In February 2023, Microsoft announced the rolling-out of version 2 of Viva Connections, two years after the initial release of Microsoft Viva. (New experiences for Viva Connections are now rolling out – Microsoft Community Hub). The new version offers a range of new experiences designed to enhance the employee experience and make it easier for employees to access productivity tools, company news, and company resources. In this article, we’ll explore what the new Viva Connections app offers and how Powell Intranet can help you get even more out of it.
What is “Viva Connections”?
Viva Connections is an app in Teams that provides a customizable dashboard for employees. It’s part of the Viva suite, which also includes Viva Engage. The app is designed to bring together all the tools and resources employees need to do their jobs and stay informed about what’s happening in the company. With Viva Connections, employees can access company news, events, resources, and productivity tools from a single location.
Dashboard
The new Viva Connections app includes a customizable dashboard that offers a range of cards. These cards can be configured to provide employees with an overview of the most interesting personal productivity tools available either from Microsoft 365 or third-party ISVs. This means that employees can quickly and easily find the tools required to do their job.
Feeds
The app also includes a company news feed that lets employees stay updated with what’s happening in the company. This feed can target specific audiences, making it easier for employees to find the most relevant information. The app also includes a company-wide Yammer discussion feed, which provides a forum for employees to discuss company-wide topics.
Resources
Another key feature of Viva Connections is the resources card, which provides quick links to access company apps or sites. Like the news feed, this card can target specific audiences, making it easier for employees to find the resources they need to do their job.
Home site
While having a home site was a prerequisite for using the previous version of Viva Connections, this is no longer the case with the new version. However, companies can still link their existing home site to Viva Connections, which provides employees with a more personalized experience. Employees can also link Viva Connections to their existing home site, providing a more seamless experience.
Shortcut to the rest of the Viva suite
Finally, the new Viva Connections app includes a shortcut to the rest of the Viva suite. This means employees can quickly and easily access other Viva apps, such as Viva Insights, Viva Topics, and Viva Learning, all from one location.
What is Powell Intranet?
Powell Intranet is a third-party solution designed to build an engaging Intranet and enhance the functionality of SharePoint, Viva Suite, and Microsoft 365. While Viva Connections provides a great front door to your intranet, Powell Intranet can help you get more out of your Microsoft 365 investment.
Powell Cards for Dashboard
One key feature of the Powell Intranet is the Powell Cards for Dashboard. These cards offer a range of additional apps that can be added to the Viva Connections dashboard. For example, the Powell Intranet includes apps like Work Anniversary, Desk Booking Companion, Kudos, and Events. These apps can be customized to meet your organization’s needs, providing employees a more personalized experience.
Targeted news and preferences for feeds
Powell Intranet also offers targeted news and preferences for feeds. This means you can decide the display and how you want the employee to share internally and/or externally (social media) and allow employees to choose what they want to receive in their feeds. This goes beyond the native audience targeting capabilities of Viva Connections, allowing companies to provide employees with more control and customization over their feeds.
Favorites and Personal Links
Powell Intranet makes building a catalog of favorite links to your company’s apps easy. Employees can decide which links to keep close to them and add their own apps and links to make it more personalized. This feature streamlines access to essential apps, ensuring your employees can quickly access the apps they need to complete their jobs.
In Teams
Powell Intranet makes it easy to deploy Viva Connection and as many other applications as you want as a Teams app. You can deploy Flexdesk for all employees, our Ideation corner for R&D, our Employee Advocacy corner for Marketing, and much more. This feature makes deploying essential apps and features to your employees easy, improving communication and productivity.
Mobile App for Frontline Workers
In many companies, frontline workers cannot access computers or laptops, making it challenging to keep them connected to company news and updates. Powell Intranet offers a dedicated mobile app that doesn’t require Microsoft 365 Frontline licenses. This app enables frontline workers to access essential information like news, people, and documents. Companies can choose to deploy Microsoft 365 at their own pace and smoothly equip frontline workers. The mobile app is an excellent solution for companies with a long journey to equip frontline workers and have them adopt the tools.
Powell Intranet and Viva Connection: A Perfect Partnership
Overall, Viva Connection and Powell Intranet form a perfect partnership. Powell Intranet leverages the Microsoft 365 suite and SharePoint to provide businesses with a digital workplace that engages employees, facilitates communication, and improves productivity. Meanwhile, Viva Connection is the front door to your company’s digital workplace. You can use Viva Connection to ensure that your employees access the most important and relevant content on your company’s intranet.
Powell Intranet builds on Viva Connection, expanding the platform’s functionality and providing more features and benefits for your employees and contributors. You can maximize the use of SharePoint, Microsoft 365, and Viva Suite and go beyond by offering additional features that improve employee engagement, streamline communication, and increase productivity.
Intranet as a Building
Overall, an intranet is like a building with many floors for each department or affiliate and many rooms for each app or process. You have common rooms, a corridor, and common furnishings. Building an intranet from scratch requires a lot of time and effort, which is where a third-party solution like Powell Intranet can help. Powell Intranet provides the tools to build an intranet on top of Viva and SharePoint, allowing you to achieve more and engage your employees effectively.
Conclusion
While the new Viva Connections is an excellent starting point for companies looking to improve their intranet, the true power of the platform is unlocked with the help of third-party solutions like Powell Intranet. By integrating Powell Intranet with Viva Connections, companies can build a customized, fully integrated intranet that meets their needs and drives greater engagement, collaboration, and productivity across the organization.
In summary, if you want to take your company’s intranet to the next level, Viva Connections 2.0 is a great starting point. Its new features and capabilities offer a more personalized and streamlined experience for employees. However, to unlock the platform’s full potential, it’s recommended to consider integrating it with a third-party solution like Powell Intranet. You can create a fully customized, integrated intranet that drives engagement, collaboration, and productivity across your organization.
