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SmartSuite provides a collaborative Work Management platform that enables teams to plan, track and manage any workflow - whether it be a project, an ongoing process or routine everyday tasks.
This section outlines what that means for you in six key parts:
No-code represents a contemporary and agile approach to constructing business applications. It leverages graphical user interfaces and configuration methods rather than conventional coding. Regardless of your industry or specific use case, our no-code philosophy is designed to empower individuals without coding expertise or a software development background to create custom robust solutions for intricate processes, projects, and workflows.
SmartSuite actively promotes the democratization of process and project development through the no-code approach, ensuring that those closest to the business's pulse, who possess the deepest understanding of requirements and needs, can easily engage in process implementation.
SmartSuite is a no-code platform that allows individuals without coding expertise to create customized solutions for any business process or project in any industry. It provides an ecosystem of different solutions, allowing users to integrate supplementary tools to manage projects, processes, and workflows in one platform. The platform is versatile and flexible, allowing users to manage any custom workflow within their organization. It excels at organizing, connecting, and automating processes, collaborating across teams, and assigning tasks. SmartSuite combines the power of a no-code relational database with project/task management features, bringing together various elements such as databases, spreadsheets, documents, collaboration tools, and file management systems into one automated system. It offers a low floor for easy entry into building solutions but also has a high ceiling for advanced capabilities. The platform does not require professional training in software development, making it accessible to business technologists. SmartSuite aims to streamline processes, save time, and provide a centralized place for all work to be done.
Utilizing our robust work management platform differs significantly from the traditional methods of building custom software solutions. Our platform is purpose-built to enhance operational efficiency and has been designed to be accessible to individuals with varying levels of technological expertise. Within our work management platform, you'll find a flexible, no-code-driven data model and auto-generated user interfaces, offering a unique experience compared to conventional application development approaches. Instead of coding, the emphasis is on configuration, allowing users to swiftly create customized solutions with greater efficiency and fewer resource constraints. Even experienced professionals will appreciate that our platform eliminates the need for traditional software development life cycles (SDLC) or DevOps, making the process of creating and deploying applications intuitive and straightforward.
Our robust suite of tools and resources equips non-technical professionals with the capabilities to automate tasks and optimize workflows, all while adhering to stringent security standards and maintaining data integrity.
Through our adaptable governance framework, organizations can effortlessly uphold development best practices and ensure data security, enabling seamless collaboration across teams.
Dedicated to ensuring your success, SmartSuite provides extensive onboarding assistance and personalized customer support, ensuring a seamless and effective integration of the solution. You can rely on continuous access to resources as your business expands within the platform, making sure your journey is smooth every step of the way. With SmartSuite, unlock the full potential of your team and elevate your business to new heights of efficiency and innovation.
SmartSuite is designed to support a wide range of developer profiles, catering to the synergy between business and IT functions. The platform offers a comprehensive set of tools, training resources, and capabilities to accommodate different skill sets and experience levels.
One category of developers supported by SmartSuite is business technologists. These individuals operate outside of the traditional IT structure and are dedicated to creating technological solutions for both internal and external organizational needs. They may be recruited by business teams or have technology initiatives as a secondary responsibility. The technical expertise of business technologists varies, but they function independently from the IT organization. Collaboration with the IT department is essential for their success, ensuring proper onboarding, training, and controlled access to data and systems.
Citizen no-code developers are a subset of business technologists who lack extensive technical training but have a desire to leverage technology to address business challenges. They typically create solutions to streamline their own daily workflows. These developers possess skills in process-oriented thinking and problem-solving.
Professional developers, on the other hand, have undergone formal software development training and are usually part of centralized or business unit IT departments. SmartSuite's low-code platform can greatly benefit professional developers by allowing them to develop solutions more efficiently compared to traditional development methods. IT organizations play a crucial role in ensuring the success of SmartSuite by establishing controls and guardrails in collaboration with business teams, fostering innovation while maintaining data security and system integrity.
SmartSuite is a versatile platform that allows users to create custom solutions for managing projects, processes, and workflows in their business. It is designed to address the visibility and workflow gaps in industries with complex operational processes and specific use cases. With SmartSuite, users can optimize and enhance intricate workflows commonly found in multifaceted projects and processes, while also providing project management and task management capabilities.
One of the key strengths of SmartSuite is its ability to create connected workflows. This approach streamlines processes that involve multiple teams and departments, accommodating the unique needs and access levels of different stakeholders. Whether you're managing cross-functional projects or orchestrating complex operations, SmartSuite ensures efficient data management and accommodating the unique needs and access levels of various stakeholders.
In the realm of enterprise, SmartSuite emerges as a robust force, catering to the complexities of large-scale operations and multifaceted projects. Its interconnected workflow architecture bridges the gap between various teams and departments, fostering a cohesive work environment and promoting streamlined communication across the organization's hierarchy.
By offering tailored solutions, SmartSuite meets the diverse workflow challenges of organizations. It provides a centralized platform where users can create, automate, and optimize their workflows, ensuring that all stakeholders have access to the necessary information and tools. With its project management and task management capabilities, SmartSuite empowers users to effectively manage their projects and tasks within a single platform.
SmartSuite platform prioritizes flexibility and adaptability, allowing you to efficiently design, automate, deploy, and continuously improve critical workflows essential for your organization's success.
You have the option to initiate your solution in one of two ways - by starting with a pre-designed template or by building one from scratch. Our Solution library features an extensive collection of over 200 pre-built industry-class templates that support a variety of project types and core business processes as well as industry-specific workflows.
Once you've chosen a template, SmartSuite offers seamless customization capabilities. This allows you to align your solution with your unique business processes, ensuring that all components work in harmony. You can establish data relationships and effectively manage projects, ensuring that every aspect of your solution is interconnected and optimized for peak performance.
SmartSuite grants builders full autonomy over application and workflow development. This capability empowers them to construct and automate work and data flows without the need for extensive professional software training, ensuring that control remains firmly in your hands.
With SmartSuite, your organization can confidently embark on a journey of Solution creation and refinement, maintaining absolute control and flexibility to address your ever-evolving business needs. This approach prioritizes practicality, offering the tools and capabilities you need to streamline processes and drive success in a business-oriented environment.
SmartSuite offers customers a comprehensive array of resources and support to assist them in initiating their journey, nurturing their growth during product adoption, and sustaining their development.
From expert onboarding assistance to self-guided exploration, SmartSuite offers resources to accommodate a wide range of user preferences and needs. In this section, we will walk you through the resources most pertinent to this stage of your SmartSuite evaluation, ensuring you have the tools and guidance to harness the full potential of our platform.
In SmartSuite, new builders have a guided experience where they can select from a variety of templates in the Solution Library that are designed for different use cases. These templates can be customized to include specific items that are relevant to their business needs. When a use case is chosen, the template is downloaded directly into the Workspace. Users immediately have access to the template and can make further customizations to align it with their organization's requirements.
Building your first solution in SmartSuite is designed to be user-friendly and does not require professional training in software development. The platform provides integrated tools and services for business technologists to create, automate, deploy, and continuously improve digital solutions critical to their business processes. Admins or Solution Managers retain full control over Solution and workflow creation while empowering non-technical users to build custom solutions easily.
These importing options make it easy to bring data from other business applications into SmartSuite, allowing you to consolidate your information and make it actionable within the platform.
Once you have selected your preferred method (starting from scratch or using a template), you can begin working inside the records of your SmartSuite solution.
By understanding this structure, users can create and manage solutions more effectively in SmartSuite:
A Solution is a collection of data in SmartSuite, designed to contain all the information related to a business process or workflow. Solutions appear on your Homepage in the form of square icons with a title and an emoji/icon.
Tables in SmartSuite hold information about one type of item; for example, projects, tasks, campaigns, and products. Each Solution needs at least one Table. Tables appear as their own tab in a Solution.
A Field is a vertical column in a Table. It contains the details or data (attributes) for each Record in the Table.
A Record is an individual item in a Table. Records are the basic unit of data that are pulled into various Views and Dashboards. Each Record can include data in multiple Fields.
When it comes to Solution creation, you have the option to start from scratch. However, we provide a rich Solution Library filled with 200 + pre-built, industry-standard templates. These templates are designed to streamline your project initiation and offer a practical way to visualize your use cases with real demo data.
Opting for a Template enables you to explore SmartSuite's extensive library, featuring over 200 pre-built solutions tailored to support a wide variety of project types and business processes. Upon installation, the Solution will be downloaded within seconds directly to your Workspace environment.
Within SmartSuite, you'll find the Solution Template Library, a valuable resource of pre-constructed templates. These templates are thoughtfully designed to accelerate the creation of solutions for various business processes. They serve as an initial framework for efficiently organizing and automating workflows. Covering a diverse array of industries and processes, including project management, marketing, GRC, and product development, each template is accompanied by a comprehensive solution guide. This guide outlines the methodology behind its creation and offers step-by-step instructions on how to effectively use it.
You have the flexibility to customize these solution guides to precisely align with your unique requirements by adding text, images, and videos. Accessible directly from the SmartSuite home screen, you can effortlessly add a new Solution and choose to begin with a template.
SmartSuite makes it easy to access the resources you need to learn and feel confident using the SmartSuite platform.
We offer daily office hour sessions and live training to anyone who is interested in learning the fundamentals and becoming proficient in building workflows.
Each SmartSuite Monthly Training offers Parts 1 and/or 2 followed by a free certification exam:
SmartSuite Daily Office Hours are live sessions hosted by Onboarding Specialists every weekday from 9am -10 am PT. These sessions are dedicated for asking questions, overcoming process challenges, learning new features, and optimizing the use of the platform. They also provide insights into how other users are utilizing SmartSuite and offer inspiration for one's own workflows and processes.
The SmartSuite Academy is a free online training platform that offers courses and resources for individuals interested in learning about SmartSuite. It provides step-by-step tutorials, videos, and written materials to help users understand and utilize the features and capabilities of SmartSuite.
The academy offers three different learning tracks, each with various courses that cover different topics related to SmartSuite. These courses are free and accessible to anyone with a login. The academy aims to guide users through the process of using SmartSuite, from beginner to advanced levels.
The value of the SmartSuite Academy lies in its ability to provide comprehensive training and support for individuals looking to maximize their use of SmartSuite. By completing the courses offered in the academy, users can gain a deep understanding of how to build and automate workflows, create reports and forms, explore unique fields, and more within the SmartSuite platform.
The SmartSuite Certification program adds value by validating an individual's proficiency in using the software, promoting their expertise, and enabling them to leverage the full potential of SmartSuite for their organization's workflows and processes.
SmartSuite offers three levels of certifications depending on your goals:
The SmartSuite Help documentation and the SmartSuite community are valuable resources for users to find information and support for using the SmartSuite platform.
Built right into SmartSuite, the Help Center modal connects you to available support channels so you can get answers and help with limited interruptions to your workflow. Search help guides, submit feedback/tickets, and chat with an onboarding specialist. You can access the support by clicking on the chat icon in the lower right corner of any SmartSuite page.
SmartSuite Help documentation can be accessed within the platform itself. Users can search for specific topics or keywords related to their interests. The documentation provides general API overviews, getting started guides, and specific topics on various features and functionalities of SmartSuite. It also includes videos that offer step-by-step instructions on how to use different elements of the platform. The Help documentation aims to make it easier for users, especially newcomers, to find the information they need to understand and navigate SmartSuite effectively.
The SmartSuite Community is a dedicated space where passionate users and process development experts engage with each other, share knowledge, and ask questions.
Partners, power users, and experts actively participate in the SmartSuite community, providing answers and guidance to user queries. Users can also access general questions sections and ask specific questions related to their use cases. It serves as a knowledge base where users can find resources to help them get up to speed with SmartSuite.
The community is designed to foster collaboration and conversation among all users types, allowing them to learn from each other's experiences and discover different ways of utilizing the platform.
SmartSuite Daily Office Hours are live sessions hosted by Onboarding Specialists every weekday from 9am -10 am PT. These sessions are dedicated for asking questions, overcoming process challenges, learning new features, and optimizing the use of the platform. They also provide insights into how other users are utilizing SmartSuite and offer inspiration for one's own workflows and processes.
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SmartSuite collaborates with an extensive network of consulting companies, system integrators, digital agencies, value-added resellers, and freelance consultants, each boasting extensive experience with our platform.
Our Solution partners possess a wealth of knowledge and industry expertise, ensuring your investment yields maximum returns. They are vetted consultants who can help you plan, train, and launch your new workflows in SmartSuite. Our dedicated team collaborates with you to connect you with the ideal partner, one capable of bringing SmartSuite to life within your organization while catering to your unique business requirements.
Effective NoCode development requires a working partnership between business leaders and IT to allow subject matter experts to create effective and efficient solutions that solve real business problems while maintaining oversight and control of the process. When NoCode development is thoughtfully governed, backed by appropriate safeguards and supported by IT, the business is liberated and empowered to create solutions that - within predefined boundaries - streamline workflows, remove unnecessary work, and efficiently meet the needs of an ever-changing and evolving business.
SmartSuite and its leadership’s experience in NoCode development spans two decades, with organizations of all sizes taking advantage of NoCode approaches to create innovative solutions to business problems. SmartSuite advocates an approach to NoCode governance that incorporates a variety of aspects, from product management, process optimization, policy management, and organizational engagement. These elements work in unison to structure your solutions, safeguard the organization’s data, and foster secure development practices that still allow for a degree of flexibility that empowers you to change, adapt, and continually improve processes to meet your evolving business needs.
Platform controls are reinforced by a set of best practices and tools, supported and reinforced by SmartSuite’s customer success organization. These resources, when coupled with platform data and tailor-made policies, empower organizations to enforce design standards, promote the use of common data models, and enhance their NoCode Development practices overall.
The SmartSuite platform comes equipped with features meticulously crafted to cater to the development requirements of business technologists while addressing IT's stringent security needs. SmartSuite’s platform is built for the rigors demanded by Enterprise users, supporting features like Single Sign-On and granular RBAC permissions to control the accessibility of sensitive business data. These controls are harmonized with flexible workflow capabilities that ensure that your work gets done effectively, efficiently and securely.
Embrace a secure, flexible, no-code governance model that empowers your workforce while safeguarding enterprise data.
In the realm of enterprise-level applications, SmartSuite stands out for its robust user and access management capabilities, offering unparalleled control at both the platform and application levels. Our platform provides administrators with seamless management of all users and their access to data through a combination of user roles and Solution permissions that provide granular control over users’ ability to access and manipulate data. We also facilitate group management at the platform level, allowing customers to organize users based on roles and departments. Utilizing these groups (what we refer to as “Teams”) empowers administrators to finely tune access to data, tailoring it to meet specific requirements. Access can be provisioned through industry-standard protocols like SAML and OpenID Connect.
Administrators find tremendous value in leveraging group-based access control at the platform level, streamlining the administration of various roles and permissions. Developers can assume different roles, with permission granted by platform administrators or application owners. A single SmartSuite user may hold diverse roles across different Solutions and Applications. For instance, developers can simultaneously function as application administrators for specific apps, builders in other applications, and basic end-users in others.
Furthermore, SmartSuite offers robust capabilities for role-based access control (RBAC) and finely-grained permissions at the application level. This empowers administrators with full control over solution creation and data access. RBAC can be broadly applied or meticulously tailored down to specific data components, redistricting access down to the field level.. Application managers wield authority over who gains access to particular information within each application. Administrators have the flexibility to choose from predefined roles or craft custom roles, allowing precise control over user interface access from the solution down to the field level.
At SmartSuite, global permissions and settings are established at the Workspace level, with other administrative settings managed at the solution, application, and field levels. Super user permissions, assigned to individuals with the Administrator role, grant full app manager control across every app within the account. This capability is invaluable for IT departments seeking to enforce stringent permission, security, and access policies.
To provide a clearer understanding of the granular nature of SmartSuite's roles and permissions, consider the following capabilities:
SmartSuite's advanced access management capabilities align seamlessly with corporate IT policies, ensuring that your applications are accessed only by the right individuals and your data remains secure.
SmartSuite supports Single Sign-On and user provisioning via SAML 2.0 and OpenID Connect to ensure a seamless integration experience and enhance platform security. These authentication mechanisms allow users to leverage their corporate identity for access to multiple systems including SmartSuite, removing a barrier to adoption while preserving IT security controls enterprise-wide.
Corporate administrators can enable user authentication to SmartSuite via SSO to streamline application access and system adoption.SmartSuite RBAC controls supplement this authorization to fine-tune access permissions appropriate to the individual and the needs and restrictions put in place for their role.
User access to the SmartSuite platform is logged, with the system tracking sign-in IP address, geographical location, time, and duration of each session. With SSO integration administrators can layer additional protections, determining timeout limits, inactivity thresholds, failed password handling, and related settings. Administrators can choose to allow sign-in to their SmartSuite Workspace exclusively via Single Sign-on to ensure that these controls are in place and actively applied to all employee sessions.
SmartSuite natively supports password strength requirements as well as password aging thresholds. With Single Sign-on you can additionally carry over your organization’s specific password strength requirements, two-factor authentication requirements, and other security safeguards that are in place across your organization’s network and range of services.
SmartSuite’s flexible data storage approach can easily accommodate the needs of your enterprise data classification strategy, supporting the tagging of Applications and the nature of the data they contain. You can align with an organizational strategy for data classification. These labels can be discovered via SmartSuite’s REST API to provide visibility into the nature of information stored in the SmartSuite platform. Information can be supplied to end users that alerts them to data types, handling practices, and other information they need to responsibly manage sensitive information.
Though the platform does not independently identify PII and similar information, SmartSuite workflows can accommodate checks, user verification, and other review procedures to help ensure that data is securely accessed, managed, and maintained.
At SmartSuite, the security and privacy of customer data is of paramount importance. We recognize that our reputation and success hinge on safeguarding your information. Rest assured that any data you input into SmartSuite belongs solely to you, and we are committed to preventing unauthorized access to your data.
To ensure the security of your data, SmartSuite employs robust encryption measures. When your data is transmitted to and from our servers, it undergoes encryption using 256-bit SSL/TLS encryption, safeguarding it during transit. Additionally, your content is protected at rest through 256-bit AES encryption, providing an added layer of security for your information while stored within SmartSuite.
SmartSuite ensures the resilience and integrity of data by regularly backing up production data to a distinct and separate storage location. These backups undergo encryption, reinforcing the security measures in place.
Furthermore, SmartSuite offers you the flexibility to create manual backups of your Solutions and their data. You can export individual Apps as CSV files or retrieve your data through the SmartSuite REST API, providing you with additional control and peace of mind over your data management.
Operational logs from servers and services are stored in AWS’s CloudWatch log management platform that performs log analysis, alerting, and reporting. This service also supports investigation capabilities for SmartSuite support operations, engineering, and security teams.
SmartSuite provides access to Audit Logs as an additional feature for customers to monitor Workspace activity, user logins, and changes to their Solutions to ensure security standards and compliance policies are upheld.
In addition to its internal efforts, SmartSuite employs a third-party security firm to conduct a comprehensive security penetration test on an annual basis. The results of this annual report can be shared with SmartSuite customers who are under NDA as part of their security review and evaluation process.
A number of tools and techniques, including static code analysis and dynamic web application scans, are employed by SmartSuite to detect security vulnerabilities. AWS services such as GuardDuty and Inspector are also used to continually scan the SmartSuite infrastructure for potential vulnerabilities.
SmartSuite’s primary data center is AWS’s US-East2 facility located in Ohio, USA. This facility is equipped with multiple internet connections, has a backup power system, and has robust physical protections.
SmartSuite is a no-code work management solution that allows both business users and professional developers to quickly develop solutions in response to constant process changes. It is purpose-built for operational agility, enabling organizations to be more flexible, adapt quickly, and tap into new sources of innovation.
Traditional approaches to application development, such as following the steps of planning, creating, testing, and deploying that makeup SDLC, can be costly, slow, and resource-intensive. These methodologies do not meet the requirements of speed, flexibility, and ease-of-use needed by business technologists.
SmartSuite's flexible, no-code driven data model and auto-generated UI eliminate the complexity of traditional application development, removing the need for typical SDLC. It provides a lightweight development process that supports operational agility and innovation.
The SmartSuite platform is designed to support the automation of processes and workflows at the edge of the business. These workflows may not be prioritized by IT but are critical to business users. SmartSuite’s no-code development lifecycle allows business technologists to build and manage applications with different requirements.
SmartSuite supports collaboration around ideation and Solution creation. Stakeholders from the business and IT can capture and iterate on their processes and leverage the ability to quickly validate the requirements and make changes in SmartSuite.
SmartSuite provides a wide range of capabilities that enable customers to build Solutions that help to gather and analyze feedback and requirements for SmartSuite development. Examples of such capabilities are Kanban & Timeline Views which, when paired with features such as forms and dashboards, provide customers end-to-end experience for managing Solution development requirements and stakeholder management lifecycle.
Customers can also implement important feedback mechanisms like peer reviews, office hours, user groups and other process improvements through SmartSuite Solutions and features to accelerate safe and governed citizen development at scale.
SmartSuite Solutions are created through configuration and are represented by metadata and schema, not code. The platform interprets and runs this metadata and schema in memory. With this process, there is not a code generation, compile or build stage for Solution development. It is important to understand that Solutions in SmartSuite are always live and running. This infrastructure builds in guardrails that directly handle the Solution architecture, performance and scaling issues encountered with traditional app development.
Since SmartSuite Solutions are configured, not coded, there is no need to track and control changes to source code. App versioning is not supported natively by the SmartSuite platform. Solutions are automatically backed up for all customers on a regular basis. If needed, our Recycle Bin is available to restore data, fields or Apps. All data changes are reflected in our activity history logs.
If needed, developers can create copies of Solutions that serve as a 'version,' that can either be promoted back into production or saved for documentation, reference, or other purposes. For customers specifically looking for versioning functionality, APIs provide access to schema information for advanced SmartSuite developers to build their own.
SmartSuite’s single development environment supports all developers and teams. Business technologists, citizen developers and IT can work together because they are working on the same Solution creating a common metadata representation of the Solution. Additionally, professional developers can collaborate and add value by extending the Solutions created by the business through APIs and custom interfaces.
When structural changes are made to a SmartSuite Solution, the metadata-driven architecture ensures apps continue to run as the changes are happening.
Global settings are established at the Workspace level with other administration settings set and managed at the User, Solution, App, or Field levels during the development process. Solution level user security consists of being granted access to the platform, being invited to a Solution and being given permission to do and see things in that Solution. Account Administrators control who has permission to the platform and who can be a Solution Manager. Permissions within any Solution are controlled by the Solution manager, who shares the Solutions with users while controlling who assigns permissions to teams and roles within the Solution.
SmartSuite Solutions are live upon design and there is no concept of deployment. Solutions consist of metadata and run within the SmartSuite environment, on our infrastructure. They become available immediately upon publishing to those with access. Releasing a Solution (i.e. updating the metadata) to production does not require integration with CI/CD tools.
Some customers have implemented a ‘test’ Workspace or Solution to serve as a staging area separate from production for their specific verification requirements. This can be within the same overall SmartSuite workspace, with locked permissions, separate from their production Solutions, or in a different workspace. Solutions implemented in such a test-designated Workspace can be copied to the “live” Workspace via a shared Solution link (with the “copy Solution” option enabled).
SmartSuite offers a variety of monitoring and audit functions to extend visibility to user activity, content updates and more. These tools are especially useful for internal audit and security functions, in addition to providing context for record changes to individual users.
Any user has access to a view that lists all of their own active SmartSuite sessions. Accessible from the user profile menu, users can source IP address, Browser, OS, geographic location and the time of the login. Individual sessions can be terminated by the user with a single click.
Administrative users can view the login history for individual users, displaying detailed information about each session. Available data includes date, duration of session, IP address, geographic location of the session, Web browser, OS, and the user’s authentication method. This information is extremely useful for security and audit teams seeking to validate user access history and patterns of behavior. Admins can additionally terminate individual user sessions.
Every record modification event is tracked and made available for view-only access to users with permission for an individual record. Logged data includes the time and date stamp of the change, the field(s) changed, the former values of those fields, and the updated value. Records modified by the SmartSuite system (for example, by automation actions) are identified as system updated, and those records include the name of the automation that made the update.
Every automation action is logged, tracking the input parameters to the automation and the output, including values that were saved to a record. If an error occurred, the history log reflects the error and the condition that caused the automation engine to generate the error.
SmartSuite redefines the application development experience by seamlessly guiding you through the entire process. As you input information, our platform intelligently constructs the necessary foundational structures automatically. This level of automation stands as a hallmark feature unique to SmartSuite, liberating builders from the complexities of technology minutiae. Instead, they can focus squarely on defining application requirements, leaving the technical heavy lifting to our platform.
In building an application with SmartSuite, there are seven pivotal elements to consider:
Business users of SmartSuite approach use of the platform from a process and workflow perspective, and the platform uniquely supports this approach with tools and capabilities that allow them to create applications without requiring a deep understanding of the underlying technologies. The platform itself takes care of managing relationships between entities, organizing data, and offers more than 40 field types to store the data required to achieve specific business objectives. The following is a list of key capabilities that deliver on this vision.
Information in SmartSuite is organized into Solutions which contain Applications, which are analogous to tables in a database. Applications hold records which themselves are composed of individual fields of data, relationships, and links to additional information such as file attachments.
Using the Linked Record field type, Solution Managers in SmartSuite can create relationships between Apps that are self-referential, point at Apps in the same Solution or refer to Apps contained in other Solutions across the Workspace. These relationships can be visualized using SmartSuite Views, and additionally support calculations, rollups, count functions and lookups that facilitate sharing of cross-App / cross-Solution data. These calculated values automatically update to reflect changes in dependent fields and their data.
Most business processes rely on data that is generated in several different systems, and SmartSuite offers users the ability to aggregate data from these systems into a single workflow. This can be done simply using SmartSuite’s integrated automations capability that allows users to react to external events, taking action in either in SmartSuite or in an external connected system. Integration platforms such as Make.com and Zapier offer another avenue for data integration and workflow automation, with thousands of systems supported across their platforms.
For advanced integrations, the powerful SmartSuite REST API allows programmers to interact with SmartSuite to develop integrations that link SmartSuite to complex enterprise workflows with ease. A full description of the API’s capabilities can be found on the SmartSuite Developers Site.
A range of View types support data visualization and analysis, with filter, sort, grouping and spotlight (conditional highlighting) capabilities. These views can incorporate information about data relationships, supporting filtering and grouping by linked record data. Calculated values can be represented in these views and similarly used to order or filter the data that is displayed to the end user.
SmartSuite supports the concept of required fields, which direct user data input and provides visual feedback when certain fields are not completed. Non-filled required fields generate error messages for the end user indicating that critical information is missing from their input. Calculated fields can additionally be used to evaluate data in a record and display information about the completeness of the data set.
As SmartSuite abstracts the technical requirements related to data management, business technologists can focus on the task at hand instead of worrying about relationships, foreign keys or other constraints. New or novice App builders can take advantage of SmartSuite Solution Templates that provide a baseline implementation for core business processes, offering a fast and easy way to get up and running quickly.
Each step of the App building process is supported by robust documentation, video guides and a robust user community that is ready to engage, answer questions and provide their expertise to other builders. Views deliver powerful visualization options without requiring users to be database experts, know SQL commands or understand the intricacies of data relationships.
A schema visualization widget is additionally available in SmartSuite dashboards that visually represents the relationships between Apps, allowing end users to understand their data and its structure at a glance. This interface helps users navigate more complex structures so they can fully understand those relationships, ensure that data is managed properly, and that work or information is not duplicated unnecessarily.
Applications can have up to 500 distinct fields, and support up to 30 each of the calculated field types such as formula, lookup, rollup and count. Individual Apps and Solutions have data limits on records and attachment content that scales with subscription plan. You can see all of these limits on the SmartSuite website.
SmartSuite’s design process is optimized for efficiency, intuitive building, and real-time updates via the user interface - instead of a complex set of back office administration panels, layers of configuration and non-intuitive relationship definition processes. The UI is updated as the underlying schema is modified, displaying the new structures in real time. Permissions are instantly applied when configured, without requiring additional steps to enable them. Views can be configured and made instantly available, or can be modified in the user’s own environment and then propagated to the rest of the user population.
This visual builder paradigm extends to SmartSuite dashboards, where a drag and drop interface allows builders to configure the perfect layout. Updates are seen real time, making it easy to adjust and adapt while collaborating with other developers and end users of the Solution. With updates made this way it removes a level of complexity from the building process that makes SmartSuite accessible to a broad range of users and “citizen developers” alike.
To further streamline the development process, SmartSuite offers a range of pre-build Solution Templates that are pre-configured with relationships, a variety of different Views, forms and dashboards to kickstart the process. Individual Solutions and Applications can be moved or copied across the Workspace, allowing you to adapt and adjust workflows as business needs evolve.
The SmartSuite platform offers seven different View types that enable users to visualize, analyze and consume data in formats that make it easy to interpret. Use Grid View for dense datasets that are best viewed in a spreadsheet-like format, or leverage Card or Kanban to summarize and organize data easily. Charts provide a graphical interface that highlights patterns and outliers in your data, which can in turn be embedded into customizable dashboards that consolidate all of the data needed to power individual workflows.
Several options are available to builders and end users, such as:
You can easily create and publish views that present the information needed to accomplish specific tasks to the right group of stakeholders. Permissions are applied to all Views, narrowing the window of visibility into the data that you need to focus on and preventing data loss or unwanted propagation. Build in links to help assist users in every interface, helping builders create the perfect data visualization, and providing assistance to end user who need to consume and work with the information.
SmartSuite reports are built on top of the platform’s metadata relationship model, providing easy access to data while maintaining complex relationships. This powerful combination allows for advanced visualization of data while hiding the intricacies of data management and relationships from the end user. Information can be summarized, calculated and aggregated as needed for analysis. All data access is filtered by RBAC permissions checks to ensure that only the information needed by an individual or Team is accessed, and that proper read/write constraints are maintained. All information presented represents real-time values, with calculations and other data transformations being applied automatically by the system.
SmartSuite's visualization capabilities encompass a variety of dynamic tools, namely reports and charts. These comprehensive visual assets, characterized by their filterable, searchable, and sortable attributes, are effortlessly constructed using a no-code report builder. They seamlessly integrate into pages, forms, and dashboards, enriching the user experience.
What sets SmartSuite apart is its ability to unify reports and charts from diverse applications onto interactive dashboards. These dashboards facilitate cross-report filtering, empowering users with in-depth analytical capabilities. SmartSuite offers an array of report and chart types, catering to different visualization needs, including comparison, trend analysis, ratio assessment, relationship mapping, performance evaluation, geographical representation, time tracking, and backlog tracking. Furthermore, users can customize labels, colors, display options, data sets, and drill-down behavior to tailor visualizations to their specific requirements.
For those with a higher level of technical expertise and training, SmartSuite supports the incorporation of custom visualizations, such as bubble charts and heat maps, through advanced chart configurations. This ensures that even the most specialized visualizations can be seamlessly integrated into your solutions, adding a layer of depth to your data-driven insights.
SmartSuite is uniquely positioned to deliver combined views into your data. With related records, lookups, and formulas you can aggregate and calculate values across multiple Apps that exist in various Solutions throughout your Workspace. You can include the results of those calculations in any report, making them available like any other field for analysis and follow-up action. Dashboards can combine information from different Solutions as well, offering high-level views into multi-departmental or interdisciplinary activities that drive your business.
SmartSuite supports a REST API that can be used with external tools such as Power BI, making information directly available within the Power BI interface. Other reporting tools can be integrated with the platform through the API to enable similar external analysis or post-processing of data.
SmartSuite features a formula language optimized for non-programmers. This formula language boasts extensive support for a wide array of functions capable of interacting with various field types and data categories, including date, time, text, mathematics, data aggregation, and duration, among others.
What truly sets SmartSuite apart is the versatility of its formulas. They can reference nearly any field or record within an application, including lists of records retrieved from multi-select Linked Record fields. SmartSuite's formula language adopts a user-friendly approach, using common language terms that will resonate with those experienced in tools like Excel or Google Sheets.
Our formula functions are intuitively named, making it easy for business developers to grasp their purpose. Fields are referenced using field names in square brackets (e.g. [Status]), expressions utilize common operators, and syntax is kept minimal. Additionally, the outputs of formulas are automatically interpreted as their base type, whether it's text, number, or date. This flexibility allows formula outputs to be seamlessly integrated into various contexts, such as inputs for automation or as inputs for other formulas. With SmartSuite, you can harness the full power of our formula language without unnecessary complexity.
SmartSuite's formulas serve as versatile tools with various applications, including driving calculations, orchestrating workflow processes, implementing conditional logic, triggering automation events, and even serving as filters for reports. Moreover, they adhere to standard Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) permissions, ensuring data security.
These formulas find their home in formula fields and button fields, and they can be referenced within reports, charts, and row spotlights for data visualization. They can also be accessed via the API, allowing developers to utilize their results externally, enhancing the extensibility of SmartSuite.
Navigating the formula-building process is made incredibly user-friendly. The formula builder interface offers inline, dynamic help, simplifying the process of referencing fields or configuring individual formula functions.
When crafting formulas, users benefit from features like auto-complete and a comprehensive list of available fields that can be easily inserted with a simple click. This list dynamically filters as users type, streamlining the selection process. Additionally, function structures are automatically populated when a field is chosen.
Furthermore, the Formula Builder enhances clarity by color-coding keywords, providing line numbers, preserving indentations and spacing for complex formulas, and conducting syntax checks before formula saving. SmartSuite's formula capabilities empower you to unlock the full potential of your data without the complexity.
It is possible to incorporate images and other files into your SmartSuite applications with the File Attachment field, which can host any file type. File properties (e.g. name, extension, presence) can be used in formulas to drive status, workflow and permissions. Image files are natively previewed in thumbnail format. Documents can be attached to records using the Form View configured to display a Files and Images field.
The Files and Images field natively supports connections to external file management platforms. Direct connections are supported for Box, Dropbox, OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, Unsplash (a platform that provides access to public domain images), your local file system, and your camera (if available on your device).
App records can be exported as individual records or in batch. Export is supported to CSV, Excel, Google Sheets, or PDF format. External platforms such as Zapier and Make.com can be used to send SmartSuite record content to external platforms like PandaDoc or DocuSign for additional output options and functionality.
In SmartSuite, notifications are triggered whenever a record undergoes an addition, modification, or deletion, provided the predefined trigger conditions are met. Our platform features a native email notification engine that not only dispatches messages but also includes context-specific data, record forms, or reports. For those seeking customized notifications, SmartSuite Automations offer the flexibility to send dynamically-generated content. You can utilize our built-in email gateway or establish a connection to popular email services like Google's Gmail or Microsoft's Outlook.
These notifications are intelligently integrated with Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) permissions checks, ensuring that SmartSuite users, based on their roles, access only the relevant information. Users receive notifications exclusively for records they have permission to view, whether they created them, are designated as "watchers," or have been @mentioned in.
To streamline access to notifications, SmartSuite provides a centralized Notification Center, easily accessible from the top menu bar on any application page. Notifications are thoughtfully grouped into four categories for effortless reference: All, Unread, @mentioned, and Assigned to me. This intuitive filtering empowers users to promptly identify critical messages, facilitating rapid follow-ups and seamless collaboration within their teams.
All SmartSuite content is accessible via the SmartSuite iOS and Android mobile apps. Additionally, the full Web App functionality is available to tablet users. The mobile app maintains all of the RBAC access checks supported by the Web version, and its interfaces are updated to reflect real-time schema and content changes. This makes you SmartSuite data accessible on the go, opening up possibilities for remote work use cases that ensure your work can get done no matter where your associates are.
The SmartSuite mobile App for iOS is available from the Apple Store, and can be downloaded for free. Similarly, the SmartSuite for Android app is available from the Google Play store and can also be downloaded free of charge. We regularly publish updates to both apps, which share a common code base to ensure consistency and uniformity of user experience regardless of the device used to access SmartSuite.
SmartSuite supports a number of options to extend the platform’s capabilities with external technologies:
SmartSuite operates as a serverless, no-code Software as a Service (SaaS) platform, facilitated by our proprietary, distributed, multi-tenant engine. For both our customers and IT teams, this translates into a seamless experience: no need for virtual machine provisioning, server management, container monitoring, or load balancer configurations.
SmartSuite introduces a unique approach to application development. NoCode developers define the required application components and their interactions. Metadata is generated that serves as the blueprint for the SmartSuite engine to execute the application, without the need for code generation, executables, or containers. The result is a fully functional set of Solutions and Applications, complete with a user-friendly and standardized interface, backed by powerful underlying workflow functionality.
The SmartSuite infrastructure oversees a fleet of customer Workspaces, with the SmartSuite platform ensuring their continuous health and availability. It dynamically adjusts the number of runtime worker processes to efficiently handle the current traffic load.
A microservices architecture is responsible for the tasks that are generated by these Workspaces, from processing calculations to indexing content and executing user-defined automated actions. This infrastructure also scales dynamically to manage the current load, ensuring that the platform remains responsive to all customer input and workflow requirements. These systems are backed by an array of monitoring and logging subsystems that carefully inspect the workloads, evaluate queue depth, and maximize the performance and stability of all running processes.
The beauty of this setup is that customers can effortlessly leverage SmartSuite's capabilities without delving into the intricacies of cloud technology—we've got it all covered for you.
SmartSuite is run on Amazon Web Services (AWS), the industry-leading provider of Platform as a Service (PaaS) infrastructure. Their resilient hardware and network infrastructure form a solid, stable, and resilient foundation for SmartSuite and its services.
AWS offers a robust set of logging, monitoring, and security services that are leveraged by SmartSuite to offer our customers the highest level of data protection, integrity, and service resilience.
SmartSuite offers a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that is powered by a proprietary, multi-tenant architecture. This section details key features of the platform and how it benefits you and your organization:
SmartSuite operates as a serverless, no-code Software as a Service (SaaS) platform, facilitated by our proprietary, distributed, multi-tenant engine. For both our customers and IT teams, this translates into a seamless experience: no need for virtual machine provisioning, server management, container monitoring, or load balancer configurations.
SmartSuite introduces a unique approach to application development. NoCode developers define the required application components and their interactions. Metadata is generated that serves as the blueprint for the SmartSuite engine to execute the application, without the need for code generation, executables, or containers. The result is a fully functional set of Solutions and Applications, complete with a user-friendly and standardized interface, backed by powerful underlying workflow functionality.
The SmartSuite infrastructure oversees a fleet of customer Workspaces, with the SmartSuite platform ensuring their continuous health and availability. It dynamically adjusts the number of runtime worker processes to efficiently handle the current traffic load.
A microservices architecture is responsible for the tasks that are generated by these Workspaces, from processing calculations to indexing content and executing user-defined automated actions. This infrastructure also scales dynamically to manage the current load, ensuring that the platform remains responsive to all customer input and workflow requirements. These systems are backed by an array of monitoring and logging subsystems that carefully inspect the workloads, evaluate queue depth, and maximize the performance and stability of all running processes.
The beauty of this setup is that customers can effortlessly leverage SmartSuite's capabilities without delving into the intricacies of cloud technology—we've got it all covered for you.
SmartSuite is run on Amazon Web Services (AWS), the industry-leading provider of Platform as a Service (PaaS) infrastructure. Their resilient hardware and network infrastructure form a solid, stable, and resilient foundation for SmartSuite and its services.
AWS offers a robust set of logging, monitoring, and security services that are leveraged by SmartSuite to offer our customers the highest level of data protection, integrity, and service resilience.
SmartSuite is run on Amazon Web Services (AWS), the industry-leading provider of Platform as a Service (PaaS) infrastructure. Their resilient hardware and network infrastructure form a solid, stable, and resilient foundation for SmartSuite and its services.
AWS offers a robust set of logging, monitoring, and security services that are leveraged by SmartSuite to offer our customers the highest level of data protection, integrity, and service resilience.
The SmartSuite platform infrastructure is composed of many separate virtual servers that work together to power the application and its workflow components.
Many individual “workers” service the requests that are sent to SmartSuite. Asynchronous process workers detect unhealthy nodes and allocate workload to other available workers. Front-end load balancers ensure that individual requests are processed quickly and efficiently. Other AWS services such as CloudFront geographically distribute the loading of static assets to ensure that client requests are fulfilled quickly.
SmartSuite maintains a comprehensive disaster recovery plan and maintains geographically dispersed backups of data. In the event of a catastrophic failure, we have the capability to deploy SmartSuite resources into other AWS hosting regions to continue service delivery.
SmartSuite scales to accommodate increases in your Solution and Application counts (horizontal scaling), as well as increased load from system processes such as formula recalculation, automations processing, and content indexing (vertical scaling).
SmartSuite uses AWS EC2 resources managed by Elastic Container Service (ECS) to provide us with the flexibility to scale on demand. These virtual compute resources run the latest versions of all software components to keep your applications running fast while ensuring security.
Both new and existing customer Workspaces automatically take advantage of improvements made to the core SmartSuite platform and all of its microservices.
The SmartSuite environment and its data are continuously optimized to reduce the amount of computation required to serve content. This includes but is not limited to:
The core of SmartSuite is our Application Engine, which is where the configuration you specify for SmartSuite Solutions and Applications is interpreted and run. This process reads your Solution and Application metadata, creating all of the structures, fields, permissions, and other components necessary to power the user interfaces that are used to interact with the platform.
Several components are involved in this runtime environment processing, including a combination of In-Memory, NoSQL and relational databases for persistence. Other components include:
An important part of any work process is controlling who has access to create, view, and edit data. SmartSuite provides you with all the tools that you need to ensure that your data is secure while making it easy to give the appropriate people access when they need it.
SmartSuite offers two levels of permissions: role-based access, which determines the maximum permission level that can be assigned to a profile, and Solution permissions, which provides Solution Owners granular control over data visibility, creation, modification, and deletion. Permissions are set first at the Solution level, which by default are inherited at the App and the field level. App and field-level permissions can be overridden to adapt the permissions model to your specific needs.
All permissions checks are made prior to data being returned to the client, a process that is core to the functioning of the SmartSuite engine. Fields of information that an end user does not have access to are not present in the data that is returned to the client, ensuring that they can only see properly-permissioned content.
Roles represent user "types" and capabilities they have within SmartSuite. Roles determine whether the user has general end-user capabilities, permission to create and modify Solutions, or permission to administer the entire SmartSuite workspace. There are four Roles that define a user's level of system access and capability:
Solution Permissions are used to control which specific user, or Team (group) of users, has access to individual Solutions and their contents. For those situations where Solution Managers require granular control over who can read, create, update, or delete records, SmartSuite offers an Advanced level of Solution Permissions.
Unlike the other two available permission levels which offer unrestricted access to everyone or to specific Teams, Advanced permissions support four different levels of access that can be granted to individual users or Teams. The following advanced permissions types are available:
Field permissions allow Solution Managers to define granular permissions for individual fields in their App. This feature allows managers to control who can view and edit specific fields within the App and works in combination with Solution and App-level permissions.
SmartSuite employs a robust multi-tenant architecture, where application data is stored in shared data repositories, including databases and file systems. Data may also reside within the memory space of the SmartSuite engine or a microservice at runtime. This architecture enables SmartSuite to proactively safeguard customer data.
SmartSuite's unwavering commitment to data security ensures that your enterprise's critical information remains protected and accessible only to those with the appropriate permissions.
