I work for BAM, which is the largest builder in the Netherlands. We have approximately 24,000 employees and we have a centralized IT that provides all products for our company. I use the solution for organizing many different types of visuals graphics. It has the ability to make drawings quickly with links, flowcharts, and organizational drawings.
I think the best part of Visio is that you can import drawings very well into Microsoft Word. For example, if you put the Visio drawing into Word, you can double click on it and it opens in Visio. It is a very useful feature and something which I miss switching to Enterprise Architect. In Enterprise Architect, if I import a drawing into Word it does not open the diagram in Enterprise Architect. This is one of the strongest features and the ability to create your own stencils. Additionally, it allowed the importation of AutoCAD drawings which was helpful because I did not have AutoCAD installed on my laptop.
They could improve the drawing function, other solutions provide easier drawing capabilities.
The UML drawings are quite limited, particularly the clause diagrams. You need to put a lot of effort to get everything right, compared to some other products I have tried.
In a future release, there should be more features in UML drawings. Generating drawings that belong to UML is quite an effort, everything is very tedious by hand and I prefer the methods which other competitors use which takes the effort away because some elements are done automatically. It requires fewer clicks with your mouse and fewer presses on the keyboard to accomplish the same result.
I have been using the solution for approximately 21 years.
The solution is stable.
I have also used other UML tools and almost all of them are easier to draw in than in Visio.
The implementation is done by our centralized IT team.
I evaluated Enterprise Architect and have now switched to it.
Visio is that it is a reasonable product.
I see Visio as something similar to Coral Draw, but more vector-oriented. For example, no picture, but vectors. I classified Visio more as a standard drawing program, it tries to be something else. I am drawing more and more diagrams in UML and Visio is not the ideal tool.
If I was going to rate Visio for generalistic drawings, it would be a solid eight. It is a good product, there is nothing wrong with it. However, this is not my main use case.
I rate Visio a five out of ten.
I primarily use Visio for creating mind maps and other visualizations.
I also use it for process modeling, but we are searching for a specific business process modeler because Visio doesn't have the full scope of capability that we need.
The most valuable feature is the set of diagramming tools.
It is quite flexible and easy to use.
The big downside to Visio is that it's very difficult to push the design through to Power Automate, to become a workflow that you can use.
The process modeling capability would benefit from a quick modeler tool, such as one where you use a table that is populated using the BPMN 2.0 format.
In the future, I would like to see a connection with the workflow so that you can create your model and then execute it.
I have been using Visio for about ten years.
The stability is good.
Scalability is something that needs to be improved.
The models are not linked together, so unless you're using SharePoint or you've defined your own workflow, there is no version control. This makes it more difficult to collaborate, link models, and make sure that everybody is using the latest version. Essentially, you have to build your own framework from scratch in order to do that.
We have about 100 users, most of which are end-users. It requires minimal administration.
We have not had to contact the vendor for support.
This was the first proper diagramming tool that we have used.
The initial setup is straightforward. Our IT department installed it, and I think that it took a couple of hours to deploy.
Our in-house team is responsible for the deployment, maintenance, and providing support.
Our license for Visio is including with the Office 365 subscription.
This is a product that I can recommend, albeit for limited use. If you just want to draw basic models and create systems diagrams, and not do anything too clever and link it together, then it will work well because it's quite flexible and easy to use.
I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
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.
I wrote some Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) scripts in the background to graph with my stencils and use the database at the back. In general, I'm using stencils, and I'm using Excel database in the background. With those tables, I am able to grab the data out in the stencils, and then I place it Visio. So, the main drawing area is in Visio, but it uses data in the background.
I am not using its latest version. I am using one version back.
I use it for computer architecture. I make diagrams of various engineering domains such as mechanical systems engineering and electrical systems engineering. It is used for that purpose, and we're able to better organize our architectures to pictures.
The fact that you could program in VBA is most valuable.
It is easy to use out of the box. It requires little training, which is readily available. You can learn things easily.
We need the place and route capability for the lines when we have a database. I use it for architectures, and between the boxes, there are lines or interfaces from one tool to another. I wish those lines could be easily drawn without having to place them mechanically. I wish that there was some kind of place and route capability, so I just press a button, and all the lines get drawn.
I have been using Visio for at least 10 years.
It is definitely good. It works.
It scales, but there is a limit. There is only so much that you can do with the nature of it.
We don't have any intentions to increase its usage, but it is used as a standard tool.
I did use Microsoft technical support before but not necessarily for Visio. In general, they're pretty prompt.
In general, I have been using Visio.
It was straightforward to deploy. It probably took hours in reading instructions and so forth.
It was an in-house job.
We have an enterprise license. I'm not sure what the cost is.
I would rate Visio a nine out of 10.
What I like most about the solution is that It's quite easy to use. In our case we do not consider it in this exercise since we wish the components to be logical and not just to have the drawings in one diagram or another.
It is difficult for me to point to which areas of the solution need improvement as most of my people are using it and I have had little hands-on experience with it in the past few years.
An issue I wish to see addressed is the ability to go beyond just drawings for separate systems to that of having logical architecture described on the price level. Certain disadvantages in the solution make this difficult.
I would like to see Visio become some kind of enterprise architecture, which it is not. Instead, it serves as a BPM and UML tool at which, so I understand, it is quite good.
The solution addresses a different kind of removal system.
I have personally been using Visio for several years, although not professionally. I use it exclusively in an intuitive fashion and for drawing diagrams.
The solution is stable.
Of course the solution is scalable. This depends on how a person designs his infrastructure and if he makes use of his work solutions.
I have not had experience with technical support.
While I don't recall the exact price I do recall that it was quite high.
My recommendation to others is that the solution should offer different tools. In line with the person's particular requirements he would need to make a choice. The pricing should be lower. What I do like about Visio is that it's quite intuitive in respect of the UI. In this regard it is similar to other Microsoft products. But, sometimes people need just the road to Tango, rendering the use of Visio unnecessary. It depends on the goal of what the person wishes to achieve.
Taking into account that Visio is good enough and quite easy to use, but carries a higher than desired price, I would rate it as a nine out of ten.
The interface of the solution is very good. It's easy to navigate.
We've found that the technical support has been pretty helpful overall.
The project management and the business process are both very good.
The initial setup is pretty straightforward.
The stability of the solution is very good.
The solution should be included in Microsoft Office 365. For some reason, it's not. It should be bundled in with everything else. If they did, clients and customers would benefit a lot.
Just because you have technical support for other Microsoft products does not necessarily mean you will have it for Visio.
I've been using the solution for ten years at this point. It's been a decade. It's been a long time. However, currently, I only use it occasionally.
The solution is quite stable. It's reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's been very good over the years. That said, I haven't used it as much as I used to recently.
Not too many people use the solution in our organization.
While we do have technical support for other products, we don't have any for Visio.
That said, in general, Microsoft does offer very good technical support. We just done get it for this product.
The initial setup is not complex. It's straightforward and pretty simple. However, I myself have a lot of experience with Microsoft. I've been working with Microsoft for 25 years and have handled fairly sizable products in the past.
We use an older version of the solution. We don't use the latest one. It might be either the 2015 or 2016 version.
We're customers and end-users. We aren't consultants or resellers. We don't have a business relationship with the company. We are big clients, however. We have a volume license.
Overall, I would rate the solution seven out of ten.
I am working as a business analyst and I used Visio for process mapping.
I like Visio because you basically do anything you want.
The templates are useful, for example, because we can implement a project using the BPMN template. It's very good that you have got that option.
This is a very straightforward product and I don't think that anything needs to be simplified.
It integrates with other products reasonably well.
I would like to see the project planning element improved, although it won't happen because Microsoft deliberately made it worse. They did not like the idea that you could actually plan a project with it, so they greatly diminished the capability because it was competing with Microsoft Project.
Back in the days before Microsoft got their hands on it, it was quite a capable system for managing small projects. If you were doing something that only had half a dozen people and runs for up to a year or something, Visio was perfectly adequate for doing all of the project planning. Whereas, from what I have seen of it now, you could not project plan making a cup of tea with it. They have completely emasculated the project planning capability.
I have been using Visio since it first came out, perhaps 35 years ago.
Stability-wise, it is absolutely fine. I have had no problems with it at all.
We have had no problems with scalability.
I have never needed to contact technical support. I've never had a problem.
For anything other than project planning, Visio seems to be absolutely fine and I recommend it. This is an excellent product. As it can do everything that I want it to do, I have not really considered any room for improvement.
I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.
Our primary use case of this product is to create diagrams for the solutions I'm designing. Others may use it to provide graphical explanations of complex topics, or even for organizational charts. We have around 20 users in very different roles - IT, processing, design, or those in more technical roles. We are a customer of Visio and I'm a solution architect.
Visio helps to depict what's on my mind, it flows between the different components that we're designing. Visio is very good at illustrating advanced topics which helps my team understand what I'm trying to get across
The valuable feature is the simplicity of drawing shapes and connecting them. It's very easy to customize and then group the activities so the solution offers a lot of flexibility. It really provides value.
I'd like them to include more stencils for new technologies in the solution. There are plenty of stencils available on the web but it requires researching, downloading, and testing what works. There are some common ones such as when you're working with technologies like Microsoft but it takes me some time to download clip art and try to make them myself.
I would love to see an option to drill down collapsed sections of the diagrams as well as an option to navigate through different pages of diagrams, something that can be more easily summarized, and then go on to the details.
I've been using this solution for 10 years.
This is a stable solution and there's very little maintenance required. We have a software specialist in the company and that person takes care of all the laptops.
The initial setup is straightforward, it takes around half an hour.
This is a very powerful and useful tool. You can create all types of diagrams and I consider it a must-know option.
I rate this solution a nine out of 10.
