Article

4 builders who are pushing the boundaries with Smartsheet

by Reanna Zuniga

Ingenuity lives inside the DNA of builders and visionaries. They see possibilities that others don’t and they seek out ways to make their vision a reality. Luckily for Smartsheet, those builders are our customers. 

Over the years, we’ve seen our customers build incredible solutions and processes. And each year, they truly seem to push the boundaries of what we thought was possible with our platform. They’re not only solving everyday business challenges with Smartsheet, they’re making the world a better place. They’re defining the future of zero emission transportation, aiding humanitarian efforts, accelerating access to life-saving drugs and yes — even going beyond our planet to explore Mars. 

Their ingenuity has taken our product in new, amazing directions. It’s inspired us to innovate time and time again. We’ve spent years listening, hearing the ambition behind their voices and it’s motivated us to find new ways to serve them better. And, if the past year has taught us one thing, it’s that when everyone works side by side (or, in this case, screen to screen), they can overcome any obstacle in their way. That’s why we’re building together. 

For ENGAGE 2021, we didn’t just want to tell you how cool our customers are — we wanted to show you. We turned the spotlight on builders who’ve used Smartsheet to overcome challenges and create meaningful impact in their work. We also announced new features and partnerships, as well as updated capabilities that will further empower our customers to thrive in the new era of dynamic work, from scaling their enterprises to deepening integrations for smoother workflows.

Builders sharing their stories at ENGAGE

We’re stronger when we work together; it’s true of people and it’s true of technology. The Smartsheet ecosystem continues to grow and add more integrations, allowing seamless workflows for everyone across teams.

Adryon Wong, Go-to-Market Manager at HydroFlask and Lua O’Brien, Category Director at Oxo are perfect examples of what’s possible when two great minds work together. Wong first introduced O’Brien to Smartsheet in 2018. That same year, they attended ENGAGE, which set off a deeper exploration to tap into the power and possibilities of Smartsheet.

Photo of Adryon Wong at Hydroflask and Lua O'Brien at Oxo

“When Adryon and I started working together, we both came with our separate processes and started looking for places where Hydroflask was doing things better, where Oxo was doing things better and where we could start to align our processes,” O’Brien said. “What it’s allowed us to do is create a more efficient product development process and bring better products to market that really suit our consumer’s needs—and that we’re so excited about.”

As Smartsheet continues to roll out new features designed for better collaboration and engagement, both Wong and O’Brien are looking forward to incorporating more capabilities into their workflows. “We hope to continue building it out and use it more as a source of truth for our timelines and our new product development,” Wong said.

Building and executing solutions at scale

Software developers have historically created and configured the systems, business solutions, and software that powers companies, yet they represent only 5% of the knowledge workforce. This means that the remaining 95% of the workforce are unable to contribute because they lack the technical expertise needed to do so. 

A few months ago at ENGAGE: ALL IN, we introduced the idea of the no-code enterprise, which empowers everyone to keep up with the pace of work today without ever having to write a single line of code. 

“In today’s world, no-code is the opportunity for business to get the most from its people, and enable constant innovation from the edge,” Smartsheet CEO Mark Mader wrote. “On the flip side, the no-code enterprise empowers people to bring their best ideas to life without waiting for or relying on IT to build the solutions for them.”

New and enhanced features for scaling dynamic solutions:

Portfolio WorkApps 

Announced at ENGAGE 2021, but launching later this year, Portfolio WorkApps enables organizations to better navigate work across their entire portfolio from the macro enterprise-wide view to the individual project level. 

DataTable

Seamlessly collaborate and leverage your information at scale. Coming soon, DataTable allows you to centrally store and access millions of rows of data directly in the Smartsheet platform, and empower knowledge workers to run their enterprise-scale processes with ease. 

Enabling enterprise-grade work 

The Smartsheet platform was built from the ground up with strict security requirements and protocols. It’s always been a top priority to protect sensitive company data and allow users to safely share information inside and outside of their organization. 

When Pam Ferguson, Cross Functional Strategic Manager at Booz Allen Hamilton was asked to look at processes, identify areas for improvement, and prioritize security, she knew Smartsheet was the answer. Even then, she hadn’t quite realized just how much the platform could do.

Photo of Pam Ferguson, Cross-functional Strategic manager at Booz Allen Hamilton

“To work at an enterprise, you’ve got to have the confidence that your data is there and that you have the ability to limit the access to data,” Ferguson said. “It was a game changer to have full traceability within the tool to say ‘here’s who changed it, here’s what was changed, and here’s what it was previously.”

Not only did Booz Allen have capabilities that made their workflows faster and more secure, but it was all in one centralized place.

“For us, at a bare minimum, the software can produce everything we need to share and collaborate with people, but then it adds that extra layer of security,” she said. “Being able to have that added protection and [to partner with a company] that really listens to their clients about what’s needed and works on that in partnership with us—I think that is Smartsheet’s superpower.”

New and enhanced features for enabling enterprise-grade work:

Microsoft Cloud Access (MCAS) Integration with Smartsheet Event Reporting

Add Microsoft security to Smartsheet to identify insider threats and compromised accounts. Protect your Smartsheet instance by setting up alerts for suspicious user activities and potential threats.

Smartsheet Regions

Smartsheet Regions is now available in the EU and will support new customers with regional compliance, privacy, and governance needs. Smartsheet Regions EU hosts customers’ content in Frankfurt, Germany. More international regions will be added next year.

Enterprise Plan Manager 

Previously announced, Enterprise Plan Manager (EPM) is now available and ensures that all your organization’s Smartsheet plans follow your security, governance, and compliance requirements. EPM allows IT to centrally manage security controls across plans, while simultaneously letting teams and business units manage their plans separately.

Building deeper connections across the technology ecosystem

Becky Ewy, VP of Real Estate at Dell, has always been a problem-solver. She credits her ability to identify issues, find solutions, and deliver on commitments as the reason why she’s gotten to where she is today. At Dell, her team is responsible for making sure the organization has all the processes and tools to stay on track and deliver on their strategy. A huge task made easier with Smartsheet. 

Photo of Becky Ewy, VP of Real Estate at Dell

“We’ve looked at many, many legacy systems to help us through our multi-year planning journey. And there was never one tool that would ever satisfy what we needed,” Ewy said. 

“What we’ve built now with the help of the Smartsheet consulting team and this multi-year planning tool is end-to-end,” she continued. “We have demand. We have change management. We have financial management, project management, and integrations with different IT systems. We’ve got multiple dashboards and multiple stakeholders who are actually coming in and getting this information. The transparency is phenomenal.”

New and enhanced partnerships and features for seamless workflows:

Smartsheet Integration for Cisco Webex

Coming next week, the Smartsheet integration for Webex improves visibility and collaboration by combining communication and work platforms, allowing teams to communicate and work without switching context. With this integration, you can securely meet, discuss, and collaborate in real-time.

Adobe XD integration for Smartsheet

Launching in late October, the Smartsheet extension for Adobe Creative Cloud will enable you to create Smartsheet proofs, send review requests and view feedback without ever leaving Adobe Photoshop and Adobe XD.

Enhanced Smartsheet Integration for Microsoft Teams

New enhancements to the integration enable you to search for Smartsheet items and reference them easily while composing messages in Teams.

Hubspot Integration

Share your data between Smarstheet and Husbpot by syncing rows containing customer information between Smartsheet and HubSpot without manual data entry or messy, time-consuming data imports.

Forms Custom Branding 

Custom branding and styling make it easier for you to build forms and design a more beautiful, compelling, and cohesive experience for respondents. You have flexibility to choose branding elements at the form levels.

For a complete list of product announcements and launch dates, visit our product releases and announcements page.