Merlin Project Manager for MacOS X

Project Management with a bit of Magic!

	Project Management Software that integrates with NovaMind
	Save with our special NovaMind and Merlin bundle available from the NovaMind online store

Do you have difficulty explaining the goals of projects to your staff? Is it difficult to get their buy-in to the project? Have you ever had one of those "projects from hell" where important tasks were missed out, or there were insufficient allowances made for the risk factors? Do you ever try bringing new staff on to a project which is underway, and have great difficulty in getting them to understand the big picture of what the project goals are?

These problems are often very costly, in terms of time, money and reputation. Just about every project manager has faced these issues at some time in their career, so you are not alone!

We have a totally unique and very powerful solution to these (and many other) project management problems. It is not just one program, but the combination of two programs working together to provide the ultimate in project setup and management.

The Programs - NovaMind and Merlin

NovaMind gives you the best of Mind Mapping, visual planning and communication. Merlin gives you the best of project, risk and issue management.

The combination of NovaMind and Merlin brings a powerful extra dimension to project management, allowing much improved planning, staff buy-in and involvement in the whole process. One of the tenets of project management is the increasing cost of errors or omissions in the plans at each stage of the project. By starting the project with brain storming and Mind Mapping, project scoping is clearly defined early on, problems are resolved during the planning process, and the team is able to have input into identifying issues before they cost you a lot of time and money.

Couple NovaMind and Merlin with the resources of the Apple iPhoto, Address Book, and iCal applications, and you have a very powerful solution for the whole of the project from inception to delivery.

We have been working with the Merlin team since March 2004 to bring you this solution, and we will be continuing to increase the data transfer between the two applications in the new year. Both NovaMind and Merlin are built around the same principle of being simple for beginners but efficient and powerful for experts.

How the programs work together

NovaMind is used during the initial stages of the project to brainstorm the project goals and potential solutions. This provides a powerful way for the staff involved in planning the project to work together, building a definition of the problem that will be solved by the project. You use the graphics libraries, iPhoto, other images, and color and shape to enhance the Mind Map, making it clear to everyone what ideas are related to each other, and the importance of the tasks. From this you build a Mind Map with all the major tasks and their subtasks identified on branches of the Mind Map, again using visual representations to identify task relationships and building clarity. Everyone understands clearly the goals and tasks involved in the project because they can see how everything fits together visually.

To sell the project to management and customers, the Mind Maps can be shown in NovaMind or quickly exported to a web site, HTML/Java presentation, Powerpoint or Keynote presentation. For documentation for management, the outline of the project can be quickly incorporated into an MS Word document.

Simply drag in or import your Mind Map to start a new project based on your Mind Map information.

Once the tasks have been outlined, the Mind Map is imported into Merlin, where the specific timelines, dependencies, and risk factors are formally identified, and the actual running of the project is controlled. Resources are either added manually or dragged in from the MacOS X Address Book, and timelines and schedules can be exported to iCal calendars for individual time management.

When a new staff member is assigned to the project, the Mind Maps gets them up to speed with the overall project goals very quickly, by giving them both a picture of the project goals and the issues that were faced during the mapping out of the project, and how they were solved, as well as a graphical overview of the tasks, how they relate to each other, and their importance and impact. They can then be quickly introduced to their individual role in the project and see why they are being asked to do those tasks, and what the impact to the rest of the project is.

Merlin features include

• Attach elements to an activity or to the project., a quick and easy way to include additional information.
• Different layout views to help you work, choose from Gantt, Outline, Columns or Report.
• Import your address book to the project, then you can assign resources and suppliers by simple drag and drop.
• Merlin will automatically calculate costs assigned to resources.
• Merlin is the only Mac OS X application to provide risk management calculation and tracking for your project.

• Include any project problems as individual tasks for easy monitoring and follow through until resolved.
• Dates and times of your project tasks can be copied to a dedicated project calendar. You can also synchronize with your Palm, at Mac.com or iPod.
• Export your project information to the internet by a simple mouse click.
• Use project templates to get you started quickly.
• Import and export in MPX format (compatible with MS Project)
• Localized into English, German, French, Italian and Spanish.

System Requirements

Apple Macintosh running OS 10.3.9 or later

What support does my Merlin license include?

Purchase of a Merlin license includes ongoing support while using the recommended operating systems and a recent version of Merlin. Merlin support is provided through Project Wizards, the makers of Merlin and can be contacted by email at support@projectwizards.net. NovaMind Support is provided through NovaMind, the makers of NovaMind and can be contacted by email at support@nova-mind.com.

Merlin minor releases (i.e. v1.x.x to v1.x.x) are free upgrades and major releases (i.e. v1.x.x to v2.x.x) are payable for a small price.

Special Bundle Pricing

Corporate and Volume Licensing

Corporate and high volume pricing for Merlin and NovaMind network licenses are available, please contact sales@mindmapsatwork.com to discuss your requirements.

Educational Discounts Available

NovaMind are pleased to offer educational discounts to students, educators and educational institutes. Just fill in this form

Provided the information checks out OK, you will have a coupon for a 30% discount off the purchase price emailed to you. You must obtain the coupon before making the purchase. Discounts cannot be applied after the purchase has been processed.