Apart from the invention of the cellular phone, the Web has undoubtedly had the most significant impact on changing the face of business communications in the modern workplace. And the latest explosive force for change in Web-based communications has to be the rapid rise of social media channels.
However, the strongest players in the social media space have concentrated on the broad-based consumer market to achieve their astronomical popularity. Even the more business-focussed of these fail when it comes to applying them as internal enterprise communications mechanisms. By their very nature, and size, these platforms are too open, too flooded with personal streams and feeds to be effective as a means of augmenting inter-office communication and collaboration – if anything these recognised leaders in social media are a hindrance to productivity thanks to the extreme levels of distraction they represent.
Where did Yammer come from?
Yammer was started in 2008 to address this gap in the enterprise communications mesh. Originally created as an internal communications tool for genealogy website Geni, progressive software giant Microsoft recognised the immense potential of the platform and purchased the “enterprise social network” in 2012. Effectively a self-contained Facebook-like environment dedicated to a single organisation specifically to exchange ideas and facilitate seamless business communications in a style which users have become increasingly comfortable with.
The Yammer Homepage – familiar to social networkers.
As a Microsoft Partner, we at Space Age Technologies implemented and have been using the Yammer environment since this powerful tool was added to the Microsoft suite of products, so that we could get to know the platform intimately and provide our customers with first-hand experience of its effectiveness as an enterprise communications and collaboration tool. Since that time Yammer has grown to be a critical facet of our overall communications infrastructure, augmented by Lync for its strengths in IM and VoIP calls.
Familiar, but focussed.
The Yammer Newsfeed is immediately familiar to any user of existing social networking platforms, with functionality which is similar albeit enhanced in key areas specifically for the sake of improving enterprise collaboration. Now any news which is relevant to the business as a whole can be quickly and conveniently shared with all stakeholders giving us the advantage of a far more transparent structure, bringing our already close-knit teams even closer together and improving our ability to communicate effectively both within and across these teams.
We have further segmented our Yammer environment into interest-related pages, so that for instance our technically-adept engineers can share the latest technology developments and trends and keep abreast with the fast-paced world of tech news. Our solutions architects can similarly share the latest product-specific enhancements and how these can be deployed to deliver true value to our clients in their own page without these valuable lessons running the risk of getting “lost” in the traffic of a conventional social networking news feed.
Yammer has been particularly useful for our HR department to communicate effortlessly with the enterprise as a whole.
Yammer is also so much more than merely a place to conveniently share information throughout the enterprise however. It acts as a powerful, easily searchable repository of content including staff contact details as well as skill sets, making it easier than ever to find the right person within the organisation for any job needing doing and contacting them through the most convenient channels.
Yammer also acts as a company-wide information repository.
Enterprise Social Networking business benefits.
Yammer ties our entire staff complement together regardless of their location or current connectivity. The Yammer desktop client ensures that users don’t need to remain logged-in to a webpage to be kept up to date or to engage in conversations – the client provides an IM-like tool which feeds new content directly to the user and allows immediate interaction with this content with no additional steps or authentication slowing the flow of communications down.
There is a Yammer client for the traditional Windows-based PC and Mac, as well as Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile devices so whether sitting in the office or out on the move our team enjoys the same advantages of open, real-time communications.
Unifying the enterprise.
In addition to posting mere information or links to additional sources, Yammer allows users to add rich media to their posts further adding value to the information provided, or attach files directly for simple enterprise-wide collaboration.
Naturally this form of open, free-flowing communications has brought our teams together into a unified workforce more effectively than any previous team-building tools or regimes. It encourages deeper and more meaningful interaction between staff members and a critical medium for communicating thrilling life experinces while promoting company social events which are essential to building team spirit while instilling a strong sense of belonging. .
We experienced initial challenges in driving the adoption of Yammer, as at first it was viewed as just another social network to manage. Getting enterprise-wide engagement is an on-going process, but the results when the teams do start checking the network regularly are worth the time spent.
In our environment we’ve discovered that keeping the content varied and not limited exclusively to company information does entice and engage our staff better. Yammer gained the most traction in our organisation once we started incorporating posts with images or video attached of stories from our employees lives.
As well as rich media files, you can also attach event details or even your own polls to Yammer messages.
These elements: improved enterprise-wide communications and collaboration, a more tightly-knit and easily accessible social environment, and increased transparency into the business as a whole are just the advantages that we have experienced with our first-hand implementation of the Yammer infrastructure. A recent survey conducted by Yammer itself also identifies the following key advantages:
- Increased productivity thanks to Yammer saving them time with internal communications and finding answers to resolve issues quickly.
- Reduced staff churn due to improved employee engagement.
- Strong company culture and closely-connected business and social interactivity.
Yammer Groups allow your staff to follow the topics which interest them the most.
What does Yammer cost?
Microsoft makes the basic version of Yammer available for free, and our own Space Age Yammer network has realised the advantages detailed in this post on this freely available Yammer distribution. Additional features such as enterprise network administration tools, network-wide app authorisation, the powerful search function and integration with existing services including but not limited to a SharePoint server are all available to subscribers of the Yammer service, with prices starting as low as $3 per user.
Although the results may vary depending on the business itself, it is clear that by building a Yammer enterprise social network and creating a communications culture centred on this user-friendly environment, efficiency of communications improves, collaboration both within teams and throughout the enterprise is made easier, and your employees are more easily able to root themselves in a stronger and more transparent corporate culture.
