Why your business should

use a Visio alternative

1. Everyone hates Visio

• Ribbon interface is unintuitive and hides key features.

• Visio 2013 stripped out many important features, like reverse-

engineering for database models.

• It’s difficult to add connections, copy and paste, use keyboard

shortcuts, etc.

• Users are unhappy with the download and installation process.

• When they ask for help, Microsoft’s customer service is also

lacking.

Why it matters for your business

• Many studies cite a lack of user buy-in as one of the top

reasons that software implementation fails.

• “Possibly the most important single quantitative gauge of

success is the user adoption rate. If only the self-

motivated utilize the system, it is not successful.”

Consider the price of failure

• If you have a small- or medium-size business, a major

software purchase is…well, major.

• Achieving software implementation success will boost

morale and save you money, year after year.

What if price is no object?

• Many schools and corporations get Visio at a free or

discounted price.

• So why are they looking for (and using) alternatives?

• “The wrong vendor at the right price is no bargain.”

2. Microsoft Visio isn’t your friend

• The older Visio gets, the worse it performs.

• Microsoft purchased Visio in 2000. That’s 15 years to perfect the

product!

Visio is undersupported

• Compared to widely adopted solutions like Word and

PowerPoint, Visio is vastly inferior.

• Ask yourself,

• How many development hours are dedicated to Visio?

• How much time is spent in user testing?

• Who’s responsible when a feature flops?

• What’s the average timeline for updates and bug fixes?

• Does Microsoft give Visio its due? Or, as many have

suggested, do they treat it as a cash cow?

3. Poor collaboration

• In Visio, real-time collaboration can’t be achieved without

outside products.

• No one wants to use Office 365 or SharePoint just to send

a simple chat or comment.

• If collaboration is key for your organization, choose an

online alternative to Visio.

4. Lack of cross-platform compatibility

• Visio doesn’t run on Mac or Linux operating systems.

• Q3 of 2014 saw the highest-ever Mac market share in the

US (not including mobile devices like the iPhone and

iPad).

• If your employees use a blend of operating systems, a

cross-platform solution is necessary.

The bottom line

• Lucidchart is secure, affordable, and easy to use.

• If you need Visio for Mac (or any other OS), consider Lucidchart as a full-featured

alternative.