From Ideation to Project Management — MindManager Improves Business Efficiency with the Power to Visually Capture, Process, and Share Information
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By: Jessica Sommerfield
Businesses often suffer from information overload as they parse mountains of data from multiple applications and sources. And that overload costs more than time. It can lead to a company missing valuable steps in its internal planning processes. MindManager the leading information visualization software based on the concept of mind-mapping, enables small teams and enterprises to gain actionable insights, plan projects, and collaborate with team members. By creating customizable planning maps and offering deep integration with essential software tools like SharePoint, the new MindManager 2018 helps businesses harness information more efficiently and intuitively.
Businesses have access to ever increasing amounts of data — like internal documentation, product specs, business analytics, and customer demographics — from multiple sources. And while the right data and ideas can help a company move forward, the inability to process information efficiently and accurately can lead to costly mistakes.
“People are getting overwhelmed by too much information coming from too many places, and it’s making them less productive. It causes them to lose focus or take advantage of the wrong opportunities,” said Michael Deutch, Vice President of Products for MindManager. “A lot of projects fail, and information is at the core of these failures — whether it’s missing, incorrect, or teams are simply unable to make the right decisions based on it.”
Michael Deutch, Vice President of Products for MindManager, explained how the software improves planning.
Proctor & Gamble (P&G), is the parent company for Oral-B, the world’s leading toothbrush innovator. P&G faces information overload every time it designs a new toothbrush. In addition to the barrage of new product ideas coming from its developers, the company must assess more than 1,000 existing patents and designs to ensure its innovations are truly original.
Project and IP Manager Dr.Jungnickel turned to MindManager for help with brainstorming and idea management.
Using the software, the P&G team created maps to visualize developer ideas and assemble a landscape of patents and designs, allowing them to assess information and quickly apply it to product development. MindManager helped the company interact with its patent information and ideas in ways that increased efficiency and eliminated the potential for errors.
“Every time an organization is starting a major initiative or going into a project, it can use MindManager to make sense of what it’s trying to accomplish, why it’s being done, how to get there, and whether tasks were completed,” Michael said. “It’s a perfect tool to answer all of the critical questions.”
As the planning and project management software of choice for companies like Procter & Gamble, MindManager helps businesses efficiently manage the complex load of information they face in today’s digital marketplace.
Easily Organize Ideas into Visuals & Collaborate with Others
Many people have found that mind-mapping, a method of visually organizing ideas using cognitive intuition, is more closely aligned with how their brain processes information than a traditional linear outline. Tasks are organized in familiar progressions instead of lists that can seem fragmented and unintelligible.
MindManager’s structure is rooted in this concept. But the software goes beyond mind-mapping into what would be more accurately called information visualization.
“You can input ideas and tasks and then organize them by simply dragging and dropping them where they make the most sense to you,” Michael said. “From a neuroscience perspective, if you’re looking at it, you’re not holding it in your brain. Visualizing frees your mind for creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking, so you can see the things that are missing and ask the important questions.”
Use MindManager 2018 to publish your maps on the web or export interactive diagrams.
MindManager allows users to organize information — such as process outlines, company structures, or visual presentations — by using responsive mind maps, Gantt charts, timelines, workflows, and other diagrams. Users can flesh out their maps with hyperlinks, Word documents, notes, flags, and priority markers.
MindManager also fosters better team communication. While standard business tools like group chat or email can facilitate collaboration, MindManager goes a step further by allowing users to visualize everything in an interactive framework.
“If you need to brainstorm, make decisions, and collaborate, you need a whiteboarding tool to quickly capture, organize, and prioritize ideas,” Michael said. “MindManager is dynamic and on the fly. When the meeting is over, you can send the participants the diagram itself in an interactive format.”
MindManager has built-in integrations with Microsoft tools like Word, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Outlook, and over 800 web apps through Zapier, which enables businesses to use it alongside their existing tools and systems.
“Sometimes it’s not just good enough to have your strategy. You may need to collaborate and share it with the world. With our Publish capability, users can easily publish diagrams online with optional password protection, which can then be accessed with any browser.” Michael said. “And on top of that, users can embed their finished maps and diagrams on blogs, websites, and intranets, or share them on social media.”
From brainstorming to implementation, MindManager’s visualization and key integrations facilitate greater efficiency and accuracy in business processes.
MindManager Enterprise Scales Project Management for Big Teams
MindManager for Windows has everything a small team or entrepreneur needs to organize and manage their projects, but as a business grows, communication and collaboration become more challenging. MindManager Enterprise, first introduced in 2015, is designed to enhance the productivity of teams with five or more members.
“Delivering an enterprise-specific version was a natural move for us. We were seeing a growing demand from our core customer base for an expanded feature set,” Michael said. “Many accounts had expanded their MindManager deployments well beyond individual seats — it was being used by entire teams, departments, and even sitewide.”
MindManager Enterprise gives larger companies the advanced planning, management, and communication tools that make sense for their scale and structure. One of the most notable differences in Enterprise is its deeper integration with Microsoft SharePoint through the MindManager Server App and SharePoint Linker.
“It allows desktop users to store and share files, query and visualize data, and even let any SharePoint user access MindManager files,” Michael told us. “You don’t even need to leave SharePoint — users can interact with data via their browser.”
New Release Boasts Features to Enhance Planning & Implementation
The new MindManager 2018 and MindManager Enterprise include enhancements that fall under three themes: visualization, integrations & sharing, and enhanced project management capabilities.
“With the new release, we’re delivering a faster, smarter, and more responsive tool that’s designed for the way teams and businesses work today,” Michael said.
To enhance visualization, MindManager 2018 offers two new view options as well as other new visual tools including a digital architect, dashboard wizard, enhanced filtering engines, and a series of new strategic planning templates like a SWOT Matrix and the Business Model Canvas.
MindManager 2018 makes it easy to visually represent critical data in new diagram types such as SWOT analysis.
While MindManager already works with popular Microsoft tools and web apps, the new version improves on its existing support for platforms like SharePoint and offers new integrations such as Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox.
“Our new release makes SharePoint integration more powerful, allowing enterprise users to get even more out of the platform’s vast capabilities,” Michael said.
And, for the first time, MindManager 2018 gives users the ability to share maps and plans via email or social media through using MindManager’s new Publish and Interactive Map Export features.
Mind-Mapping Software That’s Changing the Way Companies Communicate & Get Work Done
MindManager is the world’s leading mind mapping and information visualization software with millions of users across thousands of companies worldwide. By presenting project planning in a way that is more in line with how the brain works, MindManager allows teams to stay on top of information, deadlines, and communication.
Now part of Corel, MindManager’s success and wide adoption is the result of the personal and positive experiences of its users, who have embraced a tool that helps them visualize and interact with information to improve plans, keep teams in sync, and complete comprehensive projects.
“Our users love MindManager, and it’s a really personal thing for them. We’ve heard time and again how it helps them be more creative, more productive, and more strategic,” Michael said. “Many users feel like it is an extension of themselves. And that’s really powerful and exciting for us as software developers.”
About The Author
Jessica Sommerfield is a contributing writer for DealCrunch with over seven years of experience with online publications in the personal finance sector and other consumer-focused niches. Her 13 years of experience in brick-and-mortar stores prior to her writing career have also given her an insider’s perspective on the unique challenges that the retail industry faces.