Best OKR Software: 7 Proven Steps to Migrate from Viva Goals (2026)

Why Organizations Need to Migrate from Viva Goals

With the Microsoft Viva Goals retirement scheduled for December 2025, organizations have less than a year to find and implement a Viva Goals alternative OKR platform.

As of 2026, that retirement is complete Viva Goals is officially discontinued. Which means any team that hasn’t already made the move or is only now researching how to migrate from Viva Goals, needs a plan in motion today, not “eventually.”
This impending deadline makes it crucial for businesses to start planning their migration strategy now rather than waiting until the last minute. 
The transition period offers an excellent opportunity to evaluate current goal-setting practices and upgrade to a more advanced solution that can better support organizational objectives.
Migrating from Viva Goals isn’t just about maintaining continuity-it’s about enhancing your organization’s ability to track, manage, and achieve strategic goals. By choosing the right alternative platform, companies can turn this forced transition into a strategic advantage, gaining access to more powerful features and capabilities that weren’t available in Viva Goals.
In my experience running OKR programs across 50+ organizations, a forced platform migration is rarely just a technical event it’s the one moment leaders get permission to fix goal-setting habits that have quietly drifted for years. Teams that treat this purely as a data-export exercise waste the opportunity. Teams that use it to reset how they write objectives, run check-ins, and read OKR tracking metrics come out of the transition with a stronger execution rhythm than they had before Viva Goals was even in the picture.

Viva Goals Retirement: Key Dates and What They Mean 

Understanding Worxmate: The Ideal Viva Goals Alternative

Enterprise Field Insight: Overcoming Execution Stalls

In a recent enterprise engagement with a $45 Billion Middle East Energy & Utility conglomerate (8,000+ employees), massive cultural transformation stalled because six senior department heads each ran isolated agendas and requested an 8-week external SWOT study. We redirected leadership from lengthy consulting reports to agile one-week brainstorming on critical execution blockers, backed by outcome-versus-output coaching.

The pattern we saw when coaching this $45 Billion Middle East Energy & Utility conglomerate (8,000+ employees) proves that software alone cannot fix misaligned leadership. You need structured execution models that bridge strategic planning with frontline tracking.

Worxmate stands out as a superior alternative to Viva Goals, offering more than just basic OKR management. As an AI-powered strategy and performance management platform, it bridges the critical gap between planning and execution that many organizations struggle with.

Key features that make Worxmate an excellent Viva Goals replacement include:

• AI-Powered Strategy Management: Leverages artificial intelligence to provide strategic insights, recommend improvements, and predict potential obstacles in your OKR journey.
• Workflow Automation: Reduces manual reporting with automated workflows that keep your OKRs updated in real-time.
• Seamless Collaboration Tools: Enables cross-functional collaboration with integrated communication tools that ensure alignment across teams and departments.
• Real-Time Analytics: Makes data-backed decisions with AI-driven analytics that provide executive summaries and actionable recommendations.
• Scalable Architecture: Adapts to your evolving strategy needs with custom OKR frameworks and deep analytics.

Worxmate’s DEEP AI™ Framework: What Viva Goals Never Had 

Viva Goals gave you a place to log objectives. It never told you which objective was actually the fastest lever to pull when execution stalled. That’s the structural gap Worxmate was built to close with the DEEP AI™ framework four stages, each backed by a dedicated AI model, carrying an OKR from first draft to next-cycle recommendation. 

Explore each stage: Define (AI OKR Writing Tool)  •  Execute (OKR Check-in Software)  •  Evaluate (OKR Scorecard Software)  •  Plan (OKR Retrospective Tool) 
Underneath DEEP AI sit three intelligence models Viva Goals had no equivalent for. Orbit AI (employee performance intelligence software) flags attrition risk and burnout four to eight weeks before a review cycle. Axis AI (business performance intelligence software) reads your OKR data and isolates the fastest lever to pull when revenue or execution falls behind. Nexus AI (organisational intelligence software) maps strategy cascade failures and structural misalignment before they stall execution. Together, they turn a migration from a lateral move same OKR tracking, different logo into a genuine upgrade. 

Achieve Your Goals Faster 

See how Worxmate can help your team set clear goals and achieve faster results. Book your free demo today and experience the power of AI-driven OKRs in action. 
Book a Demo → 

Three Proven Methods to Migrate from Viva Goals

When migrating your OKR data, you have three distinct approaches to choose from, depending on your organization’s size, technical capabilities, and timeline requirements.

Method 1: Free Migration Assistance

The simplest approach is to take advantage of free migration assistance provided by the platform. This hands-off method lets migration specialists handle the entire process for you.

Steps for using Free Migration Assistance:

• Contact the support team or schedule a free demo call
• Provide necessary access credentials to your Viva Goals account
• Work with migration specialists to verify data mapping
• Review and approve the migrated data
• Begin using the new OKR platform with your existing structure intact

This method is ideal for organizations that want a frictionless transition without dedicating internal resources to the migration process.

Method 2: Export to Excel Method

If you prefer more control over the migration process, exporting your OKRs to Excel is a straightforward approach.

Steps for Excel-based migration:

• Log in to your Viva Goals account
• Navigate to the Explorer section to view all objectives
• Click on the export icon and select the Excel option
• Download the Excel file containing your OKRs
• Clean and format the data as needed
• Import the Excel file using the platform’s import wizard
• Verify that all data has been correctly imported

This method gives you the opportunity to review, clean, and potentially restructure your OKRs during the migration process.

Method 3: API Integration

For larger organizations with technical capabilities, the API integration method offers the most comprehensive migration experience.

Steps for API-based migration:

• Request API access credentials from both platforms
• Develop a custom integration script or use available API connectors
• Extract data from Viva Goals via API calls
• Transform the data to match the target platform’s data structure
• Load the transformed data into the new system
• Validate the migration with comprehensive testing

This method is ideal for enterprises with complex OKR structures, extensive historical data, or specific integration requirements with other systems.

Which Migration Method Fits Your Organization 

OKR Software vs ERP Goal Modules: Why the Platform Choice Matters 

One decision organizations get wrong during a Viva Goals migration is treating the replacement as interchangeable with whatever goal-tracking module already sits inside their ERP or HRIS suite. It isn’t. An okr software vs erp goal modules comparison usually comes down to one thing: ERP goal modules were built to record HR data, not to run a strategy execution cadence. If you’re weighing a purpose-built OKR platform against the goal-setting module bundled into your existing HR stack, that comparison breaks down where each one actually earns its place. 

Setting Up Stretch Goals After Migration 

Migration is also the right moment to fix how your organization sets ambition. Viva Goals treated every key result the same way, whether it was a committed target or a genuine stretch goal – and that flattening is one of the quieter reasons OKR programs lose credibility. Worxmate separates the two explicitly. If you’re rebuilding your goal library post-migration, use an OKR stretch goal calculator to set targets that are ambitious without being fictional, and decide upfront which key results are aspirational versus committed, before the first check-in. 

Using Generative AI for Employee Goal Setting Post-Migration 

The other advantage teams underuse after a migration is AI-assisted goal drafting. Manually rewriting hundreds of imported objectives is where most migrations stall in week two. Generative AI for employee goal setting the kind built into Worxmate’s Define stage can turn a rough KPI or task list into a properly structured, outcome-led OKR in minutes, which matters when you’re migrating an entire organization’s goal library at once rather than writing OKRs one team at a time. 

Best Practices for a Smooth Migration

To ensure a smooth transition from Viva Goals to Worxmate, consider these best practices:

• Start early: Begin planning your migration at least 2-3 months before you need to complete it
• Audit existing OKRs: Clean up outdated objectives, remove duplicates, and ensure proper alignment
• Communicate clearly: Keep stakeholders informed about the migration timeline and what to expect
• Provide training: Offer comprehensive training on Worxmate to ensure quick adoption
• Migrate in phases: Consider migrating one department first as a pilot
• Validate thoroughly: Check that all objectives, key results, and progress metrics transfer correctly.
• Reconcile OKR vs KPI data separately: Viva Goals often blurred key results and KPIs into one list. Before import, separate what’s actually an OKR vs KPI so your new platform doesn’t inherit the same confusion. 
• Set your check-in cadence on day one: Decide your OKR check-ins rhythm (weekly or bi-weekly) before go-live, not after adoption stalls. 

Why Worxmate Stands Out from Other OKR Platforms

Comparing Platform Architecture

When selecting the best OKR software for enterprise migration, evaluating core platform architecture separates short-term trackers from sustainable execution engines.

While several alternatives to Viva Goals exist, Worxmate distinguishes itself through its intelligent approach to strategy execution. According to McKinsey research, organizations that leverage AI-powered business tools see up to 40% higher productivity in knowledge work areas.
Its ability to integrate with existing workflows ensures that OKRs become an active part of daily work rather than a separate administrative task.
This integration leads to higher adoption rates and, ultimately, better execution of strategic objectives.
For organizations concerned about the future of their OKR platform, Worxmate offers the stability and innovation needed to future-proof your strategy management approach.
That stability question matters more in 2026 than it did before. Organizations that migrated once already – from a legacy tool to Viva Goals – and are now migrating again are understandably cautious about whether goal alignment survives a second platform switch. Worxmate’s answer isn’t a promise – it’s the DEEP AI architecture itself, designed so your goal management and OKR tracking history travel with you rather than resetting with every re-platform. 

Migrating by Region: India, UK, and USA Considerations 

Where your teams sit changes what the migration actually involves. If you’re consolidating a distributed organization, Worxmate’s regional teams handle the parts that matter locally: OKR software India deployments run on INR pricing with a Pune-based team, OKR software UK includes GDPR compliance and April-March financial year support, and OKR software USA gives teams founding-customer access alongside the same three AI models. None of that was available inside Viva Goals, regardless of region.

Making the Move to Worxmate: Next Steps

Migrating from Viva Goals doesn’t have to be difficult or disruptive. With the right approach and support, you can transform this transition into an opportunity to enhance your organization’s strategic capabilities.
The clock is ticking on Viva Goals’ retirement – but with a platform like Worxmate, you’re not just finding a replacement – you’re upgrading to a more powerful, intelligent system that can drive real business results.
Ready to explore your options? Schedule a demo with Worxmate today and discover the full potential of AI-powered OKR Software.
If your team just needs the platform, the fastest path is to book a demo and walk through your existing OKR structure with a migration specialist – check OKR software pricing while you’re at it. If your team’s real problem is that the OKRs themselves were never outcome-led to begin with – common after a rushed Viva Goals rollout – that’s a coaching conversation, not just a data migration. Worxmate’s OKR consulting practice exists for exactly that gap.