Analyst(s): Keith Kirkpatrick
Publication Date: December 6, 2024
Smartsheet’s new collections feature addresses workspace-sharing challenges by allowing curated content subsets tailored to specific users. This innovation improves collaboration, enhances security, and simplifies navigation, making Smartsheet more adaptable for diverse industries and complex workflows.
What is Covered in this Article:
- The challenges of workspace sharing before collections
- Features and benefits of Smartsheet’s collections
- How collections improve security, collaboration, and navigation
- Use cases for collections across industries
- Feedback from early adopters and future implications for the platform.
The News: Smartsheet has unveiled its collections feature, which is designed to streamline content sharing within workspaces. Collections enable administrators to curate subsets of content for specific users, providing greater focus and improving collaboration. This feature introduces granular control over access levels, addressing inefficiencies and security concerns inherent in all-or-nothing workspace sharing.
Collections also integrate external content such as Google Docs and Power BI dashboards, positioning Smartsheet as a unified platform for managing diverse workflows. With support from multiple administrators, collections ensure scalability for organizations of all sizes.
Smartsheet’s Collections to Improve Workspace Collaboration and Security
Analyst Take: Smartsheet’s collections feature represents a logical and necessary evolution of its workspace management platform. By addressing the pain points associated with binary (all-or-nothing) sharing models, Smartsheet has provided a solution that improves focus, enhances security, and reduces inefficiencies.
The ability to tailor content access ensures that users only see what is relevant to them, fostering a more streamlined and effective collaborative process. This update also reinforces Smartsheet’s broader strategy of adaptability and integration.
By including third-party tools and supporting multiple administrators, the collections feature is poised to meet the needs of diverse industries and complex workflows. While the feature is not revolutionary, it is a pragmatic and well-executed enhancement that aligns with modern business requirements.
Identifying the Core Challenges in Workspace Management
Before the introduction of collections, Smartsheet’s sharing model faced significant limitations. Sharing was often binary—users either gained access to the entirety of a workspace or were excluded altogether. This led to several complications, including oversharing sensitive information and inefficiencies in finding relevant content amid cluttered dashboards.
Administrators found it difficult to manage permissions effectively. Determining who had access to specific assets within a workspace required constant oversight, while collaborators often spent excessive time navigating unrelated files or tabs. These issues created bottlenecks, reducing the overall effectiveness of collaborative efforts.
The absence of a granular sharing system also posed security risks. Teams working on confidential projects or handling sensitive data lacked the tools to restrict visibility appropriately, increasing the likelihood of unintentional information exposure.
Collections as a Solution to Collaboration Inefficiencies
Smartsheet’s collections feature introduces curated subsets of content tailored to specific users within a workspace. Unlike traditional folder-level sharing, collections allow administrators to selectively group assets, ensuring team members only access the materials necessary for their roles. This approach reduces distractions and enhances focus, particularly for teams with diverse responsibilities.
One of the core benefits of collections is their adaptability. Assets can belong to multiple collections simultaneously, ensuring that users working on overlapping projects have seamless access to relevant files without redundancy. For example, a marketing team working on a product launch can access promotional materials, while the development team sees technical specifications within the same workspace.
Additionally, collections improve scalability by supporting multiple administrators. This allows organizations to delegate responsibility for creating and managing collections and distributing the workload across team members. Such flexibility is particularly beneficial for large-scale operations or enterprises managing multiple simultaneous projects.
Enhancing Security and Accessibility
Security is a key consideration for any collaboration platform. Collections address this by enabling administrators to define access levels more precisely, ensuring sensitive data is shared on a strictly need-to-know basis. This feature is especially valuable in finance, healthcare, or legal services industries, where compliance and confidentiality are paramount.
From a user perspective, the streamlined navigation offered by collections is equally significant. Instead of searching through extensive workspaces or juggling multiple tabs, users can quickly locate the materials relevant to their tasks, which can improve efficiency and accuracy, reducing the risk of miscommunication or outdated information errors.
The integration of external content into collections further enhances their utility. Teams can include resources such as Google Docs, Power BI dashboards, or YouTube links within collections, creating a unified source of truth for projects and ensuring that internal and external collaborators remain aligned on project goals and progress.
Practical Applications Across Industries
The versatility of Smartsheet’s collections feature makes it applicable across various industries and use cases. In project management, for example, collections can be organized by project phases, enabling teams to focus on relevant tasks without being overwhelmed by unrelated materials. This ensures smoother transitions between phases and improves overall project timelines.
Sales and marketing teams can also benefit significantly. Collections can group resources by product lines, geographic regions, or specific campaigns, ensuring users access the precise materials needed for their roles. In human resources, collections can streamline processes such as onboarding. New hires can receive curated collections tailored to their roles, including training materials, policy documents, and task lists. This not only reduces redundancies but also promotes better alignment across departments.
Looking Forward
The introduction of collections represents a thoughtful and practical solution to common collaboration challenges. Smartsheet is focused on improving efficiency, enhancing security, and streamlining the user experience by enabling curated access to workspace content. These changes align with the shift toward more focused and adaptable work solutions in modern business environments.
While collections are not a groundbreaking reinvention, they are a meaningful enhancement to Smartsheet’s platform, addressing long-standing user pain points. As enterprises continue to navigate complex collaboration requirements, tools such as collections will play a crucial role in maintaining productivity and alignment.
What to Watch:
- Adoption rates of collections among existing Smartsheet users
- Feedback from industries handling sensitive data, such as finance or healthcare
- Future updates to collections, particularly in scalability and automation
- Competitor responses to Smartsheet’s focus on granular sharing features
- Integration of collections with emerging technologies such as AI for enhanced workspace personalization.
See the complete press release on Smartsheet’s Collections on the Smartsheet website.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
Other insights from The Futurum Group:
Will Smartsheet’s New Enhancements Drive Efficiency and Better Work Management?
Smartsheet Implements Gen AI-Powered Assistant for Its Employees
Smartsheet’s Q2 Fiscal 2025 Earnings: AI Integration and Enterprise Expansion Drive Growth
Author Information
Keith has over 25 years of experience in research, marketing, and consulting-based fields.
He has authored in-depth reports and market forecast studies covering artificial intelligence, biometrics, data analytics, robotics, high performance computing, and quantum computing, with a specific focus on the use of these technologies within large enterprise organizations and SMBs. He has also established strong working relationships with the international technology vendor community and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events.
In his career as a financial and technology journalist he has written for national and trade publications, including BusinessWeek, CNBC.com, Investment Dealers’ Digest, The Red Herring, The Communications of the ACM, and Mobile Computing & Communications, among others.
He is a member of the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP).
Keith holds dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Magazine Journalism and Sociology from Syracuse University.
