By Dale Farris, Reviews Coordinator
Golden Triangle PC Club
May 2007

General Overview

OrgPlus 7 is a feature-rich, highly specialized organizational charting program that has been around for many years. In this newest version, OrgPlus 7 continues to excel in its simplicity of use and built-in control over the specialized process of creating charts of organizational structure. With this software program, the user does not have to draw anything, but instead, uses the already built-in controlled drawing features that define OrgPlus 7. This allows the user to focus on entering the necessary information about the people and their titles in the particular company. In effect, you are using a highly specialized program designed for the specialized output of an organizational chart.

OrgPlus 7 is now certified for Windows Vista and will continue to run in Windows XP and Windows 2000.

OrgPlus is also now used by half a million users worldwide and 200 of the Fortune 500 companies. Originally created as a technology foundation for Microsoft PowerPoint, OrgPlus has now taken organizational charting to a new level. This newest version 7 of OrgPlus includes more than 30 new features and enhancements and is intuitive and easy to use.

With such a highly specialized targeted use, one would surmise that the need to draw organizational charts must be a very important concern in business and other organizations, which is true. While other drawing programs (e.g., Microsoft's Visio) will allow a user to perform this function along with other drawing tasks, OrgPlus 7 is singularly focused to support only this task. Because of this specialized effort, OrgPlus 7 makes completing this task much easier to learn and complete than in these other programs.

Once the names and titles of the workforce or workgroup have been entered, OrgPlus 7 does its marvelous work by drawing the chart for you. Using its formatting tools, you can change the look, page layout, background, font type, size and style to enhance the already professional appearance of the chart.
 
OrgPlus is the #1 selling organization charting software. HumanConcepts has dedicated engineering and management resources to ensure OrgPlus 7 continues to lead in providing the best solution for communicating organizational structures and human data across the enterprise.

Intelligent Organizational Charting

OrgPlus integrates with your HR and data systems, portals, security and identity management systems. Whether you're a small business, departmental user, or medium-to-large enterprise, OrgPlus is the intelligent choice. Discover how the new era in organizational charting technology can help your organization increase productivity, align goals, manage risk, monitor performance, accelerate decision-making and reduce planning time.

Create and Share Sophisticated Org Charts Across Your Organization

OrgPlus enables you to create and update data-rich org charts automatically, with just a few clicks. Ensure you’re always viewing the most up-to-date information by connecting OrgPlus to your HR database and share your charts across the organization with advanced publishing capabilities. Perfect for companies who want to visualize and analyze a workforce of 100 or several thousand employees, this industry-leading solution sets the standard for organizational charting.

With OrgPlus Professional, you can:

Create Data-Rich Org Charts Automatically
OrgPlus automatically imports employee information from virtually any source—including HR and ERP systems, ODBC, SQL Server, LDAP and Active Directory—and creates your org charts based on the data. Refine the look and feel of your charts to reflect your brand identity by using pre-built design templates and applying multiple effects.

Update Charts with One Click
Generate org charts that reflect up-to-date employee information by connecting OrgPlus to your HR system—such as SAP, Oracle, and Kronos—or simply import data manually from any source. One-click data refresh eliminates the need to re-import data as it changes in your database; or you can schedule routine data refreshes in advance.

Share Charts Across Your Organization
Publish entire charts—not just images of charts—directly on a corporate intranet or shared network to enable collaboration between groups. And share your charts by publishing them in their entirety to MS Word, PowerPoint or Adobe PDF and allowing others to view, search, and print or save them.

Analyze and Understand Your Workforce
Use built-in spreadsheet functions and dynamic reporting capabilities to turn OrgPlus Professional into a decision-making tool for your company. Build what-if business scenarios and export the data to Excel for further analysis or for inclusion in business plans and budgets.

Use in Organizational Change Management

Organizational charts are a rich and concise manner in which to visualize and communicate organizational structure and other employee and enterprise information. Organizational Change Management software provides an essential tool for the dynamic organization to plan for and communicate changes.

OrgPlus 7 is a specialized tool for creating, visualizing, communicating and manipulating hierarchical information found in the structures of any organization. With OrgPlus 7, you have the software you need to create and manage your ongoing changes to your particular organizational charts.

OrgPlus 7 is an important investment for companies to effectively manage their never-ending personnel changes. The software will provide the appropriate organizational information and tools to the relevant groups in an organization in an automated fashion, and facilitate operational efficiency, decision-making and planning.

Human resource groups or information technology teams can use OrgPlus 7 to create charts automatically from HR databases, or other organizational data sources, and distribute these charts to management. This process is totally automated using OrgPlus 7.

The program will also support upper management's need to communicate organizational strategy to the entire organization, and show how the company is organized to meet its goals. OrgPlus 7 will also help define the available human resources, provide the data and tools for planning, and provide for planning and a feedback system for managers.

Managers can select the charts published by HR or IT specific to their departments and use them as a baseline for planning, budgets and scenarios. Managers may also need to communicate and solicit feedback from their employees to build a future plan. They can use OrgPlus 7 to provide scenarios back to executive management for approval. This may take multiple iterations, and OrgPlus 7 provides the perfect platform for collaborating on organizational changes.

OrgPlus 7 also integrates with Excel to easily translate org charts into budgets. OrgPlus 7 provides the tools and data to create budgets, support interactive planning with what-if scenarios, and serve as the vehicle to communicate changes back to executive management, finance and human resources.

Both current and future charts can be communicated with employees - current charts on a regular basis, and future charts, when a change is imminent. This is achieved using OrgPlus 7's publishing features to send charts to the FREE OrgViewer for web viewing, HTML, PDF, Word, PowerPoint, or in OrgPlus 7 format, which can be opened using Microsoft Office applications.

OrgPlus 7 can publish additional information such as telephone or contact lists, additional employee information, budgets and mission statements. You can use OrgPlus 7 to distribute timely information to employees, and enhance efficiency and productivity.

Using OrgPlus 7, a complete solution can be implemented to:

• Dynamically visualize the current organizational structure
• Communicate this information to managers for planning purposes
• Provide a tool to interactively plan for the future and feedback to management and finance
• Communicate to all employees and stakeholders

OrgPlus Editions

OrgPlus 7 now comes in 3 editions. These include OrgPlus 7 Standard, OrgPlus 7 Professional, and OrgPlus Enterprise 3.

OrgPlus 7 Standard

OrgPlus 7 Standard includes the following features:

Chart Creation

Create charts fast using the Quick Chart Panel
Store data for easy access
Collaborate on charts using drag-and-drop charting tools
Multiple views
Alternate hierarchies (matrix reporting)
Add multiple records per box
Create directories, phone and email lists
Chart alternate managers for an employee
Chart Dotted line relationships

Planning and Analysis

Conditional formatting
Groups
Calculate rollups, summaries and other spreadsheet functions
Export chart data to Excel for further analysis
View salary, headcount and budget roll up information

Formatting

Insert photos into boxes
Enhance charts using predefined templates and powerful graphical features
Create hotspots anywhere within a chart
Free form box placement Integrated sub-charts
Master page (stationery page)
Auto text elements (Page #, Sub-chart name)

Reporting

Compare two charts and generate a report on differences
Generate tabular reports grouped by relationship
Dynamic cursor-based reporting
Directories - Tabular views of chart data
Profiles - Detailed information for any box
Find by photo

Printing

Print wall or booklet; batch print
Print Preview
Print to large format printer or plotter

OrgPlus 7 Professional

OrgPlus 7 Professional contains these additional features.

Import manually or on a publishing schedule from ODBC, OLE DB, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Lawson, Kronos, ADP, SAP, LDAP, TXT, Active Directory, XLS and XML data sources

Data validation and support for orphaned records
Data driven chart layout options: Branch styles, assistants, sub-charting
View log of changes after data refresh

Chart Publishing and Distribution

Publish to PDF (Book and Wall Format)
Create PowerPoint presentations (Book and Wall Format) and specify a template during publishing
Publish to Web (HTML or OrgPlus Plugin)

Automation

Scheduled data synchronization with source data
Scheduled publishing
Automatic email distribution

OrgPlus Enterprise 3

OrgPlus Enterprise 3 includes the following additional features.

Formatting

Specify box format during import process

Data Management

Real-time time updates from data source

Real-time security integration with HR/Directory systems including as SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle and Active Directory

Administrator Interface

On demand, hosted solution available

Chart Publishing and Distribution

Real-time Portal Integration including SSO

Automation

Automatic email notifications to administrators (data refresh warnings)

Security

Encrypted database connections and encryption of all configuration files
Role-based security
Field level security
Structural security

Chart Creation and Formatting

Type names, titles and information into each box–then shrink or expand to fit text. Conditional formatting allows you to automatically format your chart to create customized views that help you better understand your organization. Add boxes by simply selecting a box tool and clicking on the chart. Choose from 36 pre-made chart- and box-style templates. Create unique, customized tabs within one file, providing a global view. Define an underlying background style that is common to all chart pages–one-stop feature for updating global changes to your charts. Import and manipulate pictures to boxes and backgrounds. Customize charts with fill effects, including gradients and textures. Automatically break large charts into smaller, more manageable sub-charts for refined analysis.

Data Management

Create phone lists, salary tables, headcount roll-ups, directories and profiles. Perform spreadsheet functions on data in chart boxes, such as roll-up totals, averages, fractions and standard deviation. Define criteria to view pre-defined groups at-a-glance. Show or hide sensitive data. Insert links to other files that contain employee-related information–including budgets, employee resumes or mission statements. Search and sort chart data within charts. Use Profile Views to show additional information about a box without cluttering your organizational chart using profile views.

Planning Tool

Easily calculate salaries, headcount roll-ups, averages, fractions of total, standard deviation and more. Create budgets from chart data. Utilize drag-and-drop calculating and dynamic hierarchical reporting tools. Insert comments in OrgPlus charts to clarify organizational changes.

Export Options

Output web-ready charts in HTML or JPEG format. Distribute charts via email from within OrgPlus. Print booklets or wall charts.

Microsoft Office Integration

Create, view and edit OrgPlus-created files from within Microsoft Office. Use charts in Microsoft Office applications with object linking and embedding (OLE). Export chart or report data to Excel for further analysis.

How It Works

You can begin by letting the program automatically transform a text, spreadsheet, ODBC, LDAP, or Oracle file into an organization chart. You make decisions that allow OrgPlus 7 to separate data into fields for you. Click the "FINISH" button to turn your data into an org chart in seconds. Choose from several professional-looking chart templates.

You can create different looks (colors, shapes, sizes, fonts, etc.) for different levels. Your charts are easier to create and are more uniform. You can also place gradients, textures or fills in your boxes, as well as backgrounds to lend a more custom and professional look.

Select your file and target, then click publish. You're no more than six simple decision screens away from getting your data out the way you want. The FREE, download OrgViewer gives everyone in your company web access to org charts with powerful features like zoom, search and sort.

Key Features

Chart Creation and Formatting

• Windows style interface and toolbars
• Boxes expand or shrink automatically to fit content perfectly
• 36 pre-made chart and box-like templates
• Add boxes by simply selecting a box tool and clicking on the chart
• Use the Quick Chart Panel to create charts with little or no training
• Use automatic box placement or position boxes anywhere on the page
• Automatically break a large chart into smaller sub-charts for refined analysis
• Customize charts with pictures, backgrounds and fill effects like gradients
• Change chart branch styles manually or with data driven defined rules
• Group, demote or promote boxes in your chart by right-clicking boxes
• 508 Compliant

More than a Charting Tool

• Create phone lists, salary tables, head count rollups, and other custom reports, which can be published along with your chart
• Perform spreadsheet functions on data in chart boxes, such as rollup totals, averages, fractions and standard deviation
• Include proposed calculations & projections using constants with formulas
• Dotted-line reporting shows indirect and multiple reporting relationships
• Show or hide sensitive data
• List and add information to charts using directories and the search panel
• Use profiles to neatly show additional information about a box

Microsoft Office Compatibility

• Open MS-Word and PowerPoint organizational chart files in OrgPlus
• Create, view, and edit charts in MS Word and PPT using the OrgPlus toolbar
• Add charts to MS Office applications using OLE (object linking & embedding)
• Export charts to report data to Excel for further analysis

Chart Publishing and Sharing

• Output web-ready charts in HTML or JPEG formats
• Distribute charts via email from within OrgPlus
• Print booklets or wall charts
• Share charts using OrgPlus Reader – Free application that allows anyone to open, view and print OrgPlus files

Plan, Model & Analyze

• Conditional formatting allows you to automatically format your chart to create customized views that help you understand your organization
• Add legends to your chart
• Create dynamic tabular reports that include groups and sub-totals
• Create budgets from chart data
• Calculations dynamically update as you drag-and-drop boxes
• Create scenarios with different hierarchies within the same chart
• Define criteria to view pre-defined groups at a glance
• Compare charts - an Excel report containing the differences is generated
• Change constant values to perform what-if analysis

What's New?

Improved Sub-charting
New Master Page
New Predefined Fields
Improved Templates
New Conditional Formatting
New Multiple Chart Views - Matrix Reporting
New Groups
New Docking Panels
Simplified Import (Professional only)
Improved Data Refresh (Professional only)
New Print Preview
Improved OrgPlus Viewer (Professional only)

Other Super Features

Automatic TXT, XLS and XML import
ODBC, LDAP and Oracle adapters add-on adapters
Convert Visio and PPT charts
Automatic data validation
Upload photos during import
Apply and save data preferences
Select templates during import
Change box, chart and text settings during import
Merge fields during import
Specify assistants, chart breaks, chart collapse points during import
Save import settings to a 'shortcut'
Publish to Word booklet - complete with table of contents and index, ready to print out as a presentable booklet
Publish to PowerPoint presentation - complete with table of contents and index, ready to present as a multi-slide presentation
Break charts into hyperlinked sub-charts
Publish to OrgViewer
OrgViewer function: Query chart data
OrgViewer function: Save as OrgPlus 7 (.opx) from OrgViewer
OrgViewer function: Index View for employee directories
OrgViewer function: Profile View for extended employee information
OrgViewer function: Dynamic Reports View
OrgViewer function: One-click export to Excel
Find by face
Publish to HTML (includes many of the OrgViewer features)
PDF Publisher add-on module
Save publish settings to 'shortcut'
Save Chart Output as XML
Publish reports to the OrgViewer for dynamic web viewing

OrgPlus 7 Operation

OrgPlus 7 helps users very quickly create professional-looking organization charts, as well as just about any tree-type diagram, such as a work breakdown or a parts explosion. The program comes with numerous sample files that demonstrate these uses.

Click a box at the top of the chart window and then click the box to which you want to attach the new boxes. The program then draws and spaces the boxes and connecting lines. 

To enter data about people in the boxes, just click in the box and type. You will be entering names and titles into the 2 default fields that start the program, but you can add other labels to contain other information about the person. OrgPlus 7 automatically positions the text and expands or shrinks the boxes as you type. You don't have to resize these boxes, as you would in other drawing programs.

You can change box borders, apply shadows, and change the thickness and style of lines with simple menu selections. Text, boxes, lines, and the chart background can have any of a variety of colors, and you can place a border around the entire chart. To further save time, you can have all this formatting automatically completed by applying one of the many pre-made chart styles that come with the program. 

Rearranging boxes within the program's available choices is easy and quick. Simply select the boxes you want to rearrange, and then choose from the 20 styles built into the program. Any group of boxes can have any of these styles, and a group is defined as boxes with equal levels in the chart.

With more complex charts, the program will allow you to compact it to fit your paper size, and OrgPlus 7 will arrange boxes in the best way to save space. The Make It Fit feature will assure the entire chart will fit onto one page. Or, you can tell the program to scale the chart to more than one page, if the chart becomes overly cumbersome and would not be easily readable if compacted down to one page.

Updating the information about the people, their names, titles, or other information is also quick, and you can tell the program to rearrange the labels inside the boxes. Whatever changes, the program will always then uniformly size and space the chart on the page. With true WYSIWYG, you will always know what the final paper output will look like, additionally enhanced by the Print Preview feature.

The Find command allows you to very quickly find someone in a large, or complex chart, to allow you to more quickly edit their name or information. In addition, you can track numerical data in the boxes, such as salaries, commissions, budgets, office information, or project hours. The Amounts feature allows you to perform calculations on this data.

Some customization of the charts is also allowed. You can add a company logo to the chart, create a special boxed legend, or draw extra lines to separate groups within the company.

Compare to PowerPoint

Still Using PowerPoint? MS OrgChart, included in Microsoft PowerPoint 97 through Office 2000, is an earlier, reduced version of OrgPlus. Later versions of OrgPlus are completely compatible with MS OrgChart, but with many more features. If you are creating larger charts, need more control over your charts, or need more advanced functionality, then upgrading to OrgPlus is an easy choice.

MS OrgChart shares the same user interface and file format as OrgPlus, which makes migration very easy. Users are already comfortable with the OrgPlus commands, and OrgPlus will directly read MS OrgChart files, with no conversion necessary.

Key Differences Between OrgPlus and PowerPoint

Faster Chart Creation
OrgPlus enables faster chart creation by automatically formatting charts and hiding key information when creating multiple boxes at various levels. Creating charts in PowerPoint requires considerable manual intervention.

Create Sub-Charts
Automatically break large charts into a set of sub-charts with OrgPlus. The ability to create sub-charts is critical if you are charting any complex organization. PowerPoint has no sub-charting capabilities.

Templates Make It Easy to Design Professional Charts
OrgPlus comes with many pre-defined templates in addition to the unlimited templates you can create as you build your charts. PowerPoint has very few style templates, and they only affect box shape and color and must be applied to the entire chart.

Centralized Editing
OrgPlus simplifies the process for editing your charts by allowing the user to pre-define and edit every label from one central location. With PowerPoint, there is no centralized editing, so the user must make each change within each individual box.

Easy Export to Excel
OrgPlus allows users to export data from their chart into an Excel document, thereby creating phone lists or other useful information. PowerPoint cannot export data from your chart into Excel.

Advanced Features Such as Formulas, Conditional Formatting and Groups
OrgPlus has the ability to include formula fields inside each box which can be used for dynamic roll-up calculations. OrgPlus provides conditional formatting to automatically format all boxes that meet a pre-specified set of conditions. OrgPlus even allows you to dynamically view groups that meet pre-specified criteria, such as all contract employees vs. all permanent employees. PowerPoint's chart does not include any calculations or roll-up functionality, conditional formatting, or groups.

Reports and Directories
OrgPlus allows you to create reports and tabular directories for easy chart updates and to generate contact lists. PowerPoint's chart does not include reports or directories.

Compare to Visio

Struggling with Visio? While Visio is an excellent tool for diagramming, and can be used to create small organization charts, it is not an effective solution for charting larger charts or creating charts automatically.

Challenges to Using Visio
While data can be imported, there are very limited configuration options and a satisfactory layout is unlikely for all but the most simple and small charts. There is no way to automate the import and chart generation process. Visio is not very flexible in handling variable data in a data source. For example, Visio failed to import data that contained duplicate records. Importing from large data sources takes a considerable amount of time or is not possible.

Satisfactory formatting of a chart requires significant manual effort. Chart elements are allowed to flow off a page, and lines often cross each other. Visio does not automatically resolve these issues. There is no way to automatically publish Visio charts to Word or PowerPoint, and while publishing to PowerPoint or to a Visio viewer is possible, the options are limited. Visio will automatically create sub-charts during the import process, but with very limited options. There is no way to automatically reconnect subcharts to the master chart. Box layout and design is severely limited and difficult to use.

Target Customers

OrgPlus 7 is targeted for any organization that needs to develop and distribute professional charts of organizational structure. The most likely targeted group that would work with the program is the Human Resource department, where the updates to the comings and goings of staff in the organization are usually always first known. The use of the OrgViewer is also highly important in these larger organizations, as the HR folks strive to keep the entire workforce updated on these constant changes.

Recommendation

I highly recommend OrgPlus 7 for these uses, as well as in organizations already committed to other drawing programs, such as Visio, for support of their organizational charting needs.

Price

$189.95 - OrgPlus 7 Standard
$295.00 - OrgPlus 7 Professional
$  89.95 - OrgPlus 7 Upgrade

Contact the company for OrgPlus Enterprise 3 for large-scale corporate structures.

Multiple user license pricing is also available.

OrgPlus Reader

The OrgPlus Reader enables users to freely distribute and view workforce data in organizational charts with or without an Internet connection. This free, read-only application allows individuals to securely open, view, and print OrgPlus (.opx) charts. OrgPlus Reader can be downloaded at www.humanconcepts.com.

System Configuration Requirements

500MHz processor
Windows 2000 (SP4), XP (SP2), Vista
For Windows 2000/XP: 256MB RAM
For Windows Vista: 512MB RAM - 1GB RAM recommended
2GB RAM for > 10,000 boxes
4GB RAM for > 30,000 boxes
80MB free hard disk space

Administrator rights required to install OrgPlus
Internet connection recommended for product activation
CR-ROM or DVD Drive for installing from CD
1024 x 768 resolution (1280 x 1024 recommended)

Office 2000 (SP3), Office (SP3), Office 2003 (SP2), Office 2007
IE 6, 7

About HumanConcepts, LLC.

HumanConcepts provides industry-leading tools to assist organizations in visualizing and communicating their organizational structure and in managing changes to the way in which they are organized. HumanConcepts purchased the OrgPlus technology in 2000, owns the ongoing development, support, and sales of OrgPlus 7, and continues to enhance and develop new technologies to serve OrgPlus 7 users in the future.

OrgPlus 7's functionality spans the disciplines of Enterprise Resource Planning, Human Capital Management, Knowledge Management, and Organizational Development. HumanConcepts refers to what they do as Organizational Change Management; the discipline and process of managing change - visualizing, planning, and communicating.

OrgPlus 7 has become an essential management tool for millions of professionals worldwide, in organizations of every type. Over 400 of the Fortune 500 have selected OrgPlus 7. Based on knowledge shared by thousands of these OrgPlus 7 users, HumanConcepts has defined methodologies for organization charting best practices that are being embraced everyday by companies worldwide. HumanConcepts is a privately held company based in Sausalito, California.

Contact

Matt Singer
Public Relations Specialist
HumanConcepts
3 Harbor Drive, Suite 200
Sausalito, California 94965
415-332-3030
FAX 415-332-1010
matt.singer@humanconcepts.com
www.humanconcepts.com