Resources for Setting Up Viva Topics and Viva Connections

[Mike Gannotti]

Over the last several weeks since Ignite I have been approached by multiple customers about how to go about setting up Microsoft Viva Topics and Viva Connections. With the availability of Viva Topics for deployment and the announcements about Viva Connections rolling out this month customers are anxious to begin leveraging these transformative technologies.

Below are resources to assist in purchasing Topics as well as readiness and preparedness for both.

• Viva Topics
  
  • Introduction to Microsoft Viva Topics   
  • Microsoft Viva Topics overview | Microsoft Docs
  • Get your environment ready for Microsoft Viva Topics | Microsoft Docs
  • Set up Microsoft Viva Topics | Microsoft Docs
  • Get started with Microsoft Viva Topics | Microsoft Docs
  • Get started driving adoption of Microsoft Viva Topics | Microsoft Docs 
  • Buy Viva Topics 
• Viva Connections
  • Introducing Microsoft Viva Connections  
  • Microsoft Viva Connections to start rollout to general availability - Microsoft Tech Community
  • Add Viva Connections for Microsoft Teams desktop - SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Docs
    • Contains information on: Preparation for Viva Connections, Viva Connections requirements and recommendations, step-by-step guide to setting up Viva Connections desktop, and onboarding end users for Viva Connections.
  • Additional resources to prepare for Viva Connections.
    • Set up a home site for your organization.
    • Enable and set up global navigation in the SharePoint app bar.
    • Introduction to SharePoint Online Management Shell.

Hope you find these helpful!

 Thanks for visiting – Michael Gannotti   LinkedIn | Twitter

Michael Gannotti

[Nelson Nomura]

Hi Mike.  I've been prevented from setting up a trial of Viva Topics due to an error that was probably caused by my typo on naming the Topic Center (typo was "Topic Centrer") that also ended up in the URL (topiccentrer). I've since corrected the typos in both the name and URL, but I think this has prevented the MS backend server to create Viva Topics in my tenant. I would like to start over by having this prior attempt deleted and have raised support tickets, but the issue has been outstanding for 2 weeks.  Is there a specialist that can help me with this.

[Mike Gannotti]

Hi @Nelson Nomura It would be raised up through your account team and/or followup on the support ticket. 

[Nelson Nomura]

Hi Mike.  Thanks for your reply.  I've sorted this out on my own after more than 2 weeks of back-and-forth with MS Support.  I'm now trying to understand the interaction of metadata and tags with the Viva Topics AI (or through some other techniques) so I can steer AI to add specific documents to my topic cards without having to attach the documents one-by-one to the topic cards.  Also, how to programmatically access the list of topics in my topic center.

[Nelson Nomura]

Is the MS Viva Topics team planning to have office hours? 

[Mike Gannotti]

@Nelson Nomura Hi Nelson, I do not know if they are or not. You might try their blog Microsoft Viva Blog - Microsoft Tech Community where you can message to the folks from the team who are publishing there.

[Nelson Nomura]

Hi Mike.  Thanks for the reply.  I've posted the question on the Blog link you provided.

[Mike Gannotti]

One other thing you may consider is that our mechanism around creating AI models for classification, auto-application of metadata, and content centric processing are really within SharePoint Syntax

[Nelson Nomura]

@Mike Gannotti I thought that Syntax was for classifying information within business forms (which is not my focus).  For years, I have been manually creating topics and links within my SharePoint Online tenant and using OneNote as a clunky way to do what I think Viva Topics is designed to do.  I've been waiting for something like Viva Topics for years and am excited about its potential.  There's a lot of marketing effort, but I'm searching for a forum for Q&A with the Viva Topics team.  Responses to Blog posts in my experience are slow.  Thanks for your responses.

[Mike Gannotti]

Hi @Nelson Nomura wish I had more to contribute around this but I am tapped out.

[Nelson Nomura]

Hi @Mike Gannotti  No problem.  Thanks for replying.