Smartsheet Explained

Smartsheet
Smartsheet
Developer:Smartsheet Inc.
Released:2006
Platform:Web platform, Android, and iOS
Language:English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Russian and Japanese[1]
Genre:Project management software

Smartsheet is a software as a service (SaaS) offering for collaboration and work management, developed and marketed by Smartsheet Inc. It is used to assign tasks, track project progress, manage calendars, share documents, and manage other work, using a tabular user interface.

Features

Smartsheet is used to collaborate on project timelines, documents, calendars, tasks, and other works.[2] [3] According to IDG, it is "part office productivity, part project management, part document sharing... [it] is trying to be the central hub for how people work." Smartsheet competes with Microsoft Project.[4] It combines some of the functionality of Microsoft Project, Excel, Access and SharePoint.[5]

According to Forbes, Smartsheet has "a relatively simple" user interface. The interface centers on "smartsheets," which are similar to spreadsheets typically found in Microsoft Excel. Each smartsheet can have its rows expanded or collapsed to see individual tasks or large-scale project progress respectively. Tasks can be sorted by deadline, priority or the person assigned to them.[6] If a spreadsheet contains dates, Smartsheet creates a calendar view.

Each row in a smartsheet may have files attached to it, emails stored within it, and a discussion board associated with it. When a new smartsheet is created, notifications are pushed out to staff to populate its rows and columns. As information is updated, other smartsheets tracking the same task, project or data-point are updated automatically.[7] [8] The service also has alerts for when a task deadline is coming up,[9] and keeps track of document versions.

Smartsheet can import data from Microsoft Office or Google applications. It integrates with Salesforce.com, Dropbox and Amazon Web Services. There is also a Smartsheet mobile app for Android and iOS operating systems. The service is offered on a subscription basis with no free tiers.

History

Smartsheet was developed by Smartsheet Inc, in 2005 and introduced to the public in 2006.[10] According to the company's co-founder, Brent Frei, initial adoption was slow because the offering was too difficult to use.[11] [12] At the end of its first year, it had 10,000 users.[13] The company began making changes to the SmartSheet in 2008, eventually cutting 60 percent of its features for the purpose of making it more user-friendly. Following the 2010 launch of the redesign, the adoption grew to 1 million users at 20,000 organizations by 2012.

Integration with Office 365 and Microsoft Azure were added in 2014.[14] In August of that year, version 2.0 of the Smartsheet iOS app was introduced. The spreadsheet-like user interface, which was part of the web service, was introduced to the iOS app in this version; the developers had not been able to build this feature in the mobile version before.[15] In October 2014, the Account Map tool was introduced, which uses an algorithm to visualize the flow of work across groups of employees.[16] [17]

In 2015, Smartsheet started introducing closer integrations with Microsoft Office products, following the changes Microsoft had made in their products to work better with third-party software.[18] In January 2015, Smartsheet added support for Azure Active Directory, Microsoft's cloud-based directory service that allowed users to log into products like Excel and Smartsheet with the same login.[19] This allowed users to make changes to smartsheets directly from Microsoft Outlook.[20] In 2016, Smartsheet introduced Sights, a configurable dashboard that shows metrics such as how a team is performing against key performance indicators.[21]

In November 2021, McLaren announced a partnership deal with Smartsheet as the team's official technology partner at the 2021 São Paulo Grand Prix.[22]

In 2022, Miro introduced an integration with Smartsheet.[23]

In 2023, Smartsheet was named to Fast Company’s Annual List of "Brands That Matter"[24]

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Smartsheet Tips: Tips for International Users . Smartsheet.com. . January 28, 2014 . September 12, 2015.
  2. Web site: Strauss . Karsten . Former Microsoft Analyst Wants To Disrupt MS Excel, Project . Forbes . March 12, 2013 . September 11, 2015.
  3. Web site: Grant . Rebecca . Smartsheet gets $26M to keep enterprise workflow under control . VentureBeat . December 3, 2012 . September 11, 2015.
  4. Web site: Greene . Tim . Enterasys boosts productivity with Microsoft SharePoint alternative . Network World . April 30, 2013 . September 11, 2015.
  5. News: Robert. Handler. Matt. Light. Donna . Fitzgerald. Teresa. Jones. Gartner Names Smartsheet "Cool Vendor". April 24, 2015. September 16, 2015.
  6. Web site: Moon . Peter . A smart way to create the spreadsheet of your dreams . Financial Review . April 14, 2014 . September 12, 2015.
  7. Web site: Lawton . Christopher . Keeping Track of Business . WSJ . June 7, 2008 . September 11, 2015.
  8. Web site: Cassavoy . Liane . Project management apps: How three popular picks stack up . PCWorld . November 5, 2014 . September 11, 2015.
  9. Web site: Romano . Benjamin . Smartsheet Wins Big Customers, $35M From Sutter Hill Ventures . Xconomy . May 5, 2014 . September 11, 2015.
  10. Web site: Smartsheet Review - Project Management Software. Tech.co. en. 2019-11-03.
  11. Web site: Smartsheet Grabs $26M After 'De-Enterprising' its Collaboration Software. December 3, 2012. WSJ. subscription. September 11, 2015.
  12. Web site: Smartsheet co-founder Brent Frei: How hitting the reset button on design led to success. Cook. John. May 14, 2015. GeekWire.
  13. Web site: Cook . John . Bellevue startup gets $2.69 million financing deal . seattlepi . Hearst Seattle Media . June 14, 2007 . September 11, 2015.
  14. News: Smartsheet: The Next-Gen Spreadsheet. September 12, 2015. Yeshwanth. H V. November 27, 2014. CIO Review.
  15. Web site: Frank . Blair Hanley . Smartsheet updates iOS app with new grid to help companies work on the go . GeekWire . August 20, 2014 . September 13, 2015.
  16. Web site: Dignan . Larry . Smartsheet steps up visualization game . ZDNet . October 20, 2014 . September 11, 2015.
  17. Web site: Perez . Juan Carlos . Smartsheet, the project management tool cloaked as a spreadseet, adds visualization . CIO . October 20, 2014 . September 13, 2015 . December 8, 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151208110329/http://www.cio.com/article/2836493/smartsheet-the-project-management-tool-cloaked-as-a-spreadseet-adds-visualization.html . dead .
  18. Web site: Levine . Barry . Smartsheet integration with Office 365 highlights the ‘opening up of Microsoft’ . VentureBeat . January 12, 2015 . September 13, 2015.
  19. Web site: Smartsheet Rolls Out Azure Active Directory Support . eWeek.com . January 20, 2015 . September 13, 2015.
  20. Web site: Demmitt . Jacob . The Redmond bump: How one Bellevue startup is booming thanks to a friendlier Microsoft . Puget Sound Business Journal . May 13, 2015 . September 13, 2015.
  21. Web site: Kepes . Ben . Smartsheet launches productivity dashboards . Computerworld . March 15, 2016 . February 4, 2017.
  22. Web site: McLaren Racing - McLaren Racing and Smartsheet announce new partnership with the McLaren Formula 1 team . 2022-11-18 . www.mclaren.com . en.
  23. Web site: Trueman . Charlotte . 2022-05-18 . Miro looks to move beyond the whiteboard and support hybrid work . 2022-06-08 . Computerworld . en.
  24. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/smartsheet-named-fast-company-annual-190000756.html