Enterprise Social Networks: Must-Have Features Guide

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Rather than selling several products, Mindjet will sell its entire suite for one price and let users take advantage of whatever components they need. In other words, those who need MindManager, the company's traditional desktop mind-mapping tool, will be able to download it as part of the package, while some might interact with the system only through its Web user interface or a mobile client, and others might use all modes of interaction.

About a year ago, Mindjet introduced a cloud application for collaboration around mind maps, and it also acquired Cohuman, a cloud-based tool for collaboration and task management. Since then, the company has consolidated those products into a Mindject Connect, which it described as a "single platform for both envisioning plans and acting on them." However, it still had other variations, such as Mindjet Connect SP for integration with SharePoint, as well as its desktop tools and apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android.

[ Are your enterprise applications learning the art of conversation? Read Apps Need Collaboration At Core. ]

"Now we have one single product, and that product is Mindjet," chief products officer Blaine Mathieu said in an interview. "Anyone who buys or subscribes to Mindjet gets all that capability, all that value, in one shot." The subscription price is $30/user per month, or $360 per year, with price breaks for larger enterprises. Most existing customers will pay the same or less than they would have paid for upgrades under the prior pricing scheme, he said.

Mind-mapping software allows people to map out plans with branching alternatives and hierarchical relationships, much as they would on a whiteboard, except that in the process it also creates a digital model of the plan or brainstorming session. In the latest release, Mindjet has added the ability to include spreadsheet-like calculations in the nodes of a map. For example, you can attach costs to each of the tasks to be performed in each phase of a project plan, and the sums will automatically recalculate as you move tasks from one phase to another.

Mindjet maps for project planning and budgeting can now include calculated fields.

When a project plan composed on the desktop is synchronized with the Mindjet Connect collaboration environment, the associated tasks are also synchronized. The updated tasks show up in the Web-based version of the mind-mapping tool, but also in Mindjet Connect Action, the component derived from the Cohuman acquisition that presents tasks in something more like the activity feed format associated with social software.

"This is a great collaboration tool," said Chris Silva, an analyst at the Altimeter Group who focuses on workplace connectivity and mobile technologies. "It can be a lot of tool and a lot of horsepower for simple tasks, but on the other hand, it can be a simple tool for very complex tasks."