From Facebook Workplace to Microsoft Viva: how to migrate?

Facebook Workplace: What it is, why it closes, and the consequences for companies

Facebook Workplace (also known as Meta Workplace) is the platform designed to improve communication within organizations, taking advantage of features similar to those of the namesake social media platform.

It represents the first attempt by Mark Zuckerberg to present itself in the market as a company that produces business software. As a result, Facebook Workplace tried to compete with the solutions offered by Microsoft and Slack by presenting itself as all-in-one platform for internal communication. Among the main features, we find chats, video calls and even the possibility of creating the company intranet.

Although Facebook Workplace retained about 7 million users, it could not gain the necessary visibility to get closer to the positioning of its competitors. Hence, Meta's recent decision to abandon investment in the platform to focus its resources on the metaverse and artificial intelligence.

Facebook Workplace will then continue to work until 31 August 2025. After that, it will no longer be possible to send new messages, but only to read and download the past ones. From June 1, 2026, all data will be deleted to sanction the closure of the platform.

Within a year, companies that have relied on Facebook Workplace will then have to adopt an alternative solution to continue managing internal communication.

Ironically, many of these companies have decided to migrate to the environment of Microsoft 365 and, in particular, of Microsoft Viva. The latter has conquered most of the market in which Facebook Workplace has been trying for years to position itself.

Microsoft Viva not only simplifies communication, but it also allows you to strengthen the business community and improve the employee experience with vertical capabilities for collaboration, training, knowledge exchange and productivity.

However, the transition from Facebook Workplace to the Microsoft ecosystem is not trivial.

That's why our Microsoft 365 experts decided to respond to this new need and they did specialized in the adoption of the Viva suite, managing the process now for dozens of customers before Facebook Workplace closes permanently.

Microsoft Viva: What it is and how it can replace Facebook Workplace

Microsoft Viva is the platform dedicated to Employee Experience which integrates natively with Microsoft Teams and, more generally, with the Microsoft 365 digital workplace.

Launched in 2021, the Viva suite realizes Microsoft's ideal of creating a productive but human work environment, giving importance to the well-being of all the people who participate in the activities of an organization.

It was therefore conceived as a centralized platform through which to manage:

• Business strategies
• Internal communication
• Everyday productivity
• Staff training
• The exchange of knowledge
  ‍

The management of these processes, which represent the main areas of impact for the growth of a company, differs from that offered by platforms such as Facebook Workplace for the focus on feedback collection, an essential aspect in the Microsoft Viva ecosystem to allow the creation of a healthier, more effective and engaging work environment.

This is an ambitious goal that Microsoft Viva is able to achieve thanks to the vertical functionality of 6 modules that are included in the suite.

We briefly present them to better clarify how Microsoft Viva is the best alternative to Facebook Workplace.

1. Viva Connections

Viva Connections is the Microsoft Viva module that integrates with Microsoft Teams for provide quick, centralized access to business resources, such as news, websites and everyday applications for users. It can also perform the function of connecting SharePoint Online with Microsoft Teams, to facilitate the flow of internal communication and promote content published on the intranet.

Among the most important features, we find:

• Interactive and customizable dashboard, to show content relevant to the individual user based on role, place of work or interests. Administrators can choose from a variety of widgets, i.e. components that give access to various business resources (news, documents, applications, etc.).
  ‍
• News feed, to keep the corporate audience always up to date. The highlighted posts can be customized to reach all colleagues or specific groups of users.

2. Viva Insights

Viva Insights is the Microsoft Viva module specialized for improve productivity and well-being in the company with personalized metrics and recommendations, suggesting new ways of working and managing their activities based on the use of business applications.

For example, Viva Insights may collect precise information about the time taken by a user to perform a certain activity in a particular application. After that, it is based on the information collected to provide personalized recommendations that can help users better manage their daily workload.

Among the main features, we find:

• Personal productivity insights, along with suggestions for improving your time and activity management. Viva Insights can recommend which calendar slots to use to carry out a specific activity without interruption or suggest at what times it is advisable to take a break, so as to improve the quality of your work on particularly busy days. In addition to advice, Viva Insights provides access to short mindfulness exercises to help people take care of their mental health and thus increase their resilience.
  ‍
• Insights for managers, providing an overview of a team's work habits. The suggestions therefore focus on how to improve communication and coordination of activities between members of a project or department.
  ‍
• Insights for leaders, providing a global vision of the company's performance with the aim of identifying trends, risks and opportunities more easily.

3. Viva Learning

Viva Learning is the Microsoft Viva module dedicated to internal training. This platform centralizes access to the company's training resources, which can be integrated with materials from providers such as LinkedIn Learning and Microsoft Learn. It thus allows create learning paths with great flexibility, customizing its contents according to the constantly evolving needs of users.

Among the most important features, we find:

• Integration with Microsoft Teams, to access training courses without leaving your work environment and share useful content to colleagues within private chats and channels.
  ‍
• Integration with external providers. As anticipated, Viva Learning is able to bring together in a single interface the original contents of a company and courses from suppliers such as:
  • LinkedIn Learning
  • Microsoft Learn
  • Coursera
  • EdX
  • Pluralsight
  • Skillsoft
  • SAP SuccessFactors
  • Cornerstone
  • Sabaudemy
    ‍‍
• ‍Personalized training experience, suggesting which courses to attend based on your role and the interests indicated.
  ‍
• Training management, with advanced features for assigning courses and tracking progress.

4. Viva Goals

Viva Goals is the Microsoft Viva module that helps companies apply the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework. This is one of the most recognized methods for defining and monitoring strategies for business growth at a global, team and individual level.

The “Objectives” represent the qualitative goals that a company wants to achieve, providing a clear, realistic, but also ambitious direction to keep people motivated along the way. 'Key Results' are the measurable metrics that indicate success in achieving those objectives. This system promotes alignment and transparency, thus facilitating collaboration between teams.

Here, then, are the features offered by Viva Goals for the adoption of the OKR framework:

• Create and track OKRs. Users can clearly define the 'Objectives' and the related 'Key Results', ensuring that all team members understand the goals to be achieved and how to measure progress.
  ‍
• Dashboard, which offer a clear visualization of progress towards objectives and allow managers to monitor performance trends in real time, identifying critical issues and possible areas for improvement.
  ‍
• Real-time feedback and communication, to recognize the goals achieved by colleagues and to always keep individual and team efforts aligned with the organization's global strategies.

5. Viva Engage

Viva Engage is the Microsoft Viva module that aims to increase the participation of colleagues. This is a platform where users (not just administrators) can create business communities, dedicated to specific topics, and invite interested colleagues to participate. Within a community, each user can take part in the conversation with:

• News posts
• Polls
• Q&A
• Etc.
  ‍

It is important to stress that Viva Engage represents theevolution by Microsoft Yammer, the application that has been used for years to create and manage the corporate social network.

Among the main features, we find:

• Creating communities, to simplify the exchange of knowledge and news dedicated to specific topics of interest to the company. This functionality is not exclusive to administrators, but it is accessible to any user. The conversations carried out in a community are organized in threads so as to better structure the discussions and to be able to follow them easily.
  ‍
• Create storylines and stories. Viva Engage mimics the dynamics of the most popular social media to engage users with more concise and direct communication. Storylines allow you to share personal updates with your network, while stories are used to publish more engaging multimedia content than common news posts. The preferred format is obviously the video format.
  ‍
• Managing live streaming events. The platform provides the necessary tools to plan, promote and conduct virtual events aimed at the corporate audience, with features for moderation and Q&A moments.
  ‍
• Engagement Report, which provide accurate data on user participation in conversations and corporate events.

6. Viva Pulse

Viva Pulse is the Microsoft Viva module that allows you to Analyze the sentiment of colleagues to identify opportunities in terms of employee experience.

Among the main features, we find:

• Real-time feedback collection, through the use of questionnaires and surveys. Managers can create customized forms to share with members of a team or with the entire corporate audience, so as to collect anonymous answers useful for defining strategies aimed at the real needs of colleagues. Viva Pulse provides templates to quickly create questionnaires with questions designed by experts in behavioral sciences and work psychology, guiding users in providing even more useful feedback for the company.
  ‍
• Personalized suggestions, which the platform provides based on the answers collected. Managers receive a to-do list with concrete actions to take to address common issues and improve the experience of colleagues.
  ‍

After this brief overview of the main modules of the Viva suite, the reasons that have already led thousands of companies to replace Facebook Workplace with Microsoft's employee experience ecosystem should be clear.

With functionalities integrated with the Microsoft 365 digital workplace, Microsoft Viva embraces not only the field of internal communication, but addresses the main critical issues that prevent companies from increasing productivity with a holistic approach and focused on people's well-being.

Unlike Facebook Workplace, Microsoft Viva is therefore able to offer:

• Deep integration with Microsoft 365.
• Fast, centralized access to business resources and communications.
• Advanced tools to improve activity management, training, strategic alignment and knowledge exchange.
• Unique features to increase engagement.

Microsoft 365 Migration: the most common problems and our solutions

As mentioned, it's not easy to manage the migration from a platform like Facebook Workplace to a holistic solution like Microsoft Viva. In addition to frequent technical issues, which could compromise data security, attention should be paid to user training.

Training is in fact an aspect as crucial as it is overlooked by any company when new software and technologies are implemented. If properly managed, training has the greatest impact on the adoption rate and therefore on the return on investment.

Our Microsoft 365 experts can provide the necessary support to successfully address the most common issues when migrating to Microsoft Viva:

• Secure business data migration. Transferring data from Facebook Workplace to Microsoft Viva is a delicate process, requiring careful planning to avoid losing important information during the migration. In addition to ensuring data integrity, we will manage the migration to Microsoft Viva without compromising the company's workflow. This means transferring data safely to the new work environment, with the minimum investment of time and resources on the part of the organization. To ensure this outcome, our experts can design a customized migration plan for each client, which includes identifying and potentially backing up obsolete data within Facebook Workplace.
  ‍
• User training. Users who are used to the Facebook Workplace interface and functionality may find it difficult to use a diverse platform such as Microsoft Viva. In the most extreme cases, they could reject its adoption. To mitigate resistance to change, we offer our customers a guided training program to be implemented once the migration process to Microsoft Viva has been completed. Users will learn how to use all the functionality of the Viva modules and how to integrate them with their daily work tools, from Microsoft 365 applications to compatible business software.
  ‍
• Integration with the corporate digital workplace. Microsoft Viva was born as a native platform for Microsoft 365, but it is often necessary to implement customized integrations to make communication between Viva and the business software in use fluid. As a Microsoft Gold Partner, we can offer a specialized development service to extend the functionality of Microsoft Viva and implement the necessary integrations to adapt the suite to the needs of each customer.

From Facebook Workplace to Microsoft Viva: the results obtained

To date, we have successfully implemented the migration process to Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Viva for dozens of customers who have so far used Facebook Workplace to manage internal communication.

We tracked the performance of the implemented digital workplace and collected feedback on the adoption rate of Viva products.

The objective was to understand if the solution was the right one to increase the productivity and well-being of all people in the company, exceeding the results obtained with the use of Facebook Workplace. The answer? Here is some feedback shared by our customers:

• Internal communication has improved, with a significant increase in user participation. This result was mainly achieved thanks to the creation of communities in Viva Engage, the use of personalized push notifications in Teams to promote company news and the integration of SharePoint into Viva Connections to give greater visibility to the content published on the intranet.
  ‍
• Project management in individual departments has improved, with greater satisfaction of the people involved. In this case, the credit goes mainly to the adoption of Viva Goals, which has made it possible to implement clear strategic planning. The activities useful for achieving the objectives were distributed equally among the members of each department, optimizing workloads. By tracking progress in real time, it was possible to promptly identify critical issues and adapt the schedule in a flexible and coordinated manner with all company departments.
  ‍
• Welfare policies have increased, with new tools for professional growth and the well-being of workers. Based on Viva Insights suggestions for better time management, users were able to include moments dedicated to training in the calendar and access personalized learning paths built with Viva Learning to improve the skills required by their role. In addition, users were able to obtain concrete suggestions on how to better manage their activities and thus reduce the stress accumulated during the most intense periods of work.
  ‍

Global productivity registered a significant increase after a few weeks since the introduction of Microsoft Viva in the digital workplace of our customers, promising even more ambitious results over the next few months.