Toronto firm brainstorms business processes

selena mann

14 years ago

Toronto-based company YourPrivacy, a part of F.M.C. Dimensional Developments Corp., has found a new way to help their clients develop privacy policies using MindManager 9 and Mindjet Catalyst visualization software by Mindjet.

The small Toronto-based privacy firm uses the mind-mapping software to help them plan how to help other companies with security solutions and privacy. The software has helped increase YourPrivacy’s productivity by 400 per cent and boost sales by 30 per cent, according to MindJet.

“It is perfect for entrepreneurs and small businesses, where a person wears a lot of hats,” Michael Deutch, the chief evangelist for San Francisco-based MindJet, said.

MindManager 9 is for mapping thoughts on the desktop, while Catalyst puts those ideas online. Catalyst allows for multiple people to add their ideas at the same time. YourPrivacy’s customer can view the “mind maps” in a Web browser.

YourPrivacy helps small to medium-sized businesses plan manage their assets and organize themselves. YourPrivacy used MindManager 9 to help break down the components of these companies and arrange them in a way that would maximize their productivity. It also helps analyze privacy gaps, develop privacy policies, and prevent privacy breaches of companies.

Mario Morel, president of YourPrivacy, said the company takes a “top-down” approach, breaking client companies into groups that work within it, then breaking down those groups, until it gets to individuals within the firm. By doing this they analyze the problems within a company and see how they can better work to help the company as a whole.

One firm YourPrivacy revised a privacy policy for is the Associated Youth Services of Peel (AYSP), which is a non-for-profit organization that works to help at-risk teenagers like young offenders get counseling and therapy. AYSP asked Morel to find gaps in their old privacy policy. YourPrivacy broke down AYSP policy into groups of protocols and found organization had to update privacy protocols for young offenders so that it adhered to the Young Criminal Justice Act and protected young offenders’ privacy. Using MindManager 9, YourPrivacy was able to identify the problems, assign tasks, see who was involved in working on a protocol, and see progress on a document. Then, using MindJet Catalyst, multiple people were able to add to protocols to the same task at a time.

Instead of doing this work on paper or by using multiple programs like Microsoft Corp.’s Word, PowerPoint and Excel, using MindJet software is a less messy way of analyzing a company’s needs, according to Morel. Morel said it allows him to work naturally and place ideas anywhere, and come back to them later.

“It is easy to apply changes and move objects around,” Morel said.

The software is also compatible with Microsoft programs. Users can attach Word documents in Catalyst, for example.

“So, when you have lots of ideas and you want to get them down how do you do it? Generally on a whiteboard or a sheet of paper. MindManager 9 allows you to put your ideas onto your computer,” Jason Ford of Mindjet said.

“This is a niche market, but for those tasked with innovation, creativity, workflow and project design, it can be an important part of their toolkit,” said Oliver Marks, an enterprise collaboration strategic consultant with Sovos Group in San Francisco.

The software costs $349 a piece, but according to Ford, most of MindJet’s multi-national customers find it cheaper to buy multiple licences.