Microsoft has introduced a ‘Communications and Communities’ licence bundle for Microsoft Viva. This licensing option allows organisations to maximise Viva’s employee communication tools without needing to commit to the entire Viva suite.
We explore which apps are included in this package, key premium features, benefits and costs.
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Which Apps are Included in the Communications & Communities Licence?
The Microsoft Viva Communications & Communities licence includes the three core apps for internal communicators.
- Premium Viva Connections: Your company homepage and gateway to your digital workplace. Living inside Teams, Viva Connections is an ally to your intranet. It serves up personalised content, including news, resources and actionable dashboard card.
- Premium Viva Engage: An enterprise social networking tool that enables two-way comms between peers and leadership and serves as a platform for open discussion. As well as the core community building features, Viva Engage also supports knowledge sharing and leadership engagement.
- Viva Amplify: The employee comms tool designed to streamline the creation, management and measurement of internal communications. Viva Amplify allows communicators to post messages to multiple channels with one click, and provides detailed analytics on comms performance.
Key Premium Features
The core features in Viva Connections and Viva Engage are included in Microsoft 365 licences, so organisations can get started with no extra cost.
However, the more advanced features require an additional licence. You will also need a premium licence for Viva Amplify.
Some of the key premium features include:
Support for Multiple Instances of Viva Connections
Organisations can create multiple (up to 50 at time of publication) branded instances of Viva Connections to cater to different departments or regions, ensuring that content is relevant and tailored to specific audiences. This is especially useful for large enterprises, or umbrella companies with multiple distinct brands.
Each brand can have their own visual identity within Viva Connections, and employees will only see the content that is relevant to them.
Leadership Corner
Part of Viva Engage, leadership corner enables open dialogue between leadership and employees, providing a platform for leaders to share updates, insights, and engage with the workforce.
Leadership Corner can be set up so that employees automatically follow their upline, helping employees to build connections with key figures in their department.
Advanced Storylines
With advanced storylines, nominated users can post on behalf of others – also known as delegate posting.
Delegate posting makes it easy for internal communications teams to manage leadership comms. Comms teams can create and approve posts in advance, and manage the posting schedule themselves without relying on busy leaders to post the right thing at the right time.
Answers in Viva
Answers in Viva is the knowledge sharing arm of Viva Engage, and is powered by AI. It’s a self-service way for employees to find answers to their questions. Anyone can ask a question and, if it’s already been asked and answered, Viva will find and surface the answer.
Answers can be labelled as ‘Best’, so employees know which information to trust.
Answers in Viva can help cut down on time lost responding to repetitive questions, and empowers employees to find the information they need.
Ask me Anything
Ask me Anything (AMA) sessions are text-based, moderated Q&As that allow employees to ask their questions and engage directly with leaders.
Questions can be gathered before and during an AMA session, making it easier for employees who are in the field, on the move or in a different time zone to make their voice heard.
There is no requirement for hosts or employees to join a video-based session, and questions can be asked anonymously. This makes it far more likely that employees will feel comfortable to ask questions, and hosts will have time to form a considered answer without being put on the spot.
Multichannel Publishing
Use Viva Amplify to publish to multiple Microsoft 365 channels at once. From one platform, communicators can write their message once, optimise it for different channels, and share to Outlook, Teams, SharePoint and Viva Engage with one click.
The multichannel publishing feature saves time, and helps communicators streamline their publishing process.
Advanced Analytics
Analytics in Viva Amplify show how each internal campaign is performing, including breakdowns by audience and channel. These advanced insights help communicators see which channels different audience groups prefer, which channels aren’t working, and who is most (or least) engaged.
Sentiment analysis also helps communicators understand how employees are feeling – not just how many people are reading.
In Viva Engage, the C&C bundle provides advanced analytics beyond the basic analytics package. The additional analytics include deeper insights on conversations, live events and some community analytics.
Copilot
Microsoft are bringing a number of AI-driven features to Viva apps – Copilot for Viva Engage and Viva Amplify is part of the C&C bundle.
Currently, Copilot in Viva Engage will help to write and refine posts, and suggest conversation prompts.
Soon, content from across Viva Engage including questions and discussion posts will surface in Copilot search results. In Viva Amplify, Copilot will soon be available to help craft engaging internal comms messaging.
Benefits of the Communications & Communities Licence
The free features in Microsoft Viva are a great starting point. But to really ramp up your employee experience, the additional licence provides some great benefits.
Trust: Engagement and visibility with leadership is the cornerstone of trust. The leadership tools available with the C&C licence help organisations lay the foundation for trust between employees and their leaders.
Data-Driven Insights: The advanced analytics, particularly in Viva Amplify, mean communicators can make decisions and improvements based on fact. Not assumption or gut feel.
Personalisation: Whether it’s the branding in your Viva Connections homepage, or the comms channels you use with specific audiences, the premium analytics and features in the C&C bundle offer a far greater level of personalisation for employees.
And the one we can’t ignore…
Cost: Yes, the C&C bundle comes at an extra cost. But, it’s a far more cost-effective way for internal comms teams to get the Viva apps they need, without investing in the whole suite.
How Much Does the Communications and Communities Licence Cost?
The Communications and Communities licence is £1.64 ($2.00) per user per month.
The full Viva suite is priced at £9.90 ($12.00) per user per month. So the C&C bundle comes at a fraction of the price for organisations wanting to supercharge employee comms.
To see if your organisation is eligible for any pilot schemes or funding for the Communications & Communities bundle, get in touch.
An Internal Communicator’s Guide to Microsoft Viva
For a more in-depth look at Viva Amplify, Viva Engage, Viva Connections and Viva Goals, including key features and real life use-cases, download our guide to Microsoft Viva especially for internal communicators.
