Is Microsoft Viva Connections the Company Intranet Worth Having?

Is Microsoft Viva Connections Worth Having as Your Company Intranet?

Microsoft Viva Connections is worth having if your organization already uses Microsoft Teams and SharePoint Online — it surfaces your SharePoint intranet inside Teams as a pinned app, at no additional licensing cost for M365 plans that include SharePoint and Teams. For organizations with small Teams footprints or heavy investment in competing platforms, a standalone SharePoint intranet may serve better. This guide compares both options.

Key facts

• Viva Connections is included at no additional cost in Microsoft 365 plans that include SharePoint Online and Teams.
• It requires four prerequisites: a SharePoint home site, global navigation configured, Teams deployed, and Azure AD groups for audience targeting.
• Setup for an organization with an existing SharePoint home site takes 2–4 weeks. Building a new home site extends the timeline to 6–12 weeks.
• Viva Connections serves frontline workers through the Teams mobile app — surfacing Adaptive Cards for HR, IT, and payroll tasks without requiring a browser.
• EPC Group: 29 years of SharePoint and Teams consulting, 6,500+ SharePoint implementations, Microsoft Solutions Partner.

What Viva Connections actually does

Viva Connections is not a standalone intranet platform. It is a Teams app that wraps your existing SharePoint intranet inside Microsoft Teams.

Employees open Teams and find a Connections tab pinned in the left rail. The tab shows your SharePoint home site, news feed, and Adaptive Cards — customized cards that give direct access to common tasks.

The primary value proposition is reach. Teams has near-100% daily active user rates in organizations that have adopted it. SharePoint intranets visited through a browser often have much lower engagement. Surfacing the intranet inside Teams removes the friction of switching apps.

Viva Connections vs standalone SharePoint intranet

Factor	Viva Connections	Standalone SharePoint intranet
Access point	Microsoft Teams (mobile + desktop)	Browser (sharepoint.com)
Frontline worker support	Excellent (Teams mobile app)	Good (SharePoint mobile app)
Custom branding	Inherits SharePoint branding	Full SharePoint branding control
Adaptive Cards	Yes (HR, IT, payroll tasks)	Not applicable
Additional license cost	None (included in M365)	None (included in M365)
Best for	High Teams adoption orgs, frontline workers	Desktop-primary orgs, low Teams footprint

Who benefits most from Viva Connections

These organizations get the highest return from Viva Connections.

• High Teams adoption — if employees live in Teams all day, Viva Connections puts the intranet where they already are.
• Frontline workers — manufacturing floor, retail, field service, and healthcare workers use Teams on mobile. Viva Connections gives them Adaptive Cards for shift scheduling, HR tasks, and incident reporting without a desktop browser.
• Large organizations with SharePoint already deployed — if you have a SharePoint home site and global navigation configured, adding Viva Connections takes 2–4 weeks and costs nothing additional.

Who may not need Viva Connections

• Low Teams adoption — if fewer than 50% of your employees use Teams daily, Viva Connections has limited reach and a standalone SharePoint intranet may be more accessible.
• Google Workspace or Slack-primary organizations — Viva Connections only works inside Microsoft Teams. It adds no value if employees use competing platforms.
• Highly customized intranet designs — Viva Connections inherits SharePoint branding. Organizations requiring pixel-perfect custom layouts outside SharePoint's design system may need a third-party intranet tool.

Prerequisites and setup timeline

Four prerequisites must be in place before Viva Connections can go live.

1. A Microsoft 365 subscription that includes SharePoint Online.
2. A designated SharePoint home site with global navigation configured.
3. Microsoft Teams deployed to your users.
4. Azure Active Directory groups set up for audience targeting rules.

If you already have a SharePoint home site, setup takes 2–4 weeks for Adaptive Card design, Teams app pinning, and audience targeting configuration.

If you need to build a new home site, add 6–10 weeks for information architecture, content migration, and branding. Total: 8–14 weeks for organizations starting from scratch.

Adaptive Cards: the differentiating feature

Adaptive Cards are interactive task cards that appear on the Viva Connections dashboard. They give employees direct access to common HR, IT, and operational tasks from Teams — without navigating to separate systems.

Common Adaptive Card examples.

• HR — view PTO balance, submit time off requests, access benefits enrollment.
• IT — submit a helpdesk ticket, check ticket status, request software access.
• Payroll — view pay stubs, update direct deposit information.
• Facilities — book a meeting room, report a maintenance issue.
• Operations — access safety checklists, submit daily reports, view shift schedule.

Cards are built using the Adaptive Card schema and connected to Power Apps, SharePoint lists, Power Automate, or any REST API.

Frequently asked questions

Does Viva Connections replace SharePoint?

No. Viva Connections surfaces SharePoint content inside Teams. SharePoint remains the content storage and publishing layer. You still need SharePoint pages, news posts, document libraries, and a home site — Viva Connections is the delivery mechanism inside Teams.

Is Viva Connections the same as Viva Suite?

No. Viva Connections is one of several Viva modules. The full Viva Suite ($12/user/month) adds Viva Insights, Viva Learning, Viva Topics (now Viva Engage), and Viva Goals. Viva Connections is the only module included for free in standard M365 plans.

Can I customize the Adaptive Cards without a developer?

For simple cards connected to SharePoint lists or Power Apps, no developer is needed — use the Viva Connections Dashboard designer. For cards that integrate with custom APIs, line-of-business systems, or require conditional logic, a developer using the Adaptive Cards schema is required.

How do employees find the Viva Connections app in Teams?

Admins pin the Viva Connections app for all users through Teams admin center → Manage apps → Add to setup policies. This puts the Connections tab in every employee's Teams left rail automatically — no employee action required.

Can Viva Connections handle 50,000+ employees?

Yes. Viva Connections inherits SharePoint Online's enterprise scale. Audience targeting uses Azure AD groups to personalize content — each user sees only the cards and news relevant to their role and location. EPC Group has deployed Viva Connections for organizations with 20,000–100,000 users.

Design your Viva Connections deployment

EPC Group designs and deploys Viva Connections for enterprises ranging from 1,000 to 100,000+ employees. Call (888) 381-9725 or request a 30-minute discovery call.