Item: Smartsheet
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using Smartsheet to manage our large project as a whole, and also breaking it down with different sheets to manage smaller pieces of our project. It is only being used by 1 department currently, but I'd love to see it shared a bit more. We are using it to address a few main business problems. 1. Overall, high level organization of tasks and deliverables according to our existing clients and contracts and 2. Detailed views into progress on each importance phase of our project.

Pros and Cons

The color-coding and alerting by using conditions is a fantastic and easy way to call things out.
The fact that everything associated with each task is all together in one row is so nice - attachments, comments, reminders, plus all your column specific details!

So much functionality options that it can be tricky to make sure the right things are locked, or you're sharing the right pieces to the right people. Double check everything.
Works best when everyone is using it, but can require some training. Can be tough to get everyone on board because it can either be intimidating with all the use options, or boring looking off the bat because they think it is just Excel.

Return on Investment

We haven't been using it too long yet on this project, but so far it's a great place to integrate and organize a lot of different pieces, and share only what's important to each group.
In a previous project I worked on, it was great for use with 3rd parties.

Alternatives Considered

Jama Connect and Trello

Ultimately, Smartsheet was a middle ground between Jama (cumbersome and not very user friendly) and Trello (simple, pretty, easy to use, but less functionality). Smartsheet could be used successfully in more scenarios. Also, it has a card-view that looks like Trello anyways, with more functionality out of the box to start. In Trello you have to use add-ons to get additional features. Jama is just not fun to work in because it is ugly.

Support Rating

I don't think I've ever actually reached out to Support so I can't say on this one. I will say that I do appreciate the pop-up explanations that have little animation examples of different things you can do in different areas of the tool. They can provide new ideas or extra functionality.

Key Insights

Do you think Smartsheet delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Smartsheet's feature set?

Yes

Did Smartsheet live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Smartsheet go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Smartsheet again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Jira Software, Trello, Atlassian Confluence

Likelihood to Recommend

I really enjoy Smartsheet because it is more fun and better organized than Excel, with a lot more functionality that makes it easy and clear for me to track items and do my work. I really can't think of a time when you can't use it... because it can be as simple or as complicated as you need it to be. You can literally be as simple as making lists, or tracking complex projects over time.

I love using Smartsheet

Overall Satisfaction with Smartsheet