When economic conditions worsen, it spells increased competition for business as everyone looks around for ways to make their business stand out in the crowd. There is revenue to be had, no matter the economic conditions, it is all about making sure you get noticed.

So what is your plan? How will you get noticed?

Simply repeating things you have done in the past, and then expecting a new or better outcome is illogical... but is also an easy trap to fall into.

There is no doubt that in order to propser (or even survive), you need to find new and better ways of presenting your product, managing the information in your business and communicating with your collegues. The reality is that cost effective software solutions can play a big role in accomplishing these requirements.

Last month we examined the concept of 'method neutral software', and this month we are going to add to that notion by examining the "utility" of the software you either own or should be considering.

The key considerations are:

• Does it solve a problem for you, without extensive modification?
• In order to use it effectively, how steep is the learning curve?
• Does the cost match the quality?
• How well supported will you be?

Let's examine each of those questions in some detail:

It is a simple proposition, it either does what you need to do or does not.

The danger in this area is try to get a square peg into a round hole... if you are bending or having to 'work around' too many things to achieve your result, the software is probably not suited to your needs.

How flexible is the software? Consider how much it would cost you to make the software operate in the way you want. All too often organisations find software is too difficult to change and that the only solution is to change their business. As soon as that starts to happen, we are missing the point...

This is all about balance. Some effort to learn new software is always required. The more advanced the software, the more learning you generally need to put in... but a good program should ease you through this process in natural progression. Similarly, people who want the software to do everything for them instantly, without any learning effort, quickly discover mental telepathy is a feature software developers are yet to master!!

Software is becoming ever more complex, due in part to ever increasing expectations... but as we demand more and more, it is important to distinguish between the real 'utility of the software' and that which can be described as 'window dressing'... at least from your point of view. If you can see the software strikes a good balance between functionality and usability, you are most likely looking at a winner.

The saying 'you get what you pay for' is very true...the question is; 'do you actually need what you get'?

Total cost of ownership is often neglected, instead people focus on purchase price. If you buy something $200 cheaper, but spend twice as long trying to understand it or produce inferior results, are you really saving money?

For example, a higher initial cost can become very reasonable if it includes excellent support plus a good upgrade policy. Therefore if you want maximum return out of your purchase, you must assess everything:

• Initial purchase price
• Training needed
• Customisation costs
• Upgrade policy and frequency of upgrade
• Support policy

Conclusion?

Software solutions that strike a balance between cost effectiveness and genuine quality will add real value to your productivity, and can be the difference between make or break. Differentiation is king... and you need to think carefully about how you are going to accomplish that in practical terms. The right software tools can cut your work loads in half and make your presentations stand out. It is all about getting noticed.

The Mindjet 8 Player is a inbuilt feature within the new version of MindManager. MindManager is now in version 8 and this new release opens up some exciting possibilities not available before.

In particular, MindManager 8 has successfully tackled a problem facing users since the very first version: how to share work while while retaining the crisp vector graphics look and feel of the native MindManager format.

Part of the appeal of the MindManager Map is the quality of presentation. As soon as you export into inferior formats like standard images or static PDFs, the quality is lowered. Many people use Mind Maps to communicate ideas to business associates or clients who may not necessarily be MindManager users or even be aware of what a Mind Map is!

Previously there have been attempts at dealing with this issue, the most notable of which was a free viewer application. This required the non-MindManager user to download a 20Mb+ viewer application (similar to Adobe's free reader concept). This may sound ok, but in many scenarios can be a turn-off for people who just want to quickly view the map or for those in restricted corporate environments who may not be able to install new applications like free viewers.

So what is the answer?

Mindjet's answer is to pick a format that already has wide spread adoption and utilise that! The answer is of course PDF!

So now with MindManager 8 you can export your map to a fully interactive PDF.

You need Adobe Reader V8 or higher, click here to see an example!

The Mindjet Player feature will let you:

• Publish maps as interactive PDF files
• Publish maps as interactive flash files that can be posted to blogs, Web sites and intranets
• Easy keyboard & mouse navigation
• Expand & collapse map branches
• Display topic images, basic notes, task status & hyperlinks
• Zoom in & out
• Fit map to screen
• Center map
• Find next & previous
• Print map

Mindsystems Amode is the evolution of KnowledgeLink V5. We have a whole team of super-geeks captive in our basement and we have them working around the clock! Seriously, Mindsystems Amode marks the next step in our information handling software and we are very excited about the new features and benefits it will offer.

It will have many new features, but also build upon the solid information handling principles that has made KnowledgeLink V5 popular with so many customers.

One of the key elements in Amode is flexibility. Giving the user an ability to combine the best methodologies in one powerful software application. This will allow the focus to be put back on the driver (you) rather than the vehicle (the software). We are building in strong project management and information handling features as well as integration with many commonly used Office applications.

Over the coming months we will reveal more and more details, with a public beta trial expected March 2009.

Based on the Belbin system we have identified four styles which we consider to be most influential in day-to-day communications.

This is illustrated by this diagram...

SHAPER (SH):      

The Shaper has a strong, positive voice. They appear very confident and are often seen as being abrasive ... it is not that they don't care rather they do not let personal issues get in the way of achieving goals and objectives ... particularly when they are their own. They are decisive and good at making decisions, particularly when under pressure.

You need to be firm and confident with them. If you want their buy-in on something a good approach is to say something like: "Well it seems to me there are only two real options here ........ which one do you prefer?" Make sure both the options suit your purposes. You will get a fast, decisive response.

Don't start a fight with them ... they were born to win!

Happy to work on their own

Resource Investigator (RI):

The symbol for the RI is a phone ... they are the communicators. They often are found in sales and marketing roles and are great at generating enthusiasm. Good at starting things, not so good at finishing! The more complex the problem, then the better their performance. Public image is very important, for example their cars are likely to have 'electric everything' and their mobile phone will be the very latest.

Give them the freedom to 'do their own thing' but make sure they report back regularly

Team Worker (TW):

They are everyone's friend. They can be difficult to deal with as your feelings are paramount to them so they tend to tell you what they think you want to hear, not what they think. So you might have to ask a couple of times to get their true opinion.

Don't rush them, give them a little time for 'relationship stuff'. Very loyal and tend to be great at maintaining team harmony.

They like working with others.

Monitor Evaluator (ME):

The symbol is the eye ... they see everything, hear everything and then analyse it. Under pressure they go quiet so they may not say a lot in a noisy team meeting unless they are invited to speak. Then they will often provide insight about the meeting which you had completely missed.

They do not appreciate a 'demonstrative' approach
Two questions for identifying a person’s style:

1. Are they Formal or informal? Note this refers to their general demeanor (body language) rather than their dress. A good guide is their facial expression: a bit stony-faced or more warm and friendly.
2. Do they ask you things or more usually tell you things?

You plot your responses on the matrix at the beginning of this article. You can make the results more realistic by graduating your response e.g. ‘fairly formal’ might put the plot point half way between the midway axis and the ‘full formal’ point.
This is the sort of material we incorporate into our personal and team development courses. Please contact us if you would like more information.