SMARTDRAW IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY:

Technology Manager Selects SmartDraw Over Visio^® for Leading Commercial Real Estate Firm

Kenny Mullican is the Technology Manager for Stan Johnson Company, a top-ranking national commercial real estate firm. He is involved in the strategic planning and execution for the technology platform that is used by property marketing and deal management. In addition, he oversees the helpdesk and infrastructure support operations.

"Part of my work involves business process improvement," said Kenny. "I needed to diagram the work flow of the sales and marketing organizations, and show where the technology projects fit."

Although Kenny had experience with other products such as Microsoft Visio^®, he was looking for something more user-friendly.

"I had created similar diagrams in the past, but it was fairly tedious to get it to look just the way I wanted to, with swim lanes and other graphical elements that would really make it easy to read," he explained.

Kenny stumbled upon SmartDraw through a web search for process diagramming software, and decided to give it a try. Right away, he could see that it was a step ahead of the other programs.

"It was easier to get started, and easier to apply themes," he said. "Overall, just much easier to use. And more affordable also!"

Kenny was able to quickly create network diagrams, software system diagrams, financial charts and graphs, product comparison matrices, org charts, timelines, rack diagrams, and more. Unlike other graphics programs that provide users with a blank screen and expect them to draw, with SmartDraw, users select from a template that is specifically designed to create the type of illustration they need. For example, SmartDraw contains dozens of SmartTemplates for network diagrams, product sheets and workflows.

After selecting the appropriate template, users simply enter the information and SmartDraw does the rest: building the graphic automatically using built-in rules and professional design themes to guarantee polished, presentation-quality results in just a few minutes. In addition, SmartDraw features one-click export to popular document types such as PDF and PowerPoint^®, making it easy to share SmartDraw creations with others.

"All of my charts end up going to others, mostly executives," said Kenny. "They have been very pleased with the results, and impressed with the quality produced in a short period of time."

Kenny also applauds SmartDraw's flexibility, including the ability to drop in clip art and outside graphics into the program.

According to Kenny, SmartDraw helps things run much more smoothly from an I.T. perspective. "Ease of installation, the familiar look and feel of the new Microsoft Office^® 2007, and the ability to quickly create diagrams that help explain and document processes all contribute to SmartDraw's value."

But the biggest benefit of using SmartDraw is increased productivity. "When I can produce higher-quality diagrams without investing lots of tedious effort, that is of great value to me," said Kenny. Users can download a free trial of SmartDraw at www.smartdraw.com.