Microsoft is cooking the next version of the Office Visio 2007 product. In this context, on February 5 and 6, the Redmond company will host the Microsoft Office Visio conference 2008, where it will detail the evolution of Office Visio. Jeff Raikes, President, Microsoft Business Division, is scheduled to offer a sneak peek at the future features that will be integrated with the next generation of Visio. Microsoft will also unveil a total of four new Add-ins to Visio 2007, designed to expand on the existing capabilities of the product.

"The fundamental premise behind Visio is that a picture is worth a thousand words. The ability to represent data in a visually-rich way really brings information to the surface in a way you just don't get from raw data. Visio allows users to zero in on the relevant information to get the clarity they need to drive timely, informed decision-making. This is a capability that's becoming more and more valued by organizations amid the ever-increasing volume of data they face, and we're certainly seeing Visio's problem-solving capabilities pretty squarely aligned with some of the biggest growth opportunities for organizations today," explained Richard Wolf, General Manager, Office Graphics.

With the new Add-ins for Visio 2007, Wolf essentially promised the streamlining of the process associated with the product, from monitoring IT environments to identifying and resolving network issues, and even as far as performing node diagnostics and trying out configuration upgrade scenarios. Visio already offers users an intimate connection with all the remaining pieces of the Office System, but the application also stretches to Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007, Microsoft Systems Center Operations Manager 2007, SQL Assessment and Datacenter Storage Management.

And in the next version of Visio, users will be able to enjoy the benefits of the Fluent/Ribbon graphical user interface. "Extending the ribbon to Visio forms part of our continuous quest across the Office system to boost ease of use. But with the next release, we're also introducing a breakthrough server-based presentation capability that will allow organizations to bring Visio's data connectivity to more users. To give you an idea of the kind of scenario this will enable, businesses will be able to post diagrams and org charts of their sales organization to a SharePoint portal and drill down into individuals' performance to see how this is tracking against quotas and other metrics using updates in near real-time. This becomes a resource that executives, sales people and employees across the business can use," Wolf added.