As a partner conference Microsoft Inspire, does not generally have a lot of
product & feature announcements. 
However, there are a few interesting points for those of us interested
in Microsoft 365 and Viva.

As Satya Nadella said in the Keynote, every organisation needs a digital fabric
that enables hybrid work, connecting people across locations and working
patterns, covering all 4 quadrants of the diagram below.

![](/images/Inspire01.png)

 

Microsoft Teams innovations such as annotations on shared content in teams meetings, [Excel Live](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/announcing-excel-live-transform-microsoft-teams-meetings-with/ba-p/3573371?WT.mc_id=M365-MVP-5004583) as well as camera improvements for meeting rooms which help to make the experience of the virtual and in person attendees more equitable.

A summary of the news from Microsoft Inspire is available in the news blog  [From enabling hybrid
work to creating collaborative experiences—here’s what’s new in Microsoft 365 |
Microsoft 365 Blog](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2022/07/19/from-enabling-hybrid-work-to-creating-collaborative-experiences-heres-whats-new-in-microsoft-365/)

## The latest Viva news

Of note for Microsoft Viva are three main points. 

Viva Goals will be generally available from 1st August.  Viva Goals is included in the Microsoft 365 Suite license, though stand alone licensing will also be available.

 

Viva Engage is a new Viva tool.  Late in August the Viva Engage app will replace the Yammer Communities app in Microsoft Teams and offers an updated and enhanced Yammer experience from the context of Microsoft Teams.  Enhanced features include improved people search and Storyline, which provides a personal story sharing location for employees.  Making Yammer, even more like an internal social network. Viva Engage will be available with all Microsoft 365 licences and will not require separate licensing.

More details on Viva Engage is available in the following Microsoft blog:

[Yammer Tech Community Blog on Viva Engage](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/yammer-blog/introducing-viva-engage/ba-p/3571377?WT.mc_id=M365-MVP-5004583)

[Announcing Viva Engage](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-viva-blog/announcing-microsoft-viva-engage/ba-p/3571382?WT.mc_id=M365-MVP-5004583)

 Finally, Viva Learning now has a Content Sync API which may not mean much to non-developers but what it allows is the ability to bring any Learning Management System (LMS) into Viva Learning, opening up tools like Moodle and Kallidus or whatever you are using to be integrated into Viva Learning. You could even bring in your bespoke apps created at your organisation.

[Use the employee learning API to integrate with Viva Learning - Microsoft Graph beta | Microsoft Docs](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/api/resources/viva-learning-api-overview?view=graph-rest-beta)



Looking forward the following is promised, so lots to look forward to.

![](/images/Inspire-VivaRoadmap.png)

 

And finally, added to the [Roadmap](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=\&searchterms=93410) for Microsoft Viva today were a few other gems and confirmation of the
announcements:

·       Meeting category insights coming to the Viva Insights app in Teams, due for release in August and part of the personal Viva
Insights functionality [Roadmap Entry](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=\&searchterms=93410)

·      Yammer Storyline in Viva Engage due September [Roadmap Entry](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=\&searchterms=93407)

·      A redesigned Viva Insights App in Teams and Viva Insights on the M365 App launcher due August 2022 [Roadmap
Entry](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=\&searchterms=93346)

·      Viva Engage due August [Roadmap Entry](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=\&searchterms=93409)

If that was the exciting updates for Inspire, just imagine what Ignite in the Autumn will bring!


Viva Inspiration from Inspire

Viva vision #1 Connections engage employees

The quote above, possibly a version of a quote about Education by Albert Einstein, might not be exactly as he said it. A quick google-search gave me [this reference](https://www.quora.com/Did-Einstein-say-Education-is-not-the-learning-of-facts-but-the-training-of-minds-to-think) to the origin of the quote. This might be a bit more closer to quoting him correctly, for those interested in that:

> *“It is not so very important for a person to learn facts. For that he does not really need a college. He can learn them from books. The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts, but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.”*

Education, knowledge, competency and learning

Four words that touches upon the same thing; enabling and empowering people with more insights and skills today than they had yesterday.

![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/1f3eb.svg)![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/1f4da.svg)However we look at education, knowledge, competency and learning, I think one of the core intentions is to enable and empower people to make better choices, to work easier, to do things better, to develop and innovate, to find new solutions and to think for themselves. ![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/2728.svg)![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/1f4a1.svg)![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/2728.svg)

![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/1f4ab.svg)![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/267e.svg)️We are all learning every day and that is what keep us evolving. I want to learn, and always seek to learn, explore and understand more. Learning is a lifelong activity. Of course, it is entirely up to each and every one of us what we want to learn and how and when we do it. At the same time, I think many experience that there is so much to learn, especially in these times and days. It might be challenging if they found themselves working from home, and perhaps not being prepared for that, during the last couple of years with the pandemics. And with the current digital transformation many companies are going through, how can we ensure we are staying up to date and know how to navigate in this digital jungle?![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/1fa82.svg)

![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/1f9d1-1f3fd-200d-1f3eb.svg)Learning and training is not something new![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/1f469-1f3fd-200d-1f4bb.svg)

Most companies have learning and competency journeys in place, and regularly send their employees on training and courses. However, in these days and times it might not be that easy sending people on training and courses. And, using a full week on training can be a bit too much to process and it could take away too much time and focus of work productivity. At the same time, we are different and the way we learn is different. Even though going to classes to learn something is a good way to run training, it might not always be the best options and not for all kinds of learning. Doing the “shortcut” with e-learning is also good, still, it many times just give an introduction, or scratches the surface of what is needed to learn. Sometimes it is useful to train a group of people the same content, especially it is beneficial to gather a group that work together to train them and at the same time discuss how this affect their every day work. Still, many times, effective learning can just as well happen in the context of what I am working on right now. Perhaps I need just a quick video to explain a specific thing, or maybe I need to deep dive into a topic on my own. Multichannel learning is helping organizations to train their managers and employees to gain skills for tomorrow. Many companies already have LMS solutions, perhaps even several.

The challenge for many is to find the training they need in the moment, and find where it is, which system and how to search for it. It might take time to find the specific session, and where you stopped last time you were studying.

Microsoft Viva Learning brings the learning objects to you

![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/2728.svg)![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/1f9b8-1f3fd-200d-2640-fe0f.svg)Microsoft Viva Learning can merge your current learning solutions with Microsoft Teams and bring the learning items straight into the context where people are working. As a manager I can set obligatory learning for my team and track their progress. As a manager and as a co-worker I can recommend learning for my colleagues. As it is available in the Teams interface, it is available for a larger part of the organization, and across any device; whether it is via a pc, laptop, pad or smart phone. Training can be available at your fingertips, when and where you need it. ![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/1f680.svg)

Microsoft Viva Learning

Viva Learning is one of the modules in the Microsoft Viva suite and it brings learning straight into your Teams rooms.

Viva Learning Tips & Tricks blog

In this blog post I would like to share a few little tips and tricks about [Microsoft Viva Learning](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-viva/learning)/[Overview of Microsoft Viva Learning | Microsoft Docs](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/viva/learning/overview-viva-learning). And will update this blog post whenever I learn something new.

I have previously written about Microsoft Viva Learning in this blog: [24 days of collaboration celebrations – No. 1 – MeretheStave (merethesharepointstave.com)](https://merethesharepointstave.com/2021/12/01/24-days-of-collaboration-celebrations-no-1/) and my awesome and visionary colleague Lesley Crook shared her thoughts on Learning on one of her advent blogs: [Viva vision #5 Make Learning part of personal development – MVP, Lesley Crook is a Viva Visionary](https://vivavisionary.uk/2021/12/06/viva-vision-5-learn/)

And, as we see, learning and investing in our best assets; our people, is nothing new, as one of the shining stars and my big inspiration Tracy van der Schyff wrote: [#Microsoft365 Day 354: To learn new things, we first have to un-learn the old bad habits. – Tracy van der Schyff](https://tracyvanderschyff.com/2018/07/22/to-learn-new-things-we-first-have-to-un-learn-the-old-bad-habits/) and as I many times say to my customers; to hit target, we need to know where we are when shooting.

Where are you now…?

Have you run a mapping of current digital competency in your organization? If not, it might be a good idea to do it. And the E.U. Framework for digital competency can be a good place to see where it is expected that every digital worker should be today: [The Digital Competence Framework 2.0 | EU Science Hub (europa.eu)](https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/digcomp/digital-competence-framework) Use the 5 areas mentioned in the framework and ask your employees questions to map where they are on a scale from 2-10 on this 5 areas. —> Another blog will give more resources and good practice related to Adoption and Training (work in progress ![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/1f607.svg)![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/1f913.svg)).

![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/21aa.svg)Back to Viva Learning… ![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/1f4a1.svg)

What type of content does the Microsoft Viva Learning support?

**Currently Viva Learning supports the following document types:**

*   **Word, PowerPoint, Excel and PDF**

*   **Audio (.m4a)**

*   **Video (.mov, .mp4, .avi)**



Read more about it here: [Add SharePoint as a learning content source for Microsoft Viva Learning | Microsoft Docs](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/viva/learning/configure-sharepoint-content-source)

What about SharePoint pages?

I love to work on SharePoint pages and these can be excellent for training purposes. However, currently, SharePoint pages are not supported as learning “items” for Viva Learning.

![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/1f4a1.svg)**Tip of the day!** If you have created a SharePoint page that you want to use for Viva Learning, you can right click the SharePoint page and save it as a PDF. This PDF document you can then upload to the learning content folder for that specific training and link to the folder in the Learning App Repository. – PS! I have not yet tried out this tip, it is just an idea. Let me know if you have tried it and it worked! ![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/1f60a.svg)

PS! Printing the SharePoint page to a PDF can be a ok temporary solution, however, it might be a challenge if the SharePoint page is updated, then you need to “print” to PDF again, and if you have links on the SharePoint page these will not work on the PDF.

![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/1f4ab.svg)![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/1f51c.svg)More tips will follow ….

**Ask me a question!**

`Thank you to those who have gave me their suggestions. If YOU would like to nominate a topic, please feel free to do so completing `[`this form`](https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=Cj6c2QRa2kuVodoMJLcx7ki5wYdkCpdEvPiBWcH3\_OdUN0ZPRFRTMlFMUUFEUUNWOUEzUFNMQVMyRS4u)`, or scan the QR-code added on this page.`

You can also contact me directly either via SoMe and/or via my employers contact form on our web page: [Workshops – Cloudway](https://cloudway.com/workshops/).



![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/1f4a1.svg)![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/1f970.svg)PS! This blog is my personal opinions and sharing. I am working in a fantastic team in CloudWay and **we are running great workshops** covering these topics. We can help you, and your partners, to remove blockers on your way to the cloud! We love to share what we know – to help everyone having secure productivity in the cloud!![](https://i0.wp.com/merethesharepointstave.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/The-4-Viva-pillars.png?resize=750%2C270\&ssl=1)*Viva Learning is one of the four pillars of Microsoft Viva* – Empowering people and teams to be their best![](https://i0.wp.com/merethesharepointstave.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Microsoft-Viva-Learning-in-Teams-illustration.png?resize=750%2C373\&ssl=1)*You can find Microsoft Viva Learning in the left side menu in Microsoft Teams (if not, click the 3 little dots and I’ll guess you’ll find it there – and you can pin it to the left side menu in Microsoft Teams)*. It can also be available from your smartphone.![](https://i0.wp.com/merethesharepointstave.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/QuestionMarkThinkingGIF.gif?resize=498%2C498\&ssl=1)`Have you got a question for me?`![](https://i0.wp.com/merethesharepointstave.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Scan-QR-code-to-ask-a-question.png?resize=750%2C499\&ssl=1)`Scan the QR-code to ask me a question!`



Bring Learning to the front with Microsoft Viva Learning

Many of us may be using Viva Insights (or receive the daily briefing emails) for our habits and insights. But there is an upgrade available to provide managers with insights into their teams’ habits. The manager insights are an additional Viva Insights license and provide managers with a “my team” tab, so they can get recommendations on how to reduce burnout, improve collaboration and more.

If your organization has purchased the licensing and you are a manager, you will see a “My Team” tab in your Viva Insights app in Teams. If you don’t know how to get the Viva Insights app, then [check out my blog to learn how.](https://collabwithkat.com/2021/12/15/what-is-viva-insights-and-how-does-it-help-me/)

You will see your team members, which you can customize right away. Out of the box, Viva Insights uses Azure Active Directory to determine who is shown on the team here, but you can update your team at any time.





Once you click confirm, Viva Insights will open to showcase your team habits, team members you should book a 1:1 with and the opportunity to send praise to your team.





In the Your Habits card, click **explore more** to see different habits about your team and your contact with team members. Manager and team lead insights use information from Exchange Online mailboxes and SharePoint documents to create a picture of people’s work habits. Data is anonymized to protect privacy, meaning it will only show you an overview and not employee names or emails.





Viva Insights will also provide suggestions and recommended plans to put in place to help you manage this.
A suggested plan from Viva Insights is to schedule a no-meeting day for your team. Viva Insights bases this on the fact that my team and I have many meetings in our diary.





As a manager, you can send a no-meeting invite to your team members and choose the frequency. Viva Insights pre-populates the information to make it easier.





The **stay connected** tab in Viva Insights will show you, team members, you don’t have a meeting scheduled with for the next two weeks. It will provide you with the team members’ names and a button to send an invite for a 1:1 meeting.





Since we are remote working, it’s hard for managers to see burnout or after-hours work because they are not in the same room as their team. So how does Viva Insights help? The manager insights provide this information to managers and protect teams’ privacy and only surface insights that will create better work habits and help employees.![](https://collabwithkat.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/image-7.png?w=1024)![](https://collabwithkat.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/image-8.png?w=1024)![](https://collabwithkat.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/image-9.png?w=1024)![](https://collabwithkat.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/image-10.png?w=632)![](https://collabwithkat.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/image-11.png?w=851)![](https://collabwithkat.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/image-12.png?w=1024)



What is Viva Insights for Managers?

We had the pleasure of finally welcoming Martina Grom to the podcast. The [Cloud](https://www.blankmanblog.com/tag/cloud/) Architects have followed and collaborated with the incredible Martina for many years. In this episode, Warren learns some German ![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/1f642.svg) We also discuss [Microsoft](https://www.blankmanblog.com/tag/microsoft/) Viva and some different views on the product, as well as Martina's history and how she got her love for the cloud. Please enjoy this incredible episode with Martina.

Did you know that [KEMP](https://www.blankmanblog.com/tag/kemp/) provides [free](https://www.blankmanblog.com/tag/free/) virtual LoadMaster VLM-5000 load balancers to [Microsoft](https://www.blankmanblog.com/tag/microsoft/) certified professionals? [Visit kemptechnologies.com](https://kemptechnologies.com/microsoft-pros-loadmaster-license-request/) to find out more.





![](https://thearchitects.cloud/images/uploads/2021/07/martina.jpg)Martina Grom is a [Microsoft](https://www.blankmanblog.com/tag/microsoft/) Most Valuable Professional and Microsoft Regional Director. Martina loves [Cloud](https://www.blankmanblog.com/tag/cloud/) technologies, social media & [security](https://www.blankmanblog.com/tag/security/) and running. Martina is the co-founder & CEO http://atwork.at . You can connect with Martina on \[Twitter @magrom]\(https://twitter.com/magrom)This episode is also available as a video recording:This Episode is brought to you by KEMP Technologies. Choose KEMP to optimize your multi-[cloud](https://www.blankmanblog.com/tag/cloud/) application deployments and simplify multi-cloud application management. A single pane-of-glass for application delivery, KEMP provides a 360 degree view of your entire application environment, and even third-party ADCs. Download KEMP360 \[for [free](https://www.blankmanblog.com/tag/free/) today at kemptechnologies.com]\(https://kempte.ch/2MYXjew)



Knowledge has a Price Tag

Did you catch the launch of Microsoft Viva? If not you might want to have a look at the [Viva homepage](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-viva) and the [Viva blog on Tech Community](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-viva-blog/bg-p/MicrosoftVivaBlog).

Viva Topics is the second product (after SharePoint Syntex) which has come out of Project Cortex and is available as a 30 day trial now from <https://aka.ms/BuyVivaTopics>.

Call me curious, but I wanted to have a go. According to comments in the Viva Tech community it takes 2 hours to 2 weeks before Viva Topics is ready to go. It did take 2 days before my first suggested topic showed up, and I’m still at just the one suggested topic. So I’m not quite able to write a blog about how it works yet. But I thought I’d share the set up experience.

Having signed up for a trial and assigned my admin user a licence, I started in the [Microsoft 365 Admin Center](https://admin.microsoft.com/#/homepage) under Settings – > Org Settings -> Services and captured the screens as I went. I’ve also shared the information links shown on these screens.

Learn about Viva Topics <https://support.microsoft.com/office/53620e12-ae00-4523-87cf-e935ae77d541>

Review site search settings <https://docs.microsoft.com/en-GB/sharepoint/make-site-content-searchable>

Automate content understanding – Links to another set up page in your tenant

Learn more <https://docs.microsoft.com/en-GB/sharepoint/make-site-content-searchable>

Learn about excluding topics <https://docs.microsoft.com/en-GB/microsoft-365/knowledge/set-up-knowledge-network>

When you first visit the Topics dashboard (i.e. the SharePoint site you created) it will be blank and you may think it hasn’t worked. Just leave it to do it’s thing for at least 2 hours and then you’ll see the Get Started page and Manage topics page populate with the webparts. Here’s the Get Started page and it’s links.

Learn about the 3 steps: <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2135146>

Intro to Knowledge Network: <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2135200>

Understanding Topic Discovery: <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2135147>

Manage Topics: <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2134948>

Eventually, your home page will start to show you recommended topics but these will take a bit longer to have more information in, so I’ll return with another post when I have more to see.[![](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-9.png?w=1024)](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-9.png)[![](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-5.png?w=1024)](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-5.png)[![](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-1.png?w=1024)](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-1.png)[![](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image.png?w=1024)](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image.png)[![](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-7.png?w=1024)](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-7.png)[![](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-3.png?w=1024)](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-3.png)[![](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-2.png?w=1024)](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-2.png)[![](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-6.png?w=1024)](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-6.png)[![](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-4.png?w=1024)](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-4.png)[![](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-10.png?w=1024)](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-10.png)[![](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-1-1.png?w=1024)](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-1-1.png)[![](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-8.png?w=1024)](https://sfennah.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-8.png)



Getting started with Viva Topics

I am excited and honoured to be presenting a Microsoft Viva Connections session on Wednesday 12th May 2021 at [TeamsNation](https://microsoft365pro.co.uk/teams-nation/)! this will be my fourth time since the event began in 2019 and I’m very thankful to the organisers Chris Hoard [@Microsoft365Pro](https://twitter.com/microsoft365pro), Vesku Nopanen [@vesanopanen](https://twitter.com/vesanopanen), Adam Deltinger [@deltanr1](https://twitter.com/deltanr1), Chris Webb [@ChrisWebbTech](https://twitter.com/ChrisWebbTech) for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this great event and their efforts in bringing this event together with community warriors [Patrick Guimonet](https://twitter.com/patricg) and [Raphael Koellner](https://twitter.com/Ra_Koellner).

TeamsNation is a 100% free, 100% community driven one-day conference dedicated to Microsoft Teams. It aims to bring together exceptional technical talent and thought leaders to democratise Teams knowledge, encourage participation in the Teams community and give those who are struggling financially an opportunity to attend a first class Teams conference. There are over 115 sessions by 130 speakers covering 11 tracks – Adoption & Governance, Security & Compliance, Productivity, Meetings, Calling & Devices, Education & Community, Build and Extend, Table Talks and Unconference, The Power Platform, SOYS (SharePoint, OneDrive, Yammer, Stream), Teams Nation France (aMS), Teams Nation Germany (TCD DE) and Community Lounge!

Teams Nation 2021 takes place online **Wednesday 12th May 2021** **08:00 – 20:00 CEST**
New official website for Teams Nation is now online at [**https://www.teamsnation.online**](https://www.teamsnation.online/)

Register today at [**https://teamsnation.rocks/register**](https://teamsnation.rocks/register). All sessions are at [**https://teamsnation.rocks/hub**](https://teamsnation.rocks/hub)

You can keep up on: [Teams Nation | Meetup](https://www.meetup.com/teamsnation/) ** **[Teams Nation | LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/69932518/admin/) [Teams Nation | Twitter](https://twitter.com/TeamsNation) [Teams Nation | YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTmTRJc9QZN--A5PklV56hg?view_as=subscriber)

My session details are below and hope you can join us!
**Session: **[Let’s get rich and connected with Microsoft Viva Connections](https://www.teamsnation.online/schedule/)
Your employees are key agents for your organisation’s success but only if they are able to connect with integrated experiences of culture, communications and communities. Microsoft Viva Connections part of Microsoft 365 and at NO additional license cost helps achieve a rich connected workplace. We will explore how Microsoft Viva Connections bring your existing tools together like SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Yammer and Microsoft Stream with targeted and relevant content to drive better employee experience.
**Track**: **SHAREPOINT, ONEDRIVE, YAMMER & STREAM (SOYS)**
**Date & Time: **Wednesday 12 May, 11:00 – 11:40 CET (10:00 – 10:40 BST)
**Link to session: **[**https://teamsnation.rocks/Room9**](https://teamsnation.rocks/Room9)

### RATE THIS:.&#xA;&#xA;


Presenting Viva Connections session at #TeamsNation May 2021

Following the public launch of what Microsoft was calling ‘Project Cortex’ (now known as SharePoint Syntex and Viva Topics) at the recent Ignite global conference, Zoe Wilson, Head of Enterprise Collaboration and Productivity at Agilisys discusses 11 of the main ways [the latest Microsoft products](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/introducing-project-cortex/ba-p/966091) will transform organisations.

The way that we work is changing. In response to the COVID-19 crisis in particular, organisations have achieved more transformation – and at a vastly accelerated rate – than ever before. In addition to the pressures brought about by coronavirus and the requirement for global remote working, work is also becoming more complex – and that complexity is worsening. 

It’s therefore imperative for organisations to be agile, to move fast and to innovate – both at pace and at scale. There are, however, several issues to be overcome if organisations are to enable and realise the full benefits of the latest wave of transformation. 



The volume of data that exists is astronomical and growing exponentially. This makes it hard for people to find information that they need, the time required to make informed decisions is longer than it needs to be and organisations typically suffer from the loss of valuable data which is buried in legacy systems such as fileshares.  

Additionally, there is a huge untapped pool of tacit knowledge which is typically locked inside the head of unidentified individuals and communities within the company.  

Demonstrating compliance with regulations such as GDPR and the UK Data Protection Act can be difficult – if not impossible – when you’re dealing with such huge volumes of unstructured data.  

The good news is that [the first app to be launched, SharePoint Syntex](https://www.agilisys.co.uk/insights/sharepoint-syntex-fastrack-to-information-governance/) and the Febrary 2021 addition, Viva Topics – deliver the potential to change all of this. Here’s how:  

### **1. Recognise and Bring Together Knowledge and Content**

Viva Topics and SharePoint Syntex apply AI to recognise topics across content and conversations, organise related information and generate topic pages that experts can curate, as well as analysing and understanding your content. Ultimately, this will help employees find the answers that they need much more quickly. For the public sector, this will save significant amounts of time by surfacing topics and information about content to people at the time they need them across the whole of Microsoft 365. This is a huge win, as studies indicate that office workers spend as much as 33% of their time searching for information.



### **2. Personalise Knowledge**

Once content has been analysed and topics have been identified by the artificial intelligence (AI) engine, they can also be accessed through personalised knowledge portals, which will act as central repositories for knowledge built in SharePoint Online. This will allow your employees to deep dive into all related content for topics in a central place.  

### **3. Identify Experts**

Topic cards connect you with resources and expertise in the context of your work across Microsoft 365. The topic information will be presented to you in the flow of your work across Microsoft 365 or through knowledge centres, and in addition to providing all of the content, will also tell you who the experts are on that particular topic. Within public sector organisations, typically there are longstanding employees who may have historical knowledge which colleagues are unaware of – Viva Topics will allow you to identify who these people are and tap into the contextual knowledge that they can provide. 

### **4. Improved Employee Onboarding**

We all know how long it can take to get new starters up to speed, and often this can be challenging where processes need to be figured out and where information lives in lots of different places. This can be true of people who are new to a project as well as those who are new to your organisation –** **project onboarding can also impact delivery timelines and the cost of projects, so can have quite a big impact. Being able to surface knowledge more easily to people in the flow of work by bringing it to them in the form of topic cards, can improve the time taken to achieve full onboarding, and help your new employees become more effective more quickly. 

### **5. Automatic Classification**

SharePoint Syntex uses advanced AI to capture and tag structured, semi-structured and, in some cases, unstructured content. A typical local authority in the UK produces circa 2 million new files every year. Manually tagging all this content is virtually impossible, would be very expensive and is likely to be inaccurate as well, as it is unlikely that all people will tag documents consistently across the board. Automatic classification delivers several benefits in addition to saving huge amounts of time, which are outlined in our next few examples!

### **6. Content / Metadata Extraction**

When content is scanned and analysed as part of the automatic classification process, the AI engine of SharePoint Syntex is also capable of identifying key fields within documents and pulling them out into metadata columns. This could be contract start and end date, value of the contract, the name of the person who signed it and so on. This will be incredibly powerful, as it can enhance understanding of content, improve search and provide richer triggers for retention policies and advanced automation. 

### **7. Speed to Full Compliance**

The content understanding capabilities within SharePoint Syntex will not only analyse and identify content, but once trained effectively, will be able to apply advanced automatic classifications and protection to content, including retention and sensitivity labels. The time taken to do this manually is astronomical, and likely never achieved fully due to either non-compliance across the organisation, or due to inconsistent labelling of content. This is the fastest and most effective way to achieve full information governance compliance across all content within SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams. 

### **8. More Effective Search**

Once content has been analysed by SharePoint Syntex and metadata extracted, this will supercharge the search experience across an organisation. Essentially what happens under the hood is that Microsoft Search is now able to index all of the new information that it has about your content, which should drive better search results and make it easier for people to find the information they are looking for and enable more focused searching using search refiners. When you think that various studies indicate that office workers spend between 20-33% of their time searching for information, this will have a significant positive impact on productivity.  

### **9. Unlock Hidden Value**

Organisations produce content at a huge rate, which is increasing year–on–year. As mentioned above, based on our research across local authorities within the UK, we typically see an annual growth rate of more than 2 million files a year. When combined with the inability to search effectively for this content, what happens over time is that lots of valuable information can be hidden in content, where organisations are unable to tap into it. By using Project Cortex, organisations can start to tap into the hidden value found within their dark data. 

### **10. Drive Automated Processes**

Following analysis of the content and metadata extraction by Syntex, additional capability is unlocked. This metadata information can be used by the Power Platform to drive advanced automation of your business processes. If we think of a practical way to explain this, imagine a world where invoices are scanned automatically by the content understanding process, and key values – such as amount and the service being provided for example – are pulled out of the document into related metadata. The Power Platform could then be used to drive internal approval processes which could vary depending on the cost included within the invoice. This is just one example of countless use-cases where the Power Platform can use the intelligent insight derived through Project Cortex to drive business processes and deliver significant efficiencies within your organisation. 

### **11. Improved Productivity and Efficiency**

Ultimately, SharePoint Syntex and Viva Topics include a wide range of intelligent features and capabilities, which have the potential to deliver true content transformation to your organisation. Across the board, it promises to deliver efficiency, productivity and cost-savings by making it easier for people to find knowledge and experts, by classifying and protecting content, through improving the search experience, and delivering advanced business automation. 

SharePoint Syntex and Viva Topics are available now. 



11 ways Viva Topics and SharePoint Syntex will transform your organisation

Digital Wellbeing in Microsoft 365 is about working smart with the tools you have at your disposal. There is a difference between having access to the tools and using them as intended. With the introduction of Microsoft Viva and specifically Viva Insights, we now see where Microsoft is headed. They are now all about using the tools and building good collaboration cultures. Viva Insights can measure meeting culture, chat culture and how much off hours working is done. But it is not enough to just tell people to use less internal emails, move away from chat and over to channels and work less in evenings. It is difficult to envision how to work in a different way when the change that needs to happen must happen in the individual and in the group.

This is where Digital Wellbeing comes in to the picture. The four modules I have defined as part of Digital Wellbeing is the HOW and WHAT when culture shows you WHY you need to change. The four modules are

*   Capture

*   Process & Execute

*   Teams Culture

*   Notifications

Watch the video explaining the modules in 14 minutes

## Module 1 – Capture

Capture is all about storing your thoughts, ideas, dreams and tips in to Microsoft To Do. Meeting notes and deeper notes are captured in OneNote. The goal is to create stash-zones for your content so that you find them again. Why exactly To Do and OneNote? Watch my deep dive video explaining everything you need to know to get started with capture.

## Modul 2 – Process & Execute

Taking capture to the next level is to reflect, process and organize your captured material. A task in To Do which you have captured could be a link to an article you want to read, reference material for your project, it could be someone asking you for more information or the start of a project. Organizing this unstructured information and breaking the tasks in to goals and actions will help “future you” make sense of the captures. The execute component of this module is about prioritizing the most important tasks for you that day, reserving time in your calendar and using the Pomodoro technique to focus on one task for at least 25 minutes without distracting yourself. This is much harder than it sounds so we need to talk about this. Watch my deep dive video explaining all the details for this module

## Module 3 – Teams Culture

For you to have a good day in Teams three things needs to happen

1.  Conversations about processes needs to move from chats to channel conversations so that you get the ability to mute parts of the conversation.

2.  We want larger Teams with more channels, rather than many teams with fewer channels and we want people to tag a person, a tag or the channel when reaching out. Never tag the Team (unless you are the Team owner or administrator) because there is no way of muting those notifications.

3.  Meetings should start and end in channel conversations, or chats if they are ad-hoc meetings. In that way we may save a number of meetings that are meetings about the meetings you are going to have and meetings about the meetings you just had. That is just a waste of time, respect yours and your colleagues time.

These are the topics we cover in the Teams culture module, watch the deep dive session here

## Module 4 – Notifications

Notifications is the #1 skill everyone needs to master the next decade. Why? Work is not a place it is a mindset. The moment you see a notification about work, you instantly get pulled in to work mode. What more is that a timer seems to go off in your head and you feel you need to respond within 30 minutes. This is the challenge we are living in today, that you get notifications about not important information at the wrong time. There are three questions you need to ask yourself when you get a notification on your computer or mobile

1.  Why did you get the notification?

2.  Was it useful?

3.  How can you tune it so you get it not at all or at the correct time

This is what we dive in to in the module 4 video and we take is far as going through how to disconnect during vacation.

Digital Wellbeing can help you get your head above the water, perform better at work and at home and it will just make you happy in your life. Happiness comes from you feeling you are mastering your busy day and using the tools in smart way and removing stress from your life. That is what Digital Wellbeing is all about.



Blog