Don’t email, Yammer

One of the major trends we are seeing in the technology landscape is the move away from traditional communication mediums like email to social networks. If you don’t believe that, stop and take a look at how your kids and the way millennials communicate. The first thing they check in the morning is definitely not email, it is probably Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Chances are they don’t even use emails at all any more, much like they only use a mobile phone to send text messages and surfing the Internet. This move to social is also now being mirrored within the enterprise and for very good reason. If you reflect on the messages you receive via email, chances are the vast majority of them don’t need to be private and many could in fact provide value to someone else, if not now somewhere in the future. The problem is that stored in your inbox means they are locked away from anyone else who could make use of them.

The need to remove information silos from within organizations is leading the greater adoption of social networks within the enterprise. One of the leaders in this space is Yammer, now owned by Microsoft, and incorporated into all Office 365 plans. Yammer maintains a free version but incorporates much more control and compliance when upgraded to the enterprise version. Even more power and functionality is gained when it is adopted as part of an Office 365 subscription. Yammer is also a cloud only solution, it doesn't have an on premises version.

The easiest way to describe Yammer is that it provides a newsfeed section in the middle of the page where users can post updates and comment on existing posts. In here they can also use hashtags to highlight a certain topic and 'at' mention people to ensure they are notified of what is said. Yammer also supports the concepts of dedicated groups which live below the all company feed. Access to these groups can be restricted and are generally designed to be focused on a particular topic so it doesn’t swamp the main feed and those who may not be interested in that topic.

Beyond the home network Yammer users can join existing external networks or even create their own to collaborate with partners outside their business. That can allow both enterprise and free Yammer users to share information and collaborate.

Although Yammer does allow file storage, when combined with SharePoint Online as part of Office 365 it allows conversations around documents stored throughout. The Office graph technology is also at work behind the scenes surfacing relevant information within an Office 365 users Delve. We also expect to see the new Office 365 Group technology to become more prevalent throughout Yammer as it will with the whole Office 365 suite.

One of the big shifts in the way people communicate is via social networks. This is now also becoming a major part of the way that businesses are also beginning to work. Yammer is a mature enterprise social network that has free and standalone versions but gains much more functionality when enabled as part of all Office 365 subscriptions. Social networks inside the enterprise are not something to be feared, they are a new tool that will increase the productivity of your workers and make them feel much more engaged.