MindGenius: Think Creatively. Decide Wisely.

Reviewed by James Manktelow, CEO, MindTools.com.

At one of our regular Mind Tools planning meetings, we were discussing the products and services we wanted to review in upcoming issues of “Mind Tools Reviews”. In front of me was my usual meeting preparation: notes and ideas mapped out using a software tool I’ve been using for more than a year now: MindGenius from Gael Ltd. Well, as the saying goes, sometimes the answer is looking you straight in the face!

Of all productivity and thinking tools I use in my working day, MindGenius is one of the most versatile, and is very much part of how I work. All very well: I’m certainly pleased to talk about how I use the product, but more work was needed to test and review different ways in which you and other Mind Tools readers can use it.

And that’s what we’ve done: we’ve tested how the software supports several popular Mind Tools thinking tools, to bring you a thorough and up-to-date review of MindGenius.

MindGenius’s creators suggest that the tool can be used in more than 100 different ways. We found that around 20 of these related to tools and techniques featured at Mind Tools - so we set about testing and reviewing the most important of these. The results were so good that we wanted not only to review the product in-depth for you here, but also decided to offer an E-class helping you learn some of the ways that MindGenius can help in your work and career. We'll talk about this later: Let’s begin the review…

What I Was Looking For...
MindGenius is a software-based drawing tool used to support and enhance thinking skills like Mind Mapping, Cause & Effect Analysis, Impact Analysis, Brainstorming and SWOT Analysis, Project Planning, and much more.

When I first discovered and reviewed MindGenius more than a year ago, I was looking for support for creating Mind Maps, and this is one of the core uses of MindGenius. I use Mind Maps extensively in my day-to-day work as a way of taking notes when researching articles or books, and for thinking through questions or exploring ideas.

As a way of taking notes or brainstorming, Mind Mapping is hugely powerful: partly in the way it allows me to condense notes that would spread over many pages; partly in the way it clearly shows the structure and organization of a topic; and partly in the way it helps me quickly see the way that information fits together.

And I was conscious that there are many alternatives to tools like MindGenius. At the simplest level, it’s easy to buy an artist’s sketchpad, and draw your own Mind Maps. Mind Mapping on paper gives you tremendous flexibility, but paper mind maps can quickly become untidy, need frequent redrafting, and suffer from all the limitations of paper-only documents.

On another level, software like MSWord can be useful in brainstorming and note-taking, but does not easily give the spatial organization of information that’s so important in Mind Mapping. And on a third level, drawing packages like Corel Draw can help you create beautiful Mind Maps, however they require slow, tedious assembly of low-level graphic elements to give the finished product.

Must be Clearly Better Than the Alternatives...
For MindGenius to be worth using, it must be clearly better than all these different approaches:

- It had to produce smarter, better looking diagrams than can be produced on paper, and had to have all of the benefits of storability, ease-of-distribution and ease of management offered by computer-based documents;
- It had to give the full spatial benefits and flexibility of layout that paper-based Mind Maps give, thereby overcome a limitation of other types of software; and
- It had to be quick and easy-to-use, giving professional looking diagrams without the tedious hard work needed with conventional drawing packages.

So what I was looking for was a flexible, highly-intuitive program, which produces high quality computer-based output with a minimum of fuss.

Easy Operation - Fast and Intuitive
Before I first downloaded the software, I had a number of doubts about how easy it would be to use. For example, how quickly could data be entered? How easy would it be to reorganize my Mind Maps, for example by pruning information from one part of the chart and grafting it elsewhere? And so on.

MindGenius soon dispelled my doubts. It was fast, obvious and intuitive. Data entry was quick and easy, with it being possible to create and manage Mind Maps with a minimum of control keystrokes and mouse movements. Moving and reorganizing branches was accomplished by simple drag and drop mouse action. And as I added information, the map structure flexed and adapted automatically, preserving plenty of white space and keeping the layout clean and elegant.

A minor gripe was that I had to experiment before I figured out how to edit an item. (We tell you how to do this in the E-class, along with many other learning tips). But in general, MindGenius was so easy to operate and so intuitive that I did not need to use the help system even once when learning to Mind Map.

Use With "Mind Tools"
So MindGenius is great at Mind Mapping, but this is just one of many uses of MindGenius. Next, I wanted to look at the range of thinking support that MindGenius could provide in areas that interest Mind Tools readers. I set about testing out the range of other “mind tools” that MindGenius could support. Here’s a summary of the ones we checked out:

1. Mind Mapping: We’ve already said that MindGenius is very, very good for Mind Mapping. It’s easy, elegant and intuitive, a pleasure to use, and it produces high quality output (click here to see the mind map I used in preparing the review). There’s no need to say any more;

2. Brainstorming: As Mind Mapping is a great technique for conducting and recording a brainstorming session, MindGenius is great for Brainstorming too, both on your own and with your team;

3. Decision Making: MindGenius is useful for mapping out and exploring alternatives, which is an important part of the decision making process. However, it does not provide crunchy, quantitative decision support that, say, MSExcel does (but then, Excel is not a lot of help when it comes to brainstorming alternatives!);

4. Project Management: Again, MindGenius does not provide a substitute for the “heavy duty” project scheduling capabilities of MSProject, however it does provide a useful tool for management of smallish projects, and helps with initial identification of tasks;

5. SWOT Analysis: MindGenius does provide a good, quick, flexible, easy tool for SWOT Analysis, however it’s only marginally better than can be achieved with MSWord;

6. Six Thinking Hats: However, MindGenius’s strengths reassert themselves with creative thinking techniques like Six Thinking Hats – it easily supports this sort of quick evolution and extension of ideas in an unparalleled and incredibly powerful way;

7. Impact Analysis and Cause & Effect Analysis: And again, its approach is great for these too: The standard templates it includes for these career-changing, “wisdom-enhancing” techniques make them extremely quick and simple to use.

MindGenius is not going to replace analytical tools like Microsoft Excel. Nor can it match the sheer scheduling power of Microsoft Project. However, it is superb for situations and techniques involving the rapid evolution and recording of ideas, and it presents the structure of these ideas cleanly and elegantly. As a tool for the support of creative idea generation and structured thinking, MindGenius is unparalleled.

And given its interfaces to Microsoft Office products, it has the potential (as Gael point out) to be a great creativity front-end to MS Office.

Download and Purchase / Trial:
I downloaded the 21-day trial version of MindGenius from Gael’s website (we've set up a quick download link to make it easy for you to do this.) Download was easy and straightforward, and installation was simple. It’s good to have this trial period, as it gives plenty of time to explore the product's capabilities and make up your own mind about it.

I was less impressed by the purchase process, which had some irritating glitches within it. In particular, I entered my contact information when I initially downloaded MindGenius, meaning that I had to go through a convoluted process to retrieve account details before I could (successfully) pay. With the quick download process this should be more streamlined, however do persist if you have problems - you'll manage eventually.

It’s also worth saying that MindGenius is not cheap at US$247, UK£147, EUR217 (compare to MSWord 2003 at US$229 at Microsoft.com.) I had to think a bit before buying, however having done so, I'm pleased that I made the investment.

Here I've reviewed MindGenius Business. Gael also offer MindGenius Home, which comes at a much lower price (US$53, UK£29, EUR42). The difference between the two is that MindGenius Business offers many more tools-based templates, professional quality printing, integration with MSOffice, and the work-related features that are needed for it to be an effective business tool.

In Conclusion…
In conclusion, I strongly like and value MindGenius as a thinking-support tool in my day-to-day work.

As a Mind Mapping tool, MindGenius is extremely intuitive, fast and convenient, and is now my standard tool for this important technique. It is also extremely effective for techniques like Brainstorming, SWOT analysis, Six Thinking Hats, Impact Analysis and Cause & Effect Analysis.

Does it increase productivity by 3 or 4 times as claimed? It’s difficult to say - maybe it does for some of my thinking and planning activities. But, for me, the more important benefits are qualitative (and immeasurable), in terms of supporting clear and structured thinking – so essential for career and life success.

As a regular user, I strongly recommend it!

Mind Tools / MindGenius E-Class
So that you can try it out for yourself and learn precisely what it can do for you, we’ve partnered with Gael to give you a free six-week “Mind Tools MindGenius E-class.”

This teaches you how to make the very most of it for Mind Mapping, Cause & Effect Analysis, Brainstorming, Impact Analysis, Six Thinking Hats and Decision Making, and it helps you discover the full range of features that make it so powerful.

The E-class works alongside the free 21-day evaluation period from MindGenius, giving you time to try it for yourself fully for at least some of these tools we cover in the E-Class, so that you can form your own opinion. Even if you choose not to go beyond day 21, you'll learn some great thinking skills which will help you throughout your career.

To register for the E-Class, just send a blank email to MindGenius@mindtoolsservices.com. Just click here and then click send. You'll receive the first instalment of the course in just a few minutes time.

To try the 21-day trial version of MindGenius for yourself, go to our quick download page at the following URL http://www.mindtools.com/rs/MindGenius and follow the simple instructions.

Introduction to CRM

What is CRM?
CRM is a concept that has developed from marketing theory. During the latter half of the last century a major shift in thinking occurred based on evidence that it is more profitable to retain a customer than to acquire anew one. Consequently, relationship marketing theory suggests that companies change their focus from pursuing the aim of selling to the maximum number of people to concentrating on developing relationships withtheir existing customers. The main focus of CRM is the formation of relationships with customers with the intention of improving customer satisfaction and maximising profits.

With the development of technology many IT systems have been developed to assist this aim. They range from contact databases to campaign management software. All of these various systems, which can assistwith improving the efficiency of CRM, have been grouped together and are now generically know as CRM software.

Why do I need CRM?
Every organisation needs at least one customer. A customer is not just someone who makes payment for a product or service, in the case of not-for-profit organisations they can be the recipient of charity or theprovider of a donation. It is imperative that every organisation needs to look at how it manages relationships with its customers for the best long term interests of the organisation. CRM software is designed to help your organisation manage these relationships to achieve the best possible outcomes. Talk to any individual management consultant or IT vendor and they will tend to have a narrow focus on their particular area of expertise. Some of these specific parts of CRM may be relevant to you, others may not, but the overall concept of improving the manner in which you deal with your source of income, your customers, has to be of interest to everyone.

More than Technology?
Often when people talk about ‘doing a CRM project’ they are simply talking about the software they are installing and how they are going to use it. This approach is not going to bring great improvement to the company – possibly some, but not a radical change. The main focus of any CRM project should be on the benefit it will produce for the customer and for the business. The first thing that should be looked at is what is being done now and then working out what should be done in the future to improve the way you work with your customers. Then, and only then, start looking at how it can be done and how that can be helped with an IT solution.This may seem obvious but it is often forgotten and the rush to use technology can result in a lot of money being spent on CRM systems that disappoint. There are many examples of companies using revolutionary methods to deal with their customers which have led to great success. Think of the budget airlines, telephone banking and online insurance – all revolutionary when introduced and all made significant changes to their industry, not by changing the core concept of what they do but in the way they dealt with their customers. Admittedly, all of these examples rely heavily on the use of their IT systems but the concept came first and the technology was put in place to support the concept.

Some of the departments or functions that might benefit from a CRM overhaul are discussed below but it is important that you have an overall strategy for your entire business and don’t implement overlapping or even conflicting systems in different parts of the organisation. It is also a significant advantage if you have a complete view of each of your customers and capture all your dealings with them and collect all your knowledge about them into a single, cohesive data source.

Sales
This is the most obvious contact point a business has with its (potential) customers and is usually the first place considered for a CRM project. There are a number of ways that sales teams can be organised and the sales process managed and monitored – a topic covered by many books in the last few decades. There is no single ‘right’ way to manage a sales team just as there is no ‘right’ way to make a sale but the consensus is that a good, well understood and well managed sales process is the most effective route to success. So if you set up a process for your sales team it is only natural that the best way to control and monitor that process is through the use of an appropriate IT system. These systems are at the core of the majority of main-stream CRM solutions.

Marketing
Sales and Marketing work together closely in any organisation and for smaller companies both roles are often fulfilled by the same people. This close link is reflected in most sales management systems which generally provide functionality to cover marketing processes in addition to sales processes. However, the degree to which they do this can vary considerably and specialists have emerged providing dedicated, sophisticated systems designed purely for marketing departments.

Administration & Management
One key contact point that customers have with a company is its management and general administration staff, such as those in accounting. Amazingly, though these groups of people are often overlooked when considering a CRM strategy. If a manager is dealing with a client or if a member of the accounts team is handling an enquiry it can reflect badly on your organisation if they don’t have the relevant facts to hand. Many of these facts are captured and available in a CRM system, so why not make it available to them? For example, a customer may have a question about an invoice which differs to what was agreed with your sales representative.

Service/Product Delivery
An increasingly high proportion of UK companies are either service companies or they create complex, customised products which are unique to each of their customers. If you work in an organisation like this thenyou know that it is essential that the delivered product or service is exactly what the customer was expecting. To achieve this your product/service delivery team must know exactly what the customer has ordered and yet, time and time again, you find occasions where some small, but crucial, part of the customer’s requirements isn’t passed on by the sales team to the delivery team or is forgotten about somewhere along the line. If all the customer’s details, requirements and circumstances have been accurately captured in a CRM system, to which the delivery team has access, these problems can be reduced. Equally importantly the delivery team can feed back any changes or new information relating to the customer that they come across during their work. This information could indicate to a sales person that an additional sale could be made of a different product or service and means the investment in a CRM system can rapidly pay for itself.

After Sales Service
The importance of after sales service varies massively from one company to another. Of course, we all also know that even where after sales service is important, some companies treat it more seriously than others.There are a range of helpdesk and service management solutions on the market place which suit a wide variety of situations from dealing with product guarantees & repairs to providing scheduled maintenance visits.Although these are commonly grouped together as service management solutions they should be considered part of an integrated CRM strategy and work in conjunction with other CRM systems within your company. It is possible that the majority of your customer interactions are actually through after sales service and capturing this information will help guide your sales force on how to serve the customer better and look for additional sales opportunities.