Microsoft is set to “dominate” the workplace analytics and productivity market with the launch of Insights.
That is the view of Scott Gode, Chief Marketing Officer at Unify Square, a Microsoft partner, who said that the Insights module, launched as part of Microsoft Viva, will cement the Seattle giant’s place as a top workplace analytics provider.
Viva Insights aims to help team leaders and employees manage their working day better through regular breaks, focused work and learning. The module provides individuals, managers and leaders personalised analytics, with the end goal of identifying where teams may be struggling, changing their work conditions, and then quantifying the impact of those changes over time.
However, according to Gode, Insights may also kick up security concerns from customers.
“Workplace analytics is a very interesting space at the moment and there are tonnes of software providers, ourselves included, who are dabbling in providing workplace analytics, statistics and information”
“I think that, number one, Microsoft is going to increasingly dominate that space, given what they’re doing with the Insights module,” he said.
“Number two, we’re continuing to see a lot of interest from customers about how they measure productivity better and how they help employees think through their on time and off time more effectively.
“But in the same breath, they’ll notice that there’s a lot of personal information that is being potentially collected, analysed and shared. So there’s going to continue to be a big security challenge, not just in terms of how to secure that information, but how to convince the companies that it’s okay to collect information about their users and convince the end-users to share that information. That’s still a bit of a hurdle that the industry is trying to figure out, not just Microsoft.”
Michael Frisby, Managing Director at Vuzion, another Microsoft partner, agreed with Gode’s comments and emphasised the importance of workplace analytics as employees continue to work from home.
Speaking to UC Today Frisby said that one thing that we lost with the move to working from home is the routine of the working day, in particular, being able to switch on and switch off gradually throughout a commute.
“There’s a huge number of assets inside of Microsoft 365 for Microsoft to understand how people work” said Frisby. “They have this insight into how and when employees’ work and they’ve seen the changing pattern of these elongated days.
“So one of the most important points of Viva is about giving individuals a formal end to the day. Before we locked down, we differentiated between the working day and our evening at home with a commute, where you’d have to close everything down, do your end of day tasks, and travel home.
“So what this is doing is introducing the concept of creating that end of day routine for yourself and creating a set of habits for transitioning from your workday into your evening.”
More:
Microsoft Viva: A New Employee Experience Platform
Microsoft Viva EXP: Why is Viva So Valuable?
Microsoft Viva: A Simple Guide
