SMARTDRAW IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY:

SmartDraw Lowers Costs at Leading Construction Product Company

Michael Wachtmann is the IT manager for Bil-Jax Inc, North America's largest manufacturer of interior and exterior scaffolds, aerial lifts, event seating and staging, and other construction products. Michael was looking for an easy way to draw maps and visual diagrams to help his team manage diverse systems.

"If it plugs into the wall, my department is responsible for it," said Michael. "We manage everything from the fiber and the copper network wiring to setting the time on the clocks. We manage a room full of servers, switches and telephone systems in addition to every computer, monitor, printer and copier."

A co-worker found SmartDraw and he decided to give it a try. Right away, Michael was able to quickly create diagrams representing network wiring, network topology, equipment location drawings and more. He was so impressed, that he purchased a multi-seat license of SmartDraw.

"I weigh heavily the ability for a user to pick up a new software tool and get productive work done quickly," said Micheal. "SmartDraw was quick to learn and users were pleased with how quickly they could get their work completed. And, it was so easy to install, that we let other users do it on their own."

Unlike other graphics programs that provide users with a blank screen and expect them to draw, such as Visio^®, 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, floor plans, 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.

Michael continues to be confident that SmartDraw delivers a better value than Visio^®.

"SmartDraw is the right tool for us," said Michael. "If I hadn't found SmartDraw, we would have probably been stuck using Visio^®. Usually users come asking us for a Microsoft^® product because that's what they know. There is usually a better and less expensive tool available, once we understand what the user wants to do."

The bottom line?

"SmartDraw lowers our costs," said Michael.

Users can download a free trial of SmartDraw at www.smartdraw.com.