Microsoft Viva Topics is a powerful tool that can help organizations effectively manage their knowledge and information. It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify and organize relevant content across an organization, and then surfaces that content to users through a variety of interfaces. By doing so, Viva Topics can help users find the information they need more quickly and easily, reducing the time and effort needed to complete tasks and make informed decisions.
Getting started with Viva Topics is relatively straightforward, and this blog will provide an overview of the key steps and considerations to keep in mind.
Step 1: Assess Your Needs
The first step in getting started with Viva Topics is to assess your organization’s needs. What kinds of information and knowledge do your employees need to access and use regularly? What are the pain points or challenges that employees face when trying to find the information they need? What tools or systems are currently in place to manage information and knowledge, and how well do they work?
Answering these questions can help you identify the specific use cases and requirements that Viva Topics can address. For example, you might find that employees struggle to find relevant information in a large, complex intranet, or that teams waste time duplicating effort because they can’t easily locate existing resources. Alternatively, you might identify a need to ensure compliance with certain regulations or industry standards by proactively surfacing relevant information.
Step 2: Configure Viva Topics
Once you fully understand your organization’s needs, you can begin configuring Viva Topics to address those needs. This involves setting up topics, which are collections of related content, and then training Viva Topics to identify and surface relevant content for each topic.
To configure Viva Topics, you’ll need to:
- Identify the topics that are most relevant to your organization’s needs. You can create topics based on keywords, phrases, or specific content types, such as policies or procedures.
- Configure the settings for each topic, such as the sources of content to include and the weighting of different content types or sources.
- Train Viva Topics to identify and surface relevant content for each topic. This involves providing feedback to Viva Topics when it surfaces content that is or isn’t relevant so that it can continually improve its recommendations over time.
Step 3: Integrate Viva Topics into Your Workflow
With Viva Topics configured, the final step is to integrate it into your organization’s workflow. This involves making Viva Topics available to users in a way that is easy to access and use.
There are several ways to integrate Viva Topics into your workflow, including:
- Adding a Viva Topics tab to Microsoft Teams. This allows users to search for and access relevant content directly within Teams.
- Embedding Viva Topics into other applications, such as SharePoint or Outlook. This allows users to access relevant content from within the tools they use most frequently.
- Integrating Viva Topics into your intranet or other company portal. This ensures that relevant content is easily accessible to all employees.
In addition to these integrations, it’s also important to provide training and support to users so that they can take full advantage of Viva Topics. This might involve offering training sessions, creating documentation or tutorials, or providing ongoing support through a help desk or other channels.
Conclusion
Microsoft Viva Topics is a powerful tool that can help organizations manage their knowledge and information more effectively. By assessing your organization’s needs, configuring Viva Topics, and integrating it into your workflow, you can provide employees with faster, more efficient access to the information they need to get their jobs done. Whether you’re just getting started with Viva Topics or looking to expand its use within your organization, these steps can.