This month, Microsoft Viva is celebrating its first birthday. With digital employee experience front and centre for industries of all sizes, we’re providing our thoughts on the opportunity of Viva and insights on what’s coming.
Since launching 12 months ago, Viva has more than 10 million monthly active users across its four existing modules – Viva Connections, Viva Topics, Viva Insights and Viva Learning.
What is the value proposition of Microsoft Viva?
If we take a step back and look at where Microsoft has been heading with the entire M365 suite, it’s clear that the ingredients for an employee experience platform have been in the making for some time.
Over the last few years, as more organisations transition to the cloud and SaaS-based technologies, we have seen an increase in challenges related to integration of third-party systems, surfacing information, communication and collaboration. On top of this, the degree of change caused by the pandemic has forced many businesses to rapidly transform how, where, and when we do business to meet demand and comply with regulations.
The conversation around digital employee experience has shifted from one that’s predominantly focused on technology and systems, to one that’s focused on broader business objectives and goals. This is where Microsoft Viva fits in. At its core, Viva has been designed as an employee experience platform. It’s there as a platform to help target communication, support knowledge management, foster personal development and individual wellbeing.
As Jared Spataro, Corporate VP of Microsoft 365 says “the digital employee experience is the employee experience”. So, with technology playing an increasing role in the way businesses onboard new staff, create and maintain healthy cultures and achieve outcomes, it’s only fitting that Microsoft leads the way in enabling this change through Viva.
Over the last 12 months, we’ve seen some amazing innovations across large software vendors such as ServiceNow, Workday, LiveTiles and many others. Microsoft are capitalizing on these innovations by partnering with these organisations to help create cohesive employee experiences that are tailored to different roles. A great example of this is the audience dashboard cards in Viva Connections, check our Rachel’s blog for more on this.
What’s next on the Viva journey?
It’s exciting that we’re only one year in and have seen some fantastic innovation and features infused into technology. And it’s only just the beginning. In late 2021, Microsoft announced it was adding a fifth module to the Viva suite – an objective and key results (OKR) service – powered by Ally.io. As we look to what’s next, it’s clear that as more vendors partner with Microsoft, and more features are added to the platform, the way that organisations think about the role of technology within the context of employee experience will only continue to grow. We’re excited about partnering with our clients to support them on this journey.
Just some of the partnerships announced at Ignite 2021
How to get started with Viva
Most businesses haven’t started to explore what’s possible with Viva. If you want to know more about the value of Viva and how it could be leveraged within your organisation, get in touch to check your eligibility for a free 2-day Viva workshop, or check out the useful links below.