Microsoft Viva – An Overview

Microsoft Viva is an employee experience platform that is designed to improve collaboration, communication, learning, and well-being within an organization. It was launched in 2021 and Viva is integrated with Microsoft Teams. It is comprised of four main components: Viva Connections, Viva Insights, Viva Learning, and Viva Topics. Each of these modules addresses different elements of the employee experience, working to foster a more connected and engaged workforce.

An Overview of Microsoft SharePoint

Microsoft SharePoint, conversely, is a robust content management and collaboration platform that has been around for nearly two decades. It allows its users to create, store, and manage documents, collaborate on projects, and build intranet sites to share information within their organizations. Microsoft SharePoint integrates with other Microsoft products like Office 365 and can be tailored and customized to meet a significant range of business needs.

ROI Considerations for Implementing Microsoft Viva:

• • Enhanced Employee Engagement: Microsoft Viva’s focus on the employee experience translates to higher engagement and productivity, which can ultimately lead to increased revenue and reduced turnover costs.

• • Improved Knowledge Management: Viva Topics uses AI to automatically identify and organize valuable company knowledge, which reduces time spent searching for information and increasing overall efficiency.
  • Streamlined Learning: Viva Learning centralizes training resources, making it easier for employees to access and complete relevant training. This can lead to higher skills proficiency and better performance.
  • Employee Well-being: Viva Insights offers personalized recommendations for better work habits and well-being, leading to a healthier, more productive workforce in your organization.

ROI Considerations for Utilizing Microsoft SharePoint

• • Cost Savings: SharePoint is usually more cost-effective than Viva, particularly for smaller organizations with more limited budgets.
  • Customization: The flexibility of SharePoint allows for significant customization to match unique business processes, which can often result in improved workflow efficiency.
  • Document Management: SharePoint excels at document management and collaboration, with features like version control, co-authoring, and approval workflows that can save your organization time as well as reduce errors.

Conclusion – Microsoft Viva versus Microsoft SharePoint – Which to Choose?

When evaluating the ROI of investing in Microsoft Viva versus Microsoft SharePoint, it is critical to consider your organization’s specific needs and objectives. Microsoft Viva provides a comprehensive employee experience platform that is designed to improve engagement, collaboration, learning, and well-being, while Microsoft SharePoint is a powerful content management and collaboration tool that can be tailored and customized to fit various business processes.

If your organization wants to emphasize employee engagement, knowledge management, and well-being, Microsoft Viva may provide you with a higher ROI. If cost-effectiveness and customization for specific workflows are your main concerns, Microsoft SharePoint may be the better choice. Ultimately, understanding your company’s requirements and goals will allow you to make the most informed (and best) decision.

Curious about implementing Microsoft Viva or Microsoft SharePoint for your business?  Contact 6th Street Consulting today to schedule your free consultation.

The post What’s the ROI of investing in Microsoft Viva for my company versus Microsoft SharePoint? appeared first on 6th Street Consulting.

What’s the Difference Between the Two?

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a comprehensive security solution that helps organizations protect against a wide range of threats, including malware, viruses, and phishing attacks. It also includes features like device management and data loss prevention.

Office 365 E5, on the other hand, is primarily a productivity suite. It includes features like email, calendar, and contacts. However, it also includes some security features, like advanced threat protection and information rights management.

So which one should you recommend to your clients? It really depends on their needs. If they’re primarily concerned with productivity, then Office 365 E5 is the way to go. However, if security is their main concern, then Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is the better option.

What Comes With Each?

Office 365 is a cloud-based productivity suite that includes a variety of tools for businesses, such as Exchange Online for email, SharePoint Online for collaboration, and Azure Active Directory for identity and access management.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a comprehensive security solution that helps protect your business against a wide range of threats, including malware, viruses, and phishing attacks. Defender for Endpoint includes advanced features like next-gen protection, detection, and response capabilities.

Key Differences to Note

One key difference between the two is that Office 365 does not include any endpoint security features, whereas Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is specifically designed to help protect your business against endpoint threats.
Another difference is that Office 365 is primarily a productivity suite, while Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is primarily a security solution. This means that the two products are designed to meet different needs for businesses.

Choosing Between the Two

As a business consultant, it’s important to be able to recommend the right Microsoft product for your client’s needs. In this blog post, we’ve taken a look at two of the most popular options: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Office 365 E5. We’ve compared and contrasted their features so that you can make an informed decision about which one is right for your client.

So, what’s the bottom line? If you’re looking for a comprehensive security solution that includes endpoint protection, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is the way to go. If you’re looking for a productivity suite that includes email, collaboration, and identity management tools, Office 365 is the product you need. Trying to decide which one is right for your business? Contact our team of experts today and we’ll be happy to help you make the best decision for your business’s needs.

The post What is the Difference Between Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Office 365 appeared first on 6th Street Consulting.

The New Commerce Experience will change how partners purchase Microsoft online services including Microsoft 365, Power Platform, Dynamics 365, and Windows 365. Microsoft defines the change as follows

The new commerce experience in CSP is a multi-stage, multi-year transformational journey to deliver a simplified engagement experience that benefits both Microsoft partners and customers.

Essentially, Microsoft seeks to change the way you purchase licenses, with the aim of reducing complexity and offering up cost-saving incentives for longer-term commitments. The new system essentially reduces the pre-existing array of options available and adds additional features to the CSP.

Key Changes to Microsoft NCE

One of the key changes will be moving to subscription-based service which can be over three different durations: monthly, annually, or tri-annually. Here is a breakdown of the different subscription options available to you.

• Monthly. This subscription sees a 20% price increase on current subscriptions and allows for upgrades for mid-level products. Downgrades however will not be permitted. This subscription will be billed at the start of each month.
• Annual. This subscription has no price increase, and payments can be made annually or monthly. Again, upgrades are available, but downgrades remain prohibited.
• Tri-annually. Again, there is no price change, upgrades are available not downgrades are not. Billing can take place monthly, annually, or upfront. The incentive behind the three-year subscription is to protect partners from potential price rises as this rate will be locked in.

Further to the above change, Microsoft will also be increasing the average price of applications and bundles by around 15%. This essentially means that regardless of your subscription method partners will be paying more for Microsoft services and this has naturally found discontentment amongst partners.
Microsoft has sought to justify the application and bundle price rise on the basis that the new value reflects the innovation and improvements to applications, most of which have been immune from substantial price rises. Until now.

The important dates

Here are the key dates that you will need to be aware of;

• January 10th, 2022. The New Commerce Experience launches, and promotional incentives are released.
• March 1st, 2022. All new and renewing subscriptions must now be purchased through the US. Legacy CSP customers will be able to finish their existing subscriptions.
• June 1st, 2022. Legacy CSP customers must now renew the NCE plan to continue their subscription.
• October 1st, 2022. The NCE must now make all purchases and all partner incentives and rebates are removed.

Additional benefits and features of NCE

These additional features will be available from March 2022.

• Home Use Program (HUP) allows employees of organizations who use Microsoft online services to receive a 30% discount on the purchase of certain Microsoft 365 offers.
• Multi-Geo allows organizations to store data in the various geo locations that they have chosen.
• Hybrid Use Benefits (HUB) allows organizations to further capitalize on their Microsoft investment.

Pros and cons of the New NCE

As mentioned, not all of Microsoft’s partners have welcomed the change, arguing that they have not had sufficient time to meet the new qualifications and do not consider it to have been well explained. There also appears to be an underlying thought process that the change benefits Microsoft considerably more than it does its partners or customers. To help you decide on what the change means for you here are some of the pros and cons of the US.

Pros

• The monthly plan remains incredibly flexible and ideal for companies with high staff turnover or seasonal workers and requirements.
• You can upgrade subscriptions during the month.
• You can lock in an annual or tri-annual rate, meaning you will not be affected by price rises. This can also help with company budgeting. 20% cost saving on annual and tri-annual subscriptions.
• NCE makes it easier to try new products, and utilize free trials and add-ons.

Cons

• The monthly subscriptions incur a 20% price rise.
• You cannot decrease or downgrade subscriptions mid-term.
• Owing to the rising cost of applications, you will inevitably be paying more for Microsoft.

Cancellation period

Finally, it is worth touching on the cancellation period, For any new seat-based subscription orders there will be a 72-hour cancellation and adjustment period. This provides partners with sufficient time to make post-purchase changes or corrections to orders.

We will continue to share updates as more information becomes available from Microsoft regarding MCE.

The post The Latest on Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience appeared first on 6th Street Consulting.

In this post, we explore how this Microsoft offering can help your business thrive as we enter the hybrid working era. We discuss some of the pandemic-related working arrangement problems that it solves and how it is enabling businesses to thrive in this new environment.

How Viva Insights Works

Viva Insights offers two broad categories of services:

1. Insights that employees can use personally to let them know how they are progressing with their workflows
2. Manager insights that provide leaders with overviews of their teams.

Personal-level employee insights create recommendations that allow employees to find more balance at work. The software produces a weekly digest, showing users how they spent their time with recommendations for how they can better use it in the future. It also collects feedback on how the worker is feeling, allowing them to correlate their emotions with work, conditions, and hours. Microsoft is even considering adding guided meditation options to help prepare workers’ minds in the morning for the challenges that lie ahead.

After collecting information, Viva Insights generates “actionable recommendations.” These are things that employees can do to improve both their work and wellbeing. Suggestions come from research for trusted sources on best practices.

Manager insights are for managers and leaders. The goal is to provide a dashboard of metrics that they can use to make better managerial and business decisions. The service collects information on things like employee engagement and organizational resilience and, again, provides actionable insights.

How Viva Insights Is Helping Businesses to Thrive In The Hybrid Working Era

Viva Insights is helping organizations adapt to the hybrid working era in multiple ways.

• Oversight over issues that employees face: Viva Insights allows managers to collect data concerning the unique problems thrown up by hybrid working. It also gives managers better visibility of how employees are using their time.
• Improved employee wellbeing: Recent surveys suggest that 90 percent of employees believe that home-working has had a negative impact on their performance, with 34 percent reporting feeling burned out. Viva Insights gives managers a better sense of employee wellbeing and actionable strategies they can use to improve it.
• Enhance understanding of hybrid working productivity: As we enter the hybrid era and jobs become more knowledge-based, it is becoming increasingly difficult to quantify productivity. Viva Insights provides helpful metrics and suggestions that make measurement easier, both while workers are at home and in the office.
• Improving the return-to-work: Viva Insights can provide employers with data that will assist them as people return to the office several days per week. Helpful information could include new employee expectations and tools to compare at-home and in-office productivity levels.
• Better cultural cohesiveness: During the pandemic, companies became less cohesive because of physical separation. Viva Insights offers both data and guidance on how companies can improve relations, even when workers are not commuting to the office.

In summary, Viva Insights is a powerful tool for the new hybrid working environment. Being cloud-based, it is easy to deploy. Considering a move to Microsoft Viva? Contact 6^th Street Consulting today to learn more about how we can help your business thrive in the hybrid work era.

The post Viva Insights (Formerly Microsoft Analytics) Can Help Your Business Thrive in the Hybrid Work Era appeared first on 6th Street Consulting.