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Microsoft Viva Employee Experience Platform

Viva Connections Consulting Services

Al Rafay Consulting helps organizations create engaging, personalized employee experiences with Viva Connections. We design and implement dashboards that bring together news, resources, and tasks in one unified hub.

700K+
Documents managed
$6M
Client savings
78%
Faster contracts
$104K/yr
Annual savings

What Is Viva Connections

Viva Connections is the employee experience gateway of Microsoft Viva, a personalized, mobile-ready hub that lives inside Microsoft Teams. It brings your company news, resources, tools, and tasks together in one branded dashboard, powered by your SharePoint home site, so employees have a single front door to the digital workplace instead of hunting across SharePoint, Teams, email, and other systems.

For most organizations, the problem is not a lack of information; it is that information is scattered and hard to reach, especially for frontline and mobile workers who do not sit at a desk. Viva Connections solves this by surfacing the right content and actions for each person, on any device, where they already work. A strong Viva Connections implementation turns a static intranet into an active, personalized experience that drives engagement, speeds onboarding, and connects every employee to the organization.

Key Capabilities and Use Cases

Viva Connections unifies the digital workplace through a few core capabilities:

  • Personalized dashboard. A configurable set of cards, news, approvals, tasks, links, and tools, targeted to each employee's role, location, and needs.
  • Curated feed. A blended feed of SharePoint news, Viva Engage conversations, and Microsoft 365 content keeps employees informed in one place.
  • SharePoint home site integration. Viva Connections is powered by your SharePoint intranet, so existing investment in content and structure carries straight through.
  • Adaptive Cards and connectors. Custom cards surface data and actions from HR systems, service desks, and line-of-business apps directly in the dashboard.
  • Mobile and frontline experience. A mobile-optimized experience in Teams reaches deskless and remote workers who traditional intranets miss.
  • Branding and audience targeting. Company branding and targeting ensure a relevant, on-brand experience for every audience.

Common use cases include a modern intranet front door, frontline worker enablement, faster onboarding, company-wide communications, and one-tap access to common tasks and approvals.

How Al Rafay Consulting Implements Viva Connections

ARC delivers Viva Connections as a complete employee experience engagement, grounded in our deep SharePoint expertise:

Experience strategy. We define the employee experience vision, prioritize the content, tools, and integrations that matter most, and map audiences so the dashboard is relevant from launch.

SharePoint home site foundation. Because Viva Connections is powered by SharePoint, we make sure your home site, navigation, and content architecture are solid, building on or modernizing your existing intranet.

Dashboard and card development. We design personalized dashboards and build custom Adaptive Cards and connectors that bring news, tasks, approvals, and business-system data into one view.

Mobile and frontline optimization. We tune the experience for mobile and frontline workers so critical information reaches everyone, not just desk-based staff.

Branding and audience targeting. We apply your branding and configure audience targeting so each role and location sees a relevant, on-brand experience.

Adoption and training. We drive adoption through communications, training, and iterative optimization so the hub becomes the daily starting point for work.

Best Practices and Adoption

A great employee hub is shaped by usage, not just design. ARC builds these practices into every Viva Connections engagement:

  • Start from real employee needs. Prioritize the cards and content people actually use daily rather than replicating the whole intranet at once.
  • Get the SharePoint foundation right. A clean, well-structured home site is what makes Viva Connections shine; invest there first.
  • Target by audience. Use audience targeting so frontline, regional, and role-based employees each get a relevant experience.
  • Design mobile-first. Treat the mobile experience as primary for frontline and remote workers, not an afterthought.
  • Keep content fresh. Assign clear ownership so news and resources stay current; a stale hub loses trust quickly.
  • Measure and iterate. Track usage and feedback, then refine the dashboard over time to keep it valuable.

Why Al Rafay Consulting

ARC is a 3x Microsoft Solutions Partner with deep SharePoint, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Viva expertise, the exact combination Viva Connections depends on. With 13+ years of experience, 300+ engagements, and 100% client retention, we pair technical implementation and custom Adaptive Card development with the adoption discipline that makes an employee hub stick. Recognized on the Inc. 5000 (#749) and Inc. Regionals (#57) with 557% growth, ARC delivers AI-powered Microsoft solutions from our Chicago (Bolingbrook, IL) and Karachi offices, with responsive support across time zones.

Case Study

ARC's strength is connecting Microsoft 365 and SharePoint capabilities into experiences people actually use. Across our SharePoint intranet and Microsoft Viva engagements, we have helped organizations replace scattered, hard-to-navigate information with a single, personalized front door to the digital workplace. We apply that same discipline to Viva Connections: building a solid SharePoint home site, designing targeted dashboards, and driving adoption so every employee, desk-based or frontline, stays connected.

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What We Deliver

Dashboard Design & Configuration
Card Development & Customization
SharePoint Integration
Audience Targeting
Mobile Experience Optimization
Branding & Theming
Third-Party Integrations
Adoption & Change Management

Solution Architecture

Explore how our approach delivers measurable outcomes through strategic planning and execution.

Implementation framework
Implementation Framework
Deployment strategy
Deployment Strategy

Phased Deployment Framework

Our proven methodology ensures successful implementation with minimal disruption.

1

Discovery & Assessment

Evaluate current environment, identify requirements, and define success metrics.

2

Design & Planning

Create detailed architecture, integration plan, and rollout strategy.

3

Pilot & Validation

Deploy to pilot group, gather feedback, and refine configurations.

4

Enterprise Rollout

Full deployment with change management and adoption support.

Business Value We Deliver

Our services create measurable outcomes that strengthen your organization.

1

Unified Information Access

Employees find what they need faster with a single hub for news, resources, and tasks, reducing time spent searching across multiple systems.

2

Personalized Experience

Audience targeting ensures employees see relevant content based on their role, location, and interests, improving engagement and relevance.

3

Mobile-First Accessibility

Frontline and remote workers access critical information anywhere through a mobile-optimized experience in Microsoft Teams.

4

Faster Onboarding

New employees discover resources, policies, and key contacts faster through a centralized and well-organized dashboard.

5

Scalable Foundation

Build on your SharePoint investment with a future-ready platform that grows with your organization and adapts to changing needs.

A Unified Employee Experience

We design Viva Connections experiences that bring together the best of your SharePoint intranet, corporate communications, and productivity tools.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Viva Connections?
Viva Connections is a personalized employee app in Microsoft Teams that surfaces news, resources, and tasks from SharePoint, Microsoft 365, and third-party systems in one unified dashboard.
How does Viva Connections relate to SharePoint?
Viva Connections is powered by your SharePoint home site. It brings SharePoint content, news, and resources into Microsoft Teams with a mobile-optimized, personalized experience.
Can Viva Connections integrate with HR systems?
Yes, through Adaptive Cards and connectors, Viva Connections can display data from HR systems, service desks, and other business applications.
What is Microsoft Viva?
Microsoft Viva is an employee experience platform integrated into Microsoft Teams, bringing together communications, knowledge, learning, and insights to help people thrive at work.
Is Viva included in Microsoft 365 licenses?
Basic Viva features are included in Microsoft 365 plans. Advanced capabilities like Viva Insights premium, Viva Learning premium content, and Viva Goals require add-on licenses.
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