Visio Reviews

I analyze and model processes for optimization. We are customers of Visio and I'm a founder of the company, working as a process consultant.

It's a very agile product because I can map and model a process extremely quickly. It's user friendly and there are a lot of templates I can use that are really useful. I like very much that I can publish the different models I've created with my clients and they can view the entire process, it's really useful. It provides a lot of advantages because you can see the inefficiencies visually, and it's really easy to analyze and to detect different inefficiencies in order to improve the process.

I'd like to be able to extract different data from different relations between the objects I create and I'd like the ability to analyze the different relations between activities, positions and roles. Visio can't give me this functionality. I would also like to be able to introduce more information in each object. For example, to include some codes or name or description of the activity, to be able to introduce more data in the object. To have this information in the objects would be great. 

I've been using this solution for six months.

This is a stable solution. 

From my clients' perspective, it's really scalable. It can be used in any type of company. I think it's really useful for any person that is working for a company with a wide range of processes. I'm the only person in my company who uses it and I'll continue to do so because it's so user friendly. 

I used Aris for a short period of time several years ago. It was a good experience but a more expensive solution. I'm evaluating it again and depending on the conditions the company offers, I might start using it again. I can keep using Visio even if I start using Aris as well.

The initial setup is very easy. With 365 it's very fast. It's good. I think I was able to deploy in 30 minutes. I did it myself although I was in contact with the chat bot at the beginning to ask some questions.

I pay a monthly fee to Visio.

I would recommend the product and I think it's very useful for any person that works in a company where you need to visualize the process you work in and to analyze ways of improving. 

I would rate this solution more highly if it was easier to extract data but for now I rate Visio an eight out of 10. 

We use Visio for some digitalization projects we have.

The diagrams Visio creates are quite impressive in the sense that we can cooperate with more colleagues in one task and see the flow of the process.

The solution's initial setup was a bit complex for me.

I have been using Visio for two to three months.

I rate the solution a seven out of ten for stability.

Visio is a scalable solution. Around ten users, including the major project manager and their colleagues, use Visio in our organization.

We have some minor experiences with monday.com. Although its pricing plan and features were quite impressive, it was not good for us.

When we have to estimate for the annual budget planning to control costs, it is very important, as a government agency, to have some kind of KPIs, like total ownership costs and different types of efficiency KPIs. We were able to monitor our processes in a custom-made dashboard. At the moment, we would like to improve the level of integration because the solution is used very isolated and needs a lot of workaround.

Around two to three people, including engineers and IT specialists, are required to deploy and maintain the solution.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

The most valuable features are that the user experience is simple, and it's customizable. You can customize it and connect it to data.

It has also many features that allow it to integrate Visio with SharePoint, which might be very useful in many applications.

In earlier versions, there was better database modeling. The database modeling has deteriorated significantly in the more current versions.

In Version 2000, the database modeling was pretty decent. Since then, it has deteriorated and a lot of the functionality has disappeared from Visio.

I have been using Visio for five years.

I am working with the latest version.

Now it is stable. In the past, it wasn't perfectly stable. with richer functionality, at least for the databases, but right now it's pretty stable.

The scalability has limitations. It could not model large sets of entities. 200 is probably a reasonable limit.

The initial setup is easy. It took a maximum of 15 minutes to deploy but it can be less. 

Yesterday when I installed it, it only took five minutes.

It's cheaper than other solutions.

I would recommend this solution as a starting point and as a benchmark to evaluate other tools because it is much cheaper. Also for starting modeling, database modeling, other UML, as well as other templates for modeling and business process modeling.

It integrates well with SharePoint.

It's a good tool to start working with and to use it as a benchmark with some more expensive tools. If those tools don't provide more features than Visio then they are not worth investing in.

I would rate this solution a six out of ten.

We use Visio for process diagram. 

The interface is the most valuable aspect of this solution. 

My colleagues are not satisfied with this solution for many reasons. They don't see end-to-end processes or the layers of one process.

When you use a BPA solution you can open an end-to-end process in one window, go down, or go up between layers to different places. You should be able to see descriptions of the steps of the process.

Integration with third-party vendors is another aspect that needs improvement. 

I have been using Visio for three to four years. 

We don't have any stability problems. 

We have local technical support. We have an IT department and the department solves all of our problems. They contact local support if need be. 

The price will always be high. It depends on the organization size, how many processes there are, and what requirements you have for the solution. If you require additional features like analysis, it will be a different price. It's a balance between requirements and price.

My recommendation would depend on a few factors like the size of the organization. If it's a small organization and it does not have so many processes, I think Visio is a good solution. For larger organization solutions like Segnavio and Orbus would be better. Those are more complex solutions. 

I would rate Visio a six out of ten. We don't have a holistic vision of our processes so I can't open a process. If I open a process in Visio, I can't see how it's connected to other processes. 

The primary use case is modeling architecture requirements.

The most valuable features are ease of use and flexibility.

One of the things that I like is the automation from external data.

The user interface is fine.

I would like to see better integration with external data sources.

Sharing work with colleagues is sometimes an issue with this product.

I would like to see integration with Microsoft Teams.

I have been using Visio for the past fifteen years.

Visio is a very stable product.

Given that it's a desktop application, you can't scale it. You can't do much and sometimes, sharing is an issue.

I have never used technical support.

They do have lots of videos and everything is available online.

As it is a Microsoft product, the installation is easy.

The yearly cost is approximately $400 CAD ($300 USD). 

My advice for anybody who is implementing Visio is to establish the right templates for your project. Templating the models is very important so that everybody has the same ones.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

The feature that I like the most, as simple as it may seem, is the addition of the vendor's vectors and shapes. I'm able to utilize the actual brands of our network appliances as devices to have a more accurate picture of our actual network and the server room setup.

By utilizing Visio, we have been able to put on paper our network design, server room setup, and network connections. It makes things a lot easier to troubleshoot and figure out where the issues, errors, or disconnects may be happening. This also helps when explaining to the upper management any questions in regards to our network environment.

At this point in time, it serves its purpose. I can't think of something that could be improved as of today. I'm sure there is something that can be improved, but nothing for my current needs.

I have been using Visio probably since 2008, so it has been almost 10 years now.

I, primarily, started using it in school to do basic network diagrams, but now I've used it to even draw out full floor plans for our network designs based on our building floor plan.

There were no stability issues experienced.

There were no scalability issues experienced.

I haven't requested any technical support for this tool. I'm sure it is great as I have used Microsoft Support in the past, and it has been great. So, I don't doubt that it would be the same for this product as well.

Previously, I was using PowerPoint. It was obvious why I switched over to this solution. It is the product that we needed back then when drafting the floor plans and networks.

The setup is just like any other Microsoft program, it is straightforward. Get the software, follow the prompts to install the products and it just works.

As most Microsoft products, the price is not the cheapest but you just cannot pass this tool. So when you buy it for you/your team, save money and buy only what you need. We installed it in our Techroom computer so that all the members can use and access it. Thus, one license serves the purpose of all three of us.

When using this tool, research your current vendors and manufacturers to get their most up to date shapes and vectors, so you can always design or draft your Visio projects using the most accurate picture.

It's been an extremely reliable solution for me for a very long time. It's quite mature.

If you are a knowledgeable individual, the initial setup isn't too difficult.

There are plenty of very good third-party tools.

The stability is fairly good.

The solution can scale to meet the needs of any project.

The issue I have with this solution is the same issue I have with all the products by Microsoft. They depend on many solutions by third parties for too many things, from my point of view. Maybe there should be more basic, fundamental resources incorporated into their products in general - not just this product.

A basic user may have issues trying to install the solution.

There are a lot of patches that sometimes change how one version will interact compared to another.

It would be great if, in the future, we would be able to use numerics and graphics cards. If there already this functionality, they need to make it more publicly known, as I don't see it right now.

I've been working with Microsoft products for 30 years or so. With this product, I've used it from time to time, when I've needed it. I'm not sure the exact amount of time I've spent with it over the years. It's likely much more than ten years.

The solution, for the most part, is very, very stable. There is one problem in that there are so many upgrades and patches and so on that are critical and must be applied that it makes for a few issues in terms of practical use. I was facing such a very specific problem. The project was functional in an older version, yet the same code was not functional in the newer version. Therefore, to troubleshoot, I used both older and newer versions of the software and had to acquire all the patches for both. There is no clear answer as to why the same code behaves differently within these two APIs. That's a problem. However, it's not really a stability issue.

The solution is quite scalable, and great to use for any project of any size or scope.

I only use the solution for my personal use and therefore don't have access to technical support. I can't speak to how helpful they are, or how responsive, as I do not use them. I don't have any practical experience to speak to.

That said, having dealt with Microsoft technical support in the past with other solutions, I can say that, in general, they are very capable and have many experienced people on staff to assist. I've been satisfied with them in the past on other products.

The initial setup is pretty simple and straightforward for those with knowledge or training. Basic users may have problems, however.

For myself, with so many years of experience with many types of Microsoft solutions, I found everything very straightforward.

It's not that the process isn't intuitive, it's just that, if you don't know what to do or look for, it can become a bit confusing. You must study many new terms and methodologies before you can get around to beginning the process as a completely new untrained user. There may be ways to watch videos online to learn a few tricks and to help you visualize the process.

I have many years of experience with Visio and Microsoft, therefore, I can handle the installation process myself.

I primarily use the solution myself for my own projects. I'm a customer and end-users.

In general, I would rate the solution at a six out of ten.

I would recommend this product, however, at the same time, I suggest to everybody to know and practically use several tools, so as to keep up their overall knowledge and skills. For some purposes, it is easier and more reliable to use one tool, and for other purposes, it is more reliable to use another. I do not recommend to anybody globally to work alone with one tool, separately from all the world.

I use it to create architecture diagrams. 

It serves purpose to help one get started, but it is not designed to create Modern day Data pipelines or to visualize and Manage Enterprise Architectures.

It is very easy for people to start using this tool, and we can import Visio templates that are already published by vendors such as Azure without any issue.

a) Its integration with other vendors can be better and support for other formats. For example, when we import a JPEG, we cannot customize it. Similarly, we can't utilize the BPML kind of diagrams.

b) It should natively enable importing diagrams or reference architectures from any of the vendors whose solutions are used by the customer or proposed by solution providers such as DXC

For example: AWS, GCP, VMWARE etc

We can't work in isolation in a multi-cloud or hybrid cloud world. This is a necessity.

c) The tool has to support more collaboration capabilities so that I can co-create architectures  within the organization or with my vendor partners or customers

d) As compared to some of the other vendors like Lucidchart, Visio is quite old-fashioned in terms of visual presentation. It is not up-to-date. Its visual presentation should be improved.

e) Rather than static diagrams, the tool should support API level integration  like SAP Power Designer or EA tool from SAP so that deployment of solution becomes easier.

I have been using this solution for at least five years.

I have not called their tech support. If I want to know something, I normally find YouTube videos, and I have been able to manage so far.

Its installation is easy nowadays. It is not complex.

I did the installation. 

I use Corporate subscription-based model, and the subscription is done on a yearly basis. Of course, we need internal approvals in place to get license.

It is a good tool for beginners or medium-level users. It is also good for those users who have experience in using Microsoft solutions. However, I don't consider it as an enterprise-architecture tool. It is a very generic visualization tool.

I would rate Visio a seven out of ten for its ease of use for beginners.