Microsoft is elevating Viva from pure employee portal to job support platform starting with sales – TechCrunch

When Microsoft launched Viva final 12 months, it framed the platform as an worker portal the place you would possibly go to search out out parental depart coverage or different inner communications directed extra usually at firm insurance policies and tradition. It additional bolstered this concept final month when it launched Viva Objectives, a Viva module designed to offer staff entry to their KPIs.

However evidently Microsoft has broader ambitions for Viva than merely offering vital info for workers discovered within the typical worker intranet. At present, it introduced the primary of what may very well be a number of jobs supported inside Viva, beginning with gross sales.

Emily He, company vice chairman answerable for enterprise functions at Microsoft, says that this announcement is one thing that brings info collectively in a method for particular jobs that she’s been listening to about as a type of worker holy grail for years throughout firms and jobs, and it was one of many causes she was drawn to Microsoft.

“Viva Gross sales in my thoughts actually represents a brand new method of working by breaking down silos of knowledge and breaking down silos of expertise,” she advised TechCrunch.

She mentioned one factor she has discovered in working with salespeople is that they’ve too many instruments they usually want a approach to pull significant info out of the instruments they’re utilizing to current it in a extra centralized method. “They actually desire a extra simplified expertise. So Viva Gross sales allows a vendor to make use of the instruments they already love and use each day together with your e-mail system like Outlook, Phrase paperwork, PowerPoint displays, in addition to Groups,” she mentioned.

The software is constructed on Workplace 365 and tuned for Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM. By tagging a buyer identify or contact, Viva Gross sales can pull the paperwork, spreadsheets, displays, emails and different supplies into the CRM software mechanically, all organized underneath the tag, significantly lowering the quantity of guide knowledge entry required.

“Sellers do spend plenty of time manually getting into account info or forecasting knowledge. So this eliminates [much of the] guide knowledge entry. However extra importantly, now it generates a extra holistic view of the shopper,” He advised me.

With all that knowledge saved in a single place, it signifies that clients can use it to gas machine studying fashions round methods to enhance gross sales. “You need to use AI and machine studying to provide you with suggestions for the sellers and ship these suggestions to the sellers wherever they’re, whether or not they’re writing their emails or in digital conferences,” she mentioned.

Whereas it seems to be Microsoft-centric, out of the field it would additionally help Salesforce CRM, and He says that they might add help for extra instruments over time as buyer demand dictates. Additional, the corporate plans so as to add extra job varieties to Viva over time.

The tip sport right here seems to be extending the worker communications portal to incorporate not solely the corporate supplies which might be helpful to staff, but in addition instruments for doing their particular jobs. She says they’re doing this as a result of they’ve been listening to staff asking for this type of assist from inside the identical portal.

It’s price mentioning that Viva Gross sales will probably be supplied without spending a dime to Microsoft Dynamic 365 clients, however as you entry third-party knowledge like utilizing Salesforce, you can be charged for utilizing the software.

Viva Gross sales will probably be obtainable in public preview in July and is scheduled to GA within the fall. For now, the one different CRM integration obtainable moreover Dynamics 365 will probably be Salesforce.