Smartsheet Available Inside Google Apps

Kudos to the Google Apps team for an elegant design that puts customers first, and treats ISV solutions like peers rather than an entourage. Google’s universal navigation enables customers to assemble the solutions they need in a single place, and vendor solutions to participate like peers with Google’s own applications. It’s truly a ‘customers before all else’ approach.

Over 2 million businesses of all sizes use Google Apps to power their website, email, calendar and docs. Now, companies can click more > Find more services and add Smartsheet to their team’s list of available tools.

Berkeley Lab recently turned on Smartsheet for 4,000 researchers and staff to extend the project management capabilities of their Google Apps. With the launch of Google’s universal navigation, Apps customers can quickly navigate to Smartsheet’s project management, sales pipeline and crowdsourcing solutions as easily as they navigate to Calendar.

Work projects often begin their life as a spreadsheet, and evolve into a poor-man’s version of some specific business application (sales pipelines, marketing events, research projects, product plans, candidate tracking,…). Often, the spreadsheet becomes insufficient for the purpose, and companies then invest money and training in converting to a software specific to Project Management, CRM, Marketing Automation, HR, etc. Importing those existing spreadsheets into Smartsheet empowers users with additional automation (link to comparison) and eliminates (or postpones in some cases) the need to convert to a completely different tool with a new interface and rules.

No data conversion, no re-orientation to a new interface.

To borrow a line from BASF: Smartsheet does not make a spreadsheet, it makes spreadsheets better. To the millions of Google Apps users – keep the spreadsheet layout you like and gain the additional automation you need. For example:

• Attach any file or Google Doc to any row
• Create hierarchy amongst your rows
• Maintain threaded discussion on any row
• See your sheet in Calendar and Gantt views
• Get discrete updates on pieces of your sheet via email
• Get a consolidated view of work across many sheets

Any spreadsheet is a candidate to become a Smartsheet.

Our thanks to the Google Apps team for sharing the spotlight with vendors like Smartsheet. Millions of Google Apps users can now extend the capabilities of their online business applications – all from within the Google Apps suite.