Last couple of months have been a milestone for a great "forced" digital transformation. Although it did start decades ago, now is the time to seal the deal and end every kind of discussions whether going digital or not.
These couple of months also forced us to search for the relevant softwares in order to organize our meetings, track our projects/tasks, or manage our time.
I am also in a big hunt for a good mind mapping, time tracking, workforce management, organizational development, HR, and/or productivity softwares.
I reached and found some of them in a disorganized way or sometimes blind, but then realized that I should first make a research about the research.
Therefore I started my own internal project about the software review and comparison companies in order to know where to hunt for the best software.
The methodology
The research aimed to review people, digital, and financial capabilities of the companies, as well as to experience the web site and the search process, by selecting an exemplary use case. The use case scenario was to find a mind mapping software. Successfully reached good ones such as miro, mural, xmind, ayoa, mindmeister, zoho desk, confluence, freemind, mindjet, mindmanager, etc. It was also important to experience the website and discover the purpose or ambition of the company.
Different internet data sources are used for the analysis such as linkedin where you can see the number of followers, read the job experience of the CEO and/or founders, analyse company's head count (if it is more than 30 people), see average tenure, and employee growth. Linkedin also gives you an idea about the corporate identity.
Twitter is another great source in order to assess the reach and impact of the company with number of followers and its content. The activity in twitter usually gives you the marketing perspective of the company.
Owler, craft, crunchbase, and pitchbook are also used for the financial aspects of the companies with the information of founders, size and types of fundings, and major competitors. Alexa gives the internet rankings and also where the website users are locating in the world. Wikipedia and google has been used to fill the blanks if posible.
The scores are Muntazam's own view combined with digital, financial, and people capabilities whose data is open to public and can be derived from the various internet sources.
G2, Capterra, SoftwareAdvice, GetApp, TrustRadius, and FinancesOnline followed by CrozDesk are the main leaders of software review companies.
Experience: It was super fast to reach even the market research and momentum (trend) graph. Nice comparison option. Siftery is an amazing tool in which you can see which softwares are used in big companies like Apple, Google, or Tesla. Looks definetely like the leader. Proposal: Get the right software & services for your business. Ambition: The current approach to buying business technology is broken. Buyers spend too much time sifting through spin, reading outdated analyst reports, and sitting through endless meetings. After all this, buyers still lack confidence in their choice of technology and most projects fail to meet their expectations. We will change this. By capturing our collective wisdom, we will make purchasing business technology as easy as buying consumer products. Capabilities: Grid view, company inventory (siftery), g2 score Top 3: Miro, Mural, xMind
Experience: It was fast reach, but an additional category named "idea management" confused me. I tried to understand the difference between idea generation and mind mapping. Categorization looks more complex and it could be either a plus or minus. Nice comparison option. Proposal: Search, compare, and choose the right software with confidence. Ambition: At Capterra, we believe that software makes the world a better place. Why? Because software can help every organization become a more efficient, effective version of itself. Top 3: Ayoa, Mindmeister, xMind
Experience: Search engine is at the bottom of the page, I almost gave up looking. They care more on 1o1 contact which is a market differentiator. Proposal: Get real advice from real people. Ambition: It takes the average business 2 years to find the right software. Don’t waste time and money on software research—we’ll guide you to your top options within 15 minutes. Capabilities: 1o1 Help Desk option. Top 3: Zoho Desk, Confluence, Aha!
Experience: Fast responsive page, very clean overview. The quickest top 3 selection so far; however, their comparison page is hard to track/read, has some format issues. Proposal: Join The Fastest Growing Business Apps Discovery Platform. Ambition: It's CEO and founder Sebastian Snopek explains that it all started when he was looking for reliable software solutions that would allow him to improve the efficiency of his employees and let his company grow by automating sales and customer support processes. Capabilities: Scoring algorithms (Awards in 2019). Top 3: FreeMind, padlet, mindmeister
Experience: Fast reach, nice comparison interface, looks really good. Definetely one of the market leaders. Proposal: Discover the Best Apps to Grow Your Business. Ambition: The #1 Business Apps Discovery Platform. GetApp is an ecosystem of business app and software discovery platforms. Its mission is to advise professionals to help them find the software and apps that best meet their needs. Top 3: Lucidchart, cacoo, ayoa
Experience: Mind mapping is under diagraming category which may be questionable. Too much verbal comparisons, trust map has some technical issues, and they don't sort according to the score. Proposal: Software Reviews You Can Trust. Ambition: TrustRadius is the most trusted review site for business technology. Optimized for content quality and data integrity, we help buyers make better product decisions based on unbiased and insightful reviews. We also help vendors harness and scale the authentic voice of their customers. Capabilities: TrustMap, trustradius score. Top 3: Mindmanager, lucidchart, visio
Experience: Their search button is located awkwardly, almost zero review and zero rating for the mind mapping category. Proposal: "Reviews & Ratings of Top Software Companies & Products. Ambition: GoodFirms has helped 102,925 businesses find the right software service companies and products. With its groundbreaking and foolproof research process, GoodFirms has been researching and reviewing companies & software products that could be of help to prospects
Experience: No available search button, only categories are listed. Limited number of softwares, but somehow simple and stupid which makes it easy to work with. Proposal: Discover The Best Software & Services For Your Business. Get the best ROI on your software investment with us. Ambition: SoftwareWorld is a software review platform that showcases top software solutions suitable for various industries, providing a comprehensive review service by comparing the best software solutions available on the market. The platform creates unbiased lists of the top software solutions by category, helping businesses find the right solution for them. Capabilities: Great quick comparison matrix. Top 3: Quip, bright idea, miro
Experience: Even though it is for the enterprises I still reached the mind mapping category. Limited softwares with almost zero reviews. Got a free report on BPM tools. Proposal: The leading product review site for enterprise technology. Ambition: The WSJ calls us The Yelp for Enterprise Tech! Our community of users and experts post reviews and opinions of enterprise technology. Capabilities: Free reports. Top 3: Visio, lucidchart, mindjet mindmanager
Experience: User friendly interface; however, sorting could be faster. Comparison only available for 3 products, but still looking very nice. Proposal: Business Software Search
Ambition: Crozdesk is a discovery platform that makes the search for #software simple. Capabilities: Crozdesk market radar, crozscore, report library. Top 3: Miro, roadmap planner, mindmeister
Experience: Fast reach, but no sorting option, no comparison. Proposal: SoftwareSuggest helps you discover top business software and service partners. Ambition: We list, review, compare & offer free consultation of business software and service solutions so that you’re guaranteed to find the best match for your business. Capabilities: Write a Review, Donate a Meal. Top 3: Mindomo,mindjet mindmanager, mindmeister
Experience: More an enterprise solution hub. Even they don't have mind mapping category, they look like a usefull website, will use for my research for time tracking softwares. Got allready a report for BPM. Proposal: Find the Best Software for Your Business. Ambition: TechnologyAdvice is dedicated to educating, advising, and connecting buyers and sellers
of business technology. As a trusted resource in a variety of B2B technology verticals,
the company helps buyers improve their businesses and vendors find more customers.
Experience: Couldn't see their tweets in their official tweet account because of a security problem. Their website is also insecure. It is designed more like a combination of trustpilot (a danish popular consumer product review company) and regular news channel. Maybe it's usefull for following the news about the softwares you allready selected or using. Proposal: We deliver technology reviews with knowledge, personality and passion. But is it hype or is it helpful? We know the difference.
Experience: This is not a software review website, maybe useful for some other occasions especially if you are located in US. Proposal: Our Mission is To Deliver the Best Answers to People's Question. Ambition: Fit Small Business is a digital resource for small businesses. Its primary focus is on providing information to businesses with a local community presence on how to drive customer acquisition using both on and offline channels, manage staff, and handle their finances.
Experience: With all my respect, it was the worst experience. Proposal: SaasGenius is a SaaS companies directory comprising business software reviews and comparisons.
Experience: First I struggled to find the category; it is under productivity suites, which makes sense actually. After I found the category it satisfied me with the market landscape analysis matrix and the relevant softwares. "Who is it for" and "typically used for" infos are very well. Proposal: The Leading Business Software Marketplace. Ambition: Helping over 1 million business decision makers find and compare business software and tools across dozens of categories. Top 3: Mindmeister, creately, mindomo
Experience: Reviews are missing. Couldn't find the mind mapping category. Could find the mindmeister with limited info. May be suitable for other categories, will check later again. Proposal: Find the best software for your business. Ambition: Welcome to the world’s largest online marketplace for cloud services. At Serchen, we are committed to providing an unparalleled experience for our consumers, connecting buyers and sellers of the best cloud services and software in the IaaS, PaaS and SaaS categories.
Experience: Looks more like an enterprise solution. Very rich on HR products, definitely will check them out later again. Proposal: A smarter and faster way to select software. Ambition: Collaborative technology selection management platform helps your company make better purchase decisions—faster.
Experience: This is for open source. Got my respect, but didn't evaluate it. Proposal: The Complete Open-Source and Business Software Platform. Create, collaborate & distribute to over 35 million users worldwide. Ambition: Make Your Projects Come To Life With the tools we provide, developers on SourceForge create powerful software in over 430,000 projects; we host over 3.7 million registered users. Our popular directory connects over 35 million visitors and serves more than 4.5 million software downloads a day. Capabilities: Strong community and twitter base.
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