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Smartsheet Gets Stamp of Approval
March 03, 2015

Smartsheet Gets Stamp of Approval

Amber Bales | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Smartsheet

Smartsheet is being used in several departments within my organization.

Smartsheet has improved our state and federal lobbying compliance process. It used to be a manual process; due dates were recorded in Outlook, data from multiple lobbyists was emailed to an admin who then emailed the data to legal. The legal bills were astronomical. Now lobbyists receive update requests prior to the reporting due date via Smartsheet and submit their data directly into the system. Legal does not get involved until all of the data is received, which has saved us thousands of dollars in legal expenses.

I have also created Smartsheet for exam development; they are using it for their exam copyright tracking and candidate security issues. We are also using it to track the Board of Directors goals throughout the year.

I am now using Smartsheet to manage all of my projects instead of Microsoft Project. This includes a web redesign project with many moving parts including coordination with two external agencies. The ability to send update requests / alerts via the system has saved me hours of work not to mention my sanity. We also have the project risk / issue log stored in the Smartsheet Workspace so anyone can access it at anytime and see the status of any given risk or issue.

When a new user interacts with Smartsheet they usually say, "Wow, this is cool!" and inquire about how they can start using it for their projects as well. I think it will be adopted by many other departments within the next few years.

  • You can program Smartsheet to send you a notification whenever there is a change to a particular column (or any column) in the sheet. This is a strength because when you collaborate with others you don't have to guess if they are entering data; you know.
  • You can set Smartsheet to highlight changes made to the sheet within the last hour, day, three days, etc. You can also set it to highlight changes made since the last time you viewed the sheet. This is a strength because you no longer have to compare the original document to the one with changes to see what has changed.
  • You can create a webform for any sheet which is very impressive. The webform recipients won't ever have to look at a spreadsheet; instead they will receive a nice simple survey with questions and their data will magically populate the sheet.
  • I would love it if Smartsheet had a Basecamp component. So if there was a right rail area where we could house project documents that didn't have to be attached to a specific row. My dream is to combine Smartsheet and Basecamp!
  • It would be great if update requests could be scheduled annually.
  • It would be nice to be able to assign a task to more than one contact. Right now it only allows one at a time.
  • Smartsheet has saved us thousands of dollars a month in legal fees.
I actually use Basecamp in conjunction with Smartsheet. Smartsheet is where we store the real time project plan and Basecamp is where we have discussions that do not belong on a specific row of the sheet (as many of them don't). We also house project documents that do not belong on a specific row of the Smartsheet project plan on Basecamp. I would love it if Smartsheet had a Basecamp component so we could move to one system.
I would say do you want your project team to have real time access to the project plan? Do you want to be able to send automatic reminders?

Smartsheet Feature Ratings

Project Management
7.6
Task Management
9
Resource Management
8
Gantt Charts
8
Scheduling
7
Workflow Automation
8
Team Collaboration
10
Support for Agile Methodology
7
Support for Waterfall Methodology
7
Document Management
6
Email integration
7
Mobile Access
7
Timesheet Tracking
Not Rated
Change request and Case Management
Not Rated
Budget and Expense Management
Not Rated
Professional Services Automation ()
Not Rated

Smartsheet Support

I usually get a response within a few hours. I even followed up with a tech support specialist that I met while at the Smartsheet headquarters and he was able to help me out with another (very complex) formula.
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
No escalation required
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
Not kept informed
No - It's not necessary. Basic support is sufficient.
Yes. I had a case in which I was not able to change a user's permission level from viewer to editor for some reason and I could not figure out why so I finally emailed Smartsheet support. The problem was that I had set up a workspace so the permissions had to be changed at that level. The support tech took the time to look at my individual sheet or this may not have been discovered.
Also, a tech support specialist, Jeff, who I met at Smartsheet Academy training provided exceptional support by assisting us with a very complex formula several months after training.

Using Smartsheet

I would give it this rating because it is very intuitive; however, some of the formulas take a bit more explanation to set up and they do not always work as expected.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Familiar
None
  • Setting up alerts
  • Creating webforms
  • Sharing sheets
  • Reporting
  • Formulas
Yes, but I don't use it