Hewlett-Packard Case Study

Article
02/20/2014

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For the latest information, please see https://www.microsoft.com/office/visio.

The current version of Visio software is Microsoft Visio 2000, now part of the Microsoft Office family of products.

Introduction

How does one of the world's largest computer companies communicate efficiently across its global enterprise of 124,600 employees? At Hewlett-Packard Company, Visio® technology provides the tools needed to engage the entire organization in the creation and sharing of ideas and information.

Hewlett-Packard's business is vast in scope and size. The company manufactures more than 24,000 electronic products and systems for measurement, computing, and calculation. The worldwide operation—with research facilities; manufacturing plants; and sales, service, and support offices spread across the U.S. and more than 120 countries—generated a net revenue of $47 billion in 1998.

It is HP's philosophy that employees excel when given a high degree of autonomy in work methods and tools. At the same time, effective teamwork and knowledge sharing are essential. To keep the lines of communication open for collaboration, HP divisions are linked by a server-based Common Operating Environment (COE) of business tools for Microsoft® Windows®.

The HP corporate culture expects employees to innovate—to look for new and better ways to do their work. So when employees suggested adding Visio technology to the common set of tools delivered to every personal computer in the company, Hewlett-Packard management listened.

Custom stencils of HP product shapes, fusion shapes, and IDEF shapes.

The universal benefits of a flexible tool

The corporate-level team that administers the COE first heard about Visio technology from employees who—although they'd put Visio technology to work in different ways—all cited the same productivity advantages:

Visio technology promotes effective teamwork by making it easy to express information visually and to share files freely.
Visio products are easy to use and can be customized to fit project-specific needs.
Non-artists can create professional-looking drawings quickly and update them easily.
Affordable price, modest hardware requirements, and a speedy learning curve make Visio products equally accessible to frequent and occasional users.

HP employees championed Visio technology as a nimble tool that enhances and promotes communication—between on-site and distant colleagues, between specialists and generalists, and between HP and its resellers and customers.

A persuasive link to resellers and customers

Cupertino, California-based Rod Hardman is one of 16 network consultants across North America who provide pre-sales support to HP field reps and resellers—often in the form of a network diagram that illustrates how HP products can be connected into an efficient solution for a specific customer. "We need a rough, conceptual drawing that we can produce in a couple of minutes," he says. "We also wanted a tool that would help us produce professional-looking proposals that resellers could adapt easily and pass on to the customer."

Visio SmartShapes® technology was a key factor in Hardman's support. The retail product includes an array of HP's computer-product shapes and its competitors' (which are handy, he says, when proposals need to accommodate legacy equipment). In addition, Hardman's team commissioned a third-party vendor to create a custom stencil of HP product shapes—which they share freely with resellers.

Hardman's workgroup adopted Visio technology to give HP a competitive edge in external communications with resellers and customers. The combination of standard and custom SmartShapes symbols "makes it easier to market our products and design our proposals," says Hardman. "The professional appearance of the diagrams makes a difference—it shows our concern for the customer's specific needs," he reports. "Visio is sale-friendly." And user-friendly: "You don't have to be a systems engineer to use it."

Visio technology also fits smoothly into Hardman's daily internal communications with long-distance colleagues. "After a phone consultation with an associate in Dallas, I can quickly fire up a Visio diagram and send it right off in a Lotus Notes or word-processed document."

A strong link between specialists and generalists

Few generalists can justify investing money or time in an expensive, complex tool for occasional use. That was technical consultant Jeff Stanton's predicament. As a developer of IDEF-standard process flowcharts, he needs to create complicated diagrams with meticulous detail. But when he works with a sophisticated IDEF modeling tool, few of the many people who must review his process flowcharts can even open his files. Stanton's solution: create process flowcharts in Visio software using a custom stencil of IDEF shapes he created. He includes the stencil with his data files, so that any Visio user can read his files and update his flowcharts when processes change—as, by nature, they often do.

Software consultant Todd Cotton had a different problem but found a similar solution with Visio technology. Cotton travels worldwide to train HP product development teams to use Fusion, an HP-developed methodology that uses diagrams to analyze software designs. His workshops are content-centered— which means he creates his training materials on the spot to address the development team's unique issues. A software engineer's CASE tool doesn't suit these fast-paced workshops, Cotton explains. High productivity in a short time is his top objective. He needs an easy-to-use and easy-to-teach drawing tool that allows students to quickly begin editing Fusion diagrams on their own. Cotton's solution: create Fusion diagrams in Visio software using a custom stencil he created of Fusion shapes with defined looks and behaviors. He leaves the custom stencil behind with the development teams to continue with their work.

Visio SmartShapes technology gives HP specialists the power to customize the tool to suit the needs of their project. And the drag-and-drop simplicity saves both time and effort for specialists and generalists alike. When modeling processes, Stanton says, "I don't have to worry about being a graphic artist—I can concentrate on being accurate." And even for new users, Cotton adds, "Visio technology makes it easy to edit and enhance designs as they evolve over time."

The added value of standardizing on the Visio platform

Stories like these convinced Marjorie Jordan's COE Applications group that standardizing on Visio technology would produce enterprisewide efficiencies in communication. Three additional efficiencies strongly influenced HP's decision to adopt Visio technology.

Cost savings. "It's easier and more efficient in terms of support personnel," Jordan explains, to service a limited number of products. "A really broad product like Visio software can be used in many ways—for organization charts, process flowcharts, space planning, Total Quality Management diagrams." That adaptability also means HP users and support personnel "need to learn just one interface instead of ten products and interfaces."

Multi-platform Windows support. During the transition to full implementation of Windows NT®, HP remains a multiple-platform enterprise running both 16- and 32-bit versions of Windows. "We wouldn't consider standardizing on a product that couldn't handle both operating systems," says Jordan.

Technical support. "Visio worldwide support was a big issue for us," Jordan says. "Visio Corporation worked with us to understand our issues and to accommodate the needs of our many international sites."

The COE Applications group adopted Visio software as HP's standard business drawing and diagramming tool in 1996. Today HP's worldwide employees can instantly access Visio software from their desktops with the click of an icon.

For more information: https://www.microsoft.com/office/visio