Introduction
I’ve been toying for weeks with how to start this series on Microsoft Viva Amplify. At its core, it’s a mechanism of communicating with colleagues. As a discreet offering on its own that can be a tough sell. From the CxO level, there can be a perception that internal communications is already handled, communications teams handle the comms, whether this is for CxO announcements, communications for a strategic project, or regular newsletter update.
The reality of the success of these communications can be very different!
Background
For years marketing teams have had access to analytics for mail campaigns, they can see what has been delivered, what has been opened, and who has clicked on links within the content.
Traditionally internal communications teams have had email. With this, they get no telemetry, there is no visibility of how successful the communication has been. On top of that, a lot of colleagues will use alternate platforms as their primary communication platform, for example Teams.
The Analogy
I liken the current means of internal communication capabilities and the tools available, to communicating with children.
- Parent: Your dinner’s ready
- Child: no response
- Parent: Your dinner is on the table going cold
- Child: No response
- 20 minutes pass
- Child: (Arrives at the table). My food’s cold, you didn’t tell me
You know you did tell them, very loudly, twice, and they probably chose to ignore you. There are of cause options. You can, turn off the Wi-Fi to encourage a change in focus, send them a WhatsApp, tactics that may get a response.
Corporate communications are very similar. Whenever we get to the part of a project when we need to communicate with users, we go through the same routine.
- Project team: We need to communicate this to our users, it will impact them in 4 weeks’ time, can we discuss the communications schedule?
- Comms team: Yes, no problem, we’ll send comms out 2 weeks in advance, 1 week in advance, 24 hours in advance and then you can hope for the best.
- Project team: Thank you, so are you confident the message will be digested in time so we can plan appropriate hyper care?
- Comms team: Not at all, we won’t know how many people have read it, engaged with it, we just send it.
On the day of the change, there are no doubt, many people calling with the same core issue, I didn’t know this was going to happen!
The Answer?
Any product launches, capability enhancements or new services have been drowned out by the Copilot/AI conversation (don’t worry, you can use Copilot with Viva Amplify). During announcements at Ignite in 2022, Microsoft announced Viva Amplify. Microsoft’s effort to enhance employee experience platforms, integrating communication tools that streamline how organisations craft, schedule, and manage internal messages across various channels. Yet even now, very few people know about it, understand the capabilities, the benefit it will have to their organisation, and ultimately, when used across multiple divisions that communicate with colleagues, the return on investment in terms of productivity gain and increase in productivity.
How Viva Amplify will improve your organisational communications!
Here is where Viva Amplify comes in. Viva Amplify brings together multiple channels, Teams, Outlook, SharePoint, and in the future, Viva Engage.
With Viva Amplify, you can:
- Create and publish impactful messages that reach your target audience, whether they are frontline workers, remote workers, or office workers.
- Schedule and manage your communications across different channels and devices, ensuring consistency and timeliness.
- Measure and analyse the impact of your communications, using data and insights to understand how your messages are received, consumed, and acted upon.
- Boost employee engagement and feedback, by enabling two-way conversations, polls, surveys, and reactions.
Viva Amplify is a versatile tool suitable for any department needing to communicate with colleagues. Whether in HR, IT, marketing, sales, or project management.