Here are some reasons why Google Apps might be your organization’s ideal telework platform:

1. Low operating costs. Google Apps Premier Edition included everything and costs $50 per user per year. It can release you from software licensing costs and free up some of your internal technical staff from having to support telework applications, though you’ll still have to factor in some administrative and support time to provision and maintain remote users.
2. Lower hardware costs. Outfitting teleworkers with hardware can be a major expense, especially if your organization isn’t standardized on notebook PCs. Google Apps is platform-agnostic, so teleworkers can use their own home PCs for accessing their email and documents.
3. Lower security costs. While you aren’t going to be able to get around some administrative tasks in order to support your teleworkers using Google Apps, you aren’t going to have the security expenditures that would come with other solutions where you have to manage increased remote access to your corporate network and applications.
4. Unified communications. The addition of Google Voice, Google Wave and Google Buzz means that Google can be a unified communications platform. Often, one of the integral elements of successful telework programs is multiple communications channels. With Google Apps, you’ll be able to offer voice, instant messaging, email and video conferencing to your teleworkers.
5. “Presence”. With Google Talk and now Google Buzz joining the full Google Apps lineup, teleworkers gain the capability to publish their presence online, so co-workers can see if they are available for meetings, phone calls or online chats.
6. Online collaboration. Google Sites, Google Docs and Google Wave would position Google Apps with three different online collaboration options depending on the teleworkers’ preferences and requirements.it means that organizations may not have to pay for a separate home office phone line for their teleworkers. Consider using a Google Voice number as the teleworker’s desk number and then alias it to their mobile phone and/or home phone.
7. Video conferencing. You have the option to extend Google Talk into video conferencing by installing a plug-in. The Google Wave Extensions Library also includes the Video Chat Experience extension. Considering that a number of today’s notebook PCs come with an integrated camera, adding video conferencing to your teleworking mix is now a simple affair.
8. Mobility. Google Apps is very mobile client friendly. Additionally, don’t forget that Gmail supports the IMAP protocol which makes it easy to extend your teleworker’s email accounts to their mobile devices including BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, iPhone or Android phones.
9. A healthy third-party application and add-on ecosystem. The range third-party applications that integrate with Google Apps is only growing now that the Google Apps Marketplace is live.

Have you consider Google Apps for outfitting teleworkers?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Enabling the Web Work Revolution

I signed up for a free Nozbe account to check out the integration between the tools. Evernote replaces Nozbe’s note-taking component, offering a wealth of new options, including access though Evernote’s web interface, desktop client, and mobile device applications. Activating the integration follows a process similar to  integrating Evernote with Twitter (covered here) and Cliqset (covered here). The integration between Evernote and third-party applications is clean and easy for even non-technical users to complete thanks to the Evernote API.

The integration makes use of tags to tie your Evernote notes into your Nozbe account. You create tags in Evernote that correspond to a Nozbe project name or context, and Nozbe searches through your Evernote account for tags that correspond to your projects or contexts and makes the notes accessible in your account. For example, I created a tag “Nozbe Integrates with Evernote” in my Evernote account. When I synced my Nozbe account with my Evernote account, the tagged notes appeared in my Nozbe account in the “Evernote Notes” section. Your tag appears at the bottom of the note as the name of your Nozbe project. If you are new to tagging or still trying to formalize how you use tags to organize your data, just make sure your tags are descriptive and correspond with your Nozbe project names (including capitalization) and you’ll have no problems getting this integration to rock.

In Nozbe, you can only view your Evernote notes. However, you can put the notes into any contexts you set up for your Nozbe projects.

While I am not a card-carrying GTD user, I do use some its principles in my current workflow, so I find this integration useful and think that it improves upon Evernote’s already strong feature set and its ease of use. One last bit of advice: if, like me, you sometimes aren’t as strict about syncing as you should be, to make best use of this integration, you’ll need to get into the syncing habit.

Have you tried out Nozbe’s integration with Evernote? What do you think of it?

YouDo’s interface is reminiscent of desktop notepads, and with its simplicity the analogy works for me.  Each day, the app presents you with a blank page to which you can add your tasks. If you don’t complete the tasks by the end of that day (or at least strike them from the list), the incomplete tasks appear on the “Overdue” list. I do have friends and colleagues who take this day-to-day management approach and I wouldn’t hesitate mentioning YouDo to them if they were in the market for an iPhone or iPod touch app.

YouDo bases itself on tasks and dates versus TaskPaper which uses projects, tasks, and notes as its organizational foundation. All of the task management options are accessible from the main screen; there are no arcane sub-menus to master.

If you manage your tasks a couple of days to weeks out like I do, YouDo lets you scroll ahead to put tasks on future dates, with the option to view them on the “Upcoming Events” tab. While I was OK with this feature early on in my testing of the app, I came to think that it could grow tiresome for some people. While a recent update added a home button and the ability to move tasks to a new day, I still would like to see more date management and navigation features in future versions,

Have you tried out YouDo?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req): Enabling the Web Work Revolution

There are also new advanced options on Zoho Show’s “Publish” menu for sizing embedded presentations, which should prove welcome if you are wanting to integrate Zoho Show presentations on your blog or web site.

Zoho has also improved support for Google Chrome. Previously, if you were a Chrome user you could only view Zoho Show presentations, but now you can have full access to all of its features.

Zoho and its web office applications may not get the headlines like Google Apps does, but its attention to usability and features like those in this update make them a player to watch in the web office market.

Have you tried out the newly-updated Zoho Show?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req): Enabling the Web Work Revolution

After signing up for an account and installing its Firefox add-on (a Google Chrome bookmarklet is due to launch soon), you are ready to start creating Cytes. Once you are on a web page you want to save as a Cyte, click on “Create Cyte,” and the page gets saved to a project in your iCyte account.

Personally, I find some bookmarking tools’ tagging and organizing interfaces overly complex. However, iCyte has a very clean implementation that doesn’t intimidate or confuse with too many organizational options. After creating a Cyte, you can add it to a project (folder), or create a new project for it. You can also tag your Cytes with keywords.

Of course, there is a social element to iCyte with features to share Cytes with other iCyte users and share your public Cytes on Twitter, Facebook and the usual social media sites.

Cliqset and iCyte are on par feature-wise, except that Cliqset integrates with Evernote and the Cliqset web site has its own social media feed whereas iCyte focuses on just capturing, sharing, and storing your research.

iCyte does bring some new features to the table which differentiate it from similar tools and services. You can highlight passages in your Cytes – especially useful for long articles and blog pages – which I found a real value-add.  If you are a frequent RSS user, you can create an RSS feed of the Cytes in a given project. One other nice feature is the option to embed a Cyte in your blog.

iCyte is gauging customer demand before integrating Evernote with the service. I certainly hope the integration happens at some point in the future for my own workflow needs, and it would also round out the product by enabling users to share Cytes with a broader audience. Being able to only save my Cytes to my iCyte account felt a bit too restrictive, so I hope the service is opened up to Evernote and other data collection applications like OneNote and Yojimbo.

Have you tried out iCyte? Share your experience below.

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Can Enterprise Privacy Survive Social Networking?

I took a dive into the new gallery; here are some must-have extensions that you can use to augment, rejuvenate or kick-start your Google Wave usage.

Video Chat Experience. Early on, I saw the potential of Google Wave as a unified communications platform. The Video Chat Experience extension from 6rounds enables you to add video chat functionality to your waves.

Napkin Gadget. The whiteboard is a staple of many meeting rooms and many cloud-based online collaboration tools offer a virtual version. The Napkin Gadget offers you a basic whiteboard-like drawing tool you can add to your waves. This extension does need some standard drawing tools to benefit users like me who can’t draw a straight line even with a ruler.

MindMap Gadget. Mindmaps can be useful collaboration and project management tools;  this gadget enables you to create basic mindmaps as part of your waves. You can also upload Freemind mindmap files to your waves and download them as the need arises.

iFrame Gadget. One of the problems with Google Wave is that it’s a “walled garden.” The iFrame gadget enables you to link to external online content from within your waves. While I linked to the WebWorkerDaily home page for my example, I could really see this extension being useful to link to documents hosted elsewhere.

Waffle (Date Picker) Gadget. If you find it hard to schedule events and meetings at a time that’s convenient for everyone, you can use the Waffle Gadget to have your colleagues vote on the event dates and times.

Have you checked out the extensions being offered in the Google Wave Extensions Gallery?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Google Wave Explained

Your organization needs to understand that is just not the teleworker who can wreck a telework program. Management, executive sponsorship and fellow workers can also do damage to your program. Here are the primary ways an organization can wreck its telework program:

1. It forgets about communicating and documenting expectations. Management, teleworkers and in-office staff are all going to have their expectations about how the telework program should and should not work. This is no time for “delegate and desert” management or mind reading. The communication and documentation of expectations is why I am such a fan of corporate telework plans.
2. It won’t alter business processes (if needed). Using teleworkers on a project team for the first time may require some alterations of existing business processes. Project managers, teleworkers, and other staff may need to work together to analyze and adapt to the impact that teleworking may have over their day-to-day team workflow and processes.
3. It fumbles expense reports. Teleworkers fudging their expense reports; management and accounting belaboring expense reports; and a corporate telework pilot plan ambiguous about what home office/business expenses the company will reimburse are all certain to contribute to the sinking of your corporate telework program. Put the right accounting and program controls in place up front so finances aren’t even a slight worry for teleworkers and their management.
4. It isn’t accessible. While it is easy to point to the teleworker always having to be accessible, the same rules need to apply to management and office-based staff. As more communications get lost in email inboxes and voice mail, there is a greater impact on productivity which could give rise to the end of the program. If email and phone call dodging is part of your corporate culture then you can expect these problems to contribute to the downfall of your telework program.
5. It forgets the business value of teleworking. After digging myself out from the recent record snowfall that hit my area, I came across many stories of businesses with telework programs where the home office workers didn’t have to work if their employer’s office was closed due to the weather. These businesses didn’t take didn’t take advantage of a natural event where formal and informal teleworking had the chance to really shine. The U.S. federal government and a number of non-profit organizations and companies shut down for more than a week where even a case-by-case teleworking plan could have meant that at least some business could have taken place, despite the record snowfall left by back-to-back storms. On top of any organization’s list of advantages for teleworking should be business continuity and to forget that is selling a telework program short.

What tools and processes is your organization putting in place to ensure the success of your teleworking program? Share your advice below.

Photo by stock.xchng user bamcopau.

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): 

Enabling the Web Work Revolution

• Test SharePoint via remote access. Since your SharePoint implementation is sitting inside your firewall it is important to test typical SharePoint tasks like accessing document libraries through your remote access solution prior to turning your teleworkers loose. Access issues will only make teleworkers bypass the platform.
• Make SharePoint more social. With a product as customizable as Microsoft SharePoint, you can deploy it in any number of configurations. Unfortunately, these many choices may also mean many SharePoint sites go online with practically no frills. Starting with SharePoint 2007, you can incorporate social media options including blogs, wikis, and RSS feeds into your SharePoint sites. Launching these social media tools can help foster collaboration and ensure your SharePoint site is a focal point for project and communications activities.
• Factor SharePoint into your telework processes. I’ve been working with SharePoint off and on since its inception and seen implementations inside organizations large and small. Two common mistakes I see are SharePoint sites that are too locked down and no better than static web pages, and SharePoint sites that are implemented without input from the project teams or the business side of the organization. When creating your telework pilot plan, factor SharePoint into business processes and communications. Follow up with appropriate documentation and training for your teleworkers.
• Develop a SharePoint test site. If SharePoint is currently underutilized in your organization, then perhaps your teleworkers can help you recoup your investment by developing a SharePoint test site. Developing a test site during your telework pilot progrtam, you can discover which SharePoint features are required and how it is best used.
• Consider a hosted SharePoint solution. There might be technical, budgetary, or logistical reasons for not opening up your SharePoint site to remote access. So if SharePoint is already familiar to your teleworkers and you are looking to take advantage of SharePoint/Microsoft Office integration you may want to consider a third-party host for your SharePoint sites. Microsoft and a number of its hosting partners offer SharePoint on a monthly subscription basis.

How are the teleworkers in your organization using Microsoft SharePoint? Share your tips below.

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Report: The Real-Time Enterprise

SpreadsheetLIVE Beta from Pagos is a new entry into the web office applications space, currently dominated by Google, Microsoft and Zoho. Pagos is targeting corporate intranets, but also has a hosted version that could be useful for many web workers. Currently, this hosted version is available for free.

SpreadsheetLIVE has an easy-to-use layout that makes creating, uploading and accessing spreadsheets very simple. In my experience, of all the basic office applications, spreadsheets give most trouble to users, so anything an application can do to help the user get started is a bonus.

SpreadsheetLIVE has a reasonably comprehensive set of spreadsheet features, including charts, pivot tables and a function wizard. User and file management includes groups, folders, and organizations. You aren’t going to be running an accounting department with SpreadsheetLIVE, but then you won’t be with Google Docs, Excel Web App, or Zoho Sheet, either.  Web-based spreadsheets are great for tracking project information, light accounting like project budget tracking, and other lower-level number crunching tasks. SpreashseetLIVE also has a rather extensive library of spreadsheet templates available.

You can upload your existing spreadsheets into the app — it has a 6 MB file size restriction, which should be big enough to accommodate all but your largest spreadsheets. However, you can only export SpreadSheetLIVE spreadsheets to Excel 2007 (*.xslx) format currently, which could prove limiting to project teams with members using Office 2003. It would be nice to see the final version of the product support *.xls and *csv expert as well, since they are more common formats for spreadsheet data than *.xlsx.

SpreadsheetLIVE is a solid entry to the web office space; it probably has more marketing, rather than technical, challenges ahead of it in getting and maintaining user attention in this very competitive market.

Which online spreadsheet tool do you use?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Why Microsoft Office Web Is Good for Its Competitors

Just like its Mac sibling, TaskPaper for the iPhone is simple: it spares the bells and whistles — like start dates, due dates, groups, and priorities — prevalent in many of today’s leading task management apps. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as many of us are not aspiring to be GTD ninjas. Its task lists are also stored in simple text (*.txt) files, so you don’t have to worry about your lists and notes residing in some proprietary format you can’t access and reuse later if you decide to ditch TaskPaper on your road to iPhone productivity nirvana.

If you fall into the camp where application simplicity is key and list management trumps the higher-end features you’ll be happy to learn that you can create, manage, tag, and delete projects, tasks, and notes in TaskPaper — everything you might need for project tracking –  through taps and swipes on your iPhone’s screen. These basics are documented in a “Getting Started” task list that comes with the application (I recommend that you don’t delete that list). The screenshot below shows the setup of a typical TaskPaper document.

The only disappointment in my TaskPaper for the iPhone experience was the SimpleText.ws syncing between my desktop and iPhone apps. I saw frequent errors and the syncing function was not as crisp as other iPhone task apps like OmniFocus.

Even despite the syncing issues during my testing, I recommend checking out TaskPaper for the iPhone if you are looking for a simple, easy-to-use to-do list/task management app that focuses on your business at hand and not the latest productivity or organizational craze.

Have you tried TaskPaper for the iPhone?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.):

Who Owns Your Data in the Cloud?

My first stop was to sign up for a Cliqset account. I then set up my account to talk to my Friendfeed, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr and Twitter accounts.  Finally, I authorized Cliqset in Evernote (following nearly the same process as I used when I integrated Twitter and Evernote.)

Sending social media content from Cliqset to Evernote is as easy as selecting the Evernote icon and then clicking the “Share” button to send the item to your Evernote account.  What I really like here is how cleanly the integration packages the information you are sending to Evernote. Once the content is in your Evernote account, you can collaborate with other Evernote users or save it for your own reference. A small but nice touch is that the integration adds a Cliqset tag to any content you send into Evernote, offering you an easy stepping stone to better organizing your content.

As of this writing, the Cliqset social media stream is still in its infancy as far as content providers and members go; if you don’t find what you want in the social stream you can use the Cliqset Firefox Extension that enables you to capture content from web sites outside the Cliqset social stream. Clicking on the extension’s toolbar button launches a dialog box with the same sharing options and Evernote integration you enjoy from within Cliqset.

While I have some doubts as to whether I need yet another research tool, the neat packaging of content I sent in from Cliqset and the Cliqset Firefox extension resulted in a lot cleaner reference material than the web clippings I usually capture during my online research, so I may yet find a way to squeeze it into my workflow.

Have you tried out the Cliqset/Evernote integration? Share your experience below.

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub req’d):

Is Lifelogging the Future of Social Media?

While it is not possible to list all of the potential kinks that you’ll need to eliminate during your pilot in this post, I am going to outline some of the basic considerations you should shoot for in your organization’s corporate telework pilot plan.

• Employee selection. Not everybody is cut out to be a web worker, so you need to determine the criteria for employees to be included in the corporate telework pilot. Factors like employee performance, position, network/information access requirement can all be part of employee selection.
• Employee home office. Organizations vary in their approach to equipping their employees’  home offices, from employees relying on their own computer equipment, software, printer, phone, and broadband access, to the employer supplying everything the employee requires, and everything in between. You’ll need to determine and document, as a minimum, the equipment the company is providing; technical support processes for the company-provided equipment; employee responsibilities for the company provided equipment; and how employee home office expenses are to be handled.
• Telework employee communications plan. Project communications are going to change as people start to work from home. The communications plan should detail access to the corporate network, email and applications, as well as any redundancies in place in case there is a communications failure. There should also be an understanding of core business hours and any processes an employee needs to follow in order to modify their core working hours so they don’t appear to be “off the grid.”
• Pilot period/metrics of success The plan should also include a documented period of time for the pilot, together with an understanding of the metrics of success your organization’s management is looking for to judge the pilot a success and move the telework program from a pilot to an actual live program.

What elements are you including in your corporate telework pilot plan? Share your advice below.

Photo by stock.xchng user furnishu.

The Windows portable apps suites seem to better known,  but I came across a slew of free Mac portable apps while researching another topic, so I thought I would share them here, as they should be useful if you ever have to “hot seat” on a customer’s Mac or breathe some life into an older Mac that may not have all the software you require. In each case, the install routine follows Mac standards, which makes installation from a Flash drive simple and quick.

Portable GIMP. The popular open-source alternative to Adobe Photoshop is available as a portable application, which can come in handy if you work on projects where graphics applications are in short supply. It requires X11 to run.

Portable Firefox. Mozilla Firefox isn’t always available on our clients’ machines, but Portable Firefox is an easy alternative to pack along for testing or other activities. While this version of Firefox is compatible with extensions, you are best keeping it “lean and mean” if running Firefox from a USB drive. Portable Firefox will let you import your local Firefox preferences if they are available on the machine.

Portable Camino. If Firefox isn’t your browser of choice, you can use Portable Camino to meet your portable browsing needs. The good news is that the portable browser’s features are on a par with the full version.

Portable Adium. This portable version of the popular multiprotocol and open-source Instant Messaging client supports AIM, GTalk, Yahoo and Jabber IM. Portable Adium lets you import your local Adium preferences if they are available.

Portable Nvu. The portable version of Nvu can come in handy if you need a text editor for editing HTML and other files.

Portable AbiWord. Portable AbiWord is a great portable word processor for most general word processing uses.

Portable OpenOffice.org. There is a portable version of the popular open-source office suite available. However, the only stable version is for the PPC platform, with the Intel version still in testing and not ready for use yet.

Remember, if you plan to take a USB flash drive with portable apps to a client site for use of one of their machines, you should always check their IT security policy, because they may have security restrictions in place.

Do you use Mac portable apps? Which ones?

Note taking can be a personal exercise. Look around any conference table today and you’ll see a wide spectrum of note taking techniques, ranging from people writing on paper to folks tapping away at laptop keyboards.

But the notes themselves are also often quite personal. For example, when I go into a client meeting, I am there from a technical documentation standpoint, and my notes reflect that. Likewise, I would expect not to get much from the notes of a programmer. The result is that “knowledge islands” can form as everyone hoards their own notes.

Applications like OneNote, Evernote and WikiTouch offer collaborative note taking features, enabling teams to access each others’ notes for collaboration, and help distribute that knowledge within an organization by capturing meeting, research and project notes in a centrally accessible location.

Here are some tips for implementing collaborative note taking on your project team:

• Define the benefits. Moving your team to a collaborative note taking platform shouldn’t be a cause for more work, especially if note taking is already an integral element in your work. It is important to communicate the benefits of the move to the entire team. Is it to capture important project information like requirements? Is it to better document decisions? Is meeting and research information falling through gaps?
• Choose the appropriate application. Moving your team to a standard platform for note taking shouldn’t be a daunting task. However, you need to factor in team member note taking styles and security considerations into the decision. If your organization is hesitant about keeping private notes in the cloud then I suggest taking a look at OneNote, which enables you to keep your note taking and collaboration inside the firewall. If the cloud is OK, then Evernote or Evernote Premium (with its SSL security encryption) would also be an option.
• Set note taking guidelines. Moving note taking to a collaborative app may require some initial guidelines to enable a seamless transition. Depending on your needs, your note taking guidelines may include templates to use (OneNote includes note taking templates), and directions about things like the use of fonts, numbering and bullet points. The aim of your guidelines should be to ensure some consistency across the notes your team takes. The end goal is to have a repository of notes that is accessible and understandable to all those on the project team.
• Set note taking roles. While collaborative note taking removes the need for a single “scribe” to take meeting notes, I might recommend that you still pay some attention to note taking roles when moving to a collaborative note taking environment. For example, you may want to make sure that project related notes are recorded by the project manager.

Do you use collaborative note taking on any of your projects? Share your experience below.

Related GigaOM Pro Research:

Photo by stock.xchng user wagg66.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Threats Loom Large for Microsoft’s Email and Collaboration Platforms

Here are some tips if you are seeking to build a web worker friendly PMO to manage geographically dispersed employees, contractors and partners:

Democratize Project Management Data. The democratization of project data has been an ongoing theme in some of my recent project management posts; it becomes more  important as project teams leave the confines of the cubicle farm. PMOs need to become more polished communicators of project status data (including schedules, risks, and client requirements) and target audiences at every level of the project from the “worker bee” all the way up to the executive stakeholder. The challenge is that the information has to be understandable by everyone —  meaning that views of project data cannot always be shared just by using a Gantt chart.

Move Communications Outside the Email Inbox. 2010 should prove to be a pivotal year for online collaboration tools like Google Wave and enterprise-class social media tools like Yammer and Present.ly (which we’ve covered previously). While email is a traditional and often-used form of project communication it does no good as a repository for project documents. Even if you can’t get your team to embrace online collaboration tools, you at least need to take the small step of ensuring that your project documents are online in a centrally-accessible place.

Implement New Project Management Tools. Microsoft Project and spreadsheets are traditional project management tools but more suited to project teams roosted in the same cubicle farm. The web is the future for project management tools – LiquidPlanner, Zoho Projects, and Basecamp are all examples of web-based tools that are easy to use and help to foster collaboration.

Rethink Meetings. I’ll spare the usual attacks on meetings as being detrimental to productivity, and fast forward to suggesting that meetings will have to change in priority, format and technology. PMOs need to look at conference calls, web conferencing, and online chat  for real-time meetings, plus the tools to archive those meetings for later reference.

For PMOs entering a new era of web working, the old staples need to give way to new tools, processes and working styles to ensure the success of the team and timely project delivery. Remember corporate culture, not technology, drives online collaboration and the PMO is in a position to ensure geographically-dispersed project teams have the framework, leadership and tools they need.

What are your tips for building a web worker friendly PMO? Share them below.

Artwork by Stock.xchng user: Ulrik

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks

SmartDraw 2010 from SmartDraw.com offers an easy-to-use drawing and diagramming solution for Windows, targeting those of us who aren’t professional graphic designers. It integrates with other tools, and has built-in features for creating diagrams for pretty much any business purpose: charts and graphs; floor plans; flow charts; matrices; mind maps; network diagrams; org charts; storyboards; project charts; timelines; and maps.

The application is available as a direct download from SmartDraw.com and costs $197 (for a single-user license), with a 30-day trial available.

Integration with Microsoft Project

The Project Chart feature includes the editing, formatting and management tools that you might enjoy in other full-featured project management applications. You also have the option to import and export Microsoft Project files. Once you’ve imported a Microsoft Project file into SmartDraw 2010′s Project Chart, you can continue modifying the overall project including time frame, tasks, milestones and properties. You also have the option to view your project chart as a Gantt chart, mind map or time line.

My import tests seemed to hang while SmartDraw 2010 was formatting the charts. Not a good sign, but despite the time it took, I was able to get very clean imports from Project into SmartDraw 2010.

Mind Mapping

Once thought of primarily as a brainstorming tool, mind maps are now used for communicating project requirements, process flows and creating other visualization artifacts. SmartDraw 2010 supports mind maps, though you may find the level of support basic compared to full-featured mind mapping applications like MindJet MindManager 8. I do like how SmartDraw 2010 includes a Mind Map view in its Project Chart feature.

Integration with PowerPoint

PowerPoint presentations do power many business meetings, even though the application lacks robust drawing tools. With SmartDraw 2010, you can plan out your PowerPoint presentations with the PowerPoint Storyboard feature, then import your storyboard directly into PowerPoint to give you a jumpstart on creating your presentation. You also have the option to send many of the charts and diagrams you create in SmartDraw 2010 directly into PowerPoint using a menu option.

Collaboration with Visio

SmartDraw 2010 includes a Visio import filter, which should assist collaboration between Visio and SmartDraw 2010 users working on the same project.

While I tend to gravitate towards Visio for my Windows-based drawing needs, I found SmartDraw 2010 to be an impressive tool with a well-rounded feature set. It should appeal to users who aren’t graphic designers and who need a diagramming tool with a short learning curve.

Have you used SmartDraw 2010? Share your experience below.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks