This post was originally published for the Allegient company blog. View it here.
A few days ago I was watching a tutorial about Visio, a diagramming software, and wondered, “How does Microsoft decide what to update between its major releases, and why?”
I was watching a series on Plural Site, which only has lessons for Visio 2007, and I have Visio 2013 installed on my machine.
I was making some neat diagrams – like a process flow, a company org chart, and a city map of Chicago – and I found that several times, I had to do some Internet research to find certain tools that had been hidden from the 2013 version.
I started to wonder how the Visio team had determined what to show and what to hide. But then I realized, since 2007, business priorities have changed, and the way we interact with technology is always changing. In Visio’s newest version, the most useful tools and templates are presented up-front, and it only takes about 2 minutes to add more tools to the ribbon.
I did some more research and found two good sources that explain updates between Visio 2007, 2010, and 2013.
- “What’s new in Office 2013” – Basic info on what’s new: collaboration, in the cloud, multiple devices. Scroll to the bottom for information specific to Visio.
- “Visio versions – all features” – Compares features between Visio 2007, 2010, and 2013.
(Scroll to the end of this post for more tips, tricks, and examples)
Over time, businesses update their priorities and strategies, and we’re seeing that at Allegient, too.
In our company meeting for the fourth quarter, we heard some new and continuing goals for next year:
- A continued effort toward regionalization
- A new push to differentiate ourselves among other Microsoft partners
- And giving back even more to our community
We celebrated hiring 20 new consultants in the last quarter and 73 over the past year, pushing our company size to more than 200.
Since Allegient began in 2001, the goal has always been to provide excellent consulting services in a turbulent IT world. This is how Gregg Gallant, our CEO, president, and co-founder, describes our consulting practice:
“We agreed that the industry was never going to be the same [after the internet bubble burst in 2000], but we recognized that this turning point could mean new technologies and better solutions. We were willing to take a chance.”
Over the past 15 years, we’ve evolved what that mission really means. We’ve expanded from targeting small to mid-sized clients to now pursing more enterprise level clientel. We’re serving not only IT, but also the business side for our clients. We’re working with both custom and platform solutions, and we’re expanding our Business Intelligence practice.
There are a lot of great things happening here. Like the newest version of Visio, there is a strategy behind what we’re doing.
____________________________
Visio Lessons, Tips, and Ticks
Check out a few diagrams that I made with the Visio tutorial, and some tips I learned along the way.
1. Process Flow for Submitting Content for an Online Magazine
I like this example because it shows that you can get to the point without hardly using any text. When I created this originally, the arrows and icons were not lined up. To fix it, I used the Align tool from the Home tab.
2. Organization Chart for a Mid-Sized Company
I learned how to create an org chart based on data from a text file or spreadsheet. I used Excel to create a fake company directory with these columns: Name, Position, Location, Supervisor, Department, Telephone, and Email. Because my data had about 50 names, I was able to split it across several pages in Visio. This is just the first page.
3. Cross-Functional Flow Chart for Client Investment
Cross-functional flow charts can be used to illustrate steps in a process that involve different people, departments, or applications. Here’s just one example that is split up by department.
4. Directional Map of Chicago
This was a fun lesson because I’ve actually been to this area of downtown Chicago. The mapping functionality can be used when you’re creating material for a client, or just making directions for your friends.
One last thing. I talked earlier about customizing the ribbon. In this example, I added “Center Drawing,” which can be used to center the information on the page.
Step 1: Right-click on the ribbon from the tab you are currently working on, such as HOME or VIEW. Click “Customize the Ribbon…”
Step 2: In the next window, you’ll see “Choose commands from: Popular Commands.” Change the drop-down to “All Commands.”
Step 3: Select a command, and click Add. You’ll see a notification like this:
Step 4: That’s OK. Select the Home tab, and click “New Group.” Then click “Rename,” and call it “Custom.”
Step 5: Then click on the Command from the left column that you wanted, and click “Add.”
Step 6: See that the command now appears in the right-hand column. It also appears in the ribbon on the Home tab.
So, how are Visio diagrams and Allegient company meetings related? For me, it has to do with the context around business priorities and strategy.
As I was building a flow chart in Visio, I started to wonder why the task bar had changed over time and how they decided exactly what to change and update for the 2013 version. This thought came during the same week as our quarterly company meeting, where we discussed a few changes and new goals for this year. In the world of IT consulting, changes are deliberate and based on strategies. It’s great to have some insight on how it’s done!
Closer to fine 