Gmail Integration for Smartsheet + Google Apps

We start and end the day in Email. The new Smartsheet Contextual Email Gadget in Google Apps makes it possible to manage more of your business operations right from within email.

While some tout the virtues of relying less on email, that's a battle many have lost - multiple times. We live in our inboxes, so why not make business apps work inside them? Emails contain the content and instructions for people to make updates in business apps. Email is the horse, business apps are the cart.

In 2006, or was it 2007, Microsoft disabled the forms capability in Outlook, taking with it the ability for Smartsheet to offer robust native project management capabilities in Outlook. Google’s release of the Gmail Contextual Gadget, announced today, delivers an enhanced email capability to the over two million businesses that use Google Apps.

Google’s release is important because it lets ISV’s like Smartsheet embed elements of business application inside emails, and more importantly, enables them to present information based on the content of the email. Knowing the context makes business apps more relevant and useful.

Example: The status changes on a phase of your project. Smartsheet notifies you via email according to the rules you’ve set up. Embedded in the email is a form that provides the ability to access and edit any of the information, files and discussion threads associated with that project phase - without leaving the email.

We've got some great enhancements in the development queue as well (target release June '10).  An email arrives from your customer support queue. Included in the email is the Smartsheet Contextual Gadget that lists the relevant information for that customer. Instant access to past support calls, sales opportunities, files, and discussions. No more switching to other applications to find customer information.

The value of email just went up.

-Mark