Why Viva Engage Is Needed
Why is Microsoft Viva Engage needed in most organizations? To put it simply, within the modern organization there is a fundamental problem with search. Let me explain.
For search to work efficiently, it requires
- Content in an accessible location so that the intended audience can find it
- Content properly categorized and tagged
- The intended audience to use the right keywords, tags and filters to find it
Of course, artificial intelligence is improving the content discovery process: following your search patterns and general user behavior to better interpret what you are looking for, or what you might be looking for, and then to serve up content that these patterns have shown to be relevant content.
When I am working on a known or even a new project, and the digital assets that I am creating and collaborating with others around roll under those projects, applying metadata and adhering to a pre-set taxonomy are relatively easy. But what if I have content not associated with these projects? Maybe it’s a skunk-works, pure research and development activity. Or a late-night thought leadership brainstorm on a topic? How do I classify it? Where does it fit? And will it be “findable” by others who may view it as both interesting and relevant?
That is one of the important roles of social collaboration within the broader enterprise, and one of the major reasons why Microsoft Viva Engage should be part of your information management strategy.
Let me give you a real-world example: In a prior company, my role and focus areas were defined, and yet I joined the company with years of experience that did not fit into my job description. When I filled out my social profile on the company’s new intranet, which included some rudimentary social features, I did not limit my profile to the info and experiences that I knew were relevant to my current role, projects, and tasks. Instead, I shared prior experiences, industries, and skills. As a result of sharing my extensive tech and business background, within days I was contacted by another team looking for someone with my unique experience, and I was able to make a number of customer referrals and even participate in a call with one prospect, providing a demo for them.
I know that there are a lot of people and companies out there who do not think they need Yammer or any other kind of enterprise social networking capability. My opinion is that most of these people and companies are wrong.
Whether you have a tool in place or not, your employees are connecting and collaborating elsewhere.
By not providing social tools, your organization will experience
- A lack of “connectedness” between employees
- Intellectual property leakage as sharing will happen across disparate tools
- A problem with “Shadow IT” as these unsupported and un-governed tools are leverage
- Many missed opportunities for innovation that are often found through unfiltered sharing and discovery
If you missed this month’s #CollabTalk TweetJam (a monthly community-based discussion held via Twitter that is open to anyone and everyone), be sure to check out my follow up interview with one of the participants, Microsoft MVP Zoe Wilson, who is also the Europe Workplace Value Realisation Lead at Avanade…and a huge fan of both Yammer and Viva Engage!
