Smartsheet Erfahrungen

The overall user experience is very simple yet covers all the project management aspects along with adaptive to fit the very specific requirements of different tasks and teams. Highly customizable and powerful tool to improve efficiency and simplifies the project work flow. Workflow Automation is time saving which is the most required in my daily work routine allows me to focus more on other things and I can rely on the tool.

I would not list any cons. Its just there are still some features which needs to be improved more to make it a complete package such as text formatting and the real time update feature can also be improved/tweaked to make sure the other users/team gets up to date information. There were some projects where sheets size limits was an issue but that could be managed

I enjoy how smart sheet's shortcuts and key commands make it quick and simple to fill in the project's specifics. That many people may access the same document at once and make changes while receiving real-time notifications is a great feature of this program. I appreciate the ability to notify investors of upcoming milestones with a timeframe. Conditional formatting and color-coding for people and their statuses is a nice touch.

When using a gantt chart, it might be challenging to view all of the accompanying columns at the same time. Though I haven't looked at alternatives just yet, I appreciate being able to view both the gantt chart and the finer points of the project simultaneously. Navigation in a Gannt Chart is elementary, or at least it is for me.

The Schedule feature offers a comprehensive timeline overview of the plan and your team's allocation, complete with handy filters. What sets it apart is the seamless on-the-fly editing within the same view, making it easy to manage allocations and add projects to your team members.

The reports section could benefit from enhancements to provide more in-depth and comprehensive insights into project allocations and time investments

Smartsheet can be used to facilitate efficient project management. Using automation, we were able to pinpoint resource-intensive workflows and make adjustments there. Smartsheet's user-friendliness and lack of steep learning curve make it a natural choice for us to transition from our previous solutions. The technologies' applicability extends far beyond the realm of project management.

There is nothing about Smartsheet that I find wanting. By utilizing this system, we have been able to save numerous hours of work time for our staff. For a company of our size, purchasing licenses for everyone who needs them is a major financial burden.

Distributed teams can benefit greatly from using Smartsheet to keep track of their projects and activities. One of its many benefits is that it can be used by groups of any size to keep track of who is accountable for what, when it's due, and what its current state is.

By integrating with Float or some other resource management platform, an automation system for assigning roles to individuals and visibility across teams of the available resources in real-time could be created, both of which would be extremely useful when attempting to strategically plan the timelines for individual projects.

The tool is more than a project management tool. I use it to manage my department's budget, collaborate with internal and external team members. I like that I can access it from anywhere I am

Could use some of the more advanced functionality like automatically keeping track of KPIs such as Earned Value, schedule variance, etc. I would like it if I could "play" with effort vs duration without affecting the main baseline until I am ready and obviously, I would like to keep history of baseline changes

-easy to use and costumize
-more than one user can modify simultaneously
-you can add your company's logo
-you can set group and individual reminders
- Cell history, which can tell who and when it was modified.
-different views: calendar, grid, card, and Gantt

- not all reminders can be set with time to remind
- can't add a conditional formatting based on time
- if your Smartsheet is big, formulas added can take forever to update the information, so you need to refresh it all times, even if you change settings to save automatically.

SmartSheet provides an easy and efficient means of sharing information in a spreadsheet style format with web-forms that are readily accessible and editable from portable devices. The information from these web-forms can be set to auto-populate on the parent-sheet where the information becomes accessible to all authorized users at the click of the "update" button. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a employee health status sign in sheet was created on short notice and sent out to all relevant parties via email as well as by posting a QR code at the job sites which all workers can scan with their mobile devices and fill in the form on line. The relevant information gets forwarded to main sheet accessible at the main office (nearly) instantaneously. The display options of the sheets are numerous and varied, very useful for different circumstances and audiences.

The functionality is quite similar to that of an Excel spreadsheet, but my recurring stumbling block is that there ARE some differences. That being said, SmartSheet does a wonderful job of expanding the function library constantly, which makes it an ongoing task to stay up-to-date with what is new and possible (this is both a Pro and a Con since the library is so very dynamic)

Projects are easy to set up with the built in functionality. There are lots of built in templates that you can use. But we have found it most helpful to build our own templates. We really appreciate being able to add dependencies, working and non working days, and duration. Then the start and end dates fill in automatically. We have found that the learning curve is not nearly as steep for Smartsheet as it was for Microsoft Project.

Another really helpful feature is being able to use formulas in the Project Plan. Our team schedules our work using a points system. I was able to create formulas that take the number of points for that task and who is assigned to that task to create a point breakdown for each person or team assigned. We then use the linking feature to link the total points for the project, the points accomplished, and the status of the project to a master "Queue" sheet.

Smartsheet has special formula values available for children and ancestors of a task. So, we use a simple =Sum(Children()) formula to add up the points. Actually, the formulas end up being more complicated because we can test whether the row has children or not and do different things depending on the test. For instance, when summing the work completed if the task has no children, then the product of the percent complete and points gives us the number of points completed. If the row is a parent, then the formula sums the children.

For project planning the resources feature is not as helpful as it could be. The main reason is that if a staff is assigned to a row during a particular time, the resource function assumes that they are 100% allocated for that time. So, if you have three tasks that overlap, the resource allocations shows 300%. We have mitigated that by routinely filling in 30% allocation for each resource. This helps to take into account the fact that a task although it lasts a full week won't take up all the staff's time. One idea I have had recently--but haven't tried yet--is to make a formula that takes the number of points for the task and assigns an appropriate allocation number based on points per week.

The other feature that we haven't found useful is the "Critical Path." How the software determines what is on the critical path is a mystery. I'm not sure why it chooses some tasks that have dependencies filled in, but not others that seem to be just as important.

Smartsheet has so much going for it. It truly fits the new technological world that we live in by providing more than just the basics. Being a cloud-based application (SaaS), and compatible with mobile devices, makes it more functional across the board. It mostly touts itself as a project management tool, which is very true. Most project managers utilize certain applications that require the project to be saved down to a file, which is not easily shareable. Smartsheet can handle the same project management tools and live in cyberspace that can be utilized by numerous people, which different levels of access (viewing, editing, administering) and different views (tasks, gantt, kanban, etc.), and allow people to make comments, add attachments, and more. The most use I have made of Smartsheet within my organization is using it like a spreadsheet. I'm able to have numerous sheets for different departments where they have access to only their own sheets and update only what they need to update. Then I can create a new sheet that combines information from all of the sheets that will auto-update from the original sheets. I can also create reports and dashboards (with charts, metrics, etc.) based on information from all the different sheets. It's quite functional and utilizes much of the same fundamental logic that Excel provides. The Smartsheet website has an extremely detailed (and searchable) Help section and very active Community. Even includes videos to help guide!

Smartsheet does have some limitations. Most specifically, it isn't Excel and it isn't Project, so users shouldn't expect it to do everything those applications can do. However, there are times when it seems obvious that a particular functionality should be included that isn't. With that said, Smartsheet does a great job of listening to the Community and is constantly improving the application with enhancements to help the Community with its most voted on requests. Another thing that is frustrating is when an error pops up. More often than not, the error is written in a way that doesn't tell the user how to fix the error. Again, when this happens, I just reach out to the Community and get the answers I need.

--You can easily switch between different views of the same data, e.g. grid vs. Kanban
--Dashboards and reporting are both powerful
--Growing number of integrations
--Commenting per-row is excellent
--Can be used as a simple spreadsheet
--Security/permissions are robust and intuitive
--Excellent training and certs available
--Forms feature is pretty complete for basic stuff
--Very extensive formula capabilities, almost like Excel
--The "business" pricing tier would actually be quite adequate for my group's needs, vs. the enterprise plan
--Nesting/hierarchy of rows can be useful

--No in-cell formatting
--Awkward multi-user editing, no auto-save, other users keep resetting views
--Reporting is difficult, meaning that you have to create separate complex reports instead of just saved views
--Not a true database or app builder
--Notifications system is wonky, delayed, and hard for new users to tame
--Very easy to abuse and misuse, even worse than Excel because you can add in the nesting/hierarchy (we have one user in particular that makes the most gawdawful sheets you've ever seen, partly because of the inherent Smartsheet interface)
--Attachments are pretty rough, not easily visible or visual, and no desktop app integrations (e.g. save a file from Word to SmartSheet)
--No concept of a "document" or app, only the spreadsheet motif; can't do notes or instructions very easily, for example, so people overload rows for this and that makes reporting even harder when you have to manually select rows
--Forms feature not embeddable or graphically complete with formatting to make it look nice
--Not clear how you combine formulas and forms without overwriting formulas at the bottom--I haven't figured this out yet even after years of using it
--Enterprise pricing is now forcing us to consider alternatives, including lower tiers of Smartsheet

Cloud based - available everywhere to everyone
Flexibility - it's not only a project management tool, it can do most things that Excel can do, but often better. Specifically column formulae are a fantastic recent addition that enables sheets to become almost unbreakable

Nothing major. There are some minor gripes:
- Slack integration doesn't allow tagging of individuals, and cannot allow a variable to determine which channel to send the message to
- Cannot yet control heirarchy with formulae, I hope this function will come eventually