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Having transformed the worlds of office software and video conferencing (among other things) in the past few years, Microsoft has now turned its target towards the world of sales.
The computing giant has unveiled Microsoft Viva Sales as it looks to give businesses of all sizes an AI-powered boost when it comes to modernizing CRM.
The latest addition to its Viva suite of workplace tools will work with any CRM platform, including the likes of Salesforce, Zoho and Freshworks, meaning there’s no need to learn new systems or pay for new subscriptions.
Microsoft Viva SalesViva Sales plugs straight into the Microsoft 365 suite to sync with tools such as Excel, Outlook or even Microsoft Teams, drawing data directly and cutting out large periods of “busy work” caused by manual data entry.
Users can tag customers within Microsoft 365 tools, with Viva Sales automatically capturing it as a customer record specific to a single individual, creating a new profile with all the relevant data about that customer. These can then be shared with co-workers to quickly pass on tips or leads without a lengthy research process.
When processed, Viva Sales can use this data to provide recommendations and reminders to users thanks to its built-in ContextIQ AI models, offering real-time insight that Microsoft says could make all the difference when it comes to striking a deal.
“As we emerged from the pandemic, there were some really important changes to the labor market and really, to the heads, and hearts of the people who are in it, how they expect to get their work done – and that’s where Viva itself was born,” Jared Spataro, CVP, Modern Work, Microsoft, told TechRadar Pro.
“Viva has a number of different modules associated with it that are for all employees across an organisation,” he noted. “Viva Sales is a brand new take on that – it still is employee experience, but we recognise that while there are many things that apply to all employees, everybody has a job within an organisation and that job is specific, with inputs, outputs, and performance, expectations and view.”
Spataro added that Viva Sales is the start of a new approach for Microsoft, being the first app that takes the idea of an employee experience right down to the role itself.
“It essentially works as a bridge between systems of record and systems of communication – and it’s meant to help sellers just get their job done,” he adds. “It allows us to really connect the dots across people who are working, sometimes on the same thing, and then we’re able to pull together that to Microsoft graph data together with the system of record, and you’ve got a very rich data set to reason over.”
“This is just the beginning for us,” he concluded, “There’s a lot we believe that willl be possible, because we’re essentially putting together communications and AI and putting that on top of your system of record – and we think that’s just a brand new application area domain really in the industry.”
Mike Moore is Deputy Editor at TechRadar Pro. He has worked as a B2B and B2C tech journalist for nearly a decade, including at one of the UK’s leading national newspapers and fellow Future title ITProPortal, and when he’s not keeping track of all the latest enterprise and workplace trends, can most likely be found watching, following or taking part in some kind of sport.
