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. 

I build either diagrams for solutions or use Visio to create illustrations for slide decks and white papers.

There's a much better library of stencils than there used to be. But I still have to create many composite objects to illustrate a software-defined data center or software-defined networking. I like that once you create what you need, you can group that, at least within that drawing, and you have access to that new stencil object or that custom object throughout that drawing.

I do know that Microsoft has extended the ability of Visio to interact with other Microsoft applications. I know you can use Visio elements in spreadsheets and Excel. I know that doing a copy and paste from Visio into a PowerPoint slide is very easy and clean now. It used to be a nightmare.

The auto-routing feature could be better. Around 2018, the auto-routing of lines was pretty close to perfect, but it's started to go downhill from there. Keeping the lines attached to endpoints while you manipulate how they run and how they interact with other shapes or near other shapes is becoming very tedious. I would like them to give us the option of opening up the rules for auto-routing and make checkbox selections of what rules we want to apply and what rules we don't.

I've been using Visio for about 20 years.

Visio is stable. It's gotten to be much more robust since Microsoft took over. It used to freeze or crash with very complex drawings, and I haven't had a freeze or a crash in years.

I think it's scalable. I don't think I challenge what it can do the way I used to. I think Microsoft has probably improved how it uses memory, or they may have solved some memory leak problems because I did not have any issue with the size of a drawing. 

I've never reached a limit on the size of a drawing, and usually, autosave is turned on by default. Again, right about the time Microsoft acquired Visio, the autosave function took much longer than it does now. I can also open more additional applications while Visio is running, but it used to hit its limits on that. They have improved its ability to run in the same environment with other big apps.

The initial setup is getting much easier. The deployment piece was actually just part of my license. The IT team can set up definitions of which engineers get what features in Microsoft. That was completely transparent to me this time.

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

We mostly use this solution for process management and for diagram modeling. Functional diagrams or BPMN partition diagrams — that's all. Some nice drawings for presentations.

Almost all of our employees use bundled Microsoft products and because they have no administrative rights, they cannot install additional programs. We use Visio to present our diagrams to our employees as it's too complicated to explain how to use our services over and over. If we had a BPM platform and a diagram modeling solution, we would not use Visio.

Within our organization, there are roughly 100 people that use this solution.

I am not sure if our company has plans to keep using Visio — it's not up to me. If we were to stop using it, I wouldn't miss it.

To me, Visio doesn't really stand apart from similar solutions that I have used. When it first came out, it was quite a progressive product. As it's simply for drawing and painting diagrams, lines, flowcharts, the price is too high. I do not understand why this product is not included in the Microsoft Office package.

I personally wouldn't buy Visio even if it were 10 times cheaper because I only use it at work for diagram modeling; it's not a unique product anymore. 

It's both stable and flexible, but many features are complicated. The application grid seems to be unreliable which makes simple tasks complicated. It's not very easy to make diagrams the way I would like them to look.

It should be easier to convert to other vector graphic file formats. Auto error-correction features would also be a big help. If you have a diagram and you scroll your mouse too far, you'll lose your diagram. 

I have been using Visio for nearly two years. 

Visio is stable.

We contact them from time to time. I am satisfied with them.

My boss signed a decision and an IT support unit installed Visio. It only took a couple of minutes. There were absolutely no problems regarding the installation of the product.

Personally, I think the price of this solution is too high. I need this product for my work. I have also bought Office 365 for myself, for my personal office. But if I want to work at home, I can't use Visio due to the price.

No. But currently, we are in the process of studying other business process management solutions, including Microsoft Dynamics. 

In the near future, I would like to see an updated product with diagram usage in BPM systems.

I would recommend Visio to other companies if money is not a problem. Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of eight.

My use case could be anything. What I like to use Visio for is business process design work. Even when we're doing a systems implementation project, I'll use it. One of the things that I tell my clients is that "Before you implement a system, you really need to check your business processes that the system is automating, to make sure that you're not automating a bad process." Therefore, we have a whole methodology on how to do business process design sessions, facilitated sessions. The outcome of those sessions is documented largely in Vizio. 

Sometimes, for example, if I've got a good person working on my team, I'll be with the client, facilitating the session and we'll have sticky notes on the wall that represent the process steps, and the outcomes, and the inputs, and all that stuff. We'll be moving those around. And then somebody on my team will be sitting there with Visio, recreating it as we go. If they aren't able to do that, we just take pictures of it and then recreate it in Visio. We clean it up and make it nice looking. However, we use Visio primarily for business and/or project process flows. 

It's a very good visualization tool that helps package everything professionally. It helps clients see where we're going. We're able to capture what we need to capture and we're able to manipulate it the way we want and make it look the way we want, and present it to our clients the way we want. 

One of the features I like is the automation involved in creating a process. It's really improved over the years. At this point, when you have step one - let's say it's a rectangle with step one in it - and then you're ready for step two, you can just hover the cursor over one side, and then it will automatically add an arrow going to the next box and automatically add a new box. It saves a bit of time there. It's one less aggravation to deal with when you're creating things.

The solution hasn't changed much in 20 years. It's a very meat and potatoes type of product and isn't overly designed. It's very easy to find your way through the solution, as it's not too complicated.

Occasionally, the automation feature that helps you easily add the "next step" goes crazy and it will move a bunch of stuff on me. Usually, that's very easily recoverable, however, that's just a little aggravation we have to deal with. It's like an ongoing glitch of sorts. You need to be careful when you are moving the whole image.

If there was a way to make the finished product more interactive somehow, that could be interesting.

I've been using the solution for decades. It's been a very long time.

The solution is quite stable. To my recollection, I haven't really had to deal with any crashes or big bugs. It's reliable.

I'm just a small consulting firm. Basically, it's just me and a group of trusted subcontractors that I network with across the country. The biggest project and the biggest team of people I've ever had on a project is 25.

We don't have enterprises that we deploy to. We just put it all on our computers or on our laptops and that's it.

I don't ever recall using technical support, and if I did, it was likely well over ten years ago at this point. Therefore, I can't really speak to their knowledgeability or responsiveness.

The initial setup is very straightforward. All you do is implement or install it on your laptop. It has a few defaults that I don't like, however, that I can change. For example, the process boxes might be colored purple or something, and I just want them clear, so that's not a big deal. There are some pre-settings you can adjust so that it defaults to how you need it to look every time.

I have a subscription to Microsoft 365 that automatically updates all of the versions to whatever is the most recent. I have to have a special subscription to get Visio though. Therefore, I've got one subscription to Microsoft that has all of the basic Office products, and then another one for Visio and Microsoft Project.

I did run across at one of my clients several years ago, another process building software. I don't remember the name of it. I'd have to look it up, however, I recall it was really slick and nice and cool. In my mind, it was a little too over-engineered and overly complicated for what I like to do. I'd have to be careful that we're not losing sight. We're not missing the forest for the trees when we get into the business process design. Therefore, I didn't really feel I was missing out by not adopting it.

I'm a consultant.

I tend to use the latest version of the solution. I try to keep everything up to date. That said, I'm unsure as to which version I'm on right now.

We're a small consulting shop. Right now, there's three of us and the roles are generally around facilitating business process design sessions. That's what we usually do is. Typically, I will stand up and facilitate with the client. We'll have a room full of clients - maybe 10, and sometimes it has the vendor - and our team. I will facilitate, we'll capture all of the discussions. We'll put everything on sticky notes, on a wall, with our methodology. And then my folks will capture all of that on Visio and on Microsoft Word. Then we go back to clean it all up and make it presentable. 

Overall, it's very easy to use. It's very intuitive and if you're documenting business processes, it does the trick. It's not like there's no other software out there that will do something similar or something as well. However, I've used Visio for so long. It's just a habit and I don't see any reason to try anything else.

I'd rate it ten out of ten. There's a reason I've been using it for so long. It does everything I need it to do without having too many confusing bells and whistles

I use Visio for diagramming configurations.

It has improved the way my organization functions because diagramming is almost similar to mind-mapping. It's a good way to get the message across and for people to understand at all levels.

Just the fact that a majority of the industry uses it, and you've got third-party templates that were created. All my vendors have templates for their products and services. It's also easy to use Visio.

I would help if they had something like a Microsoft Viewer. They also need to make this available across other platforms and not just Windows.

It would also be nice to have a portal within the product, with some agreement with third parties to get those templates through the Microsoft project portal and not have to go out there and spend time locating the templates. 

The only downside to Visio is the learning curve. Nobody off the street can pick it up that quick, and they have to learn it. They need to get some training, some tutorials, which applies to just about anything these days.

I have been using Visio for more than 15 years. 

Visio is a stable solution.

If they allowed cloud deployments, you could scale it laterally or vertically.

The initial setup is a lengthy process, but it's easy to install. But you have to import your templates, depending on whether you want to use generic ones or specific ones.

I think costs are on a per user basis.

I would advise potential users of Visio to explore the third-party templates and not limit themselves to what is provided because it's not enough.

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

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.

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.

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.