Get Organised with an iMindMap Document Management System

May 5th, 2011 by droptasksite

Part 2 of iMindMap in Motion

Our users are always coming up with ingenious ways to use the iMindMap software that continue to surprise us.  Mind Mapping is often called the ‘swiss army knife for the brain’ and we are enjoying seeing what new directions our users will take it in.

One such organisation, The Penspen Group, have made a particularly strategic use of the iMindMap software.  Specialising in engineering and project management services for the oil and gas industry, Penspen are well-versed in taking on a lot of information from a client and having to make sense of it.When one of the world’s largest oil and gas corporations came to them to overhaul their document management system, presenting them with almost 20 years of historical data to plough through, they knew it was going to take a very different approach and it was decided they would try out Mind Mapping.

After conducting a review of the different Mind Mapping software tools on the market, Penspen selected iMindMap as the tool to recommend.  Mohamed Dafea, Senior Engineer at Penspen and an instrumental part of the project, said that iMindMap was the best choice because ‘it was the easiest to use and had the most intuitive user interface’.  As the system is to be rolled out throughout a large organisation, it was vital that it require little or no training.

“Mind Maps were used to visualise the new data structure so that information is easily accessible for their engineers and can be transferred across their organisation.  This is expected to save time and cost for us and our clients.”

The document management system makes use of the Inserting Links feature of iMindMap.  By creating different Mind Maps to represent the different tiers of the system, Penspen have made a way to visually navigate your way to any file very quickly.  Within each Mind Map the branches represent the different folders.  Links to jump down the tiers of the system (to other Mind Maps), and finally to the files themselves, are inserted on every branch.

Links to files or websites can be inserted very easily by right-clicking on any branch and selecting Insert Link.  Once the Inserting Links window opens you can either choose weblinks, or select files and browse to the file’s location.  Once selected this file will be attached to the branch and the blue Link icon will appear on it.

Here’s how it’s done…

1. The first map will show the different subsidiaries of the company in various countries.  The user can then click on the blue link for the country they want.

2. This will then open up a new map showing the different pipelines within that country:

3. Selecting the link on one of the pipelines would lead the user to another new map showing all of the different folders of information about that particular pipeline.

4. From there they can click on any link on the branches and iMindMap will open up the specific file they need.

The Pack & Go feature (new to iMindMap 5) makes this system even easier to roll out across the organisation.  They can use Pack & Go to zip up the Mind Maps and all of their linked files into one neat folder and send it out to the staff to start using straight away.

“We believe that the new ‘Document Management System’ using Mind Maps is very powerful and will help Oil and Gas operators to meet their regulatory requirements and support internal and external auditing.”

The team over at The Penspen Group have created a very simple and logical system for locating files within a large organisation.  They have saved employees valuable time usually spent searching, and streamlined the whole process by ignoring the status quo and trying something different.

You don’t need to be an international corporation to try out a similar system.  The simple idea of linking maps and files to visually represent your computer’s folders can be applied anywhere.  Why not organise your personal computer so you can quickly and easily find documents on finance, holidays, events or health.  If you’re a student, what better way to sort your work into subjects, then topics, modules, assignments, revision?

See what you can do with iMindMap 5 and download it for FREE today.

 

Posted in Business, How To

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