Microsoft Undertaking and Smartsheet are comparable venture administration instruments that organizations use for every part from budgeting and useful resource planning to monitoring progress and managing groups.
Smartsheet has a spreadsheet-like interface that lets groups collaborate, share info, and monitor progress in real-time. Its dynamic collaboration and work administration platform permits customers to trace buyer and worker info, assign duties to workforce members, and create calendars. Over 40,000 firms in additional than 160 international locations have used Smartsheet to handle tasks and duties. You can try Smartsheet today for free.
Microsoft Project is a cloud-based collaboration and productiveness instrument that provides an array of options. MS Undertaking has come a great distance since its launch for Home windows model in 1990. This environment friendly platform works nice for each small and huge tasks, protecting everybody in your workforce on monitor with their duties. Right now, you can try Microsoft Project for free for one month.
Microsoft Undertaking and Smartsheet In comparison with the Finest Undertaking Administration Software program
After testing loads of completely different platforms, we’ve narrowed our choices to the six best project management tools available on the market. Smartsheet is without doubt one of the six, however Microsoft Undertaking isn’t. Both one may nonetheless be an ideal match on your wants, although.
Monday.com is the best venture administration software program for many organizations. For one-person groups, it’s free to make use of, however its highly effective collaboration, AI, and dashboard options make it wonderful for companies and huge groups. You can start using Monday.com for free today.
ClickUp is ideal for distant work. With its simple UI, nationwide and worldwide groups can collaborate and hold monitor of their progress in real-time. You can sign up for a free ClickUp account right now.
Teamwork is an distinctive platform for client-facing organizations. Companies, freelancers, and consultants use it to streamline communication and ship outcomes to their purchasers. You can always set up a Teamwork account for free.
Microsoft Undertaking In comparison with Smartsheet
Microsoft Undertaking gives a logical extension of the Microsoft ecosystem. Quite than studying a brand new platform (or planning tasks in Excel), MS Undertaking helps streamline and automate many planning processes. Smartsheet is similar to MS Undertaking in some ways, however its spreadsheet-like interface is a bit more fashionable than MS Undertaking’s view.
Microsoft Undertaking Highlights
Microsoft’s suite of instruments (i.e., Excel, Outlook, Groups) is among the many hottest for companies and groups. With over 270 million people utilizing Groups and lots extra utilizing the remainder of the Microsoft 365 suite, MS Undertaking is typically seen because the quickest integrator due to its familiarity with customers.
Microsoft Undertaking gives an array of helpful views your workforce can make the most of to construct, visualize and handle a number of tasks. Inside these views, there are three essential views you may discover:
- Grid View: A simplified view of your venture that provides an at-a-glance perspective. You should use it to create activity lists and monitor progress in an organized method.
- Board View: A Kanban-style view of your venture that’s helpful for monitoring progress in agile tasks.
- Timeline View: A conventional Gantt chart view of your venture that can assist you visualize and plan duties in a timeline format.
Customers can swap between views simply and regulate the structure for max effectivity. They’ll additionally standardize their groups’ views to make sure everyone seems to be wanting on the similar knowledge.
MS Undertaking additionally has loads of activity and useful resource administration instruments that allow you to monitor progress. It helps automation—like activity reminders and due dates—to make sure your tasks keep on monitor regardless of how advanced they change into.
Smartsheet Highlights
Smartsheet is a cloud-based venture administration platform with loads of options to assist groups collaborate, handle duties, and get work executed effectively. Smartsheet’s spreadsheet-like interface makes it straightforward to make use of and navigate, making the transition from Excel or Google Sheets simpler.
For venture administration, Smartsheet powers a contemporary method to handle the entire venture lifecycle. You’ll be able to simply assign duties, set due dates and reminders, monitor progress, and collaborate with groups with out leaving the platform. Planning tasks in Smartsheet is quick, intuitive, and extremely visible—as are useful resource and funds administration.
However Smartsheet strives to be greater than only a venture administration platform—it aspires to change into the core of how companies full their duties. It additionally offers monitoring knowledge on business traits along with file-sharing choices and different workplace productiveness options. This makes it a superb alternative for bigger organizations that want a extra complete answer.
Microsoft Undertaking vs. Smartsheet: Professionals and Cons
After all, no instrument is ideal. We love loads of issues about each instruments, however there are additionally issues which may not suit your workforce’s wants. We’ve compiled a listing of execs and cons that can assist you take advantage of knowledgeable resolution doable.
The place Microsoft Undertaking Shines
Integration With MS Methods: Lots of of hundreds of thousands of Microsoft customers can profit from having MS Undertaking built-in into their workflow. As part of Microsoft Workplace 365, MS Undertaking might be built-in with all different standard staples within the Microsoft household, like Outlook, PowerPoint, Entry Excel, and Phrase. This offers customers entry to an incomparable vary of instruments that few can match.
Multi-Channel Communication: MS Undertaking offers you with a plethora of communication choices, permitting for simple entry to instruments corresponding to Outlook, Yammer, and Skype. Slack additionally readily integrates with Microsoft Undertaking, enabling you to speak simply along with your workforce.
Useful resource Administration: With Microsoft Undertaking, you may allocate sources appropriately by both requesting duties or assigning them to workforce members. Undertaking is designed to robotically request and assign exact particulars for you, offering immediate visibility so your workforce can start working rapidly. Different workforce members may visualize how sources are divided, guaranteeing a balanced workload for everybody.
Automated Workflows: Automated approval, monitoring, and reminder workflows make it straightforward to maintain your workforce organized and up-to-date. Microsoft Undertaking additionally gives automated notifications when duties are accomplished or delayed, so everyone seems to be at all times on the identical web page. Should you already use Groups, you may approve duties immediately from the app.
Undertaking Roadmap Software: Utilizing the roadmap, you may monitor applications and construct venture portfolios. Undertaking portfolios are compilations of tasks, sources, and processes that may be managed successfully in a single place. It’s a necessary instrument for bigger companies with a number of ongoing duties or applications to handle concurrently.
Intensive Help Neighborhood: Microsoft Undertaking has a big help system with an intensive on-line technical group. Because of its affiliation with Microsoft, the group shares loads of useful sources to assist with any points you could come throughout.
The place Microsoft Undertaking Wants Enchancment
Costly Pricing: MS Undertaking gives a number of various tiers for its software program. Sadly, they’re all on the expensive facet of issues. Loads of customers complain about the associated fee vs. the performance, particularly when in comparison with extra feature-rich options like ClickUp and Monday.com. Due to its excessive value, many customers can solely buy a number of licenses, which ends up in low general productiveness. And with out a free model, particular person customers or small groups are higher off with a extra inexpensive (or free) different.
Restricted Collaboration Capability: Microsoft Undertaking doesn’t have the identical stage of collaboration that some rivals provide as a result of its centralized nature. It does have a number of stable file-sharing capabilities, however these are restricted and require further software program for full performance. Though it’s helpful for venture mapping and monitoring, there’s no method to talk throughout the spreadsheets.
Compatibility Prices: In case your buyer needs entry to particular knowledge, that is unlucky: they will’t get it on any pc until it additionally has MS Undertaking. This requires purchasers to both spend a minimal of $500 or discover a pc with the requisite software program put in. Though this may not occur usually, you’ll most likely must spend additional time simply to ship a shopper primary info (particularly in the event that they don’t use a PC).
Knowledge Sharing and Teamwork Limits: Collaboration between groups and purchasers is vital to finishing any venture. Nonetheless, MS Undertaking doesn’t present real-time updates until you program outdoors integrations. Furthermore, when restricted to buying and downloading their normal software program, prospects are restricted to Home windows PCs solely. Different venture administration instruments provide in-app communication and file-sharing capabilities, making collaboration quick, straightforward, and environment friendly.
The place Smartsheet Shines
Wonderful Person Interface: There’ll at all times be those that despise the clunkiness of a spreadsheet interface (therefore why many venture administration instruments concentrate on drag-and-drop and collaboration interfaces), however Smartsheet is the very best at what it does. Particularly if workforce members have Excel (or, sure, MS Undertaking) expertise, Smartsheet will look each immediately acquainted and extremely intuitive. By increasing on the standard spreadsheet interface with widgets, views, notifications, and different options, Smartsheet endears itself to the Excel-savvy whereas nonetheless offering a contemporary venture administration expertise.
Sturdy Collaboration Instruments: Smartsheet has among the finest collaboration instruments, that are particularly useful for groups that handle a number of tasks concurrently. With all kinds of how to speak with workforce members (chat, e mail, and many others.) in addition to real-time updates in shared paperwork, Smartsheet is without doubt one of the market leaders on this space.
Time Monitoring Functionality: Time monitoring is important for organizations engaged on an hourly foundation with purchasers, collaborating with contractors, or billing for time spent on duties. Smartsheet’s time monitoring function permits customers to simply monitor time spent on duties by workforce members and may generate analytics experiences for venture managers.
Begin-to-End Undertaking Administration: Smartsheet is greater than only a instrument for finishing duties—it’s an all-inclusive work execution platform. With its superior cloud-based know-how, you may deploy efficient course of administration on any scale whereas offering automated workflow options, collaboration between groups, and detailed experiences. This highly effective system eliminates knowledge silos in order that much less time is spent switching from one software to the subsequent.
Report Constructing on Autopilot: Smartsheet eliminates the necessity for tedious and prolonged reporting by getting info immediately from related sources. It doesn’t matter if it’s your Accounting workforce, Design workforce, or some other group—Smartsheet offers a report builder that may effectively compile all the knowledge required rapidly so you may entry important particulars.
The place Smartsheet Wants Enchancment
Average Studying Curve: In comparison with non-spreadsheet alternate options, Smartsheet requires a little bit of a studying curve. It’s not overly advanced, and most customers can discover their method round its options after some preliminary apply, however the capability to make use of Excel proficiently will assist speed up the method. With out as intuitive of a person interface, Smartsheet customers may also have some problem matching its options with the present workflows.
No Free Possibility: Like MS Undertaking, Smartsheet doesn’t provide a free model, however its comparable pricing construction implies that it may be simply as costly relying on the options you want. It’s, nevertheless, inexpensive than MS Undertaking for all groups, which could make it a greater choice if funds is a precedence.
Restricted Integration Help: Smartsheet’s restricted native integrations might be helpful (e.g., Salesforce, Google, Jira, Zoom, and many others.), however they’re not as intensive as different platforms’ integration libraries. Customers can combine something with Zapier, however most software program merchandise may do this. The extra price and time related to establishing these connections may make the method too costly for sure circumstances.
The Final Phrase on Microsoft Undertaking and Smartsheet
Microsoft Project and Smartsheet are two spreadsheet-based venture administration options. MS Undertaking is Microsoft’s flagship answer, with a variety of options that make it appropriate for groups of any measurement and complexity. Smartsheet is an appropriate different to MS Undertaking and gives a extra visible design with higher integrations and priceless options that make it simpler to collaborate on tasks.
MS venture is a superb alternative for groups utilizing Microsoft Outlook, Groups, and different Microsoft merchandise. Smartsheet integrates with Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, and different enterprise suites out-of-the-box, making it extra helpful for a wider vary of consumers.
There definitely is a case for spreadsheet-style venture administration, however lots concern the complexity of this strategy. However if you happen to aren’t one in all them, think about trying out our different best project management tools to get a really feel for what you want.
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