Yep. You heard it right Microsoft Viva suite is being discounted.
After Microsoft acquired Ally.io in October 2021 and then rebranded it as Microsoft Viva, announced that Viva suite will be discontinued. Microsoft Viva Suite retirement plan has affected thousands of organizations that have integrated these goals into their daily workflows. For leaders this means reevaluating everything from managing a employees onboarding, tracking performance, ensuring alignment and much more.
This change is occurring at a time where all organization are moving towards OKRs as their strategic tool to help them make their strategic decision making easier.
In this blog, we are going to find what is happening to Viva Goals, how it affects your team and what steps you need to take to prepare for the future.
When is it going away and why?
Microsoft has stated that
- Viva Goals, A platform for setting and tracking goals is retiring on December 31,2025
- Viva Toics, A platform for sharing and organizing knowledge is retiring on February 22,2025
Microsoft has made this decision as they plan to focus their resources for the future towards Generative AI.
How will this impact you?
Even though Microsoft has made the decision to retire Viva goals, they plan to make the transition as smooth as possible:
- Continued Access: Viva goals will be operating till December 31,2025 to provide its existing customer a time frame from them to plan an end of life transition and provide support regarding security issues.
- No new Features: Viva goals stated that they will no longer add new features and functionalities to the product. All current DCRs ( Design change Request) will be closed and new DCRs will not be accepted.
- Data Migration: Viva goals also offers data export features through API, Excel and PowerPoint for their users to move their data. This will also be continued till December 31,2025.
What Does Transitioning Away from Viva Goals Mean for Companies?
Lets see how Viva Goal retirement impacts a company with 500 employees.
1. Licensing Costs:
- Viva Goals was part of the Viva Suite, priced at $12 per user per month.
- For 500 employees, that’s an annual cost of $72,000.
2. Training Investments:
IT Team Learning
- 3 IT staff spent 1 week (5 days) learning to administer Viva Goals, resulting in 15 IT staff days of training.
Business Staff Training:
- 5 managers dedicated 2 weeks (10 days) to mastering the OKR framework, setting objectives, and tracking progress, totaling 50 business staff days.
Employee Training:
- Each employee spent 8 hours learning the tool, leading to a collective 4,000 hours of employee training.
Ongoing Support:
- A company this size may rely on 3 dedicated champions to assist teams, spending 20 hours per month on guidance, troubleshooting, and creating resources.
- This adds up to 720 hours annually in champion support.
The Transition Cost:
While companies may save $72,000 annually with the retirement of Viva Goals, adopting a new tool means:
- Exporting and migrating existing OKR data.
- Retraining the IT team, business staff, and employees on a new system.
- Reinvesting over 5,000 hours across the organization to adapt to the new platform.
But the good thing is that your teams are familiar with the OKR Framework and they can pick up from where they left off with an appropriate OKR software by their side to support them. This provides a chance to choose an OKR software that is simple to use, almost to no learning curve while being cost effective.
What should you do next?
For companies, the next step is to choose the best OKR tool in the market to help them in their strategic journey.
Synergita stands out as a trusted partner for companies transitioning from viva goals. With our easy-to-use platform, advance features, free OKR templates and what differentiates us from our competitors is — no learning curve required meaning employees can start their OKR journey from Day 1. Getting started with synergita is simple and quick.
Key benefits of switching to Synergita:
- Smooth transition with minimal training required.
- Track OKRs continuously and adjust strategies as needed
- Interactive dashboards to keep track of your metrics
- Free and tailored OKR templates for all departments
- A Cost-efficient software for companies who wish to spend less but get a full suite of everything at $6 per employee.
Conclusion
As Viva Goals retires, Companies now have the chance to choose a more cost-efficient tools that not only help them in their goal setting process but also provides a better value for your ROI. With Synergita, Companies can reduce their training time, increase performance and employee engagement, improve alignment all at a fraction at the cost of your previous platform. Start your free trial today or reach out to us for a personalized demo and see how Synergita can help in your goal setting. Start your free trial today or reach out to us for a personalized demo and see how Synergita can help in your goal setting.