MC823308 – Changes to Topics in Viva Engage (archived)

Product:

Microsoft Viva, Microsoft Viva Engage, Microsoft Viva Topics

Platform:

World tenant, Online

Status:

Change type:

User impact, Admin impact, Retirement

Links:

Details:

Summary:
In February 2024, Viva Engage will simplify its topics model and retire integration with Viva Topics. Premium and management experiences will be removed, but users can still create, edit, and follow topics. Rollout begins August 2024, with all migrations completed by April 2025.

Details:
In February 2024 the retirement of Viva Topics (Changes coming to Topics) was announced. As part of that change, Viva Engage will return to a simplified topics model, called Engage topics, and the integration with Viva Topics will be retired.
The following premium Viva Topics experiences and lightweight topics management experiences will no longer be available in Viva Engage, including:
Viewing Viva Topics card when hovering on a topic
Viewing or using AI-discovered Viva Topics
Links to Viva Topics pages
Topic management via Viva Topics or lightweight topics management
Featuring of topics in Answers
Using Engage topics, users will continue to be able to create topics, add topics to posts, follow topics, edit topics they created, and increase the relevance of their feeds by following topics. Topic creators will gain the ability to delete topics they created. Applicable admins will continue to be able to edit topics and will gain the ability to delete topics within Viva Engage.
Organizations using Answers in Viva (Answers in Viva: Introduction) will continue to see additional topic capabilities including bulk topic deletion for admins, AI suggested topics for questions, topics promoted for following, and topic browse experiences. The described topic experiences will be available to Viva Engage tenants that have been migrated to Engage topics.
[When this will happen:]
Rollout will begin August 2024 and will complete for all tenants migrated to use Viva Topics in Viva Engage by April 2025. Tenants using legacy topics in Viva Engage will begin migrations in September 2024 and migrations will continue until all Native mode networks have been completed.
[Why is this change happening?]
As a result of the retirement of Viva Topics, Viva Engage will retire the integration with Viva Topics, but continue to support a simplified topics model to help organize, amplify, route, and recall knowledge posted with topics. To ensure customer data is retained we will migrate customer topics data from Viva Topics into Viva Engage to preserve topics applied to posts and associated Engage topic metadata such as followers, description and creator.
During the transition, we will stop topics migrations to use Viva Topics and Topics lightweight management but continue by-request migrations that enable Viva Engage networks to use Answers in Viva (Technical requirements). Learn more about the migration to Viva Topics (Topics in Viva Engage), the Topics experience (Topics experience in Viva Engage), and the Topics retirement (Changes coming to Topics).

Change Category:
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Scope:
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Release Phase:

Created:
2024-07-20

updated:
2024-07-20

Task Type

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MS How does it affect me

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Direct effects for Operations**

- Impact on IT Operations
- Migration Process Complexity
- Increased workload for IT operations teams to manage the migration of topics from Viva Topics to Engage topics.
- Potential for temporary service disruptions during migration.
- Role Impact: IT Operations Managers, System Administrators.

- Impact on IT Services
- Loss of Premium Features
- Removal of AI-discovered topics and lightweight management features may lead to reduced functionality for users.
- Users may experience confusion or frustration due to the lack of previously available features.
- Role Impact: Service Managers, Application Support Teams.

- Impact on IT Users
- User Experience Changes
- Users will need to adapt to the new simplified topics model, which may affect their ability to find and follow relevant topics.
- Potential decrease in user engagement if users find the new model less intuitive.
- Role Impact: End Users, Knowledge Workers.

- Impact on IT Administrators
- Changes in Administrative Capabilities
- Admins will need to learn new processes for managing topics, including the ability to delete topics.
- Increased responsibility for ensuring data integrity during the migration process.
- Role Impact: IT Administrators, Compliance Officers.

- Dependencies and Interdependencies
- Integration with Other IT Services
- The retirement of Viva Topics may affect integrations with other Microsoft 365 services that rely on topic data.
- Organizations using Answers in Viva may need to adjust their workflows based on the new topic management capabilities.
- Role Impact: Integration Specialists, Business Analysts.

For further details, refer to the official Microsoft documentation:
- [Changes coming to Topics](https://learn.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/topics/changes-coming-to-topics?view=o365-worldwide)
- [Export topics created in Viva Engage with PowerShell](https://learn.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/topics/export-topics-powershell?view=o365-worldwide)
- [Answers in Viva: Introduction](https://support.microsoft.com/topic/answers-in-viva-introduction-e6331234-e044-4009-a0c8-7c519a2cf668)

Opportunities**

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Potentional Risks**

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