Lotus Symphony Gets Visio Alternative with SmartDraw Plug-In
March 24, 2009 Alex Woodie
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Users of IBM‘s Lotus Symphony software got a new visualization aid last week when SmartDraw.com announced that its SmartDraw plug-in for Symphony is now available. The plug-in will make it easy for Symphony users to add a variety of graphics to their business documents, in a manner similar to what Microsoft Visio does for Office documents, but without the expense, the company says. SmartDraw is a Windows-based graphics application that includes a library of more than 100 pre-built templates for various flowcharts, timelines, floor plans–even astronomy maps–that users can customize to fit their needs. The San Diego, California-based company says users can become productive with the software, which costs about $200 and has been downloaded 10 million times, with as little as five minutes of training. With last week’s plug-in announcement, Lotus Notes users now gain the capability to add SmartDraw graphics directly into their Symphony productivity suite, which includes a word processor, a spreadsheet, and presentation software. SmartDraw says the plug-in will give Microsoft Visio some competition when it comes to quick and easy-to-use graphics software among Lotus Notes customers, who tend to not be the biggest Microsoft supporters in the first place. “Lotus users can now create a flowchart to explain a business process, a Gantt chart to show a project schedule or an organizational chart, or any of SmartDraw’s 40 types of visuals, without a learning curve and in just minutes,” says Todd Savitt, who holds the title of chief sales officer at SmartDraw.com. For more information and free trial downloads, check out www.smartdraw.com. RELATED STORIES IBM Places Mobile Computing, Composite Apps on UC Pedestal
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