Table of Contents
- The Basics
- Function and Value
- Subscribing
- Taking Care of Business
- Help Along the Way
- Why is the ActionMap Toolkit different?
- What are the major functions of the ActionMap Toolkit?
- What work products does the application produce?
- What are the roles in an online ActionMap session?
- What is the ActionMap ROI?
- How does the application support the facilitation of process changemeetings?
- What are some specific examples of where ActionMap has been used?
Subscribing
- Are there different ActionMap subscription levels?
- What do I get with a Basic level subscription?
- What is the monthly subscription fee?
- How does the free trial work?
- Is there an annual subscription discount?
- What is not included in a subscription?
- What are the subscription license terms?
What is the ActionMap Toolkit?
The ActionMap Toolkit is SaaS application that supports improving and accelerating collaborative process change among colleagues, customers, partners and community.
- The result is better faster process change in broadest sense, including learning, sharing and creating of both process know-how and knowledge of process impacts.
- The ActionMap Toolkit is also a powerful tool for individual productivity in business/technology process analysis and design.
The ActionMap Toolkit is a cloud-based SaaS application provided on a monthly subscription basis.
In online meetings, the Toolkit helps people rapidly create:
- strong shared understanding, agreement and commitment to take action, supported by
- high quality process models, evaluations and action plans.
In individual use, the ActionMap Toolkit strengthens and expands process thinking capabilities that are used in many areas including.
- process analysis and design
- problem solving
- operational reviews
- planning
- decision making
- pre-meeting preparation (developing questions)
- post-meeting review (putting together the results)
- extending understanding based on partial information
- learning new processes and developing new skills
The ActionMap Toolkit can accelerate and improve process change in a wide range of activities.
The ActionMap Toolkit is available now; please click here for our Sign Up page.
The ActionMap Toolkit is browser based. For Release 1:
- Access to the application is limited to the Chrome browser
on Windows 7+ and Mac OS - Displays are optimized for resolutions 1366×768, 1600×900 and 1920×1080
- The application requires operation from a desktop or laptop; it cannot be adequately operated from tablets or smartphones
- AND, for group meetings, the ActionMap Toolkit runs as shared content in a separate e-meeting service that needs to be provided by the subscriber.
The Toolkit provides the following major functions.
- an online collaboration workspace
- familiar online discussion techniques for capturing process know-how, values and ideas
- highly automated, easy to understand process mapping
- a simplified development cycle leading to action plans
- automated support for meeting facilitation, focused on building commitment to take action.
The application produces a primary work product called a “Model Plan Area”. Model Plan Areas include process maps, evaluations and action plans. Model Plan Areas can be downloaded and re-uploaded as well as exported to PowerPoint and Excel.
ActionMap sessions have three roles: “subscriber”, “operator” and “participant”:
- The subscriber sets up the ActionMap group session and the external e-meeting, and invites participants to the external e-meeting.
- The subscriber joins ActionMap Toolkit application session, at which point the subscriber becomes the session operator.
- The operator runs the session, which includes: explains the method to the participants, using the built in “Help” as needed; moves the session from one activity to the next; and in each activity provides guided prompts to the participants for information and records their contributions in the application.
- The “Help” files contain tips, techniques and guidelines for prompting and collecting participant contributions in the e-meeting environment.
Return on Investment for the Toolkit has several components that are described on this page.
The Toolkit has been refined through hundreds of uses to support the facilitation of collaborative process change meetings. Some of the techniques employed by the Toolkit are described on this page.
Examples of engagements using the ActionMap Toolkit in its original flipchart meeting format can be found on this page.
Release 1 will have only one subscription level, called “Basic”.
The current target for the Basic level subscription gives you the ability to:
- conduct an unlimited number of individual work sessions each month, one open session at time.
- conduct an unlimited number of group sessions each month, one open session at time, via an external e-meeting service. (Please “bring your own” e-meeting service).
- create, store, export, import and reuse session work products with a substantial online data storage allowance.
The current fee for the Basic level subscription is $10 per user per month with a two week free trial. A credit card is required to activate the Basic level subscription, with no charge until the end of the free trial.
The free trial provides access to the full Basic level subscription, including all Help and Support/Training information. Subscribers may cancel the subscription during the free trial period using a link in the subscription activation email, and they will not be charged at the end of the trial period. A notice of the subscription charge coming due will be sent five days prior to the end of the free trial.
The current offering is month-to-month only.
The Toolkit does not include e-meeting services such as screen sharing, audio conferencing and chat. For online group meetings subscribers’ need to use their own e-meeting services.
- Application screens can be shown inside an electronic meeting service in the same way that you would share a document or spreadsheet.
- Most subscribers will have access to e-meeting services already, and we did not want to add that to the cost of an ActionMap subscription at the Basic level.
Each subscription grants one person (“Subscriber”) the right to use one unshared set of login credentials for accessing and using the ActionMap Toolkit SaaS application, Basic level subscription, one active browser window at a time, according to the ActionMap Terms of Service and Privacy Policy plus the conditions described on the subscription application form. The Subscriber is the primary user of the email address that serves as the applications login ID.
All payments are handled by FastSpring, a major online billing service. FastSpring is fully PCI compliant and does not store credit card information. ActionMap does not receive or have visibility to credit card information. More about FastSpring can be found here.
Subscribers receive an email receipt after each monthly subscription charge. That email receipt contains a link to a page that provides a cancellation function. The link will also be provided on the Subscriber’s application Profile page. Subscriptions can be cancelled immediately or at the end of the current billing period.
Subscription fees apply to the month following payment. No refunds are offered after the subscription fee is charged.
Please note that any subscriber work product can be downloaded and saved on the subscriber’s local system at any time. This should be done prior to cancellation if the subscriber wishes to keep their data for possible later use.
Paid subcriptions are designed to have one or more cancellation reminders. However, when a subscription is deactivated, which occurs on its cancellation date, subscriber data is immediately and permanently unavailable.
The application is designed for users who have general skills with office automation and online discussion tools and some familiarity with process improvement methods.
- The software has a extensive built-in step-by-step guidance and context-based help.
- Introductory training videos and examples of use are provided elsewhere at this website and at our support site, actionmap.zendesk.com.
- Please note that initially the support site will only be fully available for application subscribers.
- Subscribers with the qualifications above, supported by the built-in guidance and help, should be able to begin using the software immediately for individual purposes (e.g. to create a model and capture evaluations of their job, role or project), and to become confident in their individual use with an hour of practice.
- Subscribers should be able to engage familiar groups in online work sessions after using the application a few times on an individual basis.
- From there, subscribers can develop more confidence and capability in order to work with more formal meetings and less familiar groups.
- Please note the Toolkit can be used by individuals to create highly valuable results (process models, evaluations and plans) that can be downloaded in PowerPoint and Excel (.pptx and .xlxs).
The Toolkit software has extensive context-based help that provides detailed instructions for all operations. Help includes links to web pages and videos for instructions, demonstrations and training.
Support is provided through the use of a major SaaS support application, Zendesk. Support includes a knowledge base, community forums and a support ticket function. Ticket response is available through email.
The support site provides extensive material for instructions, demonstrations and training. Additional training may be obtained from ActionMap Inc. as a consulting service. For training inquiries please use our Contact page.
In addition to software subscriptions and training, ActionMap provides services for meeting facilitation and project support.
- The ActionMap principal consultant, Jim Johnson, is a highly experienced IT professional with extensive background in program and project management, process re-engineering and systems development, and consulting and technology business development and sales.
- Jim has conducted hundreds of ActionMap sessions and can work with your organization to tailor the use of the Toolkit to your specific project, program or training needs.
- Jim can serve as part of your team during any phase of business or systems development to design and facilitate high impact meetings with process stakeholders.
- A particularly valuable use of the Toolkit is in large scale organizational process change. In this type of program, Jim trains and leads a senior client team in modeling, evaluating and planning for a large organizational area. Those results are then used to design, launch and oversee a large scale change initiative, where the Toolkit is used by many teams focused on organizational details. The results of those meetings can be both rolled back up to executive recommendations and carried forward into project and program management.
- Examples of engagements that Jim has led are shown at our Sample Engagements page.
- For consulting services inquiries please use our Contact page.