In today’s tech savvy world, there is an ever-growing list of available SaaS products that attempt to provide a collaborative workspace experience. Organizations are always trying to consolidate down to a lower number of redundant enterprise-deployed tools. There are many reasons to consider this including security implications, scalability, cost, ease of use and avoiding user confusion. A simple Google search proves that there are many companies playing in the ‘collaboration space’ – providing solutions for project/task management, lists, dashboard reporting, data analytics and document storage.
In this blog entry, I will compare Smartsheet to Microsoft 365.
Smartsheet is a popular tool used across many businesses and industries. It provides a web-based project collaboration space, grid view, reporting, dashboards, and a user portal, but it does not come with the full power of Microsoft 365. One of the most useful features of Microsoft 365, and one that sets it apart from Smartsheet, is document storage. Having relevant documentation available inside your collaborative workspace will keep work organized and allow users to coauthor documents with real time change management, and the ability to connect to Power Automate to create workflows is a big plus. One of the biggest concerns for all companies regardless of size is cost, and Smartsheet is an expensive tool. A business could be spending upwards of $50,000 annually for 200 users and roughly $200,000 a month for 5,000 users which is nearly 10 times the licensing cost of MS Project. Not to mention that Planner is already included in your standard Microsoft 365 E3 license at no additional cost.
In addition to being expensive, most if not all Smartsheet’s features can be found in the Microsoft 365 (M365) suite. Below are just a few comparisons:
- Grid= SharePoint Custom Lists (also see NEW Lists in
Teams) - Project= M365 Project or Planner
- Cards= M365 Planner
- Task List= M365 Planner or Planner
- Form= M365 Forms / Power Apps
- Report= Power BI or M365 SharePoint Custom Lists
- Dashboard / Portal= M365 SharePoint Custom Lists
Beyond the above features, services and applications, Microsoft 365 can provide companies with their own fully customizable Intranet – providing a platform for Company News & Announcements, Self-Service HR, Helpdesk Resources, IT, and FAQs. On top of that, M365 provides all the tools you need for information security. Finding, managing, and protecting information is more challenging than ever especially with the increased focus on remote working. Microsoft information protection solutions help businesses discover, classify, label, and protect business-critical data throughout its lifecycle no matter where it is stored. Microsoft uses AI to allow companies to focus their time on the detection and prevention of threats. Responses can be automated to stay ahead of attackers while protecting an organization with integrated threat protection that spans applications, users, and cloud environments. M365 comes equipped with built in features like Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and Phishing protection to help keep your people, environment, and data safe and secure.
The choice is simple – why pay for Smartsheet when Microsoft 365 provides basically the same functions? Go with the name you trust or risk it with the expensive SaaS solution du jour. If you’d like to explore more about how to maximize the capabilities of Microsoft 365 you can reach out to us at Spyglass at info@SpyglassMTG.com.
