Visio Reviews

Mostly, we're using the solution for working with objects and network diagrams and all the charts. I'm the deputy manager of quality assurance and we are customers of Visio. 

Most of the time we're dealing with designation so that feature we find very easy and useful because we have a continuation for the required flow symbols. It also provides access for profile pics for the designation. Sometimes there are other options, such as timelines, that I also use but less often. 

The inventory feature could be improved. On projects, there are sometimes inventory tasks that are lacking. Imagery could also be improved. I'd also like to see increased visibility. 

I've been using this solution for 15 years. 

The stability of the solution improves from version to version, although sometimes it doesn't feel very user friendly. Inserting visual formats creates issues with stability. That aside, it is stable. 

Scalability is good. At the project level, we have supposedly 1,000 users that interact with Visio. It's used extensively. 

I'm satisfied with the technical support. The documentation is reasonable.  

The initial setup was not complex because we had support and Visio assisted us with the deployment although it was actually carried out by our own company. 

The fee is per license and there are no additional costs.  

I'm comfortable using this solution and I would recommend it. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

I use Visio to go to meetings on Zoom.

I use Visio all the time.

Visio is stable.

Visio is scalable.

Installing Visio is straightforward.

The price could be lower because it is too expensive in South America when paying in dollars or euros.

I'm the business process manager and we are customers of Visio. 

The process modeling is a valuable feature for us.

The solution could include better modeling and an interface with workflow capability, better integration would make the Visio to Power Automate connection a lot better. I'd like to see a feature that would enable the creation of a library of process models that could be linked to roles within the organization.

I've been using this solution for ten years. 

The solution is very stable. 

I think licensing costs are reasonable. 

If you're looking for a business process modeling tool, there are other options out there designed with that in mind. Visio is a good general diagram tool, but not specifically for business process management.

I rate Visio eight out of 10. 

I use Visio for all my network diagrams. For example, I think of certain concepts that I need to communicate with my clients. I use it for this purpose. I also am an adjunct professor at one of the universities in Bangalore. Suppose I want to create a big chart or a mindmap; that's when I use Visio.

Visio makes it easy to communicate your ideas from several areas of your imagination across several domains. People like to imagine it and describe things in document form, and I think Visio could really help with that.

If you have any questions, it will take you through the concepts step-by-step, so you can also educate yourself.

The costs could be better.

I've been using Visio for at least 10 years.

It's quite a stable solution.

As far as I know, it doesn't need technical support.

Installing Visio is very simple. It doesn't require much effort. You can install it even if you don't have a brain. I think it took me about ten minutes to implement it.

Visio is expensive. It would be better if Microsoft can provide this as an option with Office 365. Microsoft 365 users can include Visio as part of the subscription model.

If Visio were affordable, people would realize its value. It becomes another revenue generator for Microsoft. The investment will pay off.

I would recommend it to new users. Today, Visio can be used by many more people because it helps in many ways. For example, when you use Office Suite Spreadsheet or PowerPoint, the extent to which you can do diagramming is limited in terms of dimensions.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Visio an eight.

We use Visio for architecture modeling. We also use it to facilitate communication with other people.

The feature I like most about Visio is that it acts as a facilitator of communication, as it displays information that's easier to understand.

The only area for improvement we see in Visio is its integration. It could be improved, but in terms of features, we are really satisfied with the standard features of this solution.

An additional feature I'd like to see in Visio in the future is database integration. It would be good if it could be integrated with a database or data system to better manage the data, which would also help it communicate better with other applications.

I've been using Visio for seven years now.

We didn't experience any performance issues with Visio. It's a stable solution.

The setup and implementation of Visio went smoothly.

The popularity of a product is an indicator of its price. Because of the popularity of Visio, its price is on the higher side.

I don't have an intensive experience with Visio on architecture.

Within our organization, there are more than 20 users of this solution.

We are satisfied with Visio, but we are not intensive users of it. We have not been able to try out all of its features.

We didn't have a chance to contact technical support because we have not experienced any performance issues from this solution.

My advice to people who would like to try Visio is that it may not be the best solution in the market for architecture modeling, or for other modeling purposes, but it is effective in facilitating communication with others.

With one being the worst and ten being the best, I'm rating Visio a seven.

My primary use case of this solution is for process mapping and a little for organizational charts. We are customers of Visio.

The solution has a fairly intuitive interface. When it comes to process mapping, the best thing about it is that it's already configured for swim lanes and for drag and drop and easy manipulation of the objects and connection lines. It makes it a very easy-to-use solution. In comparison, if you're using PowerPoint, you have to manually size things and then adjust the font and it's very tedious trying to get everything connected. In contrast, Visio is very fluid, very interactive, and designed with features that reduce the manual work for basic flowcharts.

As a user, it would be helpful if Visio was in a native format recognized by Microsoft Word products, but that's not the case.

We have been using this product for 20 years. 

The solution is stable. 

The solution is scalable. We're a global company although I'm not sure how many in the company use this product on a regular basis. 

The initial setup is straightforward and the solution is intuitive enough that you can begin using it immediately. 

I rate this solution eight out of 10. 

We use Visio in my organization to create architecture diagrams.

Visio has allowed us to create good diagrams for our technical employees to consume. The solution provides templates, is straightforward, and has tools for the easy creation of diagrams.

The solution could improve by making it more modern.

I have used Visio for approximately 15 years.

Every group in my organization can use Visio and approximately 150 people use it. It is a tool that design engineers and architects teams use most. We have approximately 150 people that use it.

I have not needed technical support.

The installation is not complex.

The price of Visio is reasonable.

I rate Visio a seven out of ten.

I usually use Visio for really high-level conceptual modeling. Ironically, this works well with iServer. But, I use Visio for conceptual modeling since it makes it easy to draw things and is not as strict. This is because, at the conceptual level, one is not properly familiar with the details or constraints. This way, a business person would be able to critique something as being incorrect or not linked or drawn properly.

Visio makes it easier than with other tools to do such tasks as changing things or coming up with one's own visual style for presentation purposes. Mostly, the solution is employed for presentations made to business people, with the aim of facilitating their understanding of the design one wishes to use. Due to its greater flexibility when it comes to how things are joined together with lines, it is possible to put things together that would not work in a physical environment. This reduced constraint is good, as it allows one to initially familiarize himself with his system and ask the appropriate questions for which he may not have answers at the moment. At the minimum, this allows a person to put something up for critique in the event that it is incorrect.

The automated tools exist for making the computer do the dumb stuff. It may be worth going out to the market to see the sort of things people are trying to obtain. The solution integrates well with other tools and one can bring Visio diagrams into Word. Once in Word, a person can open the diagram for editing purposes if need be and then close it again and keep it in Word. So, all the integration capabilities with the other Office products is great. I can't think of much that I wish to add to the solution.

When creating a database, more stringency is required, as the computer is really dumb. A person is a lot more constrained, much more so when using the actual database creation tool, such as erwin Data Modeler. So the solution's flexibility can be perceived as both a strength and a weakness.

Visio is a general modeling tool, which encourages so many things beyond the use of mere data models. I think it's pretty good. Years back, when we first saw Visio being used with social security, the solution promoted itself as the missing piece. Word, Excel and Outlook were available. There was actually a piece missing where they stuck on the Windows logo.

In the late '90s or early 2000s it was possible to buy Visio with and without Office. They then removed this capability. Nowadays, one can obtain 365 but, with Visio, the component must be bought separately. The issue exists more with the purchasing and it would be nice to have it included as a standard feature. I believe they've now checked in Power BI as a standard component with Office, but Visio has so many more uses, since business people can use it to do swimlanes. Regular people and not just those with a technical background can use it for so much more. It should just be part of the enterprise or the professional version of Office. That's what I'd say. It's just so damn useful.

One of the things that was removed prior to it getting spun out was an enterprise version of Visio which could be set up, kicked off and actually go through one's network to ping everything that was attached to it, including printers, routers, PCs, laptops, et cetera. It would then bring all that information back and write a network diagram itself of all of those things. I thought that was a pretty cool part of the product. I'm not sure whether people now have network tools that do the same thing and that's why it's not used anymore. But, it was nice to see this sort of automation.

I have been using Visio since it came out in 1995 or 1996. 

The solution seems to be pretty stable, because I've opened models that I wrote 20 years ago and it still reads them without incurring frequent crashes. I did something flaky the other day which it didn't like. I don't know whether that was because it was going through a virtual machine and have yet to track down what the core issue was. However, overall, things have been pretty stable.

When it comes to scalability, I suppose that Visio is like any other product. One of the drawbacks of any Office product is its design for a single person. There exist ones on the web which allow for online editing in Excel, but many of the features I use do not exist in this version. This is a pain point.

We are talking about a one-person product, but the fact that you can print it off as a PDF and share it with others is a good feature of it. Visio differs from a real modeling tool, an expensive one such as, say... erwin Data Modeler, in that the latter has its own repository for storing models, which another person can access and use for modifying the relevant model. The model can be split into an overall one and a subject area. This way, two people can work in different subject areas. As long as two people are not working on the exact same object they will avoid stepping on each other's toes. Visio is akin to any other Office products, in that it involves a single person at a time per document.

I don't believe I have ever had to contact technical support to get the solution to work. We usually look up things on the internet. For most Microsoft products the help is not too bad. The last time I had to contact Microsoft support was years ago, concerning flowcharts, I believe.

For any issues involving the local installation I would contact our own infrastructure team. This said, I don't believe I have ever had to go out with an actual bug in the product.

I am not involved with the infrastructure side, but my understanding is that the initial setup was relatively straightforward. I had to put in a purchase order when I started this new role, but obtained access to the tool pretty quickly. I'm assuming that it is similar to other Microsoft products, in that there is a standard implementation, with the IT people having a fixed method of configuration, as with other Office products, which are rolled out.

When it comes to the setup, I have a couple of what are referred to as stencils, which are the things on the side that can be used for creating one's own series of diagrams or its components. I have a couple of these which I reuse. This is the only thing worth mentioning were one setting it up from scratch. But, many of the standard objects are pretty good and extensive. As such, the setup is not too difficult. Neither is it difficult to create one's own look and feel. So, it's pretty good.

I believe Visio to be priced pretty reasonably. Erwin Data Modeler may be a bit on the pricey side nowadays. When it was spun off from Computer Associates, they did so as a separate product and someone else bought it. I seem to recall at the time that the price either doubled or trebled, although I don't remember the reason for this. It was not clear to me what extra value was being offered for the price. Likely, the sole problem with erwin Data Modeler is that the price point is a tad on the high side. It can make selling to clients challenging and they are generally put off by the price.

Probably, it would have been better if erwin Data Modeler was the introduction to the environment whose creation is being attempted, meaning the DI suite and all the other parts involved in the governance, their glossary and all the bits and pieces. As the first taste is always free, it might've been better to have erwin Data Modeler at a lower price point. Once a person has obtained this product he would likely feel compelled to buy the other tools that work with it, rather than attempting to obtain something which does not. This would allow one to lower his price for the initial tool and then charge a bit more for those that nobody else has in their possession, such as one's involving data governance. This said, I'm not really involved in sales or marketing, so what I say should be taken with a grain of salt.

Visio is really good for high-level presentations but, when it comes to much more lower-level tasks, the best I've found so far is erwin Data Modeler and the DI, the governance suite that they've put out more recently. I've also worked with Oracle Data Modeler. One can't argue with the price on that one since it is free and presents no issues if money is lacking for other expenditures. If a person can do the drawings and present something to people then he can actually generate databases out of it, which is what one's end game is supposed to be anyway. It's not as pretty and it's a little bit more fiddly to do when things start to get complicated.

When I first started, everything was on-premises, although I do not recall if it switched to Azure at a later point. I believe I used it in 365. I am pretty sure the later ones are part of Office 365 or appear as add-ons, as they are not included.

My advice is that a person first work out what he wishes to use the tool for, to see if it suits his needs. While it's great for presenting information to people, it is not as good in the end when it comes to actually trying to build a product out of it. Of primary importance is that the person come up with his own look and feel for the organization, with a focus on business oriented issues rather than those of a technical nature. This would entail coming up with one's own color scheme or design and then remaining consistent in this domain. It is helpful to present to business people in a format with which they are familiar.

As the product will pretty much do what one wishes, which is nice, the focus should remain more on the presenting side rather than on its use. Certain products pose a challenge when it comes to getting them to comply with one's wishes, but Visio is a bit easier in this regard.

As a presentation tool and a high-level design tool, I rate Visio at least a nine out of ten.