Is SmartSuite the Best Work Management Software for your business? (3 Features to Help You Decide)

If you're looking for a work management platform to bring all of your tasks and projects and CRM stuff all together, it can be a little overwhelming. I mean, there are a lot of tools out there. Even though this is a new space and at the surface level, they all advertise the same stuff, they all kind of look the same. And it's not until you dig a layer deeper that you can really see where the differences lie. And as someone who has worked with over 1200 businesses as they've tried to build out their work management platform, I want to share a bit of a shortcut that I use when trying to assess which platforms is the right fit for a given business. Because between you and me, there's not really a best tool. There's a best tool for you in a certain moment of time, but what's best for you may not be best for the person in the building next to you. Right. So today what I want to do is share that shortcut, which is to look at the priorities of a given software and use that as a decision making tool to figure out which software is worth digging in a bit deeper to. Today I'm going to be talking about small SmartSuite's top three features. The three areas where I really feel like SmartSuite stands out and is placing greater emphasis than some competitors. And if these three features are something that your organization values, if it's the top of your shopping list, this is probably a pretty good indicator. That indicator. I said that really weird indicator that you should probably dig deeper into the SmartSuite arena if these features are not interesting to you. Obviously the opposite is suggested here. But I'm going to be going through three standouts today. The stuff that makes SmartSuite different than competitors. And between you and I, even if you're not shopping for work management tools, these features and these priorities, I think they're going to be really interesting to you regardless of where you're at on your discovery journey. All right, so we're going to just jump right in here and start off with the first feature. So the number one standout feature I want to highlight for SmartSuite is their use and focus on permissions and control. Okay, this sounds like a weird thing to highlight because it's not this shiny, sexy feature that you want to put on a billboard. But I think those of you who are looking for a work management tool that has a lot of oversight and administrative power might find SmartSuites really aligned with what you are looking for right now in the work management Space. There's a lot of tools out there, but most of them are focused on flexibility. You know, they're open databases, they can be edited however you want, and it causes chaos for teams that require stronger processes or are scaling up. If we go on SmartSuite's website and we just kind of skim through their permissions based stuff, and we're going to be going through the interface here in a moment too, you'll see it there. P.S. if you want to follow along with this tutorial on your own, the affiliate link we have for SmartSuite is in the description of this video. All right, back to from the jump. SmartSuite, this very new tool to the space is putting permissions at almost the top in my view of the priorities list. They've spent a lot of time and care throughout their interface making sure we have opportunities to lock down permissions, make sure things aren't accidentally edited, and even when we get into the advanced permission options, we have this option to make sure that content can be edited at multiple different levels. Now of course, being able to set permissions throughout the hierarchy of a tool such as at the solution level or the app level in SmartSuite world, this isn't remarkable, right? We are used to seeing this on other tools, but that is really just the beginning of where SmartSuite incorporates permissions. They've spent more time on this feature, in my opinion, than most other comparable tools at this price point. It feels almost like an ERP software or an enterprise software can kind of ripple down to the masses, the rest of us mere mortals, because as we dig layers and layers deeper into SmartSuite, we only find more permission options. For example, on their page right now for the permission stuff, they highlight that they're soon going to be having field level permissions, meaning particular cells or columns. We'll wait to see what that looks like. They're going to be locking this down as needed, which provides a lot of utility for folks who need to make sure certain information is isn't shared with stakeholders or isn't edited by the wrong team member. Super, super helpful. And inside the interface itself, when we start going into some of these fields, there is a consistent attempt at adding documentation into every step of the interface. This goes hand in hand with permissions from my view, but if I go inside a given field I have the ability to add default values which is really cool and no automations needed. And I also have the opportunity to have help text explanation saying this is what this is for each field. Also for each view that we have, we can add descriptions to explain them as well as for the solutions themselves where we can have documentation explaining what exactly the solution is all about. So this kind of stuff is really, really helpful and is a nice way to make sure that we are always going to have our information in one solution spot. We can always have instructions, say do this, don't do that, don't do that. Yeah, okay, that's, that's a sentence almost. And make sure that we are communicating at all levels not only what is possible to be edited, but what is the intention and kind of direction for editability in most other tools right now. This kind of stuff help text, custom guides, this all needs to be MacGyvered, we have to just make it up, wing it, do workarounds to provide this level of documentation. But for geeky teams that are a little bit more process driven, there's a lot of appeal of having this baked into the interface. I mean it doesn't matter what feature you're going into. When it comes to SmartSuite, there is so much more attention to documentation and permissions than what I've seen in other options. And I don't think that's an accident. I don't think this permissions focus is just like a coincidence. First of all, it was a gap in the market for work management tools. There wasn't really a lot out there that served this need. And two, I think this is actually an accidental through line from the CEO's previous history. Now this is just a theory here, but I was stalking, you know, the team behind SmartSuite prior to doing these videos and I was learning a little bit about the background of the CEO being an enterprise governance risk and compliance software. Intentionally or not, I have a feeling that that bias, that experience is kind of weaving its way into this kind of content. I mean, who starts a work management platform and is like, you know what, in our first version we need to make sure we have good documentation. Like what kind of superhuman does that kind of stuff? Well, apparently people who work in this kind of background for client services, businesses, say agencies working with clients, or anyone handling confidential information, or larger teams or really just anyone who prefers slightly more set work environment. I really think this is a feature that you want to pay attention to. This previously wasn't something out there on the market and now that it's here for folks who are struggling in this area, it might be worth a closer look. I could definitely see this being the feature set that makes the decision for some of you out there now that is Section one. Before we go on to number two, the second feature set I think you want to keep an eye on. I want to just be upfront and say that this video is sponsored by SmartSuite. That means that they have paid us and said, hey, make content about this. Despite that, all of the opinions, the thoughts and analysis you're hearing in here are mine. SmartSuite is not editing or censoring this content in that way. So if you'd like to say thank you to SmartSuite for making this free content available to you, basically them paying for your content, go ahead and check out the affiliate link below to trial SmartSuite in the description. It's a cool tool, it really is. Otherwise we would not be making this video. All right, so moving on to feature set number two. The second feature set that is really interesting about SmartSuite is the customization of the interface, the way organization is managed. Despite the fact that I keep calling SmartSuite a work management platform, it currently exists almost in the in between, between a true database and a task manager. And yes, that's the work management arena. But SmartSuite is kind of on the database y side of that right now. And what I mean by that is when we're inside SmartSuite, we have the ability to customize every field and data point, almost like what you might see in something like Notion or coda or airtable. We're able to customize here in SmartSuite, but we still get the structure of box apps like Monday or ClickUp, which is why it's kind of in the middle. If I go in here, you'll see that the very first column I have in this particular app is Goal. And I could rename that at any time to be, I don't know, pet or dog or I don't know, I'm going book whatever I want the thing to be, I can choose that record title custom right here. I also have the ability to customize things like due dates or owners or signees. I could get rid of this field entirely or call it something like Reader. I could change due date to deadline, every single piece of data here. I am able to change and edit based on what information I want to store. I'm not forced into rigid constraints of saying, oh, this is always a task, this is always, always an item, this is always a whatever. I have full flexibility around whatever I use this kind of database structure for. If I flip into other views, this becomes more and more handy as I start to see information in different ways. And so if I had more visual types of information. Not only can I call it by what it is, I don't have to go through all those layers of interpretation to understand what exactly that means and what it looks like. So as I go into this view, you can kind of see what things go through through and start moving stuff around here. Now that in and of itself is really great. We're not restricted to just thinking in tasks or just thinking in records or just thinking in books. We can get rid of fields that we do not need. All of that's great. But as we go inside of these records, we also have more customization than what we typically would expect. Inside here, I'm able to create collapsing sections and change how my record itself looks. Now, this is pretty similar to what we saw inside the Monday.com features, but how this is organized is a little bit interesting. Here I can go in and add new fields of any type, as one would expect, have them be added into the interface and organize them in these sections that I get to define on a per app basis. So, for example, right here I've got goal details. If I wanted to break out certain pieces here, I can add additional sections to just show dates and I could drag around all the fields and data that I have into sections that make sense for me. So, for example, maybe the description of this goal. In this case, I went up here in goal details. Awesome. And then down here I want all my dates and each of these sections could be collapsed not only to make my load time faster, but to allow me to see information in the way I want to inside these records. I can also choose to change the layout of them, which is really nice again, suiting whatever our brain wants to see. And I have the option to incorporate the commenting feature. So this is an either or. It doesn't always need to be there. So if there's something I don't want to discuss, it's not cluttering up my view, but it's always here. If I want to say a quick hello, have a discussion, tag somebody on something, it's always right here. So that is really nice and a nice way to keep things minimal and focused on just what you want to see in a given period. So here we go back in half and half. So that is the customization features, the customization of all of your fields, the customization of how those fields look, and even the ability to change both how they're presented in terms of layout and style. Now, why does this matter, right? Customizing record names. Why does it matter if this says item or book. What's the big deal? Well, the big deal is the ease of use for the average or entry level user. What I found, just testing it by getting my spouse to come on here, watching him click around is compared to other tools I've thrown him on, this was something that he picked up pretty quickly. He understood, oh, books. Okay, these are books. Oh, reader. That's the reader. There wasn't that learning curve that I've seen in other tools where we're forced to reappropriate fields or ignore features that are cluttering up our display. It's just simpler. Now, I say that with the caveat that myself, as more of a power user, I would say I still find the interface a little basic. Like I wish I saw more things. But for most people, they're not in my shoes, they're not doing this professionally for a living. They don't want to see everything all at once. And ultimately that's who we're trying to serve and get to use the tool for the most part is the end user. And I was really surprised by how quickly the uptick was when I threw him on this tool and I kind of watched how he moved around on it. So by having things be clearly labeled, it's quicker for someone to use, the learning curve is less stable, deep, and it's easier for someone to navigate. So if you're someone who's going to be throwing your less than tech savvy spouse onto the tool, or you're just working with folks who are lower tech or don't have time or patience to learn an extra piece of tech, that is a huge advantage here. If you're someone in that position, you might want to give SmartSuite a closer look because it is a standout in that category versus top competitors right now. Now, last but not least, the third standout feature I want to highlight for SmartSuite is their focus on integrations and automations. I'm kind of bundling them together because that's how this interface chooses to do things. But I'm going to go inside company strategy again back into this same solution. And I want to show you what the automation area in SmartSuite looks like. Here we are, we've got triggers, you know, when a record is created and then we have actions. And here immediately smart. Something's a little unusual. You see right now in the work management space, automations are becoming more and more common. It's almost become an assumption that of course my tool is going to have automations but the quality of automations right now is pretty low. Like the bar is low. Let's just be honest, they're there. But predominantly automations in work management tools are focused on things inside the work management tool. So a task is created, it creates another task, a task is created, it creates a comment. That kind of stuff all inside the tool. Yes, there are fringe stuff starting to be created around working outside of your tool. But what's interesting to me about SmartSuite is their development. What they're building here so far is emphasizing these integrations far more than the competitors. That's why I'm highlighting it here. If we go into the SmartSuite feedback board and we look at some of the things that are being worked on right now, do you see a theme, Automations, Automations. Automations, Automations. By far, far and above other software out there right now, SmartSuite seems to prioritize a partnership and integration approach, which is again another gap in the market. Right now SmartSuite is trying to be not the app that replaces everything, but the app that connects everything. And if you guys have been watching this channel for more than a minute, maybe you have like hello, if not. But I have been begging the market to create a work management platform that connects the things we already use rather than trying to replace them. SmartSuite is the first tool that I've seen that is truly prioritizing that partnership based approach. Now who knows, maybe it'll it won't work out, maybe the quality won't be where we want to. But so far it's pretty impressive to see this emphasis on connections between HubSpot and Calendly. And the list just keeps going here as we look through. Just imagine once we have an integration hub here with a ton of other tools we use with rich integrations that give us more than just basic options like single actions, this could become really, really powerful. And despite these native integrations being, you know, piloted in other tools, we're not seeing it be a priority for other tools yet. So to me, this is an opportunity for SmartSuite and an indication that if you are somebody that likes your outside tools, if you love Slack, if you love Gmail, if you love Twilio, if you love HubSpot, you don't plan on replacing them. SmartSuite might be a more appealing addition to your tech stack because it plays well with others and it's not trying to compete with HubSpot, it's trying to play with HubSpot. You know what I mean? That is really interesting to Me and something that you might want to keep an eye on, especially if you have multiple departments who have their own tech stacks. The second detail I want to highlight that makes SmartSuite automations really interesting to me is right here when I click on this menu and I go down to add a scheduled time. Whoa. Yeah, that's right, folks. Time is available as a trigger inside SmartSuite automations. Now, yes, scheduled time is something that we do see available in other tools like Monday. But for a tool as new as SmartSuite to have this from their kind of first year in the market and to be doing it at this level, like the level of complexity we have here, is pretty insane. This is really promising to me. This gives me some excitement as to where Smart is going to go with their automation game relative to competitors who have been around for years. And their automations are arguably a little bit more basic than what we see right here out of this newcomer. So for teams who are looking to start taking automation seriously, start turning their workflows into something more automated, like an ERP might provide an enterprise resource planning tool, but you want it at the small business budget. This is something to keep an eye on. When I see a tool that's this new, taking such a big feature so seriously, that's an indicator to me at least that they're going to be trying to lead the market in this category. So if you are someone who's like, yes, I want my automation tool inside my work management platform. I don't want my whole team to have to log into zapier or to make in order to set up automations and modify them. You want to democratize that, then you really might want to keep an eye on SmartSuite. What they're doing here is going to be shaking up the market, if it hasn't already. I have this feeling that even with Notion's purchase of Automate IO and the other developments we're seeing in other tools, SmartSuite has the potential right now of being the leader in work management tools. And their ability to automate their automation suite, for lack of a better word, is pretty darn impressive. So something to keep an eye on if that is important to you. So to wrap this up here, if you are looking in the work management space and you're trying to figure out which one should I check out, which one should I rule out? Here's what I can say about SmartSuite. If you are someone that needs to prioritize control feature sets around permissions and documentation, if it is important for you to be able to have your information customized, your interface to match your data, whatever that data is, or if you are someone that's looking to get automation democratized and something your whole team is able to set up and monitor inside that one platform, whether the tool is inside or outside that platform, you might want to keep an eye on SmartSuite. I know that we've all seen those tools that are new to the market that are like a flash in the pan. They don't really work well. They're shiny and new, but, you know, they're half baked. SmartSuite has been new to the market, meaning kind of really getting their traction this year. But they've been in development since 2019, perfecting this product and focused on stability. And so if these three features are important to you that I talked about here, I would seriously suggest you look a little bit closer at what this newcomer is going to do in the next year. Because for me at least, it's really, really interesting. So if you want to check out this tool for yourself, if you're like, Layla, you're talking too much, I just want to see all the things. You can check out the other videos that we'll link here and at the end screen. But, but of course, try out this tool for yourself. In the description below, we have our affiliate link where you can go into SmartSuite, test out all the fancy features for free, no credit card required. And honestly, that would be the next step. You are looking at this and you're like, ooh, interesting. Testing this out for yourself is really the next step because there's no replacement for being able to click around on your own. Now, if you would like to see more videos about SmartSuite, to save you that time on the exploration, go ahead and drop me a comment saying part two. Or just write whatever video you'd like to see in the comments below. If you write part two, that is what's going to determine when and if our next video comes out and what that's going to be about. All right, so thank you guys so much for watching and until next time, enjoy the process.