MindManager 2002 Enterprise Edition
MindManager 2002 Enterprise Edition
| By Dale Farris, President, Golden Triangle PC Club February 2002 MindManager Enterprise Edition 2002 is the latest update to this super organizational tool that helps users organize thoughts, projects and presentations. The program uses visuals and text not only to speed the writing process, but also to help folks work on and retain a large quantity of information in a short time frame. With the Enterprise Edition 2002, you are also getting the Business Edition 2002, and you can now share and collaborate on mind maps throughout a company. In this "combo" package, users are getting the latest and most sophisticated version of Mind Manager that is especially targeted to use in business. In addition, the Enterprise edition includes a strong tool for project management, innovation, collaboration and communication, and is ideal for deployment across large enterprises and multinational organizations. MindManager Enterprise Edition includes all the powerful project management features of MindManager Business Edition, and is optimized for secure server-based conferencing. While the Business Edition is recommended for peer-to-peer conferences of up to five users per conference, the Enterprise Edition can support server-based conferences with up to 100 users! Just imagine having 100 employees collaborating on the development of a critical mind map in an organization. With this level of involvement, any company will quickly jump-start their important projects, as well as stimulate the maximum creativity and innovation of their employees. Mind Manager is an interesting program that corresponds to the current interest in business and organizations in finding ways to maximize the creativity and innovation of members of the company. MindManager (MM) is also based on the many solid published works of creativity gurus Tony Buzan, including "The BrainSmart Leader," "The Mind Map Book," "Make the Most of Your Mind," and "Use Both Sides of Your Brain," and Rita Carter and Christopher Frith's "Mapping The Mind" and "Mind Mapping." With this release, the MindJet company provides a specialized adaptation of their superb mind mapping tool, Mind Manager, for use in business and especially for use across a company. The Standard, Business, and Enterprise editions allow for instant brainstorming, bubbles around branches to show connectivity, multi-map handling, print out all linked maps, intuitive overviews to make navigation easier, more than 300 symbols and a very dynamic, enjoyable use interface. Click here for a review of the Mind Manager Standard Edition (MM). Enterprise Edition Added Features In the Enterprise 2002 edition, the added features include a presentation mode, exporting of MM files to Microsoft's PowerPoint for presentations, VBA-compatible scripting for customized functionality, keywords to locate saved maps, a tool kit for map optimization, and allow users to collaborate on projects via Internet conferencing. Clearly, with this Enterprise edition, MindJet has designed this clever program for broader use within organizations, thus further increasing the collaborative creativity that comes with such interactivity. Now, this creativity can transcend from one desktop to another throughout an entire organization. With this software program, computer owners can now implement on their computer the exciting ideas in these excellent creativity books, and in the process, directly link these innovative tool books in any business or organization. You can efficiently and accurately capture, develop, and communicate project objectives and details, collaborate on projects securely via server-based conferencing, quickly create, organize and present project scope and key ideas to stakeholders, communicate complex processes and tasks for easier comprehension and presentation, visually identify important tasks, issues and relationships, focus the project creation and design process for faster implementation, and organize tasks, supporting documents, existing resources and materials in a single application. Operation Information MindManager is really quite simple and easy to use and is an excellent example of how computer software can be designed to allow anyone to personally activate cutting edge research and training, in this case, the field of mind research many think was originated by Mr. Buzan. Across the country, this conceptualization of ideas into diagrams and symbols has been successfully integrated in business, non profit organizations, and especially schools. There is now an entire genre of book publishing specializing in creativity and innovation tools designed for use by teachers in all levels of education. The basic idea is to help users achieve their potential by allowing them to display their ideas and concepts in a graphical pattern that both sides of the brain can quickly grasp. This is based on the work of researchers working in this field, finding out how different parts of the brain are responsible for different thought and other functions of the body. The left side, responsible for logical thought, and the right side, used for visual and creative thought, work together while using this program to increase memory retention and productivity. In the past, trying to implement these findings meant dependence on pen or multi-colored markers and paper, and the ability of folks to draw diagrams and shapes to represent their ideas and concepts. With the advent of such software as MindManager Enterprise Edition 2002, now you can draw upon the power of this program to vastly improve this process with groups of employees, and the results are greatly enhanced. Typical Uses of MindManager Enterprise Edition Prepare for speeches and presentations Plan and track complex tasks and projects Share project information with others Supports Internet conferencing Create Java-enhanced web sites and site maps Track progress on projects visually Organize multiple projects Take and easily reorganize notes Link shapes or symbols in MindManager to web sites or other files Multiple print output capabilities Pack & deliver - makes multiple maps and Web export easy and flexible Improved export features - now to MS PowerPoint program VBA-compatible scripting for customized functionality Real-time group conferencing Import bitmaps Graphic bubbles to show associations New symbol gallery management 400 new symbols Wherever there are project teams and wherever there is a need for effective management, collaboration and communication, there is a use for MindManager Enterprise Edition 2002. These applications include project management, strategic planning, joint application development, creating and delivering training content, live, online brainstorming and meeting sessions, enterprise resource planning, and developing and delivering engaging interactive presentations. With the Enterprise edition, professionals can quickly magnify the impact of their collaborative efforts, while more effectively generating high quality mind maps and diagrams that represent their projects. In addition, the Enterprise 2002 edition supports large-scale deployment, and the program includes robust conference server security features, control of all settings and access to conferences, individual user accounts for each conference participant, an option to specify which users have access to a given conference, an option to specify read-only access during the conference, and thin client support for Windows Terminal Server and Citrix support. Enterprise Conference Server In the Enterprise Edition 2002, conferencing allows up to 100 participants to collaborate on maps in a secure, robust, and easy-to-use environment. Traditionally, MindManager conferencing has been a powerful tool for running meetings with remote team members. New permanent or ongoing conferences in MindManager are essential for recurring meetings or collaboration occurring over a long time period. As information is added to maps shared in the conference, all participants see the changes in real time or as soon as they join the conference. Shared maps are stored on a conference server where the data is secure. MindManager Enterprise conferencing has a client-server architecture. The client is built into MindManager 2002 Enterprise Edition, while the server software is installed separately. A license for the Enterprise Conference Server software is included with every purchase of MindManager 2002 Enterprise Edition. Enterprise Conference Server should be installed in a central location where your participants can access it via http. If your participants will be outside your corporate firewall, the conference server must be accessible outside your firewall. Once the server is set up and user accounts are created, each MindManager application is configured to communicate with the server. After logging on to the server, each participant can see a list of conferences hosted there. Features in the Enterprise Conference Server include Java-based client-server architecture, guest or registered user accounts, restricted access per conference to users on an access list, scaling up to 100 participants or more depending on hardware configuration, create ongoing collaborative conferences, and permanent conferences for recurring meetings. Basic Operation A mind map starts with an empty shape in the middle of the screen in which you enter text that indicates the central concept of the drawing. You move the mouse outside this central shape and add other ideas by tapping the Insert key on the keyboard and entering text for this supplemental idea. Using the Enter key adds "main" ideas to the central shape, and the Insert key adds additional shapes to these sub-topics. MindManager will automatically draw links to connect the central shape with these other supplemental ideas and any additional ones you wish to add. Cool! Using the included symbol library, you can easily select other graphics files that might represent the intent of the concept and then add text to the idea, color-code the shapes, as well as add dates to them. When finished, you can save the file in a proprietary file format, convert it to an HTML file, share it with others with the conferencing feature, as well as use the file as an actual web site that includes active links to other files or other web sites. You can also print the file onto a standard size piece of paper, and explode the file into "tiles" that can be taped together on a flip chart. You can also convert mind maps and print them as traditional outlines. As with most software today, MindManager's help files are accessible online, and there is no supplemental guidebook. However, the tutorials and the help files are well prepared and do provide all the help new users of this software will need to quickly get up and running with MindManager. Comparable Products MindManager Enterprise Edition 2002 is but one of many such tools now on the market designed around the concept of mind mapping, and allowing collaboration using Java-based clients linked via TCP/IP. Such programs include MindJET's own equally superb Mind Manager Standard Edition and the Business Edition, Smart Technologies, Inc.'s SmartIdeas (www.smarttech.com) and Inspiration Software's Inspiration 6 (www.inspiration.com). MindManager is one of the less complex of these applications and also more aggressively priced for a greater use in a broader scheme of different types of businesses and organizations. Click here for a review of the Mind Manager Standard Edition. Recommendation MindManager Enterprise Edition 2002 is easily one of the most interesting, creative software programs now on the market, and with its very aggressive price point most all businesses and organizations should give this program serious consideration for use by their teams. With companies involved in serious competition or heavily committed to an aggressive marketing investment, this program will prove a valuable investment in assisting their employees in stimulating their creativity and productivity. In this highly specialized genre of "mind mapping" computer software, with the release of this new 2002 version of the Enterprise Edition, MindJet now takes over first place, ahead of the stiff competition from other similar programs, such as Inspiration. Future Integration Into Operating Systems This dynamic, symbolic representation of ideas and concepts not only has been incorporated into neat workstation programs like MindManger, but is also being worked on by other vendors to change the present concept of how a computer user interface operates and appears to the user. Inspired by the fundamental hyperlink design and concept of the World Wide Web, companies such as CoCo Systems (www.coco.co.uk), Natrificial (www.natrificial.com), and MindJet are developing products like MindManager that organize information graphically and in more intuitive ways. In the next decade, look for this mind map concept to be further integrated within an operating system. Price $ 269 MM Enterprise Edition 2002 $1,278 MM Enterprise Edition 2002 - 5-user Pack $ 89 MM Upgrade From Business Edition 2002 $ 139 MM Upgrade From Business Edition 4.0 $ 199 MM Upgrade From Standard Edition 4.0 Multiple, student, teacher and school discounts are available System Configuration Requirements Pentium 133MHz or higher Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0-SP 6, 2000, XP 48MB RAM or greater 20MB free disk space 30MB space for symbols Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution monitor, 256 colors or more Enterprise Edition Conference Server Requirements Pentium III-600MHz minimum, P-III 800MHz recommended Windows NT 4.0, 2000 Professional or higher 128MB RAM minimum, 256MB recommended 45 MB free disk space, plus room for shared maps in conferences (average 50K per map) Super VGA monitor CD-ROM drive required for install unless downloaded from the Internet Network card Dedicated IP address Proprietary http server installed on port 80 by default - port can be changed HTTP access to server required for all conference participants Contact Hobart Swan Public Relations Manager Mindjet LLC - Visual Thinking 125 E. Sir Francis Drake Blvd., 4th Floor Larkspur, California 949393 415-925-3120, ext. 134 FAX 415-925-3110 hobart.swan@mindjet.com www.mindjet.com info@mindjet.com |