When will Smartsheet be able to produce comprehensive reports and link Gants charts into WBS's?

Ethan HB

I'm an advocate of the intuitiveness of smartsheet and use this programme over other PM software for gant chart use. I find it is more user friendly, easier for collaborative use and the fact I can use this on all platforms.

 

My question is, why does smartsheet not have the ability to produce WBS and comprehensive reports such as cost, progress and resource reports in illustrative ways such as microsoft project. Due to this, I find smartsheet to be very limited and I often find myself using other software to produce such reports. 

 

Surely they have thought about this and realised this is the next step for them to better their product????

J. Craig Williams

Ethan,

 

Non-employee here, but I'd say time and money are the two reasons.

Microsoft developed the first version of Project in 1984.

Since then, they have invested millions of dollars and untold developer hours to develop the product.

Smartsheet started in 2006 and did a major redesign in 2010.

And while it replaces MS Project (and other PM software) for many users, it does so primarily (in my opinion) on its user interface and simplicity.

I learned MS Project but noone at my company (that I worked with directly) used it for more than a Gantt chart viewer. And I fear for many PM's it is the same.

 

Like all tools, Smartsheet won't do everything. But what it does it does well (mostly )

and they have an excellent (from my experience) dev and support team.

It also has a well documented API which allows all those "other software" companies to build the reports you want.

 

I try to focus on what Smartsheet (or tool X) will do for the problem at hand and not try to force the tool to do something it can't (but sometimes that is fun too).

So far, I really like where Smartsheet fits in my toolbox. And when they come out with something new, maybe something I've built doesn't work anymore or isn't needed anymore, but that's part of the ride.

 

Or was that a rhetorical question?

 

Craig