Real-Time Client Collaboration with SmartSuite: Take Your Collaboration to the Next Level

SmartSuite for real-time client collaboration

In today's fast-paced business environment, real-time client collaboration is more critical than ever. Companies need to be able to communicate and share information seamlessly across teams and with external stakeholders. This is where solutions like SmartSuite for real-time client collaboration come into play. SmartSuite is a powerful work management platform that enables real-time client collaboration through features like live data sharing, granular permissions, customizable client portals, and robust integrations. In this article, we'll explore how SmartSuite facilitates efficient collaboration and seamless communication between companies and their clients. In this article, we cover insight on real-time client collaboration from our exclusive Software Spotlight podcast interview with Avi Hercenberg, Partnership Director at SmartSuite.

Direct Data Access

SmartSuite offers several capabilities to facilitate seamless collaboration with clients and external stakeholders. The platform provides easy ways to share live data, give granular access, and enable real-time communication. With SmartSuite, clients can access relevant datasets and workflows directly. Rather than manually exporting and sending static reports, clients can log in to customized portals to view live data.

Hercenberg explained, “You can generate a link, and this is a shareable link, and I can add a passcode and so on and restrict what people see through this link. But this becomes either an embeddable link or a public one that I can dynamically give my client and anything in this view.” Overall, customer feedback on the solution has been good.

SmartSuite's views feature powers these customizable client portals. Filters and permissions can be set only to expose specific data fields and records to clients.

Granular Permissions

SmartSuite allows permissions to be set at a very granular level to control client access. Teams, roles, and even individual data fields can have separate permissions. As Hercenberg said, “You have the ability to control permissions at the field level. Clients can add people directly into Smart Suite.” This ensures clients only see the data that is relevant to them while maintaining security and compliance.

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Live Shareable Views

One of SmartSuite's key differentiators is giving clients access to live views of workflows and data. These dynamic views automatically reflect updates without manually exporting or sharing static documents.

“The difference between this and sharing a spreadsheet with a client is that this gets updated live. So anytime the client refreshes their live link, they'll see what you see on your side in this particular view.” Hercenberg said.

This enables real-time collaboration as changes are instantly visible to all stakeholders. With SmartSuite for real-time client collaboration, clients can access approved datasets and workflows through granular permissions and filtered views.

Embeddable Links and Portals

In addition to direct SmartSuite access, clients can be provided embeddable links or client portals into specific views and workflows. SmartSuite integrates with tools like Noloco, Softr, and WeWeb to build customized portals. These portals facilitate seamless real-time collaboration while maintaining control over what clients can access.

By enabling configurable data access, granular permissions, live views, and customizable portals, SmartSuite provides powerful capabilities for collaborating with clients and external stakeholders. The platform facilitates real-time communication and transparency without compromising security or compliance.

Integrations for Building Client Portals

To build a robust and functional client portal, it's essential to have integrations with key tools for managing data, payments, communication, and more. Platforms like Noloco, Softr, and WeWeb offer strong integration capabilities to connect client portals to essential business systems.

Noloco provides native integration with data sources like Airtable, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Google Sheets to bring data into client portals. Hercenberg explained, “With Noloco, you can connect and integrate data from multiple sources like Airtable, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Google Sheets. By centralizing your data, you can streamline customer communication and share vital information with your customers.”

For example, a consulting firm could build a client portal in Noloco connected to their Google Sheets-based project tracking system. This lets them expose live project data to clients in a polished portal interface. With SmartSuite for real-time client collaboration, clients can access approved datasets and workflows through granular permissions and filtered views.

No Code Solutions

Softr also integrates directly with Airtable to sync data bi-directionally. Airtable is the backend database, while Softr provides the frontend portal interface. Companies like law firms have leveraged this to share case details with clients through portals designed in Softr.

In addition to data connectivity, these platforms integrate with payment tools, email marketing, automation, and more. For instance, Noloco offers native integration with payment processors like Stripe to handle payments from portal users. SmartSuite for real-time client collaboration facilitates seamless communication between companies and clients with shareable live views and embeddable links.

WeWeb provides open integration capabilities to bring in data from any source. Their site explains, “You can connect to any REST API, SQL database, or other no-code software tools like Airtable and Xano. You bring your own backend and use it in WeWeb.”

This flexibility allows companies to build WeWeb portals on their existing data infrastructure. An electronics manufacturer could connect a WeWeb portal to internal ERP and inventory systems to provide supply chain visibility to distributor clients.

Between native integrations and services like Zapier, the integration capabilities of these no-code portal platforms open up many possibilities. With the right integrations, portals can serve as a unified gateway for clients to access the tools and information they need in one place. No-code integration capabilities make this level of connectivity accessible without engineering resources.

Sync Data from CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot

Integrating your client portal with your CRM enables seamlessly syncing client data between the two systems. When clients sign up on the portal, their contact information can automatically populate into your CRM as a new lead. As they move through your sales funnel in the CRM, those status changes can also reflect on the portal side. Bidirectional syncing ensures both systems stay current as client data changes. This consolidation provides a single source of truth for client information.

Launch Support Tickets in Zendesk from the Portal

Embedding Zendesk ticketing capabilities directly within your client portal makes it easy for clients to get help. They can initiate new support tickets without leaving the portal, and the tickets seamlessly open in your Zendesk account on the backend. Clients can track and respond to tickets while your team handles them on the Zendesk side. This integration eliminates the need to manually transfer ticket details between systems, seamlessly connecting your client portal and helpdesk platform.

Register Portal Users for Email Newsletters and Drip Campaigns

When a new user signs up on the client portal, use automation to instantly add them to email nurture campaigns in your marketing platform. This immediately engages new contacts with relevant, ongoing content tailored to their interests and journey stage. Combining signup on the portal with enrollment in email nurturing provides a smooth transition for converting contacts into loyal customers. This integration enables coordinating the portal experience with ongoing marketing engagement. Integrations make SmartSuite for real-time client collaboration powerful by connecting portals to essential tools like CRMs, helpdesks, and payment processors.

Connect Portal Actions to Workflow Automations

Leverage Zapier to connect client actions on the portal to triggers that kick off automations across your other platforms. A new portal user signup can trigger an automation to add them to your CRM and email nurture flow. Downloading a content offer can trigger adding them to a specific email segment. Submitting a contact form can automatically create a lead in the CRM with the details. The integration with Zapier enables any portal activity to connect with workflows across your business systems.

Embed Third-Party Apps like Typeform and Calendly

Incorporate other apps your clients use directly within your branded portal experience. Embed Typeform surveys to collect feedback. Add Calendly scheduling so clients can book calls with your sales team. Display social feeds from Instagram or Twitter. The ability to embed and integrate external apps relevant to your clients directly into the portal provides a more robust and engaging experience. Your portal becomes a centralized hub connecting your clients with all the necessary touchpoints.

Process Subscriptions And Payments with Stripe

Integrate Stripe to allow clients to quickly pay invoices, make one-time purchases, set up recurring payments, and manage subscriptions completely through your portal. Stripe handles the payment processing securely on the backend while you control the client-facing checkout and billing experience. This extends your portal to incorporate commerce capabilities, account management, and support interactions. The Stripe integration facilitates monetizing your portal and streamlining your billing workflows.

Secure Collaboration with External Users

As companies increasingly collaborate with partners, vendors, clients, and other external stakeholders, it's crucial to maintain security and access controls over sensitive data. SmartSuite provides robust capabilities to share information securely with outside parties without compromising data governance.

Isolate External Users

External users like clients can be added directly in SmartSuite but tagged as “clients” to manage permissions differently than internal team members. As Hercenberg outlined, “When they add the client, they can tag them as a client versus an employee. So, um, easily you can figure out who's a client, who's an employee, and then they can also control the permissions down to the field level.”

This isolation and tagging of external users enables customized permission policies tailored to their access requirements. The precision access controls in SmartSuite for real-time client collaboration ensure security and compliance when collaborating with external stakeholders.

Limit Data Exposure

SmartSuite allows the sharing of filtered views externally, exposing only specific approved data fields and records. As Hercenberg explained, Rather than granting open access to all data, filtered views provide a window into limited, relevant information.

Compliance and Data Privacy

SmartSuite follows regulations like GDPR for data privacy and enables compliance workflows. As Hercenberg noted, “We work with regulated industries. We work with…industries, and you know, we work with customers in the financial industry, government industry, you know, we have defense industries on our platform. We've gone through a series of certifications.”

The platform provides the security and governance required across industries with sensitive data. SmartSuite delivers robust, granular access controls to securely collaborate and share data with clients, partners, and other external stakeholders. Features like isolated permissions, filtered views, and field-level controls ensure security and compliance when working with external parties.

We believe that real-time collaboration allows teams to work together seamlessly, bridging geographical divides and enabling rapid iteration. Microsoft has a similar thought.

Precision Access Control

SmartSuite enables setting permissions at a granular level to control what clients can view and edit. Teams, individual members, and specific data fields can have customized access rules.

As Hercenberg outlined: “You can also control the permissions down to the field level. So that's one way we see clients just adding people directly into SmartSuite.” This tailored access prevents overexposing data to clients while enabling relevant collaboration.

Customizable Client Portals

In addition to direct SmartSuite access, customizable client portals can be embedded to expose specific workflows. SmartSuite integrates with solutions like Noloco, Softr, and WeWeb for building portals.

As Hercenberg summarized: “You can have your work happening within SmartSuite and then have some sort of customer portal that again dynamically pulls bits and pieces that you wanna expose to your client.” These tailored portals facilitate collaboration while controlling data access.

SmartSuite enables seamless real-time collaboration between companies and clients with its flexible access options, granular permissions, live views, and integration capabilities. The platform provides transparency without compromising security or compliance.

Conclusion

Real-time collaboration is critical for companies to work efficiently with clients and external partners. SmartSuite allows sharing live data, customizing access, and enabling real-time communication without compromising security or compliance. With SmartSuite, companies can improve transparency and facilitate seamless collaboration through shareable live views, granular permissions, customizable portals, and integrations. By leveraging SmartSuite's collaboration features, teams can work closely with clients to iterate and communicate rapidly. The platform's flexibility enables tailored experiences based on each client's specific access and data needs. SmartSuite is an invaluable solution for any company looking to optimize real-time collaboration with external stakeholders.

Sign up for a Free trial of SmartSuite today.

Watch our podcast featuring SmartSuite: In this  Software Spotlight podcast, host Michael Bernzweig interviewed Avi Hercenberg, partnership director at SmartSuite, an intuitive no-code work management platform combining databases, spreadsheets, documents, projects, and automation founded five years ago by former Archer Technologies executives.