What's new in Viva Insights
We’re excited to announce a variety of new features for Viva Insights, which include new collaboration insights for analysts running organizational network analysis (ONA) queries, new tools to search for manager licensing status and their access to insights, a newly launched functionality to share analyst reports, and another option to upload organizational data aimed at improved accuracy of insights. Let’s dive in. New Organizational Network Analysis insights As part of the Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) Change Management query template for analysts, a new third insights category is now available. This category of insights is focused on highlighting employee groups deemed to be “brokers of information flow.” Groups identified as top information brokers often serve as central hubs dictating the flow of information throughout the employee network. But these groups could also give rise to collaboration overload, because a significant proportion of information is flowing through the group(s). With these insights, therefore, business leaders can now identify which groups within their companies might be acting as information bottlenecks, and take the appropriate steps to adjust the flow of information or collaboration. In the screenshot below, for instance, the Finance-Corporate group is ranked as the #3 top information broker, and the up arrow indicates that it moved into the top five information brokers. The down arrow for the Human Resources group, meanwhile, means it moved out of the top five information brokers. And IT-East is the #4 information broker with no arrow, which means it was in the top five information brokers in both the “before” and “after” periods of the analysis timeframe. With the addition of this new insights category, ONA now encompasses three main types of insights: Cross-group collaboration: How are groups/departments/teams collaborating before and after a change event at the company? Insular collaboration: Which groups/departments/teams are showing an increased tendency towards “within-group” collaboration who could become siloed? Brokers of information flow: Which groups are acting as central hubs dictating or controlling the flow of information in the collaboration network? Learn more about ONA in the analyst workbench, and the new insights category. Search for managers/new manager hierarchy search feature To help customers troubleshoot issues related to managers’ access to insights, and to get a quick look at their licensing status, team size, and direct and indirect reports, the Viva Insights Admin portal now includes a manager hierarchy search function. This new feature allows customers to use the Viva Insights app to search for specific managers and see their related licensing and team information. Customers can then use this information to cross-reference against their own records, and troubleshoot any licensing issues that might arise. Learn how to use the search tool. Publish reports public preview launch To help streamline the communication process between Viva Insights analysts and leadership, we’re excited to announce the public preview launch of Publish reports. This new feature lets analysts share insights and reports directly with leaders, decision-makers, or even an entire organization in the recipient’s Viva Insights app. A “report” can refer to: Any Power BI report within Viva Insights A custom report stored outside of Viva Insights that includes Viva Insights metrics or other types of metrics like surveys or Microsoft 365 Copilot metrics When recipients receive a shared report, it will appear as a prominently displayed card on the recipient’s Viva Insights home page. Learn more about how to set up and publish a report. Use Entra plus .csv files for “parallel” data uploads For added flexibility, Viva Insights Administrators can now set up an organizational data upload using both Microsoft Entra ID and manual .csv files simultaneously, in parallel. Typically, Viva Insights ingests data from either Entra or manual .csv file uploads. Using this new parallel data ingestion method helps ensure that critical data such as the ManagerId and Organization attributes can be retrieved from Entra, while additional fields can be fetched from .csv files or automated connectors. This method, therefore, can help improve reporting accuracy by combining other attributes from Entra and .csv uploads. Moreover, this data ingestion method can improve the accuracy of insights in the Copilot Dashboard, leader reports, and the analyst workbench. This feature can be used by tenants whose current data source is uploaded data, either in the form of manual .csv files or through connectors. Learn how to set up this new parallel data ingestion method.Introducing the Copilot Analytics Advanced Analysis Playbook
For customers looking to run custom analyses to create more tailored, actionable interventions around Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption and impact, we’re now providing a new set of resources in the form of a playbook. This playbook is designed to be used like an analysis recipe book, to help an analyst put together an analysis plan based on the most pressing questions and context of their particular organization. It's designed for our technically savvy customers, specifically analytics leaders and analysts who have already been utilizing the Copilot Dashboard and Power BI reports and are eager to take their analysis to the next level. What is it? This playbook is intended for analytics leaders or analysts who have used available resources to assess Copilot adoption and impact, and seek further guidance for an in-depth analysis plan. This playbook provides analysis and visualization examples to measure the progress and impact of Copilot adoption. It also helps analysts identify opportunities to accelerate cultural transformation around AI. What’s inside? The playbook covers 15 different analysis and visualization views focused on assessing Copilot adoption and impact. Each analysis is focused on a business question and includes business implications and code examples. Some of the analyses featured in the playbook include: Usage segmentation Ranked exploration of groups on Copilot usage Profiling adoption and readiness sentiment with Pulse Assessing equality of usage with the Gini coefficient You can access this playbook here.What's new in Viva Insights
This month, we’re excited to announce new features that include improved usability of the Copilot Dashboard, new controls for managing and requesting access to insights, and a sample code repository to help analysts model and structure their queries. First, a wider set of metrics for the Copilot Dashboard now lets customers analyze the frequency of employee usage patterns of Microsoft 365 Copilot. Let’s dive in for more details. Copilot Dashboard usage and retention metrics In response to customer requests for deeper insights into how often employees use Copilot, we’ve expanded the capabilities of the Copilot Dashboard, to now include usage intensity and retention metrics. With usage intensity, customers can see which groups of employees are using Copilot one to five times per time period, six to 10 times per time period, and 11 times or more. Customers can also see how consistently employees are using Copilot on a monthly basis, based on the number of weeks employees are actively using Copilot each month. Customers can also see a ranking of the most active employee groups. The new retention metrics, meanwhile, let customers see the number or percentage of active Copilot users who return to using Copilot on a weekly or monthly basis. Employees who take at least one Copilot action in both the current and preceding time periods are deemed to be “returning users.” Like the usage intensity metric, customers can also filter the insights by employee group. These new metrics can be found on the adoption page of the Copilot Dashboard. Learn more about how to access the metrics and customize the filters. Expanded controls for excluding employees from the Copilot Dashboard The Copilot Dashboard’s exclusion list feature allows Microsoft 365 global admins to exclude certain employees from the dashboard’s aggregated insights. Admins might want to exclude specific employees for legal, compliance or ethical concerns. Previously, admins could only exclude employees individually by using a .csv file. Now, we’re excited to announce that admins can also exclude employees by identifying groups of people they’d like to exclude using Microsoft Entra ID. This method streamlines the exclusion list process for admins. Learn more. New functionalities for “delegate access” in Viva Insights With delegate access, those with access to organizational insights or the Copilot Dashboard can “delegate” that access to others in their company on their behalf. Now, an expansion of this capability allows employees who don’t have that access to request it from their group manager. (Employees can request access to organizational insights, but not the Copilot Dashboard.) Once the employee is given access by the group manager, they’ll have the same view of organizational insights as the manager who approved their request. Learn more about how to request delegate access to organizational insights. In addition, Viva Insights admins can now assign delegate access to both organizational insights and the Copilot Dashboard using Powershell cmdlets. There are three applicable cmdlets, depending on whether the admin is assigning access, viewing existing access, or removing access. Learn more. Viva Insights sample code repository Customers who already use R or Python for analyzing data from Viva Insights might already be familiar with the open source libraries (R, Python) that are designed for creating visuals and analyses from flexible queries. The Viva Insights Sample Code repository is an expansive new resource that contains vignettes and example code for more complex scenarios, including: Top Performers modelling Information Value and Weight-of-Evidence calculations Pairwise Chi-square tests – for org attributes and survey variables Unlike the R and Python libraries, the scripts in the sample code repository are designed to serve as reference scripts to be modified and tailored for the customer’s own specific needs. This allows scripts to be easily integrated into any existing HR analytics or data science workflow, and enable maximum flexibility on controlling for filters, groups, and input variables for predictive modelling. If you have any questions about the new repository, please contact Martin Chan (martin.chanmicrosoft.com). Expanded insights for the Skills landscape report (private preview) We’ve broadened some of the insights and capabilities available in the Skills landscape Power BI template. These enhancements help customers search for and discover the top skills amongst their employees, identify skill groups based on subskills and adjacent skills, and facilitate discussions on resource allocation and skilling initiatives. This report is currently only available to private preview customers. With the report, customers can discover the top employee skills being used in their organization, see how critical skills might be distributed across employee groups, and explore other insights such as skills grouping and connections. The insights are powered by Skills in Viva. One of the report’s insights is focused on skills distribution. This insight category lets customers see how skills are distributed between employee groups, as determined by organizational attributes. Customers can then use these insights to understand the skill profile for a group, compare differences across groups, and identify potential gaps in skills. Now, as part of this update, customers can also identify other relevant skills, such as subskills or adjacent skills, after they select a primary skill. Customers can then drill down further into the skillset for distribution insights across different employee groups. If you’d like to participate in the Skills landscape report private preview or want to learn more, please indicate your interest through this form.How one Microsoft team streamlines Viva Insights data upload and analysis
Microsoft’s HR Business Intelligence (HRBI) team has long used Viva Insights to enhance decision-making, productivity, and operational efficiency across the company. By adopting recently released tools for automating data upload in Viva Insights, Microsoft HRBI has reduced the time and manual effort required to use Viva Insights to uncover timely workforce trends, including the impact of Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption. This blog post describes their automation journey. Automated (API-based) data upload in Viva Insights In November 2024, Viva Insights launched in public preview API-based org data upload capabilities. This method is ideal for consolidating HR data that lives in multiple locations. It’s also a great option for scenarios when data transformation is required prior to upload. Learn more. The case study that follows is based on that functionality. A summary of existing and planned Viva Insights data upload options can be found at the end of this post. Microsoft’s HR Data Automation Journey Before the advent of automated connectors, the Microsoft HRBI team undertook a time-consuming, manual process for managing HR data. Each week and month, dedicated team members meticulously extracted, transformed, and loaded essential HR data, providing accuracy and compliance. This manual operation not only placed significant demands on time but also introduced potential delays and errors inherent in any human-dependent process. With the new API-based automation, Microsoft HRBI has substantially simplified the data upload process, reducing the manual time and coordination required while maintaining stringent privacy and compliance standards. This API-based import option allows customers to decide what data is sent to Viva Insights and how frequently it’s refreshed, offering Microsoft the flexibility and security essential for optimal performance. This automated method helps customers’ HR data stay current and accurate for reporting. With a strong logging strategy and proactive data issue resolution, Microsoft has fresh HR data without extra manual effort. Here’s a more detailed look at the team’s setup process: 1. Set up Communication between Data Source and Viva Insights Microsoft set up a secure connection between the storage location and Viva Insights using Managed Identities. Other options include: API Keys Certificates 2. HR Data Gathering and ETL Setup Sources: Microsoft’s HR data originated from multiple sources, including: Four SQL Server databases. A mix of Azure-hosted and on-premises systems. Process: Collaborated with HR business analysts to identify required data sources. Used Azure Data Factory (ADF) to consolidate and manage diverse datasets. Handled on-premises data through ADF’s integration runtimes and native connectors. 3. Data Preparation Format Requirements: Data must be in a compressed ZIP file containing: data.csv: Tabular representation of HR data with one row per employee. metadata.json: Defines dataset type, bootstrap status, and column mapping. Implementation: Used Azure Data Factory to: Aggregate data into a single data.csv file stored in Azure Blob Storage. Store the metadata.json file in a separate blob container. Leveraged an Azure Function App to package the files into a ZIP and ensure API compatibility. 4. Data Export via Viva Insights Push API Azure Function App Development: Accessed file streams using BlobTrigger and BlobInput bindings. Compressed files into a ZIP format with .NET’s System.IO.Compression. Authenticated API requests via Azure’s DefaultAzureCredential. Submitted the ZIP file as multipart form data to the Viva Insights Push API. Learn how to set up this automated data import method, which requires some coding to call the Viva Insights API. Other automated data import methods in development In addition to the API-based method described above, we’re also working to roll out two other automated data ingestion methods, currently in private preview. One of these methods lets Viva Insights retrieve data directly from the customer’s storage location, while the other retrieves data from the customer’s human capital management system like Workday. Use this form to sign up for the preview. And, for a refresher on our existing data import methods apart from the newly automated options, refer to the table below. HR Data Ingestion Option Details Entra Required attributes are pulled directly from Microsoft Entra. Learn more. CSV Upload via Viva Insights HR data is consolidated into a .csv file and uploaded via Viva Insights. Learn more. CSV Upload via Microsoft 365 admin center HR data is consolidated into a .csv file and uploaded via the Microsoft 365 admin center. Via Microsoft 365 admin, it is possible to upload HR data from a SharePoint site. This method is rolling out gradually to customers. Learn more.Microsoft 365 Copilot now available to Viva Insights analysts
We’re excited to announce the availability of Microsoft 365 Copilot within the Analyst Workbench in Viva Insights. Copilot can help analysts choose a Power BI report or simplify the query creation process by suggesting metrics, filters, and attributes relevant to their analysis. With this new functionality, analysts don’t need to search through a wide array of templates, metrics, attributes, and filters to pick the ones relevant to their analyses. With Copilot, they can now just type the query in their own words, and Copilot will do the rest. Copilot also flattens the learning curve for new analysts. It does all the heavy lifting so the least experienced analysts can generate impactful reports as quickly and easily as seasoned analysts. For example, an analyst might want to understand more about how employees use Copilot in their organization. They can ask Copilot, “How does Copilot usage compare across organizations?” Copilot, in response, suggests using the Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption report or a custom person query. Analysts can change the scope of their query at any point during the process. They can also use Copilot to add or modify metrics, filters, and attributes for the query. In addition, Copilot can help analysts set up the parameters of their custom person query as they’re building it. For example, analysts can ask Copilot, “How are U.S. employees building social capital in a hybrid work environment?” and Copilot will suggest the best metrics to use, such as internal network size and influence score. Copilot can also suggest filters such as “Area = US.” These features are currently available worldwide. Whether it’s exploring Copilot adoption trends, analyzing hybrid work patterns, or diving into collaboration patterns, Copilot streamlines analyst queries and enhances precision every step of the way. Please refer to our product documentation to learn more.What's new in Viva Insights
We’re excited to announce a variety of new features and Power BI reports that have recently launched for Viva Insights. These new features empower customers to gain deeper insights about the business impact of Microsoft 365 Copilot, and other actionable insights about how Copilot is changing the way employees work and collaborate. In addition, we’ve expanded the organizational data upload capabilities for Viva Insights to give customers more import options that best suit their needs. Let’s dive in. Copilot Analytics First and foremost, Viva Insights will soon be included in Copilot at no additional charge as part of the new Copilot Analytics. Copilot Analytics is designed to empower every IT and business leader to measure adoption and business impact of Copilot — with out-of-the-box experiences (Copilot Dashboard and the Microsoft admin center) and customizable reporting for deeper analysis against customers’ KPIs. With Viva Insights included, IT admins and analysts can now tailor advanced prebuilt Copilot reports with their business data or create custom reports with organizational attributes, longer usage data sets, and more granular controls. Copilot Analytics will be generally available early next year. Learn more. 7 new Copilot metrics to complement the “Total actions count” numbers in Copilot Dashboard and Advanced Insights 7 new Copilot metrics are now generally available in the Copilot Dashboard and advanced Copilot reporting in Viva Insights. These new metrics help leaders better understand how employees use and access Copilot throughout their day: “Intelligent Recap” actions taken in Teams “Visualize as table” actions taken in Word “Add content to presentation” actions taken using PowerPoint “Organize presentation” actions taken using PowerPoint “Chat (Copilot in PowerPoint)” prompts submitted in the in-app chat section in PowerPoint “Chat (Copilot in Word)” prompts submitted in the in-app chat section in Word “Chat (Copilot in Excel)” prompts submitted in the in-app chat section in Excel As part of this update, the “Total actions taken” numbers will also be updated to reflect activity related to the Copilot features listed above. As a result of adding these new Copilot metrics, users can expect to see a significant increase in the “Total actions taken” count in the Copilot Dashboard impact tab. Users may also see a small increase in “Total number of active Copilot users” count in the Copilot Dashboard adoption tab. Anyone with access to the Copilot Dashboard will now be able to view these insights. Anyone with the Viva Insights analyst role will be able to query the usage information related to these features in Viva Insights. Business Chat (work) prompt action metric underneath Teams and Outlook sections Business Chat (work) prompts submitted through Teams and Outlook now appear under both of the Teams and Outlook sections on the adoption page of the Copilot Dashboard, providing a comprehensive view of how Copilot is being utilized within Teams and Outlook. This integration empowers users to perform tasks such as summarizing chats, emails, and documents from multiple sources in Microsoft Teams. Business Chat (web) prompt insights under adoption & impact tabs Beyond Business Chat (work) prompt adoption, customers will be able to review the number of users actively using “Business Chat (web)” and the number of Business Chat (web) prompts submitted under the adoption and impact tabs. Learn more about these metrics. Copilot Business Outcome (Copilot Business Impact) Power BI Public Preview launch This new Power BI report, currently available to public preview customers, can help you better understand how specific usage behaviors of Microsoft 365 Copilot relate to business outcomes at your organization. You can define and upload your own business outcome measures, which can include a range of productivity metrics, such as “average monthly deals closed” for your sales team. Specifically, the report can help you answer questions such as: Which Copilot usage behaviors influence specific business outcomes? And what are the groups in my organization with the biggest opportunity to boost Copilot usage? How do the employees who are responsible for favorable business outcomes use Copilot? How can I increase potential Copilot assisted hours and value among employees who are not as active with Copilot? To run this report, you’ll need to upload business outcome data using one of the two new import methods described below. Learn more about the Copilot Business Impact report. Import business data via .csv upload or Azure Public Preview launch For public preview customers, there are now two ways to import your business outcome data in the Microsoft Viva Insights’ advanced insights app: through individual .csv files that an Insights Administrator uploads directly to Viva Insights; or through an Azure blob import. Uploading business data into Viva Insights helps you understand how Copilot usage influences various business outcomes, and it’s required to run the Copilot Business Impact report described above. Business outcomes might include productivity metrics at both the task and job levels, such as the number of emails sent by your sales team or the number of closed deals. Uploading via .csv files gives customers manual control over the upload process, while uploading with Azure sets up Viva Insights to automatically pull business data from a storage account on the Azure portal. Learn more about the .csv file method, and the Azure method. Copilot for Sales adoption PBI and metrics GA launch This new Power BI report helps leaders understand Copilot for Sales usage across their organization. These insights can help business leaders determine whether to accelerate their Copilot for Sales adoption, while giving members of their sales team powerful assistive tools to transform their work. The report can help answer questions such as: How does Copilot for Sales usage compare across groups? How does it compare across apps? Which Copilot for Sales actions are contributing to key sales tasks? The report features over a dozen metrics to highlight how employees are using Copilot for Sales within Microsoft 365 apps such as Outlook, Teams, and Word. Learn more about the report, and its metrics. Import organizational data using API-based import Public Preview launch In addition to the new methods for importing business data mentioned above, public preview customers can now also import organizational data to Viva Insights using an API-based data import. This import option allows customers to bring data directly from their source system to the Viva Insights HR data ingress API through a zip file. This provides a new import option for customers as an alternative to using individual .csv files or Microsoft Entra ID. Learn more. Publish reports Public Preview launch We’re excited to announce that Publish reports for public preview customers is now available, designed to make organizational insights more accessible and actionable. Analysts can now publish their reports directly to recipients’ Viva Insights home pages, ensuring key metrics and dashboards are always within reach. Published reports appear as prominently displayed cards on the home page, complete with a title, description, and direct link to the report. To ensure timely visibility, recipients also receive a notification alert in Microsoft Teams. This feature is currently available in preview and must be enabled by Insights admins. To get started, admins can navigate to the Publish Reports tab in the Viva Insights Admin Center and agree to the Microsoft Viva Preview Agreement terms. Once enabled, this feature helps bridge the gap between analysts and decision-makers, offering a single, centralized place for leaders to access both analyst-published insights and insights from Microsoft. Try it today and streamline how your organization shares data! Learn more. Viva Glint-Viva Insights integration GA launch We’re excited to announce the general availability of the integration between Viva Glint and Viva Insights. Previously available to public preview customers, this integration allows Viva Glint and Viva Insights customers to share data between the two platforms, in both directions. This means that Viva Glint survey results can be sent to Viva Insights, and Viva Insights data and metrics can be exported to Viva Glint. This adds an additional layer of data about how employees work to the employee feedback data collected within Viva Glint, and it adds additional employee sentiment feedback to the data provided by Viva Insights. Most importantly, the integration helps provide a clearer picture of what might be driving employee sentiment and survey responses, while also adding new context from employees to the insights about how they work. For example, the integration could inform customers that the most highly engaged employees also have the highest collaboration rates, or that there’s an inverse relationship between after-hours work and employee engagement rates. Learn more about this exciting new integration and how to set it up. Upload organizational data migration to Microsoft 365 admin center Wave 1 launch While the organizational data upload processes mentioned above are still available for most customers, we are also beginning the transition to a new and more streamlined method for uploading organizational data for Viva Insights. Earlier this month, we began transitioning some customers to this new method, which is done through the Microsoft 365 admin center, not the Viva Insights Advanced Analytics app. This new method centralizes data uploads across Viva and Microsoft 365 apps, making it easier to reuse organizational data across multiple apps without needing to upload data for each app separately. This change is being made in three transition waves, and the first batch of customers are currently being transitioned. Learn more about this move to the new platform.
