A few months ago I introduced you to Viva Connections, the first module to be released as part of the new Microsoft Viva platform. Viva gathers all of the essential parts of your business into a central location inside of Microsoft Teams. Effectively, it is a customized intranet for your organization. Built on top of SharePoint technology, it is the gathering place for all your organization’s internal communications and resources. It is also the jumping-off point for the rest of the Viva platform; the gateway to your digital workplace. Connections was rolled out in March. If you haven’t installed it yet, maybe you just need to hear a bit more about why it’s worth it.

Benefits of using Viva Connections

Here are a few reasons why Connections might be just what you need:

Enhance employee engagement.  Over the past year-plus, most of us were forced to work remotely.  Even now, the work environment is at best a hybrid model for many of us.  By spending so much of our time physically away from the office, it was easy to become disengaged. Well, Connections can help bring staff back together virtually. With it, your organization’s communications, resources, news and more will appear as soon as you log in to Teams. Everything in one place, alongside the great collaboration tools Teams already provides. In a way, it’s like your organization’s own social media site integrated with everything you need to get work done.

Get the most from your SharePoint intranet.  And speaking of Teams, today more and more employees are using it as their primary place to communicate and collaborate with colleagues. While many still open SharePoint each day, others log directly into Teams and spend nearly all their time there. For those employees, Viva Connections provides the content they need, without having to log into SharePoint. Also, by bringing content you’ve created for SharePoint into Connections, you can be sure that all that effort isn’t wasted!

Mobile-ity. Even though the mobile version of Viva hasn’t been released just yet, Microsoft tells us that the Viva Connections mobile app will have a very attractive, user-friendly interface. Soon it will be easier than ever for staff to get their important organization news and resources while on the go. Microsoft still plans to have the mobile app available to us later this summer.

Some cool features

There are a number of things about Connections that make it special.   Here are just a couple:

Personalized feeds

Viva Connections gives SharePoint managers the ability to create news feeds which deliver personalized content to each user. Therefore, they can make sure that everyone in the organization – or just a specific audience – sees relevant announcements or news. In addition, much like social media, Connections will also deliver personalized content based on an individual employee’s activity and interests.

A dashboard for apps and tools

Another great feature of Connections is that it gives the individual employee access to a mobile friendly dashboard where they can find all the apps, tools and content they need. Each staff member can tailor the dashboard to their own specific needs, making it much easier for them to get to exactly what they need, and quickly.

So…how much does it cost?

I have good news for you: If you already have a Microsoft 365 and SharePoint license it’s included at no extra charge!

What are the requirements for installation?

To install it, you just need to have Teams, a modern SharePoint site, and Admin credentials for both.  Check out this more detailed post on the specific requirements and recommendations for the installation.

Now are you ready for Viva Connections?

So, have you made up your mind that Viva Connections is right for your organization? If so, you can get the complete installation instructions for the desktop version from Microsoft here. There’s no time like today to get your staff re-engaged and reconnected.  And there’s no better way than with the Viva Connections experience!