NovaMind News

Integrating Mind Mapping Techniques with Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project Server, Creating Powerful New Project Management Tool

Bonn, Brisbane, Phoenix – September 16, 2009 – A powerful new combination of project planning software packages, enabling business managers to develop comprehensive project plans in even faster and more effective ways, was announced today by Wodey Informationssysteme and NovaMind Software. ProjectLINKER for NovaMind 5, developed by Wodey Informationssysteme, Bonn, Germany, and NovaMind Software, Australia, elegantly couples the latest business mapping software, “NovaMind 5”, with the latest “Microsoft Office Project”, letting enterprise teams plan, map, track and clearly understand their activities as never before.

For more information and screenshots of the new plugin in action, please visit http://www.novamind.com/projectlinker

Through ProjectLINKER for NovaMind 5, project plans and data are bi-directionally synchronized between NovaMind and Microsoft Office Project as well as Microsoft Project Server. This allows organizations to gain unprecedented visibility into their resources, as all projects, complex and small, can be tracked in Microsoft Office Project Server. The solution now makes it faster and easier to report project status in a visual intuitive format to executives and client stakeholders. Without further training, business managers will have access to resource availability during the initial planning phases resulting better business decisions, more accurate plans and more realistic expectations.

ProjectLINKER for NovaMind 5 offers business leaders clarity and transparency in their project portfolios. Additionally, teams can record project history, status, and multi-project overviews – all with graphical indicators to enhance visual reporting. The use of ProjectLINKER for NovaMind 5 for project planning can accelerate the deployment of Microsoft Project Server 2007. Due to its powerful, yet easy planning capabilities, even the smallest projects can be planned and tracked in Microsoft Office Project Server.

ProjectLINKER for NovaMind 5 will be presented for the first time in the Microsoft Office Project Conference, September 14 – 17 2009 in Phoenix, AZ. Wodey Informationssysteme will demonstrate the tool during the conference and will have a booth in the exhibition hall as well. Also, both companies, Wodey Informationssysteme and NovaMind will announce their partnership on the Project Conference. In Germany, the product will be presented on the Microsoft exhibition stand on the “discuss & discover” – platform from October 20 – 22, 2009 in Munich, as Wodey Informationssysteme is going to be one of the 20 Microsoft partners in Germany.

The German and English product versions of ProjectLINKER for NovaMind will be available soon. Please keep yourself updated through http://www.novamind.com/projectlinker

About Wodey Informationssysteme

Wodey Informationssysteme is being valued as a leading specialist in the field of enterprise-wide implementation of visual and holistic project management programmes. The service portfolio ranges from a first analysis, over the to-be-concept and a pilot model to the realisation of the project. After the implementation process customer-specific requests will be fulfilled and all parties involved will be trained according to their different roles and responsibilities. Wodey Informationssysteme offers training and coaching programmes as well as support for professional project management.

The company is a Microsoft Premier Project Partner, and has a lot of experience with Mind Mapping, having previously developed a version of ProjectLinker for Mind Manager, but have now stopped developing for Mind Manager, in favor of working with NovaMind. Reiner Wodey, Managing Director, holds a membership at the Microsoft Partner Advisory Council in Redmond, USA. Wodey Informationssysteme is headquartered in Bonn, Germany and is being represented in 13 additional countries. For more information, visit www.wodey.de

About NovaMind

NovaMind is used by businesses, in education, and for personal effectiveness, for tasks such as note taking, managing to-do lists, brainstorming, research, problem solving, decision making, presentation preparation and delivery, project planning, knowledge management, writing, and many other uses. NovaMind has been the top Mind Mapping program available on Mac computers for the last 7 years, and has been available for Windows for over 3 years. It is rapidly gaining recognition for its many unique and innovative features and ease of use. NovaMind 5 is set to take Mind Mapping beyond where any Mind Mapping software has been before, making Mind Mapping even more powerful, intuitive and fun.

For more information about NovaMind, please visit www.novamind.com or e-mail Gideon King at Gideon/at/novamind.com.

 

 What is Mind Mapping?: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 What are Mind Maps? [8:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 What are Mind Maps?: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Mind Maps are diagrams that work the way you think. They make it easy to understand, remember, and communicate complex information.

These days we are bombarded with so much information that it can be difficult to make sense of it all, and we suffer from information overload and overwhelm, which reduces our effectiveness.

Some of the problems we face are:

* inability to solve problems effectively,
* lack of creative thought,
* lack of focus,
* difficulty giving great presentations,
* problems organizing your thoughts,
* poor communication,
* missing out tasks when planning projects,
* forgetting important information, and
* lack of clarity and direction.

If you have suffered from any of these problems, Mind Mapping is for you. Mind Mapping gives you clarity and allows you to:

* organize your thoughts,
* remember information,
* communicate better,
* solve problems quickly and effortlessly,
* brainstorm new ideas,
* increase productivity by 20% or more,
* see the important issues,
* make better decisions, and
* give compelling presentations.

Why does Mind Mapping work?

Mind Maps organize the information in the same way your brain organizes information. This makes it very natural and easy to understand.

Our brains like thinking in pictures. The smooth curves and colorful pictures that are created when Mind Mapping create powerful images for your brain to remember.

We have two halves to our brains which think in different ways. The left half thinks linearly following direct linkages to related ideas. Our right brain likes to see the whole picture with colors and flow.

Mind Maps cater to both sides of the brain at the same time, which makes them a very good way of storing and recalling information, presenting things to other people, and brainstorming new ideas.

You can use Mind Mapping to make your opportunities and priorities clear. It makes growing your business easy and systematic.

Many businesses struggle because the owners and managers don’t have the right strategies to grow their businesses in the marketplace, or even if they do know the strategies, they are either not sure how to implement them, or are overwhelmed by the number of different things to think about all at once.

In this article you will learn how you can grow your business using Mind Mapping.

Included in this article is:

• a Mind Mapping case study,
• Mind Mapping tips,
• some ideas to help you with your project planning,
• the results of a Mind Mapping survey,
• techniques to help with getting things done,
• and videos on the 5 business growth factors.

So hop on over to find out how you can grow your business using Mind Mapping.

Gideon

This is the final part of a 3 part video series which goes into detail on the 5 key factors of business growth and teaches you how to Mind Map each of the different drivers of growth.

You will learn quick and easy techniques for implementing these strategies in your business.

The presentation is given by Gideon King, Mind Mapping expert, author of two books on Mind Mapping, and founder of NovaMind Software, using the NovaMind presenter…

In this second video, Gideon presents detailed information on the final two key factors in growing your business using Mind Mapping:

• Number of transactions
• Profit Margin

Using Mind Mapping, you can create similar Mind Maps to represent the opportunities for your business.

As you create your Mind Map, you can brainstorm ideas and add them to any part of the Mind Map, building a picture of the possibilities and how they relate to each other.

Gideon also gives some useful tips for making this work in your business without feeling overwhelmed by all the different opportunities. So without further ado, here is the video:

 

 How to grow your business using Mind Mapping - part 3 of 3: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 How to grow your business using Mind Mapping - part 3 of 3: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We now have a video available in which Stephen Feber, a long time NovaMind customer tells about how he used the planning and organizational capabilities of Mind Mapping to obtain £22m (US$43.5m) project funding for an urban regeneration project.

In the process, he beat 312 other competitors for the funding, making him one of the top 1% of all bidders on the proposal.

In this video Stephen shares his secrets of success in detail in an interview with Gideon King, founder of NovaMind.

And without further ado, here is the video:

For further information

Please see http://www.novamind.com/Business/case_studies/stephen_feber.php for further information and a PDF report with details about the project.

 

 Business Mind Mapping Success Story: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Business Mind Mapping Success Story: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download