Short on Time Summary
Make your business processes more efficient by implementing Viva Topics as your knowledge management system. AI-powered technology automatically organises your information into topics and knowledge maps, assisted by human contributions from subject experts. Reduce context switching, motivate your employees and enable them to learn together in the apps they already use.
What is Viva Topics?
Viva Topics is part of Microsoft’s integrated employee experience platform, Viva. It transforms knowledge sharing and encourages collaboration and user input. With an intuitive interface, you can consolidate how you store and manage your information into one application powered by AI technology.
Knowledge is most useful when employees know where to look for answers. On average, employees reach out to two colleagues per day to access the information they need which interrupts workflow and delays projects. Viva Topics connects knowledge silos and reduces search time by up to 75%. Improve findability of information by creating topics for projects, clients and more.
Protect your employees’ valuable time and establish a culture of knowledge sharing in day-to-day activities.
To discover what Viva Topics can do for your business, watch our webinar for a demo of the solution and an overview of the features and benefits.
Make content discovery more efficient
Content is automatically categorised into easily digestible pages or pop-out cards. Hovering over a highlighted or underlined term will provide additional information, accessible directly from the flow of work.
Topics include all the knowledge associated with the subject. You can access definitions, synonyms, short descriptions, related documents and SharePoint pages, and more. Also identify subject matter experts, allowing you to get in touch with your colleagues for more in-depth information and follow-up questions.
Stop wasting valuable information and start collating knowledge from all teams and departments in one place. Cross-departmental collaboration will generate fresh ideas and perspectives. For example, utilise feedback already collected by the customer service department to improve the buyer’s journey. Make the most of existing knowledge and expertise so the whole organisation benefits.
Reduce context switching
A challenge of the remote work model is the rise of application overload and technology fatigue. Harvard Business Review reported that workers reorient up to 1200 times every day after moving between applications and tabs. It takes around 9 and a half minutes to return to a fully focused state after a disruption.
Being immersed in a creative or complex task, and then stopping to search for information elsewhere damages productivity and the quality of work. Context switching is also detrimental to employee wellbeing and happiness at work.
Viva Topics aims to address the issue by reducing the need for unnecessary emails and meetings. Employees can first source the information independently and continue working without breaking focus.
Integrate with Microsoft 365
User buy-in is critical for a successful project. Topics integrates with other Microsoft 365 tools that your people already use. It has the same familiar, easy-to-use interface and embeds learning and knowledge sharing in your SharePoint intranet, Outlook and Teams. You can also incorporate data from 130 external sources.
The value of Topics will quickly become apparent as employees save time and mental energy, have access to rich information to build their knowledge of organisation-wide projects and can learn in context without switching applications. With minimal training, everyone can get involved with the new system.
Facilitate faster learning
Level up your onboarding with Viva Topics and ensure ongoing learning is a priority. All the necessary links to access further resources and experts are available without ever leaving the page. Information is discoverable in the context it’s needed so employees can quickly expand their knowledge to make rich contributions.
New starts can familiarise themselves with important past projects and overcome barriers like company-specific acronyms and terminology by hovering over them for a definition. Supported by a rich library of knowledge, they can start working on real high-impact tasks quickly.
Topics clearly signpost who to contact for help on a particular topic. New employees will build relationships quicker and form connections across the wider organisation. It’s also an opportunity for current employees to connect with colleagues they’ve never interacted with before if they weren’t aware of their specific expertise or involvement in a project.
We implemented Viva Topics as a knowledge centre for an international consulting firm, you can read that case study here.
Encourage employee participation
The SharePoint topic centre displays an overview of your organisation’s knowledge. Users are prompted to accept a connection with a topic they’ve contributed to, for example if they were the author of a linked file.
As an expert, you can curate the topic and engage with people wanting to learn more about it. Your feed is personalised to show your confirmed and suggested topics to ensure relevance and maximise engagement.
Crowdsourcing keeps your employees fully involved in the knowledge management process. Experts can edit knowledge pages to include more detail or create new topics they think would be helpful. This ensures the content is high-quality and easy to understand. Boost motivation by giving your employees fulfilling tasks, and recognising and appreciating their knowledge contributions.
Through machine learning, the AI technology continually learns as experts add and change content. Crowdsourcing helps improve its accuracy and recommended connections as more knowledge is collected.
Viva Topics combines AI technology and employee contributions to transform knowledge sharing. It’s fully compatible with other Microsoft 365 platforms and provides a user-friendly knowledge sharing experience that will save time, enable focused work and lead to better business outcomes.
To get started with Viva Topics book a call with one of our expert consultants. You can also follow us on LinkedIn and subscribe to our monthly newsletter for the latest insights on improving business processes.