Ally will be the 5th Viva module across the other 4 Viva modules – but I visualise makes most sense with Viva Topics.
About 2 years ago Yammer #hashtags were rebranded Topics and Yammer fans from the defunct and much loved Yammer Community Network (YCN) found this annoying as made no sense. However, now see why! More visualisations on this below*.
Ally is available now on Teams to trial via a little chat bot found in the […] icon in the left rail. It links to Ally 3rd party vendor where you can sign up for a 14 day free subscription. Select the Get Started button in the bot. Add your email and get your own company dashboard to collaborate OKRs with your colleagues.
If you do not have this feature deployed then go to Ally.io website, top right: Try for Free.
Here’s a loud overview video.
Now, I kid you not but seven years ago I visualised a similar application from when I was nurturing adoption and collaboration on the GSK Yammer network and attempted to evangelise …
*the business benefits of using #hashtags to help align personal objectives to company strategies.
My model was eventually endorsed by a super-duper senior Yammer Customer Success Manager who went on to work at Microsoft. He generously nominated me for my MVP Award – cheers Mike Grafham!
I had unintentionally created a digital transformation framework: Working Out Loud in A Network (WOLAN). An actual big #hashtag, advocating OKRs and the importance of sharing customer success stories. At the heart is Working Out Loud an empathetic approach to nurturing a better business culture, originated by John Stepper and Bryce Williams
I have since gone on to create the Collaboration Change Agents framework to nurture Champion networks, another window later this month.
I found it incredibly frustrating trying to explain what I was eluding too back then; but no one said I was wrong and appreciate now I was visualizing the art of the possible on Yammer. I chatted about this with my colleague MVP Merete Stave and she kindly and wisely said:
This just proves that being the one to explore new horizons, even if everyone is not there yet, is an important skill.
We are trialling Ally at CloudWay watch this space!
Discover free Microsoft Viva Workshops!
Follow my Viva visions
03 Dec: Cloud Conversations Podcast: My productive and satisfying day in Viva on Teams..
08 Dec: M365 UK User Group: A Viva Visionary chats with a Viva Realist (Sara Fennah, MVP)
08 Dec: Yammer Community Festival: Looking forward to catching up with old and new Yammer fans and hearing great success stories
10 Jun: Scottish Summit: MVP’s – Kevin McDonnell, Zoe Wilson, Ana Ines, Sara Fennah, the Viva Visionary and more!
MVP, Lesley Crook is a Viva Visionary 
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