App/Software Search - Executive Gantt

J Hughes

Our organization uses Smartsheet for project and portfolio management. The reports and Gantts built into Smartsheet work for the purposes of our project teams, however we'd like to be able to make more visually appealing high-level reports/dashboards for our executive leadership team. Currently we use OnePager to compile data from Smartsheet, create a new Gantt graphic in OnePager, export that as a Powerpoint presentation/PDF, then upload those PPT/PDF files to Sharepoint. This process technically works, but is extremely manual, and we would like for the visually appealing Gantt to be more automated. Here are some of the requirements the team assembled:

The Gantt software must be able to do the following:​

• Be able to retrieve data from Smartsheet​
• Must not be able to create timelines as our timelines are built in Smartsheet​ (ie: we'd like to keep out timelines in Smartsheet and not re-build in a new software)
• Must be able to generate Gantts from the Smartsheet data​ where data can be visually modified with colors/shapes/titles
• Must be online so that the data is always live and refreshed each time the Gantt is viewed​
• Outputs must be able to be automatically re-integrated into Smartsheet dashboard as dynamic embedded files that can be displayed within Smartsheet​

Envisioned Process:​

• Timelines are created/updated in Smartsheet​
• Rows to display in Gantt are marked using checkmark column​ in existing Smartsheet projects
• Gantts created/modified/manipulated in software ​
• Gantts embedded into Smartsheet dashboard​
• Gantts refreshed each time displayed

I'm interested to hear if other organizations are facing similar problems, what you do to address this, and if you use applications to automate this process. Thank you!

Jesse H

We experience the same exact same issue. I have not identified an easy solution and have been following a similar process as you for weekly exec updates. I did just see an Office add-on that imports smartsheet data and creates PP gantt charts that I'm going to look into further.