Visio Corp is sharpening its aim at the enterprise drawing systems market, and integrating technology from Microsoft Windows 2000 into two editions of Visio 2000, the sixth version of the Seattle, Washington company’s enterprise drawing and diagram software package.
Both Visio 2000 Standard Edition and Visio 2000 Technical are compatible with Office 2000 and feature the same look and feel, to encourage Windows users to try Visio’s drawing tools. Visio 2000 also integrates some Windows Installer technology, giving users greater control over the set-up of the software, and enabling users to retrieve and repair applications themselves.
The $299 Standard Edition aims to improve business communication by providing large enterprises with a single visual language for business, says David Sanders, European product marketing manager, and will compete against Richardson, Texas-based Micrografx Inc’s iGrafx Professional package.
Sanders claims that Visio offers more features than iGrafx, including floorplans, organizational charts showing corporate hierarchies and time-lines, and project depictions based around time information. And unlike Micrografx’s products, all of Visio’s use the same interface and file format, making the Seattle firm more attractive to businesses in which different divisions use different levels of software, he said.
Visio 2000 Technical, will be available in September at $400, and offers facilities or asset managers the ability to receive, store and distribute CAD files to help lay out office space or distribute equipment. Technical is matched against more formidable opposition, veteran Californian CAD company Autodesk Inc.
The Visio offering has the edge over Autodesk’s Atrix Technical, claims Andy Jones, product manager for Visio 2000 Technical Edition, principally because Visio has offered software catering for business users for several years, so the library of pre-drawn components is larger, and the tools for specific industry users, including electrical, electronic and mechanical engineering, are more developed.
The corporate market, which expanded 72% on the previous year’s figures in its second quarter results last week, is where the company is trying to position itself. Enterprise licenses currently represent 38% of sales, up from 15% last year, and the company intends to increase this to 50% within a year.
