Yammer

Everyone

So Microsoft announced on Monday that we're buying "Yammer". I'd never even heard of it until I read the announcement. Supposedly some "200,000 companies worldwide." use it.

Anyone here used it? Thoughts?

My 1st thought is "oh boy another social network". I guess I'll be giving it a try over the next few weeks.

Kopite_21

No me neither, over the pond in the UK!!!

cyberguypr

Same here. No idea what it was until a read the news feeds. Sounds like a hammer to smash yams.

WafflesAndRootbeer

I certainly had no idea what it was until I read that MS is paying 1.something billion for it. Maybe it will be their Instagram.

Roguetadhg

Because we already don't have enough Twitter, Facebook, digg, friendsters, myspace, Google+ in the world.

Im founding the social network "Yap". Right now. Yes. And it's got -wait for it- Instant Voice Mailing. You don't need to text. Using a combination of low-end codecs to use up more of your cellphone data plans. I'm sure AT&T and Big Red would love to have that. Say good bye to Text and Driving folks.

Now if only there was an easier way to share cat videos than Youtube.

RobertKaucher

Yammer is an intra-enterprise social networking service. We use it at my work and it has some pretty serious adoptees.

It's a very good way to find things out that email isn't really applicable for. For example, if you needed someone who spoke a language or had a certain skill you could advertise your need and find someone who might fit the bill. It combines features found in email lists and Twitter. I am expecting it will be integrated into SharePoint/Lync.

N2IT

We use it and it's a great tool.

We set up groups like on linkedin and collaborate in these rooms all time.

Some thoughts on this piece of software.

It provides transparency for upper levels and interaction with the employees through this means of communication
It allows users of similar tool sets to get together and ask questions. I have noticed that users will go out here and ask questions and within minutes get an answer. Difficult Excel formulas for instance. Ones that would require a lot of effort on my part and no way help desk could get these on most occasions. So instead of bouncing around this question trying to find a group the end user is getting his answers right then and there. I think eventually for How to questions and other tips and tricks employees can go to this tool and get their answer quickly.
All the data is captured and can be referenced. It essentially creates a knowledge base. You go to the group MS Access for instance. I am in that one a lot on Yammer. I go into that group and run a search and can find my answer quickly. It's a very nice piece of software and in fact I presented to my ex engagement manager for a piece of innovation to the company I worked for last and they loved the idea. This is a global fortune 500 company. I basically consolidated what I said on here in a high level summary and my boss presented.

This is the future in corporate IT. This could drive down incident cost on the help desk. I have a vision that it could be leveraged so effectively you could reduce your support staff and lower your SG&A.


*** I work in an environment with 60,000 employees nation wide and it's heavily used.

ptilsen

Actually, based on what N2 is saying I think it could be legitimately useful. We implemented Socialcast, which is somewhat similar but a little bit too Facebook-y. I've not seen Yammer, but if MS is buying it they're definitely going to be pushing it. I agree that it will likely see integration with similar communication suites from MS, specifically Exchange, Lync, and Outlook.

TLeTourneau

Ditto to what N2 said. It's a great tool and is being implemented enterprise wide. I'm fairly confident that it is going to be integrated with SharePoint in the future.

ChooseLife

We use it as a corporate Facebook and really utilize it a lot for internal chatter, even though we have some presence on most if not all other social networks. Yammer is great. It's very much like Facebook as far as user experience is concerned, just separated from the personal space.

steve_f

But can\should you discuss company confidential subjects on it?

ptilsen

Steve_f, probably no more or less than you should via email.

steve_f

Good point about email, however internal email is surely safer that a 3rd party social network? At least it is routeed and stored internally.

Agree that external email would be equally insecure.

ptilsen

Isn't Yammer available as something that can be implemented internally? I have been under that impression this whole time. Socialcast, for example, can be used either as a hosted service or as a virtual "appliance".

chappys4life

My current job at McGladrey uses it. It looks like a basic facebook.

gunbunnysoulja

Yammer is great. I've been using it for a long time now. Being a WAH guy (like you as well Everyone), Yammer comes in very handy for real time collaboration/updates. You can also create different pages/groups with different members for projects. Ofcourse we also have SP, but I'm a big Yammer fan. We post a lot of podcasts on it which works out good too.