Microsoft Visio 2010
Customer Solution Case Study
Microsoft Human Resources Organization
Optimizes Process Execution Worldwide
Microsoft HR uses Business Process Modeling Notation
(BPMN) in Visio Premium 2010 to Streamline Business
Processes across more than 100 Countries
Overview
Country or region: International
Industry: Information Technology
Customer Profile
Based in Redmond, Washington,
Microsoft is a worldwide leader in
software, services, and Internet
technologies for personal and business
computing.
Business Situation
Microsoft International’s Human
Resources (HR) team lacked
standardized business processes and
business process documentation across
its subsidiaries, decreasing process
efficiency and effectiveness.
Solution
The HR team created a custom HR
template based on Business Process
Modeling Notation (BPMN) in Visio
Premium 2010 to develop
comprehensive process documentation
across all of the sales, marketing and
services locations in Microsoft
International, covering more than 100
countries.
Benefits
Significant anticipated savings in
labor hours through increased
process efficiency
 Anticipated decrease in new hire
onboarding time
 Improved decision making through
visual process analysis

“Our Visio Premium 2010 solution will help us ensure
that the right people are doing the right work at the
right time across our business processes”
Jean O’Connor, HR Project Manager, Microsoft International
Overview
Microsoft International’s Human Resources (HR) team is made up of approximately
600 employees and provides HR management support in more than 100 countries.
The group uses many global systems and tools across each of the international
Microsoft subsidiaries. However, each subsidiary uses different tools and notation to
document its HR business processes. As each subsidiary developed its own unique
business processes, there was no standardized way to manage processes or measure
efficiency. The HR team deployed Microsoft® Visio® Premium 2010 with a
customized Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) process template to
develop comprehensive and standardized HR process documentation across each of
its subsidiaries, significantly reducing time required to execute HR business
processes.
“Without documentation, each new
HR employee will need to be
trained by someone who may or
may not know the process.
Teaching new hires an inefficient
process can introduce repeatable
errors, and decreases our overall
effectiveness.”
Jean O’Connor, HR Project Manager,
Microsoft International
Situation
Microsoft International provides
sales, marketing, and services for
Microsoft Corporation’s locations
outside of North America. The
Human Resources (HR) team within
Microsoft International is made up of
approximately 600 employees and
provides support for both global and
HR regulation management in more
than 100 countries.
The HR team uses many global
systems and tools across each of the
international Microsoft subsidiaries.
One key HR objective was the
standardization of common business
processes from one Microsoft
location to the next. However, each
subsidiary used different tools and
notation to document its HR
business processes. As each
subsidiary developed its own unique
business processes for tasks like
onboarding new hires, there was no
standardized way to compare,
manage, or evaluate business
process efficiency or effectiveness.
This in turn both increased the cost
to perform common activities as well
as the time required to train a new
employee on his or her
responsibilities.
As explained by Jean O’Connor, HR
Project Manager for Microsoft
International, “Experience with
different HR business processes
would vary significantly from one
location to the next. Without
documentation, each new HR
employee will need to be trained by
someone who may or may not know
the process. Teaching new hires an
inefficient process can introduce
Microsoft International HR Visio 2010 Case Study | Page 2
repeatable errors, and decreases our
overall effectiveness.”
The lack of standardized business
processes and process
documentation had a number of
impacts on the HR team:
 Increased the time and cost to
train new employees as there was
no simple way to describe critical
HR processes
 Limited ability to review their
business processes and make
informed decision regarding the
sequencing of steps and roles and
responsibilities involved
 Decreased business process
efficiency, with wide ranges in time
to complete tasks across
subsidiaries
Solution
The team wanted to increase the
efficiency and effectiveness of its
resources across subsidiaries, and
find ways for them to be more
productive. To achieve these goals,
the HR team wanted to formally
document its current business
processes across each subsidiary and
use the diagrams as a starting point
for standardization.
HR staff in Microsoft International
reached out to Microsoft
headquarters and its Quality &
Business Excellence Group (QBE).
“Before we standardize processes,
we need to standardize the language
we use to describe our processes,”
explains Bibhudatta Dash, QBE
Program Manager. The team decided
to reach out to Visimation Inc, a
Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and
Visio specialist, to develop an HR
template for process mapping using
“We were able to leverage the
great new BPMN features that are
in Visio 2010 Premium, including
its powerful drawing validation
feature. With a very modest
amount of customization,
Microsoft HR now has exactly what
they need to efficiently design and
document their processes with
industry standard nomenclature.”
Brett Newman, Managing Director,
Visimation Inc.
Business Process Modeling Notation
(BPMN) in Visio Premium 2010. The
template would help HR staff
capture, diagram and document
standardized processes and
associated information to inform
decision making and staff training.
Visimation Inc. produced the OneHR
customized process modeling
solution based on the BPMN
capabilities of Visio 2010 Premium.
The work was minimal, requiring
about one week to create a special
template, modify the BPMN symbol
set, and develop a small add-in to
Visio 2010. There was also a simple
setup program that enabled users to
effortlessly add the program to their
Visio 2010 installation.
The shapes for the OneHR solution
are derivatives of the BPMN shapes
included in Visio 2010 Premium and
were modified specifically to support
how Microsoft HR operates. While
most OneHR Visio shapes have the
same graphic appearance as the
BPMN shapes, Microsoft HR required
different Shape Data attributes to
align with their work methods. The
customized shapes include Shape
Data fields with pull down menus
that enable a user to select from predetermined lists.
To simplify the tool for the HR
group, Visimation also reduced the
total number of shapes from 135 in
the full BPMN solution, to 10 total
shapes in OneHR. These changes
promote consistency and
compliance with Microsoft standards
while providing a familiar look that
makes the diagrams easier to
Microsoft International HR Visio 2010 Case Study | Page 3
understand. The OneHR solution
includes a simple add-in that
incrementally numbers certain
process shapes as they are inserted
into a diagram. The Activity shape
displays this number in the drawing
while other automatically numbered
shapes track their values in the
Shape Data attributes without
displaying the text. In addition, with
the standard Visio reporting feature
users can easily export the
information contained in these
diagrams in a variety of data formats
such as Excel, HTML, XML, or a Visio
Shape and check for consistency.
“We were able to leverage the great
new BPMN features that are in Visio
2010 Premium, including its powerful
drawing validation feature. With a
very modest amount of
customization, Microsoft HR now has
exactly what they need to efficiently
design and document their
processes with industry standard
nomenclature,” explains Brett
Figure 1: OneHR BPMN Process Shape Library in
Visio Premium 2010
“We chose the Visio Premium 2010
product because it was easy to
model our process training efforts.
There’s minimal staff training
required on the solution due to the
Visio Premium 2010’s similar look
and feel to other Microsoft Office
applications.”
Jean O’Connor, HR Project Manager,
Microsoft International
Newman, Managing Director of
Visimation Inc.
The HR team used Visio Premium
2010 and the customized BPMN
process template to develop
standardized HR process
documentation across all of the
sales, marketing and services
locations in Microsoft International,
covering more than 100 countries.
To do this, Visimation developed
training content on the Visio solution
to teach HR employees in each
subsidiary to use Visio Premium
2010 to document and analyze their
business processes. “We asked local
HR teams to start by documenting
their process diagrams at a high
level, and drill down into process
steps where required. For example,
documenting a ‘new hire’ process
requires knowledge of local
regulations, visas or government
notification, etc., and all of this
would need to be captured in a
standardized process map. This
allows local HR teams to review and
analyze current process to drive
efficiency and maintain a repository
of process documentation,”
explained O’Connor.
“We chose the Visio Premium 2010
product because it was easy to
model our process training efforts.
There’s minimal training required on
the solution due to the Visio
Premium 2010’s similar look and feel
to other Microsoft Office
applications,” explained O’Connor.
Benefits
Microsoft International’s HR team
realized a number of important
Microsoft International HR Visio 2010 Case Study | Page 4
benefits from the Visio Premium
2010 solution, including increased
productivity, reduced employee
training, and increased software
adoption.
Increased Productivity
One key benefit expected through
the Visio Premium 2010 solution is
increased HR staff productivity
across subsidiaries. “The key benefit
for the HR organization is increased
productivity through the creation of
standardized process documentation
across all of our sales, marketing,
and services processes,” explains
O’Connor.
The increased standardization will
further help clarify roles and
responsibilities across HR employees,
and reduce time HR teams spend on
administrative tasks. O’Connor
estimates that the HR team will be
able to realize significant reductions
in the number of HR resources
performing administrative work
across all subsidiaries. “This will help
us ensure that the right people are
doing the right work at the right
time across our business processes,”
said O’Connor.
Reduced Employee Training
With the process documentation in
hand, it will be much easier to
onboard HR resources in each of the
Microsoft International subsidiaries.
No longer will the quality of training
depend solely on the trainer’s
recollection of local processes.
According to O’Connor, “The nature
of our HR training will improve. We
can take our training to a new level
by focusing more on HR operations
as a whole.”
Figure 2: Sample New Hire Process using BPMN Notation in Visio Premium 2010
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft
products and services, call the Microsoft
Sales Information Center at (800) 4269400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada
Information Centre at (877) 568-2495.
Customers in the United States and
Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing
can reach Microsoft text telephone
(TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234.
Outside the 50 United States and Canada,
please contact your local Microsoft
subsidiary. To access information using the
World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com
For more information about Visimation
Inc. products and services, visit the Web
site at: http://www.visimation.com/
As common HR processes are
standardized from one subsidiary to
the next, it also becomes easier for
an HR staff member from one
country to move to another with
relative ease, as the roles,
responsibilities, and process steps
will be more similar in all locations.
This further reduces the time and
cost associated with training.
Increased Adoption
In the past, Visio had been a tool
that few people within Microsoft
International’s HR team would have
used. In many cases this was because
the HR staff members did not have a
formal process management
background.
Legal Disclaimer
This case study is for informational purposes
only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS
SUMMARY. Document published May 2010.
One of the key benefits of Visio
Premium 2010 is its simplified ease
of use. According to O’Connor, “One
of the things about previous versions
of Visio is that it wasn't as intuitive to
use as other Microsoft Office
products. The new Office Fluent User
Interface in Visio Premium 2010 is
great for finding features by
graphical icon in the tab menu,
which will help HR teams to use the
software more effectively.”
Microsoft International HR Visio 2010 Case Study | Page 5
Microsoft Visio 2010
The advanced diagramming tools of
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and provide access to others on the
Web, even if they don’t have Visio.
Together, simplicity, data-driven
shapes, and Web sharing make Visio
one of the most powerful ways to
see and understand important
information.
For more information about
Microsoft Visio 2010, go to:
www.visio.com
Software and Services
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Microsoft Visio Premium 2010