What's New in SmartSuite: February 2022 Edition
What's New in SmartSuite - February Edition
This past month marks many product updates with customer needs and requests in mind to continue improving the customization and efficiency of working in SmartSuite. Read on to learn more.
Formulas
Calculate values based on other fields using simple functions or advanced logic.
SmartSuite’s simple formula builder makes it easy to automatically calculate a value based on other fields in a record. For example, you can see if a date falls within a particular range, display a value if certain “rules” you specify are met, or use advanced functions to compute a risk score based on a formula you specify.
Choose operators and fields to evaluate, outputting a numeric, date or text result that can be used in reports, charts and other formulas.
Formulas make it easy to pull info from different records into your calculations. For example, see how many trouble tickets are open, which projects are delayed, how much more of a project total you need to invoice, or the number of tasks in a queue at a glance.
SmartSuite also supports a library of functions that allow you to evaluate data and compute complex algorithms. These include: evaluating the numeric values of select lists to create a score, conditionally summing values of linked records, and using IF statements to generate overall status.
SmartDocs
Add collaborative, rich content documents to your apps to supercharge your workflows.
With SmartDocs you can create collaborative, next-gen docs directly where you’re getting work done. SmartDocs have all the standard text styling options you expect from any word processor, but with built-in collaboration, embeddable rich content and more.
Drag and drop media files to bring your documents to life - instantly. Add images, videos, and GIFs or embed links to files directly in SmartDocs. Need to call out a sample image in your description? It now lives directly in your document where you need it to be, not as an attachment.
Unlock the power of collaboration in your SmartDoc. Typing "@" lets you mention a specific member or entire team. It's a useful way of drawing attention to a specific section of content, asking a clarifying question, or passing along a request to finish the doc. Every @mention triggers an alert in the mentioned Member’s Notification Center to bring them into the conversation.
Drag and drop media files to bring your documents to life - instantly. Add images, videos, and GIFs or embed links to files directly in SmartDocs. Use emojis to express yourself. Tables organize lists of content, and callouts are available to highlight important information. Even automatically generate a table of contents from your header text to make navigating large documents a snap.
SmartDocs are compatible with Grammarly, the leading AI-powered writing assistant. Install the plugin and Grammarly will start giving you spelling, style and tone recommendations as you type.
Kanban View
Visualize your workflow through different stages, track progress, and assign tasks quickly.
Kanban View aims to remove bottlenecks with task assignment, help teams visualize their workflows, and reduce overall work in progress. Kanban presents records in card format to visualize the records within the flow of work by grouping them into sequential columns based on a selected value (Status, Assigned To, etc.) The Drag and Drop feature allows you to easily make adjustments to your fields values.
Group your columns by any data variable - Status or Stage, Assigned To, or Priority. If you're tracking it, SmartSuite can group it. You can automatically group cards into process swimlanes (rows) to add an extra dimension to your report. Drag and drop between rows to update values and keep your work flowing.
Clicking on any card quickly opens the record to see the details, make adjustments, and then close to jump back to the board. Combined with drag and drop value updates this function makes it easy to get tasks moved through your workflows while helping the entire team visualize overall progress.
Activity History
Track every action in SmartSuite.
Know what your teammates are working on and what changes they've made in real-time.
Activity History tracks and logs when items are created and last updated as well as any change to content. Full transparency into the work being done at all levels adds to a culture of collaboration, not double-guessing.
For any record, you can view changes by date and time. See who made the change, the previous value, and the current value for each field that was updated. With a live stream of actions, context and collaboration are built into every task.
The Activity Stream view compiles a collection of activity history across any and all records of your choosing. Want to see each update made across a project with multiple solutions? You’re in the right place.
Filter Activity History in a record by members to show just their changes, making it easy to see their contributions or which edits they made.
Conversations
Communicate with your team right where your work is being performed.
Start a conversation in any record to collaborate on content directly where it lives. Share an idea, ask questions, clarify details, or convey the nuances of a status, risk, or blocking issue - all without switching context to look through emails or that long list of Slack threads.
Members and teams can collaborate, @mention, share, and assign actions using Comments associated with records or in specific fields within a record. Display Open Comments in Grid View to quickly spot conversations at-a-glance. Click the icon to open an existing conversation and jump in.
@mention members or assign comments to pull them into a quick conversation to keep work moving. Every @mention triggers notifications to the recipient's Notification Center in SmartSuite and via email.
Add attachments, emojis, and more to any conversation. When words aren’t enough, attach images or videos to the conversation. Users can easily acknowledge or approve of your comment with an emoji response, no typing required.
Conversations inevitably create action items, which are easily lost in the sea of competing priorities. Comments can be assigned to members, appearing in their notifications and My Work until they are marked as resolved.
File Management
With SmartSuite’s File Management system, manage files directly in your workflows.
With SmartSuite, organizations can shift to a new way of working with deliverables, content, designs - anything. Your files are stored directly in the project and process records, removing all the friction of sharing, collaborating, or just tracking down the file that relates to a task.
Preview files directly in the context of your work - in cards, grids, records and docs. No matter where they are, all your files can be viewed and managed directly where the work is being done.
Adding files to SmartSuite is easy. Simply drag and drop files directly where you want them to go. That’s it. You’re done uploading files. We also support copy and paste shortcuts to add images into cells.
Directly comment on files attached to items. Team members can preview files and annotate them with comments in real-time, making feedback a breeze. Any user @mentioned in an annotation receives a notification in their personal Notification Center. One click takes them directly to the file, where they can make changes.
SmartSuite integrates with Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and Microsoft OneDrive so it’s easy to add files to your workflows. You can also connect to Facebook and Instagram to add images directly from your social accounts, and even add images from Unsplash, the Internet’s source of free images.
Work life is easier when you can find exactly what you’re looking for. Power Search lets you instantly search for any file across all your solutions. See your results by name, type, size, date last updated, and more.
Real Time Updates
Instantly see when anything and everything is updated.
Who, what, when - it’s all available in real-time, down to the second.
Any info being updated is highlighted with a distinctive color. The name of the user making those updates is displayed as well, letting you know where your teammates are working and which fields they’re updating so that you can coordinate your next steps in real-time.
Every record shows which team members are following it. Collaboration has never been easier, with your team seeing changes being made in content that they’re interested in.
Notification Center is your source for updates and changes that matter to you most. A team member needing clarification on a task can mention you, and you’ll instantly be notified.
SmartSuite makes it easy to see updates that were made since you last checked in on a work item. With Activity History, you can see what's happened by date, person, and even the current and prior values.
Power Search
Easily search for anything across every part of SmartSuite.
Work life is easier when you can find exactly what you’re looking for. Power Search lets you search for anything across all your solutions, instantly. Find records, files, members, assignments and conversations.
It doesn’t matter if you have 25 or 25,000 items — Power Search is fast, giving you results in less than a second. Perform a keyword search across the content in all of your solutions, and quickly filter results to find what you need
Stop looking through record after record, trying to remember where you attached something. Power Search makes it easy to find files attached to records, displaying cards with previews to spot images or file types at a glance.
Quickly find any item that has been assigned to you, including records, sub items, checklist items, and comments. Results are grouped by solution with details to make it easy to find assigned tasks. You can also search for SmartSuite team members by name, department, role and more.
Use search operators such as AND and OR to conduct complex queries, or use "quotes" to perform a search on a specific field. A list of recent searches is available to help you continue looking for the right piece of information.
Quickly find conversation threads you have been mentioned in, replied to, or that you follow so you can easily pick up on important discussions. All the comments and responses from previous discussions are searchable.
Solution Templates
Discover our new customer-inspired Solution Templates
We’re always adding to and improving the SmartSuite Solution Template library. Templates are built to support industry best practices and make it easy to streamline new parts of your business.
This month’s new templates support several core business functions, from Human Resources to Project Management. We welcome feedback and suggestions for all of our templates on the SmartSuite community and via our chat feature.
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