Visio Reviews

I am an HRIS (Human Resources Information Systems) specialist. I use Visio for a variety of things.  

• I do work charts on it.  
• I do WiX (Windows Installer XML).  
• I do all swim lane mappings.  
• I do process mapping.  

That pretty much covers it.  

The ability to do my mappings is the most valuable feature in the solution. It is the reason I have and use the product.  

I am fairly happy with the program. That would be about 90 percent happy. There is not really much that is wrong with it.  

The only problem I tend to have is that sometimes when I am moving objects around within the interface I lose the formatting or it changes type or linking. You have just got to get used to the connectors not staying in the right spots or how they behave as you work with it and know how to repair it. When you are moving stuff around the joins sometimes just do not go where you want them to. That is the join arrow or shapes or connectors might intuit what you are trying to do in another way than you might intend.  

It is an issue with learning the user interface and working within the behaviors of the program. When you move stuff around and it might move off the visible page, you just have to know to resize to make it fit in the view again. That part of the interface could be more intuitive or left to the control of the user.  

We have been using Visio for least eight years although I think it is closer to ten, actually.  

It is a pretty stable solution. I do not experience much in the way of bugs or glitches.  

I do not really have experience with scalability when it comes to this solution. In my department, it is just me using the program. Outside my department, I guess our IT department and our business analysts use it. I know because we are involved in doing some work with the IT department and they use Vizio extensively. I would say there are like five or six business analysts in that area who use it. I guess if you need to scale usage, you buy another license.  

I have not had to contact technical support.  

Before using Visio, we did not use to do a lot of process mapping and our work charts were done in Excel. I was already fairly familiar with Visio, so that is why we got a Vizio. Vizio is a part of the package for the Microsoft suite, but it is an additional cost. So Vizio is not in the standard package but it is a product that is very compatible with familiar components in the Microsoft Office suite.  

The initial setup and installation were easy. It was even less than an hour, I think.  

Visio is about a $180 dollars to purchase. It is a one-time licensing fee.  

The only real comment I have for people thinking of adopting Visio is that it is pretty easy to use if you are looking for this type of solution.  

On a scale from one to ten (where one is the worst and ten is the best), I would rate Vizio as an eight-out-of-ten.  

The primary use case of this solution is for process mapping, and to streamline simulations.

The most valuable features are process mapping and identifying responsibilities.

The design and the look and feel, need to be improved. Also, the pricing can be improved for organizations.

In the next release, I would like to see simulations capabilities and artificial intelligence included.

I have been using this solution for many years.

This solution is stable, we have not experienced any issues.

It's a scalable product.

Technical support is good.

The price is reasonable for individual use but for an organization, the costs is high.

There is an annual licensing fee.

It's a good product and I can recommend Visio to others.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

I use this solution as a graphic design tool for breaking down a flow or process. I'm a systems engineer and customer of Visio.

I like the fact that as you drag and move things around, everything keeps track of each of its connections. So you don't have to be bothered by mechanics of connecting things again in the right place. It just follows on. It's also a good diagramming tool.

I've had a variety of issues, usually related to the system architecture. It's almost like a general purpose tool but it's important to understand the interfaces and the components and how they're related to each other. It would be helpful if you could layer things easily for the diagrams so you can decompose a given object and see it both at the macro and at the breakout level and still have those kinds of connections would remain. 

I've been using this solution for 10 years. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

I like to use Visio because it gives me a quick view of the things I had to put in a model for a company. I don't use it as an interface, though.

Something that needs to improve is the interface interaction with other tools.

The program is very stable. I've had no issues with it.

The solution is scalable.

I don't use technical support. I only use the documentations, the scheme and the use of the symbols.

When I work at companies, they've already installed and prepared the program for me. So I never have to install it for myself.

I would recommend this solution to others because it gives you a quick view. You can demonstrate in a short period what you want from the managers. Sometimes, however, the program is not compatible with some protocol standards, like ArchiMate. So I would like to see a better interface in the future. On a scale from one to 10, I rate Visio a seven.

I have used Visio Professional to model business process to BPMN 2.0 standard in the Logistic and Insurance Industry. Visio has been an easy-to-use modeling tool for Logistic processes, Complaints processes, Compensation Recoveries processes, Insurance processes, and Finance processes. The modeling of the As-Is process allows process analysis to design an efficient To-be process.

Visio is used to model and communicate the business process. 

As with all process modeling software when used correctly, it has the following benefits:

• Swimlanes enable clear accountability and responsibility.
• The Data Objects are hyperlinked to the Standard Operating Procedures, Letters, and Forms.
• The Data Store is linked to the CRM/ERP system.
• The task types assigned to the task enables the identification of improvement opportunities.

The ability to create BPMN Diagrams with the Visio Professional, the ability to import Rules from the BPMN 2.0 Rule Set, and Check the diagram according to the BPMN 2.0 rules are the most valuable features.

The Align features are easy to use and keep the diagram neat and tidy as you model the business process with the stakeholders in process discovery workshops. You need to be pretty competent to be able to map the process on the spot.

The access to commonly used features with the right click of the mouse and F8 (Align) are the best features.

For older version of Visio Professional, not all BPMN 2.0 Elements are available. 

The Auto-Align has improved significantly from the previous release; however, you may still find the auto align features lacking if your process diagram has a fair degree of complexity. My suggestion is to keep your process model straight forward and use the intermediate Link Event or End Signal Event to break up, simplify or connect the the rest of the process map.

This is a stable solution. When working with a complex process model, ensure that your computer has sufficient RAM to support multiple software and multiple displays (three monitors) running concurrently.

Scalability is not applicable.

I have not required customer service or technical support in using Visio.

Visio is the first software that I used to start modeling business processes.

The initial setup of this solution was straight forward.

This solution was implemented in-house through the IT Support Team.

The ROI for this solution is hard to quantify.

The cost of the software is reasonably priced. 

I did not evaluate other options before choosing this solution.

If you are considering modeling business process to BPMN 2.0 standards, you must purchase the Visio Professional version as the Standard version does not include the BPMN functionality.

Our primary use case for Visio revolves around business process re-engineering, as-is process, to-be-processed, and then time and motion study, value stream mapping, and in collaboration with everything together.

Visio has improved our organization through an essential collaboration with the other Microsoft applications like SharePoint and Excel. In the earlier days, what used to happen was that a majority of the organization captured all the as-is processes, the time and motion data in the form of Excel and then they used to create process diagrams using other freeware applications. However, collaboration allows easy and convenient sharing with other stakeholders, that is really helpful with Visio.

The features I find most valuable are the integration with the other Microsoft applications, specifically Excel.

The one particular thing which I would like to see improved is in comparison to other products in the market, and is still lacking in Visio, is publishing on a web application. For example, there is a freeware application business process modeling tool, Bizagi. This tool has a very good interface. It also provides visibility allowing users to publish on SharePoint directly. Then the entire product gets converted into an HTML format which provides a one-click on all the attributes of every task, a detailed description, direct visibility, which I find is still lacking in Visio.

An additional feature I would like to see included in the next release is the implementation of web publishing. For example, for any task or any flowchart diagram that I create, example "talk to the customer." Now using "talk to the customer," return adding attribute like "this is a step-by-step document file that you should follow" or "these are the setup questions that you should follow while talking to a customer."

These documents can be attached to that specific task, and when I submit this on the web, users will get all the description, along with the attachment.

As far as the stability of the solution I think it still needs to grow up when it comes to the interface usage.

My impressions of the scalability of this solution on a scale of one to five I would rate the scalability a 3.5, with five being the highest.

I know of 50 users working with this tool. Some of them are engineers. For the people who are not technically sound, for them, they find Visio quite complicated so they try to avoid using it. That is still where Visio needs to grow. In terms of user interaction, UX, and user interface. There is some obstructive complexity. 

I did use previous solutions, like as I mentioned one of them was Bizagi Modeler, which is growing in the market. Currently, I'm using IBM Blue.

The reason why there was a switch from Microsoft Visio was because of the user interface and easiness to UX. It's a complete BPMN solution, however, Visio can be used for multiple purposes. Now depending on the kind of audience, it was quite easy for them to use Bizagi Modeler. That's the reason why I introduced Bizagi Modeler in my organization. 

After switching organizations, I've found that Microsoft Visio was quite challenging and a little too complicated for the users. Irrespective of understanding the complete utilization and the power of the tool, people are switching to different solutions, so we were using IBM Blueworks.

The initial setup was straightforward. It's quite easy. I worked on a couple of projects which took two or three months to complete because they required extensive organizational level detail, like from top to bottom. Using Visio, it's quite easy and I like it.

The IT team takes care of the installation and deployment of Visio.

Before choosing I did a market evaluation. I performed a needs evaluation as the first step in our market evaluation. We considered what kind of solution we wanted and if it was okay to go with a freeware solution or is it right to go with the licensed software. Initially, we were Microsoft Platinum Partners, so that's why we had Microsoft Visio well established in our organization. However, again, when it comes to the kind of usage and along with the maturity of the process that we had, it was a simple move from my end because you're paying for a license and if you do not use the overall potential of it, including the user interface, I think it's not worth to pay for those applications.

The only additional advice I would give, Visio is one very powerful tool in the market. Not just the application, but also its effectiveness to collaborate with other applications. Everyone is using Microsoft applications; it's how you work across platforms, and this collaboration makes life easy.

The individual applications have a lot of functions an features that's the reason why each of these applications is quite complex. You need to understand the functions before getting the full value of this tool.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with ten being the best I would rate this product an eight-over ten because it's a tool what works in collaboration with other applications very well. I'm deducting two marks because it's still complicated for the very generic user. The solution should be developed with a variety of end users in mind. It needs to be user-friendly and easier to use for all different kinds of users and user experience levels.

Without this product, I would struggle to do my work. That is as a business analyst. I use it to develop all of my processes.

I have no issues with Visio from an end-user perspective. It is our environment. It's not utilized by too many users, about three or four end-users every week now.

I enjoy the fact that I can go into detail with Visio. In shared communications, I can inspect for any fault in my processes. That's what I enjoy the most.

Transferring data was one of the issues that I expected Visio to have resolved. I use the older version. I'm not sure if the later versions have already addressed some of the issues.  

To improve Visio, make it easier to transfer into other Microsoft products. For example, if I copy a Visio diagram into Word. If I open it in the Word version, it doesn't work so well. 

Visio's stability is the best I've ever used. I compare it with other tools that are out there. There's some competing software that has a lot of features. I am very happy with the stability of this application.

I'm sure Visio is very scalable. From my personal use, I've had absolutely no issues with scalability. I'm able to go on and develop complex processes. 

I haven't, fortunately, had to engage with Visio's technical support.

Some people prefer to use Flow. Some people prefer to use Draw.io. I also used Draw.io a little bit and found it tedious to use. It is not as user-friendly and I found my way back to using Visio.

The installation was straightforward.

It was a couple of in-house IT guys that came over to do the installation.

I would tell somebody considering this solution to understand why you want to use the product in the first place and have a clear understanding of what your goals are. What would you like to achieve with having that product? Ensure that the goals are measurable, then implement.

I would rate Visio a seven or an eight. 

We primarily use Visio as a flow chart software solution.

The application makes plotting and flowcharting very easy and very user-friendly. It is intuitive and doesn't take any time to make a complete and sophisticated flow chat from end to end. We are considering shifting completely from iGraphics to Visio Pro for office 365. I'm good in Visio, but I'm not an expert in iGraphics, so more comparison is necessary to define which solution is better.

The main feature of Visio and Autodesk that makes it attractive is that using Visio for just a week or two, people found that it's easier and more user-friendly in terms of flowcharting. The shapes library is much easier, the integration between Visio and other Microsoft Office tools is instantaneous. 

The concerns were that Visio did not have all the necessary features. In iGraphics, for example, you may add a command in the flow charts and add a note for a specific activity. When exporting it into a PDF, these notes get mentioned with the chart number so it's very easy to refer back to each note. It is a bit more efficient for reference without any extra effort. This was one of the features that they were missing in Visio.

iGraphics has a compulsory function which creates a complete reference and a complete library of all the processes related to my enterprise, my organization, in certain shapes or hierarchies. It's very handy and very easy to reference.

This is not as straightforward in Visio. Visio can compensate for this and have these processes in the same hierarchy. It is just related to collaboration. I can check the changes in the processes and models using the tracking feature.

There are not a lot of things that need to be improved in Visio from the user's perspective, but maybe some functions are missing. For example, migrating flow charts from iGraphics should be easier. When checking on some forums, some users mention data converters — so that may be a possibility. But it is not an official Microsoft solution for migrating the igx or the iGraphics flow charts to a Visio flow chart. It's a drawback, and it's a very big drawback. If we are not going to use Visio, the lack of integration would be for this reason. It's a show stopper for us right now.

The function that isn't integrated in Visio is having a share point. If I'm going share with somebody who's more knowledgeable about a particular aspect of a workflow, they have to know how to use the share point. This is a drawback. iGraphics doesn't need that. It's much easier.

More centralized integration would be desirable, but I believe that's not the direction Microsoft is taking with the product. If everybody moved to a cloud-based environment, a more centralized solution that catered to users to cut extra processes and functions, Visio would be perfect. 

In short, integration and easier migration would be beneficial.

It's very stable and has been since we implemented it.

It's easy to scale. We have not implemented permissions so that may be more complicated. 

We didn't have to use it yet. We were considering a different support contact in order to find the solution to migration.

It's easy to set up. It's all straightforward, like any Microsoft installation.

I'm not involved in the financial decisions, so I can't calculate the actual value in return on investment. However, it saves time in training.

Pricing is related to the number of Microsoft licenses being served.

iGraphics was the solution which was in place, but the support contact with iGraphics ended. Because we needed to have a new contact and iGraphics is very expensive, we started to check other solutions for the flow charts. Many were also expensive. But Visio was the most cost-effective.

I rate Visio as an eight out of ten on a very conservative scale. It is an 8 for ease of use, efficiency, and flexibility. It's not 9 of 10 because it lacks integration functions.

If you have a team that is not sophisticated or oriented to flowcharts, or if you don't have a lot of time to train these people, I guess Visio comes in handy as a very easy solution. When I started to train people on Visio, it didn't take more than two or three days. 

Even people who use iGraphics for years don't know all the features or know that they exist.