Intranet Journal
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Mindjet Extends Power of Visual Collaboration

6/30/2008

MindManager, used by more than 1.3 million users globally, is a tool for mind mapping. The tool's creator, San Francisco-based MindJet, first unveiled the simple mind-mapping software years ago, and it soon became a full-fledged collaboration solution.

The product's popularity is on the rise, and earlier this year it won an Intranet Journal award for best collaboration tool.

MindManager is indeed more than just a piece of business software to draw pretty maps. It taps into the power behind any business process by providing users with the ability to visually:

Capture and organize information

Synthesize information into strategy

Transform strategies into action

While it already had a tight integration with other business applications such as Microsoft Office and Internet protocols like RSS, collaborating with others and integrating it into the actual business process was not as seamless. Mindjet Connect is the answer to bridging this gap.

Now the power of MindManager 7 is available via subscription over the web so you can collaborate visually and remotely in real-time with all the members of your team whether or not they have MindManager installed on their desktop.

Mindjet Connect (http://www.mindjet.com/products/mindjetconnect/default.aspx) is a software as a service (SaaS) platform that ties together all the ideas, mind maps, and documents associated with a given business process in a common online, hosted workspace. The secure workspace comes with complete access and versioning control so that teams can work collaboratively wherever they are. Members of a workspace can literally create, edit, and share mind maps simultaneously in real-time. A quick visual representation of the workspace looks like this:

Some of the key attributes of Mindjet Connect are:

Unstructured yet organized (non-linear breeds creativity)

Graphical and Visual

Shared and secure workspaces

Live co-editing

Real-time web conferencing

Social Networking like team environment

Web or desktop based

Easy to navigate and interact with information

Raskin said, "You can view who changed what and when at any level of a given map and literally find who is working on what part of the map in real-time." Indeed that is the case as with a right-click of the mouse we could see who was currently online and editing the very map we were and what map element they were currently working on.

With Mindjet Connect you are liberated from the constraint of users needing to have MindManager installed on their desktop. Through a browser (Safari, Firefox, or Internet Explorer are supported) members can work on the maps using MindManager web. This technology is browser based and relies on Flash for most of its functionality.

The functionality lost in the web only client (vs. the desktop version) are the ability to have as tight an integration with applications such as Outlook and the capability to work offline and import your changes back into the workspace.

The editing and browser based capabilities alone are valuable, but Mindjet Connect takes remote collaboration one step further. It offers full featured web conferencing and live chat so members can share and work in real-time as a virtual team. You can invite members to a scheduled meeting or even call a conference on demand with anyone who is logged into the system. This gives the space the feel of a social networking like team where anyone can chat or whiteboard within the virtual conference room.

Raskin explained, "The conferencing features of Mindjet Connect are comparable to a GoToMeeting, Live Meeting, or WebEx and at a subscription price point that is at or less than the conferencing service alone."

Pricing

Mindjet Connect is packaged as a subscription model and has three different levels of service, Standard, Connect Plus, and Connect Pro. The main differences are that Standard does not include any of the web conferencing features and is completely browser based. Plus adds web conferencing features to the Standard package. Pro is inclusive of these plus it includes the MindManager Pro 7 Client for the desktop.

An important thing to note is that you can interchange people in your per user model pricing. So, for instance if you purchased 10 user licenses, you can have up to 10 users at any time in your workspace but those people can change at any time as you rotate people in and out of your project.

Learn More

You can read more about the core MindManager Pro 7 product in this Intranet Journal article, and on the Mindjet web site.

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email this page

Tutorials XML Basics and Benefits Removing Spyware Build a PHP CMS Microsoft's SharePoint and more at: Intranet Journal's Tutorials

Intranet Journal Favorites Creating a PHP-Based Content Management System The Spyware Guide Introduction to Microsoft SharePoint Portal

Intranet Journal Part of the EarthWeb Network Managing Editor Intranet Journal Tom Dunlap EarthWeb Home Page Jupitermedia Home Page Media Kit