Smartsheet vs. Zoho Tables

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

Incentivized

Zoho Tables has been great! I have outlined many of my descriptions in my previous answers. It works great for many things, and could do with just a bit more refinement in the ability to customize what it can turn into. However, the best part of Zoho Tables is the simplicity of its original "blank" state. With the right pre-made User-defined automations for primary zoho apps such as projects and CRM, this would become our commonly used tool as a central hub for all our operations.

• 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

Incentivized

• Seamless integration across Zoho platforms
• Highly configurable
• Easy integration with other data sources

Incentivized

• 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

Incentivized

• Ability to create subgroups in a simple fashion in the Zoho Tables. That allows for drop downs. Does not change the formatting of any cells unless specifically addressed by user. But a light column is added at the start of the table with a button to dropdown each row.
• Ability to fill a cell with color without reason or specific selection of field options, add an option for a simple color bucket fill.
• It would be great to have an efficient way of updating tasks, projects, etc all on one table easily set up by the user! (Ie. When column "Next Action" equals "Add Task to Project 1" without using deluge)
• The best pre-made automations for Zoho Tables would be with all {} being user defined selections:
• - Update {Selected Task Field} on {Task} when {Column}...
• - When {Row} on table is created or edited: Add {Column} as a Task on {Project} in {Task List} then map {Related Table Columns} to {Project Columns}

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.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

Simple to use and as a Zoho user, for over a year, I had no issues whatsoever implementing tables almost within minutes to replace Airtable and other databases that were being used as intermediaries, without the automation. Highly recommend (note: in very early stages of testing)

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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.

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!

Incentivized

Zoho Projects is great for it's intended use to track and manage projects, and the CRM is also great for it's intended use. However, when you are managing operations, everything essentially "ties" together when you are needing to make next decisions. This really comes into play for meetings, and to do lists, etc. Sometimes, all of the detail does not matter when you are trying to operate efficiently. For example, during a meeting, many times we will review KPIs (comes from CRM but in Analytics), then projects, and then general topics. At all points throughout the meeting, tasks are coming up which need to be added, etc. All range vastly resulting in a lot of different places. With Zoho Tables, I am basically working on a blank canvas of cells that can pull data from where I need it too and the more user friendly the ability to set up automations and workflows to be a central hub/home base type tool, the better it would be!

• 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.

Incentivized

• I have not had much ROI on this specific tool just yet. But I do foresee the ability to streamline a lot of our operations as we are beginning to scale.