The Product Name Says it All!
December 18, 2018
The Product Name Says it All!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Smartsheet
We primarily use SmartSheet at my company for managing internal projects (we use different software for external project management). It's very useful for the simple capture of project requirements (and for later reference) and tracking tasks. We also use SmartSheet for collecting requests from stakeholders using the form function which is very handy since it can populate straight into the sheet. Then, we use some Gantt type functions for managing the timelines of the project tasks and who owns. We have also used SmartSheet joined to our Business Insights tool as a way to capture reference data needed in a dataset otherwise connected to a production system, e.g., adding notes to priority orders. Pretty neat!
- The Form is a great feature. It allows sheet managers to create a simple user interface for capturing data from other users that you may not want to have access to the full sheet. It's also just a simple way for inputting data without distractions if the sheet is complex. I have used the form myself many times where it was the least distracting method to input data for many rows.
- Smartsheet's pre-built templates make a great starting point for many different applications of the tool. I have used the project management template many times and it makes setup of simple to complex projects with goals and timelines much easier, allowing easy flipping between sheet view, Gantt view or calendar view to track project tasks and milestones.
- Frequent improvements, with easy-to-follow notifications highlighting the improvements! It's great to see a product that gets regular updates to improve functionality and user experience. Even better when a company includes simple, helpful communications about those updates. I think Smartsheet does a great job of both. I regularly see a tutorial popup when logging into Smartsheet to highlight some new features, which is easily dismissed if I want to check it out later.
- Version control could use improvement. I'm not sure if this is a feature included in a higher level license than mine, but currently the only way I can find to track changes is cell history. If there are major rollbacks needed on the sheet, it can be tedious to do this by individual cells, which I have had to do. Still better than no version control though.
- A bulk sharing option would be nice. Currently, it seems the only option to share is by searching users and adding one by one. There's an option to create a group and share with the group, but adding users to the group is the same issue: one by one. A list import option would be ideal, especially since you can import sheets for use within the product. I would like to import a group by using a sheet of email addresses. If that feature exists I cannot find it in the product or product documentation.
- Smartsheet makes it much easier for us to manage internal projects, allowing easy data capture and status tracking across a broad group of stakeholders. Our ROI is not having to share spreadsheet files either through email or file sharing service such as Box, where version control and simultaneous editing is impossible. Setup of new files is much easier with the templates provided, or by copying previous project sheets.
Smartsheet is the easiest to use solution for setting up simple- to moderate-complexity sheets for purposes like tracking a project (i.e., I have not used it for complex financial analyses before). I have used similar tools in work and personal life and Smartsheet has been the most flexible and intuitive for my purposes. At the surface it's a simple interface that's intuitive to anyone familiar with spreadsheets, but below the surface there's a host of other features suitable for many tasks, making this a pretty comprehensive solution for its purpose.