Last week Microsoft introduced the first Employee Experience Platform for the digital age, named Microsoft Viva. As a Microsoft Gold Partner we are delighted by this news. Microsoft Office 365 (now Microsoft 365) was launched almost 10 years ago – on 28 June 2011 – with Microsoft Teams added four years ago to become part of this business communications platform. The growth figures alone show just how popular this solution is. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, in just two months its use grew by as much as would normally be expected in two years. In October 2020 the number of Microsoft Teams’ active users stood at around 115 million a day. These are incredibly useful technologies for improving, facilitating and, above all, making the way that people work, learn and collaborate more enjoyable.
Integrated user experience
The arrival of Microsoft Viva shows how Microsoft is responding to today’s new and different needs and ways of working. Why is that? People want more convenience, to be able to work together more easily, communicate and learn – with everything in one place. And that’s precisely what Viva does. The platform brings communication, knowledge, resources and insight together in Microsoft Teams, enabling the user to benefit from an integrated experience for optimum performance. It provides you with all the resources you need in one place. This means that information is readily available and, above all, making contact is made easy.
Four modules
At present there are four modules available in Viva: Connections, Insights, Topics, and Learning. Some modules build on existing functionality, others offer entirely new features. We will briefly explain them here.
Viva Connections
Facilitates a single access point via Teams to the modern SharePoint Online home site, including via the Teams mobile app.
Viva Insights
This module is all about monitoring an individual’s focus, time and energy. Burn out has now become the leading occupational disease. Viva Insights uses data from Teams, Outlook and other Microsoft 365 apps and solutions, as well as third party solutions, to provide managers and users with insight, warnings and recommendations about productivity and well-being. A nice addition: the Headspace app will soon be added to Viva.
Viva Topics
Viva Topics is one of the two products derived from Project Cortex (the other being SharePoint Syntex). Topics makes it possible to gather and organize knowledge and expertise throughout the organization, including from external sources, using AI, and present this know-how as ‘topic cards’ in Teams or SharePoint (and later Outlook and the Office Apps, too).
Viva Learning
Bringing courses and training materials together in a central hub in Microsoft Teams will encourage organizations to develop a learning culture. Viva Learning also provides managers with tools for assigning course materials to staff and monitoring progress.
Preferred partner
Macaw is one of the 17 preferred partners in the Microsoft Content Services Partner Program (CSPP). The highest partner status. This program covers services such as SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and now Microsoft Viva and SharePoint Syntex, as well. So if you’re looking for a local party with the right expertise, experience and dedication, it’s time to get in touch. We would be happy to help you get more value from the Microsoft technologies!
