Broadcom Clarity vs Smartsheet comparison

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Broadcom Clarity

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Broadcom Clarity and Smartsheet compete in the project management category. Broadcom Clarity excels in offering extensive project management tools and detailed reporting, whereas Smartsheet stands out for its adaptability and ease of use, making it suitable for a range of use cases.

Features: Broadcom Clarity provides robust tools for project, portfolio, and resource management, including time entry, resource allocation, and in-depth reporting through Jaspersoft reports. It is valued for its comprehensive visibility of large-scale projects and finances. Smartsheet offers flexible project management with features like Gantt charts and dashboards. It supports robust integration capabilities, allowing users to automate workflows and is particularly noted for its ease of use.

Room for Improvement: Broadcom Clarity could benefit from improved usability, specifically in memory management, responsiveness, and integration with tools like JIRA and Microsoft Office. Users desire more intuitive interfaces and simplified reporting functions. Smartsheet could enhance dashboard intuitiveness and real-time data sharing and expand its API integrations to provide greater flexibility in managing functionalities. Both platforms could strengthen integration capabilities and improve user interfaces.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Broadcom Clarity offers flexible deployment options, including on-premises and private cloud. It is praised for its customer service, although response time can vary depending on the issue, especially in technical support. Smartsheet, primarily deployed in the public cloud, is known for its simplicity, quick setup, and reliable customer service, which is consistent and dependable. Smartsheet's public cloud focus allows for broader accessibility and ease of deployment.

Pricing and ROI: Broadcom Clarity's licensing is on the higher end, reflecting its extensive features for large-scale project management. While initial setup and annual renewal costs are significant, they align with the depth of functionality provided, with favorable ROI when used at scale. Smartsheet offers a more cost-effective pricing model with user-based licensing and many free features. It is noted for its affordability compared to competitors, with ROI driven by its affordable entry cost and scalability in user licensing.

To learn more, read our detailed Broadcom Clarity vs. Smartsheet Report (Updated: December 2024).

Broadcom Clarity vs. Smartsheet

December 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Broadcom Clarity

Ranking in Project Portfolio Management

3rd

Ranking in Project Management Software

8th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

142

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Smartsheet

Ranking in Project Portfolio Management

5th

Ranking in Project Management Software

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Project Portfolio Management category, the mindshare of Broadcom Clarity is 11.1%, up from 10.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Smartsheet is 8.1%, up from 7.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Project Portfolio Management

Featured Reviews

Lowell Wetzel

Systems Administrator at Cambia Health Solutions

A dynamic solution with a lot of great out-of-the-box calculations, but integration with reporting utilities is a bit painful

One of the things that have always been a bit painful is the integration with reporting utilities. The current integration is with Jaspersoft, and there are a number of difficulties with that. If you're using out-of-the-box fields and everything, it is a bit slow and clunky. It has a drag-and-drop interface for the users. On the backend side, there is a report designer. They haven't given or allowed me any training on it yet. So, it has been a bit limited in its features. On one of the earlier report utilities, they had one called Actuate, which had VBA as its base programming language, and you could do quite dynamic things behind the scenes, whereas the Jaspersoft interface seems rather locked. So, you're limited in your options. Being a programmer, you like to have room to be able to invent and create rather than just being limited to a few selection boxes.

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Asma Ali

Project Manager at a government with 10,001+ employees

Easy to use, simple to set up, and great for non co-located environments

At one point we were trying to use it to organize a curriculum for students to just have the weekly stuff. We kind of ran into trouble doing this. It's not really designed for that. What we were trying to do is give them a real-time syllabus with pre-readings and activities and stuff embedded. It ended up getting really complicated. They also had access, and while there’s probably a way to not give them access, I didn’t know how to set that. I just wanted to let them download. It got complex. It wasn’t just people updating what they were working on. It was something else and it didn’t work. If there was some way to store more complex files in the system, or if there was a back-end structure where you could store files, that would be ideal. We use Box to store recordings, for example, of sessions and stuff. We’d like to store it in this solution. We already integrate Smartsheet into Teams for updates and stuff. That works well.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"I enjoy the Risks/Issues section.I use that to raise things before they happen."

"It makes the whole lifecycle of project management a lot easier than using the legacy systems, which we are retiring every few months because of PPM."

"We have flexible scrum teams, developers that will serve on one scrum team for a few sprints or for a project. Being able to track where people go with the resource management features, and making sure that our teams are fully staffed, is important."

"The most valuable features of Broadcom Clarity PPM are demand, project, and product management."

"Upgrades were pretty straightforward. CA took care of everything, we just did the testing."

"It makes it easier to compare different opportunities, and to track the metrics though the process. It helps us make better choices of which opportunities to go after and not go after."

"Visibility is the number one feature. They can see where the bottlenecks are, they can see what their project statuses are, why are things being held up, etc."

"The ability to have all of the data in one place from risks and issues to resource capacity and actual utilization."

More Broadcom Clarity pros

"This solution provides easy collaboration and allows non-building users to use the system without requiring a license."

"The tool reduces manual labour and it is user-friendly."

"The solution has subtasks and a rollup."

"Smartsheet offers more than Project because it's similar to a table-based, database-type system. It's like a hybrid between Excel and project software. We were able to enter the formulas and do much of the automation. We added budgets to it and linked them to a vendor page. Smartsheet let us integrate the budget into the project seamlessly. With Project, we needed to open up Excel."

"To me, one of the most powerful features of Smartsheet is being able to email others."

"The solution is straightforward. Whenever a requirement arises, we create three things in Smartsheet: a project plan, a dashboard, and internal documents. It is done through the form and Smartsheet's automation services. This process shortens the time to market from seven days to less than 12 hours."

"The management aspect is the most valuable. You can also prioritize tasks and then view tasks by priorities as passports."

"As I am in the corporate legal department, I have to deal with a number of contracts and sometimes it's hard to keep up with email transactions. Having the tracker sheet and being able to build dashboards and workflow has been quite valuable."

More Smartsheet pros

Cons

"The look and the feel of 14.4 is a bit antiquated."

"In terms of what could be improved, the end user interface could be improved to be more intuitive, because we sometimes have issues with customization. Sometimes we are not able to customize everything for the end user's interface, and they require more customization. We should be able to perform a deeper customization here."

"Clarity PPM would be improved by developing better support for the Agile framework."

"they could improve the mobile app. I think right now it only offers time sheet. If they can integrate a lot of other components into it I think that would be helpful for the users."

"I would like to see more team-based management, and less people-based management; as far as the resource management goes, to do it per team and not per person."

"Financials are okay, but there's a lot of room for improvement in financials.Financial plans, if those could be made so that you're not always grouping your financial data by predefined attributes, that would be helpful for us."

"I would like to be able to do time submission and time approvals on mobile rather than have to go in the system."

"I think user-friendliness is the key. Right now it's really clunky. We're also looking to upgrade, but an upgrade is not going to fix everything. The new UX is good, but there are still a lot of limitations. Once they work through those kinks and get those limitations removed, we'll be able to upgrade."

More Broadcom Clarity cons

"The dashboard is not user-friendly, it needs improvement."

"Every feature for text mining, even process mining, would be a plus. We have about two hundred contract management events daily. First, I share specific documents. I talk about the search function because we assume it has a thorough search when we read the catalog. But when you test it, you realize it doesn't search within attachments. So, it's a great search function, but you need the brand folder. It has many options and can become complex."

"Maybe the solution could be a little bit more flexible."

"It already has a really powerful Export to Excel feature, but it can have an Excel add-on. The way to set up single sign-on wasn't too easy in the beginning, and it was hard to get hold of customer service. They should make it easier to set up SSO. Smartsheet's customer service also definitely needs to be improved."

"Smartsheet could be improved to be a ticketing system. It would be nice to have a system to do everything."

"The downside of Smartsheet is that there are some security concerns. We were able to restrict people from sharing sheets with anyone who was not in our domain, but it could be easier. We also found it hard to restrict certain user groups from adding attachments to sheets."

"I want to improve baselines, predecessor-successor relationships, and the ability to use manual starts and stops while keeping relationships intact. Changing dates and durations can be convoluted, unlike in Microsoft Project. There are many things I'm used to in other software that don't happen in Smartsheet. It's offset by how easy it is to link sheets and pull data at higher levels, but figuring out why I can't change data sometimes can be frustrating."

"You were forced to create a new tab rather than add another sheet."

More Smartsheet cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is hard for them to say, "I have a person on my team who is going to be available, I am going to move that task to them". That requires a project management license, it doesn't require a team member license, so the licensing model does not sometimes support the way the business world is going."

"In recent times, I have been involved in the purchase of the license for this solution. However, the process of procurement changed and the option to buy individual licenses was no more available. The new subscription model was introduced, as a followed-up trend in the industry. The subscription costs put us in shock because it was double what we paid in the past as the yearly maintenance. We negotiated and the price was dropped. But this incident made me observe a lack of transparency from Broadcom in terms of licensing expenses. This isn't unique to Broadcom but seems to be a broader industry issue."

"Better understanding of requirements and how it will be implemented (with number of licenses for a given budget) would help."

"It is a little bit costly compared to others, but it is mature. Customer should understand this product is geared towards project management, not financial management."

"Cost-wise, the tool is very expensive and some tools might be able to cater to 80% of the functionality provided by Broadcom Clarity PPM but are not as expensive."

"The price of Broadcom Clarity PPM is reasonable. My customers pay a license to use this solution on an annual basis."

"The price point of Broadcom Clarity PPM is less than Planisware. If a customer comes to me, and the cost is the main parameter for the selection of a tool, then I'll recommend Broadcom because cost-wise, they are less than other solutions."

"Pricing is flexible, depending on the customer and the region."

More Broadcom Clarity pricing and cost advice

"If I'm not mistaken, it was pretty manageable. It was about 200 bucks a seed. The business really felt a strong need for it. So, it was viewed as a safer and more straightforward cost that we were willing to pay as compared to Domo, which took some convincing."

"I pay $ 120 or $ 128 a month for two to three users."

"It is less expensive than Microsoft Project for enterprise or Oracle Primavera by an order of magnitude. If you buy a Microsoft Project license, it's probably $300 or so by itself, whereas Smartsheet is probably less than $50 per head."

"The solution is reasonably priced."

"I believe a licensed user costs between 300 to 400 euros."

"There would be more extensive usage if the solution were cheaper. It's really expensive right now, and that's why we provide a few licenses for admins. The rest of them are just users without admin privileges."

"There's a trial version and a free version. Each license costs a decent amount, $25 per month or something."

"Smartsheet has many licensing models. You need to add the package that best suits your requirements. The license is paid per user and it is monthly. The cost was approximately $7 per PC, $15 for professional, and $33 for the enterprise plan."

More Smartsheet pricing and cost advice

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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Project Portfolio Management solutions are best for your needs.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

67%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Educational Organization

42%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Broadcom Clarity PPM?

The product is flexible.

What needs improvement with Broadcom Clarity PPM?

Broadcom Clarity could improve by adding artificial intelligence and reporting capabilities, which they are already working on.

What is your primary use case for Broadcom Clarity PPM?

I use Broadcom Clarity for end-to-end project and program portfolio management.

Has anyone moved from Microsoft Project to Smartsheet? How has your experience been with Smartsheet?

Hi @Eire Zimmermann, I helped an organization evaluate both MS-Project and Smartsheet when they were conducting their PM tool RFP. The short of it is this, MS Project is not caught up with the mo...

What do you like most about Smartsheet?

The tool creates shareable dashboards. These dashboards allow us to display project deliverables' status, their position in the queue, expected delivery timelines, and more. The best part is that t...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Smartsheet?

The pricing is great and reasonable enough that I maintained my copy and bought it for my team independently.

Microsoft Project vs Broadcom Clarity

Comparisons

Jira vs Broadcom Clarity

Compared 13% of the time

Compared 12% of the time

ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management vs Broadcom Clarity

Compared 9% of the time

monday.com vs Broadcom Clarity

Compared 9% of the time

Planview Portfolios vs Broadcom Clarity

Compared 8% of the time

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ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management vs Smartsheet

Compared 16% of the time

Planisware vs Smartsheet

Compared 13% of the time

Microsoft Project vs Smartsheet

Compared 12% of the time

Adobe Workfront vs Smartsheet

Compared 8% of the time

Spreadsheet.com vs Smartsheet

Compared 6% of the time

More Smartsheet Competitors

Product Reports

Download Broadcom Clarity product report

Broadcom Clarity

December 2024

Download Smartsheet product report

November 2024

Also Known As

Clarity PPM, CA Clarity, CA PPM, CA Clarity PPM

No data available

Learn More

Broadcom

Video not available

Overview

Clarity is the Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) solution created by Broadcom. The platform aims to help medium and large organizations to manage products and services. Clarity features scoreboards, financial analysis tools, and more.

The platform facilitates the delivery of projects and programs and can accelerate an organization’s digital transformation. It allows users to create initiatives, add budgets and projects with a few clicks, and assign and track teams. It shortens the time to make changes to projects to minutes instead of days.

Broadcom Clarity PPM features in-app collaboration and timesheets accessible via mobile devices. Users can access the platform via desktop or mobile. The platform can be deployed on premises or as a cloud-based service with a hosted or SasS delivery.

How does it work?

Clarity’s Strategic Portfolio Management enables planning and prioritizing of work to fit customer demands and business needs, managing the value stream from concept to cash.

Broadcom Clarity PPM Key Features

Strategic roadmaps: Clarity’s multidimensional road maps effectively eliminate organizational fatigue. It includes useful features such as drag-and-drop capabilities. It also allows you to map risks and dependencies and track project progress.
Project financials: Clarity integrates with Power BI and Tableau with business intelligence solutions. The platform uses Microsoft Excel charting and grouping functions to keep a familiar feel to project and financial reports. You can customize your projects according to investment types and fiscal periods.

Collaboration features: Broadcom Clarity PPM provides a central view of each employee’s projects, schedule, and status. You can assign tasks to teams with pinning features without time-consuming filters.

Resource management: Clarity enables you to filter available resources and investments to the department level. Doing this allows for managing labor and non-labor resources with ease.

Other features include:

One-click charts
Staffing and resource management
To-do boards
Investment hierarchies
Business widgets

Broadcom Clarity PPM Benefits

Quick setup: The platform is easy and fast to configure and deploy. It also includes migration services to help customers move to the cloud.
Lower cost: The SaaS version is a user-based subscription service that eliminates the need for infrastructure investment.
Constant updates: Updates are rolled automatically and included in the subscription to ensure the user always has the latest version.
Strong security: The Clarity infrastructure constantly updates identity-centric intrusion detection services. It features data protection capabilities on desktops and mobiles, including protection against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS).
Scalability: Its load-balanced environment enables users to scale up or down to match spikes in project-based activities. It also features pay-as-you-use.
Integrations: Integrates with financial apps, executive dashboards, HR software, ERP systems, etc.
Configurability: You can adapt Clarity PPM to your organization’s requirements.
Reporting and business intelligence: Clarity’s features include a built-in data warehouse and BI platform.
User-friendly: It features an intuitive user interface and interactive communication options.
Project management options: You can manage your project with Agile, classic, or hybrid methods inside Clarity PPM.

Broadcom Clarity PPM Use Cases

Organizations use Clarity PPM for a variety of use cases:

Time management
Product management
Resource management
Financial management
Project portfolio management
Reporting services
Project management
Ticket and change management
IT service desks
Financial services

Reviews from Real Users

"Broadcom Clarity PPM is a high-value product that helps users become productive. It's a very stable, scalable, and fast platform, even from a self management perspective," says Mohammad J., Senior Clarity PPM Technical Consultant at Al Rajhi Bank.

A Director of Operations at a tech services company adds that "It's very good out of the box, without configurations required."

Sergio C., Service Delivery Manager at Syntech, says, "The most valuable feature is the portfolio functionality because we have the ability to work with different scenarios and many kinds of financial management. We can integrate with ERP, and with other solutions from third-party vendors. The financial model in Broadcom Clarity PPM, it's the most valuable aspect."

Smartsheet is a dynamic platform with features like real-time data sharing, Gantt charts, and integration with Jira and Microsoft Teams, offering valuable tools for efficient task management.

Smartsheet combines Excel-like functionality with cloud accessibility, making it efficient for tracking, reporting, and workflow management. Users benefit from its scalability and robust security, making it ideal for enterprise-level projects. However, improvements in data visibility, real-time collaboration, and user-friendliness can enhance its utility. Customizable dashboards, project management features, and seamless integrations offer great flexibility, though there is a demand for better automation, API enhancements, and new templates.

What are Smartsheet's most important features?

Real-time Data Sharing: Facilitates seamless collaboration between users.
Project Management Tools: Includes Gantt charts and task prioritization for efficient project tracking.
Integration: Works with major platforms like Jira and Microsoft Teams for comprehensive data flow.
Automation Capabilities: Reduces manual work with robust automation functionalities.
Customizable Dashboards: Allows users to tailor dashboards to meet specific needs.

What benefits or ROI should users look for in reviews?

Efficiency: Streamlines workflows with tools that enhance project tracking and collaboration.
Scalability: Supports growing enterprise demands with its scalable architecture.
Security: Provides robust, secure environments for data management.
Adaptability: Offers flexibility to customize workflows for improved resource management.

Smartsheet is utilized by organizations in industries like engineering, education, and IT for project management, task tracking, and data integration. It enables planning, scheduling, and team collaboration, facilitating dashboard creation and automation of processes. Its flexibility in customizing workflows is appealing to those managing projects and programs.

Sample Customers

Toyota Financial Services, GameStop, Polycom, Sky, Qantas, Cox Enterprises, Banco Mercantil, Borealis

Sony Music, ESPN, Hilton, Unisource, Colliers, Extreme Networks, Groupon, Netflix