What is Symphonical Experience the new efficient way of working with documents and tasks. It's simply intelligent collaboration!

Create notes In Symphonical you work with Symph-it notes. Symph-it notes can be compared to traditional Post-it® notes, but they have all the digital advantages compared to physical yellow notes. A Symph-it note is an information container which is, in its simplest form, just a note with text like any other physical yellow note. However, you can build the note in any way you prefer: embed pictures, YouTube videos, Slideshare presentations, Docstoc documents and more upload/download any type of files run discussions make connections between notes create votes and more

Organize and structure Symph-it notes are placed on a wall. A wall with Symph-it notes can be viewed as a document in which the notes are the elements (e.g., chapter) of the document. In Symphonical you can begin with no structure and just place the notes random on the wall or you can start from a tool in which you will start with a structure (see our toolbox for smart ways of using Symphonical). You can organize and structure the notes on the wall in almost any way. Also, you can create new and switch between different structures whenever you prefer to: scattered around on a wall with drawings (and you can change the form of the note into any picture or icon you like) as a mind map showing the connections between the notes sorted as a list sorted as a spreadsheet with columns and rows and many more in which you can create any combination you like and as many as you like Remember: If you structure the wall in different ways, it's still the same notes with the same content. You just view the notes (content) in many different ways.

Share and collaborate You can share a single Symph-it note or the whole wall with as many people you like. The people you invite don't have to register as users in Symphonical. They will just receive an e-mail with a link to the note or the wall you shared. Just by clicking the link they can access the note or the wall and start collaborate. And, of course, you decide what the people are allowed to do on the note or the wall. They might participate in a discussion, they might vote, they might edit the content of the note and so on. You have full control. If the people you share with are registered users of Symphonical (note: everyone can use Symphonical for free with up to 1GB and 1000 notes) they will be able to get an overview of all notes and walls as well as the conversations they are involved on the different notes and walls. By being able to create conversations around single notes and a whole wall, you have full control of the important communication. Also, this helps you focus the discussions as well as helping you keep control of both the information (note or wall) and the communication at the same time. If you wish to collaborate even more efficient with a group of people, you can choose from one of our subscription plans and be able to set up one or several workspaces (see Plans and prices). By setting up a workspace you can give users permanent access to a set of walls and notes without having to share every note or wall with the same people every time. Create a workspace and invite the people as members.

Intelligent collaboration

To not only innovate, but even revolutionize how we work with information and tasks Symphonical focuses on three important elements

• structure is a possibility and not a restriction
• the document is integrated with tasks
• information is linked to the communication

This helps you focus on the most important part of any information process, the content. This is simply what we call intelligent collaboration!

Structure is a possibility and not a restriction

When we started out developing Symphonical we were tired of how restricted our thinking was to existing digital office tools. How we work, and even our thoughts, were restricted to traditional tools like word processing, spreadsheets and slides. And, even worse, we were restricted to work within only one of these document formats at a time. For example, when developing a business plan or a marketing plan, we had to decide if we wanted to work within a Word OR Powerpoint. Why isn't it possible to view and work with the information in the way we prefer and in many different ways at the same time. That is, it should be possible to start in any format and switch between different formats whenever you need to. It should be possible to switch between Word, Excel, Powerpoint and mind maps whenever needed. If you prefer to work with the business plan as a spreadsheet and I prefer to work inside a mind map, we should be able to do so without having to create two separate documents. It's the content that matters to us both, not the structure (at least at this point). However, the structure is important to us individually. I want to structure the information in the way that suits my thinking even if you prefer another type of structure.

Conclusion: Collaboration is much simpler if we can work on the same information, but in our own structured or unstructured way. More flexibility and no limits!

The document is integrated with tasks

Existing office tools such as MS Office, Open Office and Google Docs are focused on creating documents. Existing project management tools are focused on activities, tasks and milestones. However, when you for example create a business plan or a marketing plan, you need much more than just the document or just the tasks and milestones. You need to keep track of thoughts, ideas, analyses and so forth. Each chapter in a business plan will require different processes and expertise. Why is is it not possible to collaborate on smaller parts of the document (e.g., the chapters)? If this was possible, then it would be possible to separate a chapter from the whole document and track progress of this element. Also, I could then share one specific chapter with many external people without having to confuse them with the rest of the document.

To be able to collaborate on a document today, you have to work with the whole document (or nothing). Also, to be able to track progress you have to upload the document to a project management tool or some other form of task trakcing tools. In Symphonical, the document (wall) is deconstructed in smaller pieces (notes) so you can share and collaborate on only smaller parts of the whole document and at the same time track progress of these parts. Share one single note (chapter) and track the progress of the same note. So how do you do this? Well, remember from the last section how you can structure your document in unlimited ways: Just structure the document in another way in which you can see each note according to its status (e.g., not started, in progress, finished).

Conclusion: Collaboration is much simpler if the tasks are integrated with each element of the document. Smaller pieces makes it easier and gives more control!

Information is linked to the communication

When you for example work on a business plan or a marketing plan: How do you keep track of your discussions and decisions? We guess that you do this outside the document and outside the project management tool. That is, you send e-mail with attachments and you have several external chats (e.g., MSN, Skype) going on in which you have quick discussions and make quick clarifications. All these e-mails and chats are not connected to your document or your tasks. That is, you cannot easily find all the discussions from your document or from your tasks! Consequently, the communication is disconnected from the information. You might think that there is a bunch of discussions and decisions that are not tracked when you meet face-to-face. You are completely right about that, but think of all the discussions that you and other team members have around in different communication systems. That communication should of course be connected to your document and tasks.

In Symphonical you create conversations around both single notes and walls. In this way you can access conversations (e.g., chats, messages) from your document or tasks. You don't have to search around hundreds of e-mails or MSN chats to find the reason for your decisions. The communication is integrated with the information in a simple and smart way.

Conclusion: Collaboration is much simpler if information is linked to communication. Discussions and the following decisions are usually the most important part of any process!

Summary: Symphonical integrates documents, tasks and communication. Some might call it real collaboration. We call it simply intelligent collaboration. It's more than an innovation. It's a revolution in how we work!

Enjoy the new way of collaboration. Simply Symph-it!