How Processes Disguised as Projects Can Hurt Your Business (and What You Need to Do About It Today)

by Alex Hughes

Today's guest blog author is Alex Hughes. Alex is a Solutions Analyst at SmartDraw and has worked here since 2011. In this role, he works primarily with enterprise customers to help them apply the technology of SmartDraw in their efforts to solve issues in management, planning, organization, and process documentation.

Project management is a term that gets thrown around a lot in the enterprise environment. These days, it seems that any organized effort that includes tasks with due dates is deemed to be a project.

But what if it isn’t? Misidentifying it could set your project or initiative back at the very outset.

Ask yourself: “What are the main tasks for my next project?” If you answer with responses such as, “begin requisition,” “send notification letter,” or “log hours,” ask yourself another question. “Is what I am describing actually a project?” Are you sure that it is not in fact a process that you are describing that just happens to have steps with due dates associated with them?

Traditionally, enterprise projects are one-off major endeavors that have resources dedicated to unique tasks that are specific to that one endeavor, as the Venn diagram above shows. When I think of a project, I think of things like replacing an office phone system or switching corporate health care providers. Basically, traditional projects are endeavors that are not part of the regular operational processes of the business.

The point here is that different people define “projects” and therefore “project management” differently. That said, when starting a project using project management software, it is important to define what your specific needs are and what type of “project” you are taking on. What I have found is that a lot of project management mistakes are made at the very beginning during the planning phases. As you might imagine, having project team managers and team members who all have different ideas as to what a project is could prove to be problematic. Here are three pointers to help keep you on track to a solid foundation when working with project management software.

Is it a project or a process?

As I mentioned before, more often than not when I ask a client to start listing off some main project tasks for me, they will say things like “feed client information into computer”, “send kick-off letter”, “request references”, etc.

When I see this happening, I follow up the description with something like, “Okay, how many times do you do this per month?” The client then informs me that they do this “project” all the time.

What are you noticing about this description? What the client is describing in the aforementioned scenario is in fact a process, not a project. This just happens to be a process that requires due dates and sign offs. When starting your project, it is important to note that just because a particular task requires accountability from a certain person, and has a due date, does not necessarily mean that it a project task.

Let’s say the project is “preparing a research report.” If you’re in the business of producing these types of reports on an ongoing basis, it’s likely that you have a process, as shown in this flowchart:

 

Steps in the process can be broken down into sub-processes, with additional flowcharts, such as this:

Does this mean that you can't use dedicated project management software to help keep track of your operational processes? Not at all! It just means that you have to be prepared to repeat what the software treats as a project as many times as your business process requires you to do. So if there is a process you execute every week, you will need to be prepared to define tasks, associate resources, and build due dates every week. This, obviously, can be a repetitive and time-consuming chore.

Fortunately, SmartDraw can help you with either scenario, or both. Perhaps you have a process, as per the “report” example above, but also need to track each report as a project. Your project chart for a single report might look something like this:

 

For this project type, you can save repeated tasks and assignments into a task library that you can quickly load in to a new file every time you want to start a new repeated project. From there, all you have to do is add new dates.

Be as specific as possible

Another issue I frequently encounter with clients is vaguely defined tasks. When I ask a client to start listing off some major project tasks and I hear responses like “market research,” I immediately ask something like, “So who is in charge of that? How do you report on that?” Often times, the client responds with, “Well, several people; it is actually quite complicated.” Sound familiar?

I always respond by insisting that the client be more specific with the task. Ask yourself, if you were a project manager, would you rather see tasks like “Marketing” or tasks like “Complete Initial Social Media Research” and “Assemble List of Potential Product Names”? A quick look at this Gantt chart makes it easy to understand why a more detailed breakdown of tasks is a more effective way to ensure everyone understands all of the things they need to accomplish.

The point here is that the more specific the task, the easier it is to comprehend in the grand scheme of the project, assign to a specific person, and most importantly, report on.

Use the tool consistently

Finally, it is extremely important that whatever software you are using is used consistently by your team. This means that everyone involved in the project needs to be familiar with how the tool works but more importantly, use it in the same way. It is important to set the parameters of how your team will use the tool and account for any special uses and idiosyncrasies at the very beginning of the project. For example, if you want to highlight critical tasks in red, set that parameter at the beginning of the project and ensure that everyone is on the same page about it. After all, you wouldn’t want to have your efforts derailed over something as trivial as mis-colored project chart lines.

Have you experienced the dilemma of managing processes that are disguised as projects? Do you have pointers to offer? We welcome your input. Share them in the comments section below!

The SI-ence and PHIL-osophy Behind an American Success Story

The Robertson family is taking the American television airwaves by storm with their hit series, Duck Dynasty, on A&E.

But behind the ZZTop-ish beards, long hair and often-outrageous antics of the clan is a serious multi-million dollar business. Started by patriarch Phil Robertson making cedar duck calls in a shed during the 1970s, the company has flourished under the leadership of son Willie and employs most of the family in various capacities.

And behind many of the hilarious one-liners are nuggets of knowledge and business wisdom. I've come up with a few here. If you have more, please share them in the Comments section below.

By the way, if you haven't discovered how SmartDraw can make your work more fun and more productive, I hope you give us a try. Thanks.

Ken Wilson

Why the Pyramid-Shaped Org Chart Might Be Obsolete

A railroad man named Daniel McCallum is generally given credit for creating the modern organization chart in 1854. But McCallum’s chart was not the top-down, pyramid-shaped design to which we’ve become accustom. That was later developed by Alfred Chandler, a Harvard professor. Chandler advocated a top-down hierarchical approach that consolidated power and control in top management.

It looks something like this:

The Big Data Problem

Interestingly enough, McCallum’s org charts were created to combat a new issue facing management: too much information. According to an article by Caitlin Rosenthal published in McKinsey Quarterly¹, the growing use of the telegraph ushered in a new era of “big data.”

For management, trying to capture this information, process it into decisions, and get it into the right hands in the field proved an immense task.

Turning Management’s Thinking Upside Down

McCallum knew that trying to move this new mountain of data up and down a chain of command was inefficient. So he devised a new strategy: delegation of power at the local levels. The organization chart he developed took on the structure of a tree:

A more detailed view at the local level is shown below. McCallum knew that the supervisors here were nearer the action, had the most up-to-date information, and were best suited to make timely decisions.

But McCallum’s goal was not simply to decentralize everyday tasks and empower line supervisors to make real-time operating decisions. He also set forth a plan whereby they collected relevant statistics on a timely basis, such as cost per ton-mile and load per car. These were then delivered to upper management for use in analyzing business strategy and finding opportunities to improve results.

Nordstrom Inverts the Organizational Pyramid

Many organizations have long understood the need to put decision-making power in the hands of their people on the front lines. Upscale retailer Nordstrom is well-recognized for this practice. In fact, during the orientation of their newly hired associates, Nordstrom management gives them just a few basic instructions. One is to instill their hierarchy of importance, with customers at the top. This is shown in the sales funnel chart to the right. Directly below the customers are floor sales staff. Why? Because they are the ones who deal with the company’s most important people—customers—every minute of every day.

As a result, Nordstrom management gives these people authority to make customers happy with their shopping experience. This includes their very famous return policy (which isn't, in fact, an actual policy). New sales associates are told to follow one simple rule: use your best judgment. (They are also told that one of the reasons they were hired was that they met Nordstrom's exacting demands in this area.) This approach has clearly served the company extremely well from a customer relations standpoint.

Making the Old Org Chart New Again

The “big data” issue has come full circle in the 160 years since McCallum designed his first org chart. Maybe it’s time to rethink things and re-examine the applicability of a more decentralized structure.

Many organizations already operate this way, or at least in a manner that isn't a rigid as the "command and control" pyramid. Perhaps, then, it just makes sense to put our view of the organization into a more practical visual structure. Here’s a rethinking of the traditional organization chart that was presented at the beginning of this post (click on the chart to open it in full size for better viewing, or click here to download a copy of the file in SmartDraw format):

As you can see, the org chart been inverted to more closely emulate the pattern of McCallum’s trunk-and-roots structure. It also adopts the Nordstrom paradigm, placing the importance of customers (and prospects) at the top of the hierarchy. Recognizing where these people touch the front lines of the company’s organization could be important in hiring decisions. It will also determine how the organization strives to empower them in the proper handling of customer relationships.

I recommend you read the article by Caitlin Rosenthal below, which inspired this blog post. What are your thoughts? Post them in the comments section below.

________________________

¹Big Data in the Age of the Telegraph by Caitlin Rosenthal. McKinsey Quarterly, March 2013.

Six Quick Tips to Help You Conquer the Madness

You’ve had a day to look over the brackets. Now, the pressure is on. In about 48 hours the games will start (well, not counting the “First Four” games which most tournament pools consider to be outside the competition). You have to come up with the winning bracket for those all-important office bragging rights. (Because we know you're not wagering.)

Here are six quick tips and some links to helpful information. If you’re a stat geek, there’s plenty here to keep you occupied, up the next two nights, crunching numbers. For everyone else, you just get some basic guidelines that will give you a chance—even if you’ve never watched a game of basketball in your life.

Follow this flowchart (Click on the image below to open the flowchart, which will allow you to launch the information contained in the hyperlinks. You may even skip Step 3 if you want):

1. Consider Travel and Time Factors

Teams playing closer to home typically have an advantage. We put together maps for the eight first-and-second round sites to help you see the travel distances for teams playing at each location. Another thing to check is game times, because if a team is traveling a long distance and playing an early game, this may be a disadvantage.

2. Coaching Experience Can Make a Difference

As with most things in life, experience matters. The coaches who have been through the rigors of multiple tournaments have an advantage. Those who have experienced both early exits and long successful runs can draw from that knowledge. Here’s a list of coaches who have at least 20 games of NCAA tournament experience, ranked by winning percentage.

3. For Stat Geeks Only

If you like stats, check out these sites. They’ve crunched the numbers just about every conceivable way. But beware: just because the odds favor a particular outcome, doesn’t mean it will happen.

• Jeff Sagarin NCAA Basketball Ratings (USA Today)
• The Power Rank (Jerry Palm)
• Dolphin Rankings
• KenPom.com (Ken Pomeroy)
• MasseyRatings.com (Kenneth Massey)

4. Success Breeds Success

It’s hard to go wrong picking teams that have done well in recent years. While there will always be upsets and surprises, the No. 1 or 2 seeds typically win championships. Here’s a slide show of the best conferences and teams in the NCAA tournament since 2000.

5. Fill in the Final Four First

This may seem backwards, but it’s a way of making sure you don't paint yourself into a corner. It’s easy to start picking some sexy upsets in the first couple of rounds, just to find yourself with Quinnipiac vs Slippery Rock in the national title game. Don’t let that happen. Look at the 16 teams in each region, and take the one team that you like best to win from that group.

Hint: For best odds, take a No. 1, 2 or 3 seed. Since 1997, when No. 4 Arizona won the title, no team seeded lower than 3 has won the tournament.

Here’s a Final Four bracket with links to each region.

6. Make Some Upset Picks, but Don’t Go Crazy

They call it “March Madness” for a reason. The higher-seeded teams don’t win every game. In fact, it’s almost a guarantee that a few lower seeds will pull upsets. To have a chance to win, you should try to pick a few of them, but here are some things to consider:

• Don’t pick upsets of the highest seeds too early. Look at this sheet for odds of each seed’s winning percentage, by round, since the NCAA began seeding the tournament.
• Pick at least one 12 seed over a 5. This happens almost every year. Here is a sheet comparing seed vs seed by round.
• Only once—in 2008—have all four No. 1 seeds advanced to the Final Four. But it’s very rare that at least one or two of the top seeds don’t make it.
• Check out the brackets of the talking heads on TV and radio. They almost all jump on the bandwagons of the same Final Four and early upset specials. Don’t make the same picks they are. They’re usually wrong.

Some Other Options

If you haven't tried it before, the Wall Street Journal "Blindfold Brackets" are definitely worth doing. It's quick, and it gives you a chance to feel like you're doing more analysis than just guessing. Maybe even better, it takes the emotion out of the equation, because you're picking teams without knowing who they are.

If All Else Fails

For some of you, even these tips are too much. That's okay. In that case, you might want to consider these brackets from The Slate:

NCAA Bracket by Team Colors 

In fact, if I were you, I’d go with one of those. Because as the rabid fans and stat geeks will confirm, office bracket pools are usually won by someone who can’t tell a Zip from a Billiken.

Enjoy the games. Be sure to follow SmartDraw on Twitter and Facebook and tell us who you’re rooting for to win it all.

The Key Employee Problem and Why You Should Deal with It Now

Chances are you'll never experience a key employee resignation as rare as the one facing the Vatican. When Pope Benedict XVI recently announced that he was stepping down, it marked the first papal resignation in 600 years. The good news is, the Vatican has a very detailed process in place to deal with their key employee problem (more on this later). But most businesses don't, and unfortunately, they may not even know it until they are faced with an emergency.

What is the key employee problem? It's having one or more people who are so valuable to the organization that they are extremely difficult to replace. But sooner or later, most businesses will deal with the loss of a key employee. Planning in advance is the best insurance coverage against the loss of a key employee.

The Case of Irreplaceable Jennifer

Jennifer is great at her job. In fact, you've often described her as "superwoman" and "irreplaceable." She is the company's CFO, managing all of the organization's financial and accounting functions. She keeps the company's expenses properly documented, prepares regular financial statements, finds all of the allowable tax deductions, manages payroll, keeps the bills paid, negotiates with vendors for better rates, and keeps a sharp eye on all of the accounts receivable. Jennifer is an all-star employee.

So what would you do if she suffered a disability and couldn't work any longer? What if she were to leave suddenly, for whatever reason, without giving you any notice? How do you replace irreplaceable Jennifer?

Succession planning for pre-determined vacancies is difficult enough, but getting someone to fill in with no prior warning is extremely challenging. Realistically, you're not going to go out and hire someone right away. You're going to have to make do with handing Jennifer's responsibilities over to other employees in your organization—but how on earth are they ever going to be able to match Jennifer's productivity and quality of results? This is the essence of the key employee problem.

Strategies for Easing the Key Employee Problem

Now that you've recognized that you have a key employee problem, what do you do about it? The answer is that it's a tough question to answer. For some larger companies, buying key employee insurance can help to alleviate the financial pain somewhat. But it doesn't help you get Jennifer's job done today.

It's not likely that you're going to get your other employees to create the same level of output that Jennifer provided. That's just a cold, hard fact. But while it's not an entirely solvable problem, there are things you can do to ease the impact of losing a key employee.

Here are just a few strategies that can help you to offset losses in productivity and output from the sudden or unexpected departure of a key employee.

1. Build a company knowledge base. Set up a centralized system where you can store, protect and share important documents with other members of your organization. You don't want to have to dig through Jennifer's hard drive just to find all of her financial filings—these should be stored in an ordered, secure system.
2. Don't reinvent the wheel. Have your employees document their jobs. The fastest and easiest way to do this is with flowcharts. While it may sound daunting, process documentation doesn't need to take an inordinate amount of time, training or investment. It's a great way to populate your knowledge base with useful information. Capturing a business process is actually quite simple, but it takes some planning and time to complete. You could hire an outside consultant to help with this, but most organizations find that once they get started, documenting business processes is pretty easy to do for themselves. The benefits of this step are realized when Jennifer leaves. Having all of her routines documented as structured processes makes it much easier for other employees to step in and cover her responsibilities until her replacement is hired. It also speeds the process of onboarding new hires—some of our customers have reported an 80% decrease in training time for new employees.
3. Have a “worst case” succession plan. Think of this as preparing an emergency plan for the key roles in your organization. These are the tasks that absolutely have to get done—no matter what. In the case of Jennifer, it's unlikely that you'll be able to find a suitable replacement who can hit the ground running right away. Thus, your worst-case plan should set forth an emergency set of procedures. Most likely, this will be a team effort with Jennifer's duties being distributed to several people. For example, you might take over the tax filings, your sales manager might have his team take up some of the accounts payable, the office manager will handle payroll, and so forth. These worst-case succession plans are meant to be a band-aid on your organization—they're designed to hold you over until you can hire and train Jennifer's replacement.

These strategies are, in essence, human resource disaster planning—they're designed to help lessen the damage done by the sudden departure of a key employee. They can't eliminate the entire impact of Jennifer being gone. But they can certainly minimize the pain. They also provide your organization with a long-term set of benefits. Building a knowledge base and documenting business processes can make it a lot more efficient to train Jennifer's permanent replacement.

The Process for Replacing the Pope

The Roman Catholic Church has a process in place for electing a new pope. Although it has been refined recently by Popes Paul VI and John Paul II, the basic concept is steeped in centuries of tradition. Here's a flowchart summarizing the process:

The $1,200 Pope-Hat Dorito

And finally, there's the story of the Dorito shaped like the pope's hat that sold on Ebay for $1,209 back in 2005. In researching the process of electing a pope, I came upon this in the archives. It really doesn't have any relevance here, other than just being a bizarre story. I doubt there's a way to replace a valuable snack food item that is inadvertently, uh, chomped. But apparently there is a process for making money with one.

Source: The Salem News, March 24, 2005, page 2.

Ken Wilson

The Visual Revolution is Here. Are You Ready?

The visual revolution is everywhere, and this is only the beginning. If you thought it was a fad, think again. From social media to entertainment, from education to business, it's becoming increasingly clear. The visual revolution is here. Everything you communicate must be more visual. If you don't believe this and adapt to it, you will be left behind by those who do.

Presenting information visually is, by far, the most effective means to ensure clear and effective communication. We live in a world of expanding information. More and more of it is being delivered visually.

Visuals make information easier to learn and remember. They can break down cultural and language barriers more easily than written or spoken words.

Examples of the rapid adoption of visuals is evident all around us. Facebook posts that are shared the most, by far, are ones that contain a visual. The explosive growth in popularity of Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Slideshare and other sites are testament to the power of visual communication. Posts on the business-oriented LinkedIn site that contain visuals are read, liked and shared with considerably greater frequency than text-only posts.

Welcome, friends, to the visual revolution.

While social media provides a gauge of the effectiveness and popularity of visual communication, many business people are reluctant to use this powerful tool. In fact, it's estimated that less than 5% of all business communication includes any visuals. How can this be? There is a reason. It's what I call the STOP factor.

The STOP Factor and Why It No Longer Exists

What is the STOP factor? It's an acronym that stands for the four reasons most business people don't use visuals on a regular basis for communication.

Skill: Many of us in the business world aren't blessed with much artistic talent, nor have we obtained training in graphic arts. But don't worry, because you don't need these skills to be successful in the brave new visual world.

Time: In business , it's said that time is money. While there's some truth in this, the reality is that it's much more valuable than money. We can always get more money, but we are all allotted only a finite amount of time. Adopting the use of smarter visuals won't require an investment in training time and will very likely end up saving you a lot of time and effort.

Old-School Thinking: You don't have to be a card-carrying AARP member to suffer from this. It's often ingrained into an organizational mindset. The "we've always done it this way" paradigm. Or, even worse, the "our competitors aren't doing it, so we don't have to, either" way of thinking. Smarter visuals can't change the way you think or your company's culture. That you'll have to do on your own.

Price: Ah, yes. The verboten subject of money. How much is this going to cost? What's the ROI? What's the downtime in training and IT support? The answer is a bit complicated, but I'll cover it shortly.

These were all valid issues in the recent past. Most business graphics programs are just too difficult for the average person to use. Even if you learn to use them, it takes too long to create visuals for everyday use, from basic illustrations to complex flowchart diagrams. They are also expensive, especially considering the fact that you may need multiple software programs to create all the types of visuals businesses you might need. Finally, IT departments are reluctant to employ them on a wide-scale basis because of training and support requirements.

But these issues have been resolved with the technology of smarter visuals. They are easy to use, require virtually no time to learn, are priced very reasonably and come with support included.

What are Smarter Visuals and What Is It That Makes Them Smarter?

Smarter visuals solve all of the issues that lead to the STOP factor. Here are five key characteristics of smarter visuals. 

• Fast and easy to draw, formatting automatically and perfectly
• Presentation-quality, every time
• Simple to integrate into Microsoft Office® programs with just a click
• Automatically backed up and viewable on all of your devices
• Easy to share with others, even if they aren't using the same program

There are a lot of good visual programs on the market. They range from freeware that allows you to do some basic drawing, to very complex drawing and diagramming software such as CAD programs. Most of them are designed for one very specific solution but don't feature the automation found in smarter visuals. Smarter visuals draw themselves, allowing the user to focus on content.

To communicate effectively and get recognized in today's visual world, smarter visuals will give you the competitive edge you're looking for. 

What Can Smarter Visuals Do for You?

Smarter visuals are easy to create because of the automation built into the visual processor. This allows anyone, even a first-time user, to quickly create professional-looking business visuals with either a mouse or simple keyboard commands. It offers a multitude of types of visuals and templates that can be used for a variety of applications. Here's a short list of a few of the solutions smarter visuals may offer you.

• Simple task management and larger project management
• A sharable electronic whiteboard for online meetings
• Documenting business processes or regulatory compliance using linked flowcharts
• Visual web centers that make important information easy to find
• Automated presentation builders that use powerful visual imagery instead of boring PowerPoint slides

What Does a Good Business Visuals Program Cost?

As I stated earlier, this depends upon your needs. If you only want to do an occasional graphic, many people find a freeware product that may suit their needs. The downside is that these fall into the category of "you get what you pay for." Don't expect much in terms of quality, and if you have problems, don't expect any product support help.

At the other end of the spectrum are the highly complex CAD or other graphics programs. These can run anywhere from a few hundred to several thousands of dollars. If you aren't trained to use them, expect to spend some time learning them. You'll probably get good product support if you're buying from a recognized developer. But, as you should do with any major purchase, be sure to check them out before you buy.

When we developed SmartDraw 2014, we focused on a broad segment of the business community. It's why we offer more than 70 types of business visuals in our Business and Enterprise editions. Instead of having to purchase two or three or more programs, you can get an extensive array of visual types in one suite, at a reasonable price. For most small businesses, SmartDraw costs only about $300. For larger organzations, the Enterprise edition is under $500 for a single seat. You can also buy multi-seat licenses at a discount to lower your average cost. We also offer telephone and email product support and have smart, friendly, trained specialists that work right here at our home office in San Diego.

One final word when you're shopping for solutions for your business visual needs. Beware of crack or pirated versions of any of these products. Not only is it illegal and unethical to use them (not to mention it's fairly easy to get caught), but they come from unreliable sources (pirates, arrrrg!). The risks inherent in using stolen or crack software are many; not the least of which is they often carry dangerous viruses.

Read More About the Visual Revolution

Here are some excellent blog posts about the visual revolution that I highly recommend:

Six Way to Prepare Your Brand for Social Media's Visual Revolution

by Nick Westergaard, Marketing Profs

Front Lines of the Visual Revolution

by Monica Watson, Chute blog

Creativity, Thought Leadership and the Art of Ideas

by Kelly Kingman, Kingman Media

Was this post helpful? Is there more information you'd like to have about making your company more competitive in the visual world? Leave your comment below or send me a private email at kwilson@smartdraw.com.

Ken Wilson

SmartDraw Introduces Smarter Visuals

Hi Friends,

Here's the text of our press release that went out today:

SmartDraw Software, creator of SmartDraw, the fastest and easiest way to create charts, diagrams and other visuals, introduces "smarter visuals" with its release of SmartDraw 2014.

What are smarter visuals? "Smarter visuals draw themselves," explained Paul Stannard, CEO of SmartDraw. "Because SmartDraw's automatic formatting arranges shapes on the page for you, creating a visual is quick and easy. You are guaranteed a professional-quality result every time; even if you're a beginner."

SmartDraw 2014 automates the creation of 70 different types of smarter visuals including flowcharts, mind maps, Gantt charts, timelines, floor plans, and more. It also offers pre-designed, automated templates for projects, meetings, tasks and presentations.

"Smarter visuals are transferred to Office applications like Word, PowerPoint and Excel where they fit perfectly on the page or slide, all with a single click," continued Stannard. "Smarter visuals are backed up to your SmartDraw account automatically. You can view them on your phone, a tablet, or any computer. You can share them with others, even those who aren't SmartDraw users."

Both new and existing users will find an array of fresh features and upgrades in the latest SmartDraw release. Among these are a new task management app, improved org chart import features and more options for viewing and sharing of SmartDraw visuals on the web or on mobile devices. SmartDraw 2014 also has a new look and feel, inspired by the Microsoft Windows 8 design.

"There is a visual revolution going on. Being able to communicate visually is crucial for competing in the new global economy," Stannard said. "SmartDraw is the fastest and easiest way to create every kind of visual. And this new, smarter visual technology gives our customers a huge competitive advantage."

Every year, more than three million people use SmartDraw. It is offered in three editions: standard, business and enterprise. For more information about SmartDraw 2014 watch our overview video, or to try it for free, click here. If you already own SmartDraw, you'll receive an offer to upgrade at a discount via email. If you haven't received it, click here to upgrade or order by phone at 1-800-817-4241.

We'll give you more details, and drill into the new features for you, in our next few posts.

Is Your Presentation Believable?

Interactive Smart Visuals Immediately Get Information to Anyone, Anywhere

Construction management involves dealing with a lot of critical information and getting it into the right hands, fast.

There are a myriad of problems in getting this done. Perhaps topping the list is that many of those hands are on a job site, or traveling between sites, and the information they need is bulky and complex. It could be an architectural drawing or contract specs, an RFI, operations manual or dozens of other types of information. You not only need to get this information to your team, but in a format that they can easily access from their iPads or other handheld devices. Plus, it has to be a format that is easy for them to navigate, access and use.

Trying to “MacGyver” a solution out of various software programs, email and texting may not be the answer. You might want to consider smart visuals as that solution.

What are Smart Visuals?

A smart visual is a simple, fast, automated way of capturing information in a visual way. It gives you a method to easily capture, store and share information. It allows you to leverage your know-how with tools you already have such as iPads or other tablet devices.

Did I mention that it’s fast? In fact it’s so fast that you can probably create and share a simple, yet powerful and interactive smart visual in about the same amount of time it takes to read this blog post.

There are three keys to smart visuals:

1. Anyone can create them quickly, without any artistic or technical drawing skills.
2. They allow file attachments and hyperlinks to data for quick navigation of critical information from an easy-to-read visual format.
3. They are simple to share with anyone and can be viewed on any device.

(You can read more about smart visuals in this blog post.)

How Do Smart Visuals Simplify Construction Management?

Let’s look at how easy this is in a few simple steps. Because these are just an illustration, I’m going to keep them very basic. You can add complexity as necessary for your situation.

Note: The following construction management plan was created in SmartDraw 2013 Enterprise edition. If you’d like to follow along in creating this template, you may download a free trial copy by clicking here. If you’re an existing SmartDraw customer but aren’t running the 2013 Enterprise edition, you may click here to upgrade at a discounted price.

Step 1: Create a Visual Construction Management Project Map

Start by opening a Simple Mind Map in the home screen. Build the template by clicking the Add Item button on the SmartPanel or holding the Ctrl key and pushing the à or â arrow. Enter text by clicking the shape and typing. You can move between shapes using the tab or arrow keys, or by using your mouse to point and click. Our example construction project map looks like this:

Step 2: Make It a Smart Visual—Add Attachments and Hyperlinks

Now we’ll add a couple of items in the Architectural category: an office building floor plan and a lunchroom plan. For these examples, I’m going to use hyperlinks to diagrams located on the SmartDraw website.

Adding a hyperlink is easy. Just click on the shape on your diagram where you want the hyperlink to go. From the Home screen, select Add HyperLink, then paste the target URL in the window.

Attaching files works the same way. Click the appropriate shape, click Add Attachment, then simply navigate to the file you want and attach it. (Clicking the image below will let you open the file and interact with it in the same way your team would from the field, or wherever they might be.)

Our construction management diagram now has an engineering drawing and a bid form that are attached files, plus hyperlinks to two floor plan drawings. Because everything starts with a simple visual diagram, it will be easy for everyone on your team to find what they need and navigate there quickly.

Step 3: Share the Construction Management Document File with Your Team

SmartShare™ makes sharing your construction management document as easy as using email, but with far more advantages. Here are just a few.

With just a click, share your construction management diagram with anyone you choose. Just enter their name, email address and a brief comment or message. Click the Add button to share with more than one person. They will receive an email notification with your message and a link to view your file on SmartShare™.

Anyone can create a free SmartShare™ account and they don’t have to be a SmartDraw user to view your shared file. Your diagram is visible on any device in the same format you created.

Team members can also make comments in the file, which are saved in an activity feed. Rather than having to hunt and sort through an email inbox, all of the file history and comments are recorded right in the project file.

For mobile devices, your team members can download the free SmartShare iOS app for their iPhone or iPad. For anyone with an Android, Windows or other device, SmartShare works in their mobile browser just as it does on a desktop.

Next: Creating a Construction Project Management Plan

In Part 2 of this series, you’ll learn how to create a construction project management plan using SmartDraw and SmartShare™.

• Use a mind map to brainstorm/organize your plan.
• Assign tasks to team members.
• With one click, view the assignment as a Gantt chart and add deadlines, even create dependencies among tasks.
• Use SmartShare™ to manage progress of tasks and subtasks, and keep everyone on the team in the loop.

Was this information helpful to you? Is there something else you’d like to read about? Please let us know in the comments section below. And as always, thanks for reading the SmartDraw blog.

Ken Wilson

6 Reasons Why SmartDraw is the Best Alternative to Visio^®

Visio is hard; SmartDraw is easy.

That's not a direct quote, but it’s the essence of the many comments we receive from both new and long-time SmartDraw customers.

There are a myriad of reasons why people need to create flowcharts—from regulatory compliance documentation to streamlining business processes. Some just want to present a sequence of steps in a visual way, to make it easy for their audience to understand.

But many of them find that Visio makes the process too complicated. Fortunately, SmartDraw offers an easy, affordable yet marvelously powerful solution. Check out this video, comparing the features of SmartDraw vs Visio:

With the help of the SmartDraw sales and support teams, we’ve come up with a list of our customers’ top six reasons for replacing Visio with SmartDraw.

1. SmartDraw is a Lot Easier to Use than Visio

If you've ever tried to create a flowchart with Visio, you know how hard it can be. You start with a blank screen and everything is up to you—adding shapes, connecting lines, formatting, etc. SmartDraw automates all of this for you. Click simple commands, and SmartDraw does the rest. You don’t need to be able to draw to use SmartDraw—in fact, you don’t even have to use a mouse, if you don’t want.

2. SmartDraw Lets You Open and Edit Visio Files

It’s easy to open Visio files and convert them to SmartDraw format. You can even batch convert entire directories of Visio files at once.

3. Replace Visio with SmartDraw—Get Project Management and Other Productivity Tools for Free

With SmartDraw, you get a complete productivity suite with 70 types of business visuals, over 1,900 pre-designed templates and more than 20,000 built-in symbols. Not only do you get automatically formatted flowcharts and org charts, but also:

• Project management (some customers tell us SmartDraw replaces both Visio and Project®)
• Enhanced presentations (one-click transfer of your SmartDraw visuals to Excel®, Word®, PowerPoint® or Acrobat® PDF)
• Automatic charts and graphs (import data from Excel)
• Automatic mind maps that convert to Gantt charts with timelines in a single click
• Automatic decision trees
• Automatic cause-and-effect diagrams
• Interactive maps (with live data from Google Maps™)

4. Secure Offsite Backup and File Sharing with SmartShare™

SmartShare gives you 24/7 access to all of your SmartDraw files; on the web or from any mobile device. Simply log in to your secure SmartShare account. No matter where you are, all of your SmartDraw files are right there at your fingertips.

Share your flowcharts and any other visuals with whomever you choose. They don't even have to be a SmartDraw user to create a free SmartShare account. Do you want to share your visual with one person, your entire team, or anyone in the world? With SmartShare, the choice is yours.

5. SmartDraw Requires Little or No IT Support

Even novice users can become instantly productive with SmartDraw. That means they need less IT support. When they do, you can direct them to SmartDraw's 1-800 help desk for free support.

6. SmartDraw is More Affordable than Visio

You can equip your entire organization for less than the maintenance cost on the equivalent number of seats of Visio—save 50% or more. Plus, SmartDraw makes it so easy for users to get the results they want, they actually use it! Now you can stop paying for software that is rarely or never used.

In short, SmartDraw is appreciated by your users, easy on your staff and light on your budget. From an IT manager's perspective it's the perfect site-wide solution. You can download a trial version of SmartDraw here.

If you'd like information on licensing options or for a customized quote, ring us up at 1-800-817-4238 or send an email to: sales@smartdraw.com

Ken Wilson