Mindjet acquires JCVGantt, strengthens its offering to project managers
May 20th, 2008 | By Chuck Frey | Category: Software
Mindjet, the developer of the popular MindManager mind mapping software, announced today that it has acquired JCVGantt Pro 3 from Gantt Solution. This MindManager add-in makes it very easy for project managers to transform the tasks in their maps into Gantt bar charts – a key tool for project planners. JCVGantt Pro 3 will now be available through Mindjet and its distribution network for US$129.
In recent years, several competing mind mapping programs have added the capability of Gantt charts to their core functionality. This move doesn’t get Mindjet to quite the same place, because you still need to purchase JCVGantt and install it separately, but clearly the developer feels the need to offer more of a strong, integrated solution to project managers, one of the biggest groups of users of mind mapping software.
This is the first time Mindjet has acquired one of universe of add-in suppliers, but I suspect it won’t be the last. My gut feeling is that the developer plans to make several other acquisitions that will further improve its value proposition to prospective buyers.
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This product is lacking several key features available in the popular MS Project (network diagrams & tracking gantts to name 2) that make this tool unusable for all but very simple projects. For the $129 price this product should have all the same features & more than the competitively priced $93 MS Project 2007 (ebay pricing). And last when I imported an MS Project plan (with only 13 tasks) and attempted to “Show Branch in JCVGantt” rendered both MindManager & JCVGantt useless for 10+ minutes as JCVGantt interpreted my map. This is truly unacceptable.