progress ShareFile
    As you business grows, so does Podio. There seems to be no limit to the workspace and apps you can create on the platform
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Lightning Tools
    • Policies easier to portray
    Read full review
    Progress ShareFile
    • Podio is great for task assignment and tracking. The ability to enter and assign tasks from mobile and track their completion saves me several phone calls a day.
    • Podio outdoes email as my go to place to search for information. The ability to forward emails into the system, organize by projects and contacts, and search it all saves considerable time and confusion.
    • Podio has considerable potential to reduce overall admin time spent organizing information (filing, tracking, etc) The ability to keep a single record of a given piece of information without being tied to email vs file structure works very well.
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor Screenshots

    Screenshot of MODERN SHAREPOINT LIST ROLLUP
The Lightning Conductor is a SharePoint Content Aggregator that can be configured quickly by business users. The Lightning Conductor can be used to aggregate content from SharePoint Lists such as Tasks, Document Libraries, Contact Lists, and Custom Lists making it easy to view content in one place even if it is distributed across many sites and site collections. Key data can be highlighted using conditional formatting and data-bars as shown. Content from Search and Microsoft Graph can also be aggregated with the Lightning Conductor.Screenshot of CONTENT AGGREGATION WITHIN MICROSOFT TEAMS
The Lightning Conductor Web Part can be used within Microsoft SharePoint or Microsoft Teams. Even if content is stored within SharePoint sites, it is useful to have aggregated Documents, Tasks, Announcements, Calendars or Custom Lists from multiple sites displayed in a single handy view in Microsoft Teams. The Lightning Conductor can be added as a Teams Tab in any Microsoft Teams Channel.Screenshot of BUILDING REPORTS ON MICROSOFT GRAPH
The Lightning Conductor can be used (without code) to aggregate content from Microsoft Graph as well as Search and SharePoint Lists. This example displays Microsoft Planner Plans and Microsoft Planner Tasks where users can Add new Tasks, Assign Users to Planner Tasks, Delete Tasks, and Complete Tasks. The same can be performed on Microsoft To Do items and displayed within Modern SharePoint pages or Microsoft Teams Tabs. The Lighting Conductor can also contain multiple views of content, making it ideal to display all of your tasks from SharePoint Task lists, Microsoft To Do and Microsoft Planner in a single web part or Teams Tab.

*Microsoft Graph Reports are only available for SharePoint Online and not SharePoint 2019.Screenshot of BUILDING REPORTS ON MICROSOFT 365 GROUPS
Powered by Microsoft Graph, the Microsoft 365 Group Rollup Provider enables users to aggregate content by browsing and selecting Microsoft 365 Groups. Within Microsoft 365 Groups, you’ll be able to select entities such as Drive Items, Owners, Members, Planner Plans, Planner Tasks, Events, Posts,  Sites, Lists, and Calendars.

*Microsoft Graph Reports are only available for SharePoint Online and not SharePoint 2019.Screenshot of AGGREGATING USING SEARCH
When performance is critical, search can be used for rollups. The Lightning Conductor offers three data source configurations to get to content. Object Model (Real Time Aggregation from SharePoint Lists), Microsoft Graph (Aggregation from Graph Entities such as Planner, OneDrive, Outlook), and Search. The Search Data Source enables the aggregation of content from large SharePoint lists and libraries when performance is critical. Thousands of documents can be displayed in under a second using Search.Screenshot of HIGHLIGHTING KEY BUSINESS DATA WITHIN VIEWS
End users and Site Owners can highlight the data that is important to them, the data that they need to prioritize. Using conditional formatting, data bars, and icons, conditions can be configured to highlight the data that is most important. Icons and Data Bars can be any color or size desired. Examples include highlighting High Priority tasks, Showing data bars for the completion progress of Tasks, or indicating which tasks are assigned to any particular user.