Firstup for Microsoft

Discover how Microsoft with Firstup boosts productivity and delivers outstanding employee experiences. While both Firstup and Microsoft are leaders in their respective categories, they excel in different areas.

Microsoft

Despite its broad suite of productivity tools like Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint and new employee experience platform, Viva, Microsoft on its own is not the best solution for internal communications due to several limitations.

• Microsoft Viva Amplify: Its relatively new presence in the market means that it lacks the maturity and extensive feature set of more established internal communication platforms. Specifically, it lacks in areas such as audience targeting, personalization, available channels, consistency across channels, branding, and depth of analytics. The lack of a mobile app also makes it challenging to reach frontline or deskless workers.
• Microsoft Viva Engage (formerly known as Yammer): Originally designed as a social network for work, its intent was to foster a sense of community and connection for employees. While it integrates with the broader Microsoft ecosystem, its primary focus is on social interaction and community-building rather than streamlined employee communications. The platform can feel fragmented and less intuitive, requiring users to navigate between different tools to access various types of information and communication channels. Additionally, Viva Engage lacks robust features for targeted messaging, content management, and real-time interaction that are essential for effective internal communications.
• Microsoft SharePoint (often rebranded as Microsoft Viva Connections): Although a powerful platform for document management and collaboration, Sharepoint is not ideally suited for internal communications. Its primary strength lies in content storage and organization, which can make the platform feel cumbersome and unintuitive for direct communication purposes. The user interface is often perceived as complex and not particularly user-friendly, which can hinder the quick and efficient dissemination of information. Additionally, SharePoint lacks advanced features for real-time interaction and engagement.
• Microsoft Teams: While excellent for collaboration and virtual meetings, Teams is not the best solution for internal communications due to several key drawbacks. Its interface, though feature-rich, can be overwhelming and cluttered, making it difficult for users to navigate and find relevant information quickly. The platform’s primary focus on chat and video conferencing means it lacks the comprehensive tools needed for targeted messaging, content management, and interactive engagement that are crucial for effective internal communication. Additionally, it can lead to information overload, causing important messages to be missed or buried in a stream of less critical updates.
• Microsoft Outlook: While a robust email client and an important channel for communication, Outlook is not ideally suited as a standalone technology for internal communications. Its primary focus on email as the main communication method can lead to information overload for desk workers with important messages often getting lost in crowded inboxes, and information deprivation for frontline and deskless workers who often don’t check their email or may not even have company email accounts.

As the Employee Experience market continues to grow (Microsoft, ServiceNow, and others), employee communications has emerged as an important segment. While all the vendors overlap a bit, today these segments are distinct. And Firstup, a leader in the comms segment, offers essential communication capabilities as a complement to solutions in core HR platforms and EXPs.
-Josh Bersin, Global HR Industry Analyst

Firstup

Communication is at the heart of any great experience, and Firstup is the market leader in Intelligent Employee Communications. Firstup pioneered the market for intelligent employee communications and transformed the way companies reach and engage their employees by activating employee data to create hyper-personalized experiences for millions of employees for the world’s leading brands across every industry.

“Today, as employees feel overwhelmed and overworked, a next-generation intelligent communication platform like Firstup is a very hot commodity.”
-Josh Bersin, Global HR Industry Analyst

Organizations are now able to leverage the combined power of Microsoft and the Firstup platform to boost productivity and deliver truly exceptional employee experiences.

Firstup integrates with Microsoft in several ways to deliver exceptional employee experiences and boost employee productivity

Firstup offers pre-built integration points designed to help customers maximize the value of their investments in both platforms.

Extend your reach to more employees by integrating Firstup Intelligent Communications within the Microsoft ecosystem.

With the Firstup Microsoft Teams App, employees can effortlessly access their personalized Firstup experiences without ever leaving Teams. Say goodbye to switching between platforms and hello to a unified employee experience.

The Firstup Microsoft Teams App offers a true omnichannel experience through the branded Tab App that seamlessly integrates within the main menu of Teams. The branded Tab app brings the full power of the Firstup platform’s digital assistant, targeted shortcuts, and valuable integrations directly to your employees’ fingertips. Empower your teams to access the information they need, engage in meaningful conversations, and stay connected—all within the familiar and intuitive Teams interface. With Firstup, you can create a vibrant and engaging hub that drives productivity throughout your organization.

In addition to the branded Tab app experience, there is an integration of Firstup Topics with Teams Channels. Our Topic-to-Channel Mapping feature enables content created in Firstup Topics to be effortlessly pushed to the corresponding Microsoft Teams channels, complete with alerts for new updates and deep-linking back to the Branded Tab App experience. This integration fosters a collaborative environment where employees can stay informed, participate in discussions, and contribute their expertise—all within the context of Teams. By eliminating the barriers between Firstup and Teams, your teams can collaborate seamlessly and unlock their full potential.

This integration helps joint customers:

• Reach everyone
  Streamline the experience and increase engagement. Give your employees access to the full Firstup web experience within Teams. Deliver content to relevant channels with Firstup Topics.
• Deliver critical business information
  Maximize reach through Firstup features like app shortcuts, personalized notifications, and more.
• Improve adoption and brand recognition
  Customize branding for your business with self-service configuration.

The most effective communications deliver the right information to every employee, at the right time, through the right channel. For some, this might be email or a mobile push notification; for others, it could be through a portal like Microsoft SharePoint or Viva Connections.

These portals, often used as company intranets, serve as centralized hubs for employee information. Since employees already visit these portals for updates, they are ideal for capturing attention with new, important information.

A key integration between Microsoft and Firstup allows communications created on the Firstup platform to be automatically displayed to employees through SharePoint or Viva Connections, enhancing reach and ensuring employees receive information where they already are.

This integration helps joint customers:

• Maintain fresh content automatically
  Use Firstup Studio for centralized publishing and let our Content Microapps automatically update information to the right employee.
• Unlock SharePoint’s potential
  Serve compelling content with display blocks and customization options.
• Personalize and target
  Ensure essential information reaches individuals based on the channels and topics they follow.

Microsoft Outlook is the leading corporate email client and a critical channel for employee communications. Ensuring those communications are formatted and optimized for this critical channel helps ensure effective communication.

Firstup publishes seamlessly to Outlook whether consumed on a desktop experience or mobile, short form or longer ones.

Enhance productivity by integrating Microsoft into the Firstup experience

Joint customers can boost employee productivity by streamlining access to necessary information. Firstup’s integrated search capabilities allow users to pull data from Microsoft SharePoint and OneDrive knowledge bases directly within Firstup. This enables employees to find information quickly without leaving the Firstup platform.

This integration helps joint customers:

• Provide employees comprehensive knowledge access
• Create a unified search experience
• Give their employees quick access to relevant information

Firstup and Microsoft create a powerful synergy that enhances employee experience and productivity. Firstup, a leading intelligent communication platform, excels at delivering personalized and targeted communications to keep employees informed and engaged. Microsoft, a leader in business productivity tools, helps employees work quickly and efficiently. Integrating these two platforms allows organizations to develop a unified communication and productivity suite, fostering a more connected and informed workforce. This integration ultimately drives higher productivity and satisfaction within the organization.