Part Four: The Viva Insights Smart Activity Tracker

How You Spend Your Time and Who You Spend It With

March 2021 | Insights From the CEO – The third of the four parts of Viva ‘trails system’ is Insights.

 

What Part Does Insights Play in the ‘Trail System’?

Distinct from the Connections and Learning ‘trails’ that we discussed over the past several days, as well as the very rich Topics ‘trail’ we’ll discuss tomorrow, Insights is more like the smart activity tracker for Viva. Insights tracks and reports – only to you – on how you spend your time, who you spend it with and provides suggestions and recommendations, much like my smartwatch is reminding me now to drink more water.

There are three layers available with Insights – individual, org unit and enterprise. The individual is available to all M365 licensed users. It is essentially the next iteration of My Insights that you might have used, delivered to you by email. The Teams Insights app brings those same personalized and private insights to you directly in a Teams app. The org unit and enterprise insights are the next iteration of the Workplace Analytics (separately priced) capabilities, also brought into that same Teams Insights experience.

 

What’s New in the Insights Experience?

Immediately, the Insights app provides the same time and connections analysis as MyAnalytics. In addition, it scans email messages for phrases that are potential follow-up and to-do items and provides reminders. Arriving over the next several months:

  • A ‘virtual commute’ capability to aid in maintaining a healthy separation between work and personal time;
  • More tools to ‘protect time’ – schedule-focused (meeting-free) and explicit learning time; as well as
  • Re-charge aids that Microsoft is calling ‘emotional check-ins’ that include mediation guidance and other balance prompts.

 

When Will It Be Available?

Viva Insights is available now. Click on the three dots in the left navigation bar in Teams and search for the Insights apps and add it. Remember to pin it as well or it will disappear when you log out and you’ll have to go find it again. The additional features bulleted above are currently expected to arrive in April. Note that if your enterprise is not already subscribed to Workplace Analytics, you will only see the MyAnalytics tab inside Insights.

 

What Will It Cost?

The individual analytics are, like MyAnalytics, part of the M365 license. There is a separate charge for Workplace Analytics. Check with IT on whether Workplace Analytics has been or will be licensed for your tenant.

 

Additional Resources

 

Connect with Us

If you would like to continue this discussion on Microsoft Viva, contact us by email or +1 214 292 7000.

 

About the Author

Chris Shaida is an Enterprise Managing Consultant and Founder of RealFoundations. Mr. Shaida founded RealFoundations to provide a place where like-minded professionals can focus their deep industry and solution knowledge and passion to help improve the operations of our real estate industry and corporate real estate clients.

 

About RealFoundations

RealFoundations (RF) is the world’s foremost professional services firm focused solely on the real estate industry. Through our delivery of Management Consulting and Managed Services, we help companies that develop, own, operate, service or invest in real estate make better, more profitable decisions. We are proud partners to over 500 real estate companies around the globe, providing accelerated solutions that solve some of real estate’s most complex challenges. We Make Real Estate Run Better.