28 Apr
What does MS VIVA mean for Microsoft customers?
First announced in February 2021, Microsoft VIVA is an employee experience platform that brings together communications, knowledge, learning, resources, and insights and fosters a culture where people and teams are empowered to be their best from anywhere.
As Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said, “Every organization will require a unified employee experience from onboarding and collaboration to continuous learning and growth. Viva brings together everything an employee needs to be successful, from day one, in a single integrated experience directly in Teams.”
Powered by Microsoft 365 and delivered through Teams, VIVA unifies the employee experience across four key areas – engagement, learning, knowledge, and well-being.
The pressing question is, though, “Why do you need to implement VIVA now? More than a year into the pandemic and remote working, it seems very unlikely that the workforce will transition back to how things were before. For many people, remote work shall continue, and the place where work happens will be digital.
Why is reinventing the employee experience necessary, then? The answer is simple. As Jared Spataro, Corporate VP of Microsoft, put, “Work is no longer just a place. It’s what people do, no matter where they are and how they come together to get the job done.”
In such a scenario, organizations must re-think how they can inculcate a feeling of culture, mission, and connection amongst the employees. That’s where Microsoft VIVA comes into the picture.
For Microsoft customers who haven’t yet incorporated VIVA into their digital workplace, here’s a quick rundown of the features, benefits, and pricing and how Microsoft VIVA can help elevate the employee experience.
The Different Modules of VIVA and their Benefits
As the world of work changes, the next horizon of innovation will come from a focus on creativity, engagement, and well-being so organizations can build cultures of resilience and ingenuity. Our vision is to deliver a platform for the employee experience that helps organizations create a thriving culture with engaged employees and inspiring leaders.
~ Jared Spataro, Corporate VP, Microsoft
1. VIVA Connections
VIVA Connections is a one-stop shop for relevant news, conversations, and tools people need every day at work.
In Microsoft’s own words, “it informs, engages, and empowers people to bring their best selves to work.”
Powerful targeting and scheduling capabilities enable VIVA Connections to keep everyone informed about what’s happening across the organization with a customized social feed that includes employee input.
Thus, it helps build an inclusive, cohesive culture for people to learn and thrive at work. VIVA Connections is currently available for desktop and will be available for mobile later in 2021.
2. VIVA Learning
A central hub for learning and embedded in Microsoft Teams, VIVA Learning ingrains the habit of learning within employees by providing access to organization-wide content libraries.
Recognizing that learning is directly linked to well-being, workplace happiness, and employee success, VIVA aims to bring it into the natural flow of work.
The tool makes all your learning content available under a single platform – be it LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learn, Learning Management Systems, or the company’s own content.
3. VIVA Topics
VIVA Topics organizes enterprise-wide content, making it easy for employees to discover the organization’s wealth of knowledge and put it to good use at work.
VIVA Topics manages and secures the knowledge across all your internal and external apps and delivers it across the MS 365 platform.
VIVA Topics manages and secures the knowledge across all your internal and external apps and delivers it across the MS 365 platform.
Moreover, it allows people to access relevant knowledge anytime, anywhere using Search, personalized highlights, and topic cards.
4. VIVA Insights
VIVA Insights leverages Microsoft Workplace Analytics and My Analytics to create an organizational culture that helps people and businesses to thrive.
VIVA Insights helps discover new productivity and well-being experiences to build better work habits. With this tool, organizations can –
- Boost productivity and enhance employee well-being with actionable recommendations for reserving break time, learning, and focused work.
- Maintain a balance between productivity and well-being managerial and leadership insights on the impact of work patterns on employee well-being and business outcomes.
- Address unique business challenges through additional data sources, powerful tools, and advanced insights with LinkedIn, Headspace, and Glint.
Microsoft VIVA Pricing
1. VIVA Connections Pricing:
VIVA Connections is available to all customers as part of their existing Microsoft 365 and SharePoint license at no extra cost.
2. VIVA Topics Pricing:
Microsoft VIVA Topics is available at $5.00 user/month (annual commitment), with an option for a 30-day free trial for up to 25 users. To be eligible for VIVA Topics, customers require Microsoft 365 F1, F3, E3, A3, E5, A5, Office 365 F3, E1, A1, E3, A3, E5, Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium, or SharePoint K, Plan 1, or Plan 2 license.
3. VIVA Insights Pricing:
VIVA Insights pricing is as follows:
- Free tier, including the VIVA Insight app (similar to MyAnalytics)
- For manager insights and the organizational view, customers need a Workplace Analytics license, which will be renamed Viva Insight license in the future. Workplace Analytics license is available at $2 per seat/per month for Microsoft 365 Enterprise E5 subscriptions and $6 per seat/per month if adding to any other license level.
4. VIVA Learning Pricing:
Microsoft is yet to announce the VIVA Learning Pricing. The basic application may be free; however, a subscription will be required for third-party content like LinkedIn Learning.
Common FAQs regarding Microsoft VIVA
1. When will VIVA be available?
- VIVA Connections is now available for desktop for all customers as part of their existing Microsoft 365 license. The mobile app will launch in summer 2021, with the roll-out of additional features throughout 2022.
- Teams VIVA Insights app is available now. The full version of VIVA Insights will be available in the later part of 2021. Additional personal well-being experiences, including integration with Headspace for meditation and mindfulness, a virtual commute, and integration with VIVA Learning, will be available in the coming few months.
- VIVA Topics is GA for all commercial tenants.
- VIVA Learning is currently available in private preview. GA is expected later this year, with public APIs to allow customers and partners to integrate with VIVA Learning.
2. How is VIVA delivered through Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft VIVA is located within Teams, the go-to collaboration platform for enterprises worldwide with 145 million daily active users (DAU), up from 75 million last year.
VIVA integrates with several current solutions, like Insights, SharePoint, and Cortex, within Teams, thus bringing everything an employee needs under a single platform, saving time and fueling productivity in the process.
3. What languages does VIVA Topics support?
While VIVA Topics currently supports the English language, Microsoft plans to add Spanish, French, and German support in the latter half of 2021.
How does Acuvate leverage Microsoft VIVA?
As a Microsoft Gold Partner, Acuvate assists clients in deploying and implementing VIVA for better collaboration, enhanced communication, and increased employee engagement.
Acuvate’s employee experience solution, Mesh 3.0, utilizes the M365 & Azure features extensively including SharePoint Online, Power Platform tools, Graph Services, Azure Cognitve Services, with which powerful intranets and employee experience portals are built. Our Mesh 3.0 is now being extended with the powerful capabilities of Microsoft Viva.
Viva connections channel has capabilities to integrate with custom components. By merging Mesh 3.0 features with Viva connections, the employee experience can be taken to next level, allowing customers to utilize the best available solution in the industry.
Along with the Viva connections, Mesh 3.0 integrates with Viva Insights, Viva Topics, Viva Learning with which overall employee experience is multifolded – by providing right information to the right person at right time.
Along with these, since Viva Topics and Viva Learning need organization specific content and content modeling activities, Acuvate provides services around these to get the best out of these intelligent tools.
Together, the solutions enable a holistic employee journey. Some of the capabilities of Mesh 3.0 are as follows:
- Internal communication tools
- Collaboration tools
- Azure cognitive enterprise search
- AI-driven content personalizers
- Knowledge mining
- Expertise finder
- Multilingual capabilities
To know more, please feel free to schedule a personalized consultation with our experts.
Sareen Madupu is a Product Manager for Mesh at Acuvate. He has around 9 years of experience in Usability and User Experience of Digital Interfaces. He has been with Acuvate for 7 years and worked on concepting UX of 30+ intranets.
Sareen Babu