Build your team and meet requirements
Identify key stakeholders
After deciding to use Viva Connections, the first step is to identify the key stakeholders. Key stakeholders are the people who will prioritize which tasks, tools, and resources should be streamlined and supported by Viva Connections.
A typical team of stakeholders includes:
Business partners (from groups like HR, communications specialists, and technology advocates) to identify the most valuable workflows and tasks that can be supported by Viva Connections.
SharePoint and Microsoft Teams admins who can help with tasks in admin centers.
SharePoint site owners and authors for the home site who will manage content, navigation design, and authoring and updating the Dashboard.
Other site owners and authors may be involved to update content or news post that will be relevant to the Viva Connections experience.
Organizational leaders (sometimes called executive sponsors) and early adopters (sometimes called champions) who can help others at the organization announce and scale Viva Connections.
The table below outlines some of the key stakeholders in each phase of the implementation process, and their roles and responsibilities. These stakeholders will be your go-to experts when it comes to the planning, building, and launch phases. Stakeholders will decide what scenarios will be beneficial to each business unit, how to customize the platform, and how to help your organization transition to using Viva Connections.
| Coordinate and plan | Build and set up | Deploy and launch |
|---|---|---|
| Key administrative stakeholders typically include: HR professionals, who manage team members and oversee company and organizational structure and efficiency Internal communication specialists, who facilitate and manage communications between employees and various internal teams Communications coordinators and specialists, who execute and maintain company-wide communications and brand management Administrative assistants, who complete and oversee various administrative tasks Work with your organization’s stakeholders and business partners (from groups like HR, communications specialists, and technology advocates) to identify the most valuable workflows and tasks that can be completed in Viva Connections. |
The SharePoint admin will set a home site (if you don’t already have one) in the admin center. SharePoint admins may also help modernize classic SharePoint sites and pages where needed. The Microsoft Teams admin will add your organization’s version of Viva Connections as an app and choose settings in the Teams admin center. Site owners and authors for the home site will design the home site content, navigation, and the Dashboard. Other site owners and authors may be involved to update content or news post that will be relevant to the Viva Connections experience. |
Collaborate with champions (early adopters) to help other people at the organization implement Viva Connections. Leverage executive sponsors who can help evangelize Viva Connections at large company meetings and in broad communications. Business owners (like HR) and managers at all levels can help teams and individuals find value and adopt new ways of working. |
Before finalizing your list of key stakeholders, answer these questions:
- Who can represent the most important jobs, roles, and regions that should be supported by Viva Connections?
- How can the team members contribute to identify key scenarios and tasks for employees in each unit, or organization-wise?
- Which roles and regions need the most support?
- Who in the organization has line of sight to leaders, organizational announcements, and the overall culture?
- Who are the best representatives to help create and manage redundant workflows and tasks?
Best practices for building your team of stakeholders:
Build Viva Connections with the help from several people, including owners of various business units who have a comprehensive understanding of business processes, workflows domain knowledge, and change management knowledge.
Involve your stakeholders in the planning process to make sure the needs of everyone at your organization are represented so that Viva Connections can have the largest impact possible.
In most cases, this team will include a few technical professionals, human resources people, communications specialists, and operations employees, to name a few.
HR professionals typically have a significant understanding of the work the employees do. Start with the suggestions from your HR professionals, then utilize input from individual business units in the form of a needs assessment to help make final decisions.
Meet technical requirements
The team of stakeholders can help make decisions and set priorities for meeting technical requirements. If your organization doesn't already have a home site with customized global navigation, this will be your team’s first assignment. Both requirements will benefit from the planning team's diverse perspectives of different roles and regions.
- If your organization already has a home site and customized global navigation, but you're still using classic sites and pages, consider strategically modernizing sites and pages that are key to the Viva Connections experience.
- If your organization already has a home site, customized global navigation, and modern sites, then you've met the technical requirements for Viva Connections.
Step 1--Create a home site: Create a SharePoint communication site and set it as a home site in the SharePoint admin center. Home sites activate special features and provide a landing portal for the entire organization.
Step 2--Customize global navigation: Enable global navigation for the SharePoint application bar. Navigational links in global navigation get inherited by the Viva Connections experience. Without enabling and customizing global navigation, there will not be any links in the Resources tab in the mobile app.
Step 3--Audit and modernize sites and content: Sites that have not been modernized will open in a separate browser window instead of in Microsoft Teams. Consider modernizing sites and pages to keep viewing in Teams while using Viva Connections.
Learn how Lamna Healthcare builds their planning team
As the Internal Communications Manager of Lamna Healthcare, you start gathering your team of stakeholders to plan the deployment of Viva Connections by considering who can help to make it beneficial for the different roles and regions. These individuals will serve as your Viva Connections planning committee and will ensure the platform is as useful to all groups of employees as possible.
You first contact the HR team, which is in close contact with Lamna's employees and is also responsible for maintaining their mental health and wellbeing. You know that collaborating with HR professionals can help you brainstorm what day-to-day functioning can be streamlined and automated for employees.
Next, you recruit business owners from each business unit to learn more about different tasks and regions. You try to get business owners who supervise roles like physicians, nurses, IT professionals, student interns, office administrators, janitorial staff, and other employees.
Then, you also ask for input from departmental communication specialists and SharePoint site owners so that you can better understand how they help to communicate news and resources at both the organization and departmental levels.
Finally, you invite Lamna Healthcare's Microsoft Teams and SharePoint admins and a team of IT experts to help complete technical requirements and advise other technical decisions.
By collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders who work directly with all business units at the hospital, you get insights into how to best inform, connect, and engage employees. You also get insights into which tasks and scenarios in employees' daily work can be streamlined with Viva Connections.