Smartsheet, a web-based spreadsheet software, will release new storage and sharing capabilities tomorrow on Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3).
Previously, the company’s server was located in Dallas, Texas but with the new capability to share files and send attachments, Smartsheet needed horsepower from Amazon. S3 gives developers access to storage to run their own global network, which Smartsheet needed for it’s December release. The new version allows users to attach documents from a hard drive or server, and send emails updates about any changes made to a document.
Smartsheet also announced a new pricing structure, which will include a free version of the software without the storage and email capabilities.
“We are shifting away from a corporate team pricing structure to one that broadens the audience,” said Mark Mader, president of Smartsheet, in a phone briefing on Wednesday. “We’re moving into a high-volume type mode and, in a community settings, the last thing you want to do is introduce a barrier to using it.”
Smartsheets is interoperable with Excel but Mader says it is not a duplication of the program. When asked why Smartsheet is any different from Google Spreadsheets or Zoho Sheet, he pointed to three differentiating capabilities: (1) it provides streamlined updates to any document changes; (2) it allows for “relevant alerts,” meaning you can subscribe to only the alerts you want regarding a document at a time interval that you specify; (3) it gives a history of changes on all fields.
Smartsheets also allows users to request changes be made to a document through email. So if I want someone else to change the value of a certain cell, I can email a request so that they can fill out the answer within the email, and changes will be made without that person ever logging into their Smartsheet account. Mader said that the company will look into Outlook integration for their next release.
Smartsheet is a solid offering but can a spreadsheet-only Web app really survive? Zoho is out waving its presentation application as the differentiating factor from Google Docs & Spreadsheets and now it has Office plugins that make it even more universally useful. Plus, it’s free. I’m not sure who will pay for Smartsheets just because it’s a little more convenient but the company says that it has about 2,000 companies using its program since it launched back in August. I’m all for competition in the marketplace but I really think you need a well-rounded Office-type suite of applications if you’re going to be a SaaS documentation program.
Comments
Wow Natalia. Pretty cool stuff. Keep up the good work.
“but the company says that it has about 2,000 companies using its program since it launched back in August.”
I’d be curious to know if all 2000 companies are *paying* for this service … or if they were *enticed* to user the service (for FREE) in order to build inertia / momentum?
I wish someone would start web hosting based on Amazon S3. The same pricing with CPanel, FTP, etc.
I don not get how it makes sense for a company to use the S3-storage/hosting. It is basically nothing else than expensive in my opinion. The price for storage is _OK_ but the traffic is expensive.
$0.15 per GB-Month of storage used
$0.20 per GB of data transferred
that aside smartsheet seems to be a good service
(1) it provides streamlined updates to any document changes; (2) it allows for “relevant alerts,” meaning you can subscribe to only the alerts you want regarding a document at a time interval that you specify; (3) it gives a history of changes on all fields.
i think google spreadsheets does the first two. i’m seeing how this company can survive.
“I don not get how it makes sense for a company to use the S3-storage/hosting. It is basically nothing else than expensive in my opinion. The price for storage is _OK_ but the traffic is expensive.
$0.15 per GB-Month of storage used
$0.20 per GB of data transferred”
I haven’t been able to figure out if $0.20 per GB is both ways (storing and retrieving) or is it just while retrieving data and storing is free?
To clarify, we have integrated the S3 service for doc storage to our existing SAS-70 certified environment in Dallas, TX. The S3 service is used to store documents attached to Smartsheets. (It’s really fast…)
W/ respect to a couple of the differentiators vs. Google and other online spreadsheets, Smartsheet provides 1) self-posting e-mail updates (people can update fields within a smartsheet from e-mail without signing in) 2) vs. an all or nothing RSS feed, the ability to request alerts on changes to specific fields (e.g. alert me when a due date changes)
Thanks for commenting. Hope you check out Smartsheet.com tomorrow.
-Todd
Smartsheet.com Dev team
Slick interface and all that jazz, but I’m sure Google Spreadsheets will have all of these capabilities in the near future. I don’t see too many people willing to pay for this. 2000 companies…seriously?
S3 is pretty nice, though I think Streamload has them beat hands down if they can put themselves together. They’ve been a little quiet lately, and if they are to beat a giant like Amazon they will need to move more quickly.
EditGrid is also a powerful online spreadsheet which worth your time to take a look. I invite you all to try this out.
though their pricing model is smart ;~), don’t know how it would take off? especially when google & zoho are free??
Well security concerns always rein high, prvate corporate info can always be misused by the employees of the Concerned Trust Company without the knowledge of the well intentioned companies.
http://www.tekno-world.blogspot.com
It would be nice to see the open source content management systems, such as Drupal, include the ability to use S3 as well.
I agree with magher, too. A hosting plan with an S3 backend would take care of the platform neutral issues.
Call me anal.
“it’s” means “it is.” It’s called a contraction.
“its” is the possessive form of “it”.
English is a quirky language. Almost everybody on the Web gets this wrong and most everybody off does too.
Read what eric schmidt said about creating a “suite” of “office” apps:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/.....942,00.asp
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/.....942,00.asp
to quote the above page:
When Batelle complimented Schmidt on the company’s office suite, including Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Schmidt took issue with the “office suite” moniker. “The argument goes like this: For many people, it would be just as easy to have the computer in the cloud store the information that you use everyday. Furthermore, if you have that model, it should enable very rapid sharing so we embarked on a strategy more than a year ago to build applications that are focused on sharing and collaboration,” he said. “The sum of that is a different way of managing information and we don’t position it as an office suite. We position it as something you’d use everyday in everyday life.” “Yes, but it is still a replacement for Office,” countered Batelle. “We don’t see it as a replacement of Office. The focus we have is not the focus they have,” Schmidt said, referring to Microsoft. “Our focus is on casual sharing and casual collaboration.” But Batelle was not having it. “But the benefit is that its free.” “Well you could pay people to use your product,” said Schmidt. And that was the end of that.
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