Microsoft Viva platform, announced this February, consists of four modules that provide Teams users with access to on-the-job training, knowledge, analytics and corporate information. The platform was designed to give managers and supervisors a view of employee well-being and productivity.
Viva’s four modules – Connections, Insights, Learning and Topics – will become available in Teams over the next few months and will extend the existing capabilities of the Microsoft 365 portfolio, including SharePoint and analytics tools.
In our series of articles dedicated to this system, we introduce you closer to each one of its four components. In this article we will be discussing Viva Topics and its functionality.
What is Viva Topics?
Viva Topics uses artificial intelligence to create cards by categories, such as projects, products, services and customers. This will make it easier to find the information you need, according to Microsoft.
The platform automatically creates theme cards when employees work in Microsoft 365 and Teams – they combine all the necessary information about documents, videos and experts related to the theme. You can also integrate information from third-party services, such as ServiceNow and Salesforce.
These topic pages are automatically generated by Microsoft’s artificial intelligence, and the organization’s “experts” have the ability to add and edit wiki-style pages.
Microsoft 365 applications have topic “cards” that highlight topics when they appear in messages and other content and provide a quick view of the context related to unfamiliar acronyms or terms.
Topics are arranged around a “theme center” that will eventually be viewable through Teams and SharePoint, allowing workers to find recommended content based on themes and personalized Microsoft Graph settings.
When will Topics be available for general use in Microsoft Teams?
Viva Topics has been commercially available for preview and purchase since February 4th. Topics app in Teams will be available to public in the second half of the year, the exact date hasn’t been announced yet.
The Viva platform comes at a time when businesses are having to think about a steady increase in the number of remote workers, and the pandemic is forcing them to move to a distributed workforce model. In the post-pandemic period, companies are preparing to retain a significant percentage of remote workers, and interest in tools that track and manage the employee experience is growing.
