I believe SmartDraw is a great tool for small- to mid-sized organizations for simplifying the production and management of org charts. We've also had the PMO experiment with the use of some of their flow charts as well. If an organization has an HCM with the capability of producing (good!) org charts, that is likely the best option... but many that I have used in my 30-year HR career don't. So there is definitely a need for SmartDraw in the market!
TigerText is helpful to an extent. I know my messages and photos are secure, which protects patient information, but it is difficult for them to use the program with me, and I rely on constant communication to provide services.
I rated 8 because its simple to use and easy to create network topologies quickly. I liked the drag and drop option which makes designing the network topology and flow chart easier. In general its does what it needs to.
They are always very helpful, we get computers every two years and I have to call them to move the license from one computer to another and they do it with a smile in their voice!
Support has been top-notch. The only additional recommendation that I'd give is to create video walkthroughs of some of the basic functionality. That would have gotten us up and operating much faster than having to poke around with the product--it was a sort of trial-and-error.
We have used Corel Draw and Adobe Acrobat. Both of those tools were good when they came out but the abilities of SmartDraw far outweigh both those tools. Corel Draw was also more complex to operate and do tasks, as was Adobe Acrobat in which some basic tasks took additional steps to complete.
This stacks up well against its competitors because this is what is mostly used in the hospitals today. So when students have use and experience with this program, they are ready when they come across it in the real world job. We feel that this experience is invaluable and helps students fit into their positions better when they go into their work environments.
SmartDraw has provided good return for our internal purposes. Using it to understand an organization's structure and inner workings has been valuable. On the client side, creating steps and businesses processes has also been a big plus. It has helped decrease confusing reporting structures and has provided a detailed map for individuals to understand where they fit within their organization.
Unfortunately, SmartDraw has been somewhat inefficient with some of the more complex projects on our plate and has really deterred certain employees from even wanting to use it.
