Extend Viva Connections with pre-built 3rd party Adaptive cards

[EdAverett]

Viva Connections is the gateway for the employee experience and provides an extensible platform through the dashboard, where employees can see a targeted list of actionable cards that can connect to Microsoft Teams apps, Viva apps and services, partner apps, and custom solutions using the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) framework, internal links, and external links.

A Viva Connections dashboard showing some examples of third party cards.

This blog will explore a few of our diverse third-party card integrations available from the Microsoft store  and how these apps can extend the capabilities of Viva Connections. Allowing organizations to incorporate third party external tools, services, and data directly into their flow of work and ensure business critical investments that they have made in other services can be added directly into employee dashboards. There are countless ways to customize or build your own dashboard cards to meet the needs of employees at virtually any organization, but this blog will highlight a few pre-packaged cards from Microsoft partners that can easily be added to your app.

ServiceNow

With the ServiceNow card, enable employees to get support, find answers, and act on tasks across HR, IT, and other departments. Once deployed, the card offers a quick view of their task list by selecting View My Tasks. The ServiceNow Adaptive Card extension also provides a quick entry point into the app by simply selecting Visit Employee Center.

UKG

With the UKG card employees can view their respective pay information and review their work schedules, shifts, and PTO, to see a clearer picture of upcoming priorities.

 

Achievers

Achievers for Viva Connections extends the Achievers Employee Experience platform into employees’ daily workflows. Members can enjoy some of their favorite activities found on their Achievers program: view upcoming celebrations, recognitions received, the latest trending recognitions, and perform quick actions, all on one dashboard within Viva Connections.

Qualtrics

The Qualtrics card brings experience management into Viva Connections seamlessly. It enables quick access to surveys and feedback tools, allowing organizations to gather valuable insights and act on employee, customer, and product experiences right from the dashboard. The Qualtrics card can link directly to surveys and let employees know when feedback is due, eliminating common barriers to organization-wide feedback.

 

Workday

With the Workday card, Viva Connections brings Workday data and actions to employees’ fingertips right in the dashboard. With this integration, users can access Workday tasks such as inbox items, time off balances, and more, simplifying HR processes and saving employees time on administrative tasks.

Features:

• Customizable Workday® Web part in SharePoint & Adaptive Card extension for Viva Connections dashboard
• Seamless Microsoft 365 integration: Get instant access to your Workday® data right within SharePoint using our Web part integration.
• Developer-friendly: Easily customize the integration to fit your organization's unique needs.
• Streamlined workflows: Enjoy a seamless connection between Workday® and your Microsoft 365 apps for smooth data sharing and collaboration.

 

Jira

The Jira integration transforms how employees manage tasks, bugs, and user stories by pulling them directly into the Viva Connections card.

Features:

• Unified view: Gain a comprehensive overview of your Jira tasks, including tickets, comments, and updates, all within a single SharePoint Web part.
• Advanced search: Quickly define your own JQL queries to locate specific sets of tasks, shining a light on your path to productivity.
• Real-Time updates: Stay informed with live data synchronization, ensuring you're always up-to-date with the latest project developments.

Zendesk

The Zendesk card for Viva Connections allows users to access and manage their Zendesk tickets directly, facilitating a more efficient customer support workflow.

Features:

• Display your Zendesk data right within SharePoint with a custom web part
• Enjoy a seamless experience within your Microsoft 365 environment
• Redefine productivity by viewing and creating tickets from a single place

Asana

This seamless connection allows for the direct embedding of Asana tasks into your Viva Connections dashboard, creating a unified workspace where you can manage tasks without switching between applications.

Features:

• Integrate Asana tasks directly into SharePoint, providing a centralized view of your projects
• Utilize advanced search capabilities within Asana's data to generate dynamic views for your SharePoint web part
• Ensure a cohesive workflow across the Microsoft 365 suite, enhancing productivity and collaboration
• Turn Viva Connections into a project management superhub by adding Asana cards

Many of the third-party cards highlighted in this blog are available through the Microsoft partner Adenin. Check out more about their Viva Connections cards in our recent partner showcase blog.

How to access and install third-party cards

There are a few simple steps to . Anyone can look up the available applications but only IT administrators can install them.

1. All users can find applications via Microsoft AppSource or the SharePoint store. Installation requires administration permissions in SharePoint.
2. Select “Get it Now” to request the application is added to the App Catalogue site in your SharePoint environment.
3. Work with the IT Admin to Deploy the app and add it to your Viva Connections dashboard.
4. Once Viva Connections is deployed for the organization, all employee users can access the app on their Viva Connections .
5. Learn how to build your own dashboard cards to meet your business needs.

How to get started with creating custom cards

Viva Connections can be extended with no-code, low-code or pro-code capabilities. All offerings which are available from the store are built using SharePoint Framework (SPFx), which is the most widely used extensibility platform in Microsoft 365.

If you are interested on getting started with creating custom pro-code extensions for Microsoft Viva Connections, please see following guidance:

• Overview of Viva Connections Extensibility
• Build your first SharePoint Adaptive Card Extension
• Extend Microsoft Viva Connections - learning path
• Create Adaptive Card Extensions (ACE) for Microsoft Viva Connections - learning path

Take also advantage of the samples, guidance and community calls through our Microsoft 365 & Power Platform community initiative.

Learn more about third-party and adaptive cards

With dozens of third-party partner apps and Microsoft Viva apps to choose from from the store, the opportunities for customization and enhanced productivity are vast. To start leveraging these powerful integrations, visit the SharePoint store and Microsoft AppSource today.

To learn more about the extensibility capabilities within the Viva Connections dashboard. View this course on Microsoft Learn.

For further guidance and resources, check out our comprehensive documentation as well as our latest blog featuring a guide of Viva Connections first-party .