Administrator scenarios for Answers in Viva Engage
Administration of Answers requires either an Engage admin or Answers admin role.
Note
The Microsoft 365 Global administrator can designate an Answers admin by adding a Knowledge manager in Microsoft Entra ID. Knowledge managers become Answers admins and have elevated permissions over end users. To better align the experiences of Topics management and Answers administration, you can assign the same users that manage Topics to manage Answers. For more information, see:
- Assign a role to a group using Privileged Identity Management
- Creating a role-assignable group in Microsoft Entra ID
Permissions
The following table shows the actions available to users and admins.
Note
In the following table, plan refers to the Microsoft Viva Engage Knowledge Service plan.
| Answers action | User not assigned a plan | User assigned a plan | Community admin | Engage admin | Answers admin | Global admin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Answer, upvote, and react to a question thread | Questions they're mentioned in | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Receive notifications in the Viva Engage Teams app | Questions they're mentioned in | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Ask a question | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Create a suggested topic for Answers | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Mark best answer | ✓ (own posts) | (in their community) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| See global insights | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Delete and close posts | ✓ (own posts) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Update information panel | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Feature topics | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Remove topic from Answers | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Approve suggested topics | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Enable answers | ✓ | |||||
| Enable badges | ✓ | ✓ |
Update information panel
Provide guidance using the information panel
The Answers admin or Engage admin can use the information panel to provide guidance to employees on how to use Answers within the organization. The information panel is only visible to administrators in its default state. After an admin saves and publishes the information panel, all other employees with access to Answers can see the information panel.
Admin view
End user view
Edit the information panel
- Select the edit icon from the top left corner of the information panel.
- Enter the content specific to your organization.
- Select Save and publish to allow all Answers users access to the information panel content.
Reset the information panel
- Select the edit icon from the top left corner of the information panel.
- Select Reset from the bottom-left corner.
Manage topics in Answers
Feature topics in Answers
As an Answers admin, you can feature a topic or create a topic from the topic browse page. When you feature topics, you curate Topics to be promoted for use in Answers.
Note
The Feature a topic button is only visible to the Answers admin.
When you start to type the topic you want to feature, existing Topics appear, and you can choose one to feature.
After you select a topic to feature, you can edit the summary field that will be displayed as the short description of that topic in Answers. The summary helps people understand the topic and whether it’s the appropriate topic to attach to their questions.
Note
The title and summary of all Topics featured in Answers are visible to all licensed users who have access to Answers.
Review pending topics suggested by employees
To ensure that topics suggested by employees are relevant and appropriate, there's a review process for Answers admins to follow. Answers admins have a Needs Review tab on the topic browse page, which is only visible to them. The tab displays user-created or suggested topics. Any nonfeatured topic that's added to a question or created by the user appears on this tab for a knowledge manager to review. Select Review on a topic to check and edit the summary.
You have options to feature or ignore the topic, which removes it from the Review tab:
- Ignore: When you ignore a topic, it remains visible with the questions that it's been used with. But it won't get featured, which makes topics more prominent in the publisher’s topic picker.
- Feature: When topics are featured, they no longer appear in the Needs Review tab.
Remove topics in Answers
To remove a topic in Answers, Answers admins (knowledge managers) follow these steps:
Go to the browse topics page in Answers.
Select the ellipsis button on a topic, which prompts you to remove the topic in Answers.
When a topic is removed, it disappears from Answers and is no longer associated with any questions where it was previously used.
Note
After a topic is removed in Answers, you can still see the topic in the topic center. To remove the topic entirely, you must delete it directly in the topic center.
View Global Answers analytics
As an Answers admin, you can access Global Answers analytics:
- Select the analytics icon from the top navigation bar of Viva Engage.
- Go to the Global Answers analytics tab. The analytics dashboard provides an overview and relevant insights about knowledge sharing activity across Answers in Viva.
For more details about how to manage analytics in the Viva Engage admin center, see View and manage analytics in Viva Engage.
The following metrics are available for Global Answers analytics:
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Total time saved for your organization | Time the organization has saved based on question-and-answer usage |
| Total questions | Number of questions asked by users |
| Question views | Views across all questions |
| Total answers | Number of answers provided by users |
| Total best answers | Answers marked as best answer |
| Answer rate | The ratio of questions that have answers to total questions |
| Best answer rate | The ratio of questions with best answers to total questions |
| Median time to first answer | The median time it takes for a question to receive its first answer |
| Median time to best answer | The median time it takes for a question to receive its first best answer |
| Median questions asked per user | The median number of questions asked by each user |
| Median questions viewed per user | The median number of questions viewed by each user |
| Median answers per user | The median number of answers provided by each user |
| Median best answers per user | The median number of best answers provided by each user |
| Top questions across your organization | A table of the top questions with the most views, votes, reactions, and answers across your org |
| User engagement distribution | A distribution of all users split by active engagements (ask, answer, vote, reactions, comments) and passive engagements (question views) |
| Global time saved | Time saved across the organization. Based on Viva Engage research, this total shows that each question-and-answer pair saves people an average of 15 minutes. As more people discover existing answers to their questions, the organization saves more time. |
Note
Analytics aren't live. They're updated every 24 hours.
See also
Answers in Viva: Frequently asked questions (FAQ)