One of the things we love most about the Microsoft 365 platform is the sense of continuous improvement.

Having Microsoft’s extensive resources behind these powerful tools means that new features are popping up all the time. We’re particularly looking forward to the upcoming ‘custom layouts’ feature in Teams, which will make presentations feel more human by showing the presenter in front of their slides.

But on a much more ambitious scale, Microsoft have announced a new suite of tools that will work very closely with Teams. Microsoft Viva will be focused on the employee experience, and allow organisations to “foster a culture where people and teams are empowered to be their best from anywhere”.

It’s still early days in terms of learning more, but some key themes have emerged already:

• Viva Topics will use artificial intelligence to ‘turn content into knowledge’ and surface expertise within 365 tools, making it easier to find the information you need
• Viva Connections is a customisable app within Teams, providing a personalised service that will give people easy access to relevant news, conversations and tools
• Viva Learning will create a central hub for learning materials in Teams, so people can access a range of resources in one place
• Viva Insights will give employees at all levels personalised information to help them boost their wellbeing and productivity. This sounds very much like an upgrade of the existing MyAnalytics tool. And there will be full integration with third-party wellbeing apps like Headspace too – plus a ‘virtual commute’ feature for those who want it!

It sounds like there will be a lot of flexibility within these new tools – just as we’d expect from the 365 suite – and we’re investigating exactly what these exciting changes will mean for the worlds of IC, HR, and IT. We’ll be sharing more soon, once we’ve had a play…

To find out how this training brings value to internal communication professionals, read our case study here.

If you’d like to boost your 365 knowledge and skills, sign up for the next round of our ‘Microsoft 365 for internal communication’ course that we run with the IoIC. This course will help you to plan, launch and measure your 365 rollout (or sense-check your approach if you’re already using this brilliant suite).