Business Impacts of Microsoft Visio

Most companies are always looking for more efficient ways to keep their businesses growing and expanding. Microsoft Visio allows companies to prepare flow charts, diagrams and tables, which can be incorporated into presentations, employee training or company wide meetings. Charts created on other programs such as Excel or Word do not always translate visually the same way Visio allows. For example, my office is very small but Visio would be incredibly helpful in training new employees  on the flow of inventory and how purchase orders are processed.  Visio makes the visualization of a process much easier for a new employee to comprehend rather than just hearing a bunch of words said about it and not being able to really grasp the entire concept. 

In doing hands on research with Visio I found that it has a plethora of options for companies. It allows you to create diagrams, flowcharts, data flow charts, organizational charts and network diagrams to help a company keep all its employees and clients on the same page. The program is very user friendly and it doesn't take much time to grasp the fundamentals of the workings of the program. It is also easier and much quicker than creating a diagram in Excel or Word. 

For my company I don't think Visio would be a great investment. Firstly, the license costs around $150. and since my company is so small we would have very little use for it outside of new employee training. My company does not have a high turnover rate (most of the employees have been with the company for around 20 years) so to make such a pricey investment and gain so little in return would not be a sound decision. It is so much easier and far less expensive to spend a little extra time creating an organizational chart for inventory and shipping processes in Excel to show new employees. 

My personal recommendation for my company would be not to purchase Visio and continue on our current path of using Excel and Word. This way we are not incurring a not so useful expense in our budget.