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Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor vs. Microsoft Viva Engage

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor

    Score9 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    The Lightning Conductor is a content aggregation tool for Microsoft SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams. Users can build rich, modern content reports based upon SharePoint lists, SharePoint Search, Microsoft Graph or Microsoft 365 Groups. Content can be aggregated from lists and libraries, and other applications such as Planner, To Do, OneDrive, and Teams.

    $2,200

    per year per installation

    Microsoft Viva Engage

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Viva Engage, formerly Yammer, is used for private communication within organizations or between organizational members and pre-designated groups.

    $24

    per year per user

    Pricing
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorMicrosoft Viva Engage
    Editions & Modules
    Lightning Conductor WSP
    From 1950
    per year One WFE
    Lightning Conductor Enterprise Edition
    POA
    per year Four or more WFE
    Lightning Conductor Online
    From 2200
    per year per installation
    Lightning Conductor Plus (Includes Data Viewer)
    From 2500
    per year per installation
    Lightning Conductor Online Enterprise Edition (>10,000 users)
    POA
    per year per installation
    Microsoft Viva Employee Communications and Communities
    $24
    per year per user
    Microsoft Viva Suite
    $144
    per year per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorMicrosoft Viva Engage
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsPrices stated are minimum per installation for "stock" products. $2.20 per user/year on top of base price. Enterprise editions can be amended to suit business needs if deemed necessary, additional costs incurred and TBD. All packages include free technical support. Free upgrades available to latest versions of tool as they are released. (online version)Microsoft Viva Engage is also available in some Microsoft 365 packages.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorMicrosoft Viva Engage
    Considered Both Products
    Lightning Tools
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    86%
    Would buy again
    19 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    17 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    21 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    10 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    13 Answers
    Features
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorMicrosoft Viva Engage
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor and Microsoft Viva Engage
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor
    8.6
    2 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Microsoft Viva Engage
    8.7
    46 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Task Management8.82 Ratings9.128 Ratings
    Search8.42 Ratings8.343 Ratings
    Gantt Charts00 Ratings8.815 Ratings
    Scheduling00 Ratings8.423 Ratings
    Workflow Automation00 Ratings8.623 Ratings
    Mobile Access00 Ratings8.843 Ratings
    Visual planning tools00 Ratings8.926 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor and Microsoft Viva Engage
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Viva Engage
    8.6
    49 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Chat00 Ratings9.444 Ratings
    Notifications00 Ratings8.349 Ratings
    Discussions00 Ratings9.748 Ratings
    Surveys00 Ratings9.638 Ratings
    Internal knowledgebase00 Ratings9.338 Ratings
    Integrates with GoToMeeting00 Ratings7.314 Ratings
    Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts00 Ratings6.713 Ratings
    Integrates with Outlook00 Ratings8.632 Ratings
    File Sharing & Management
    Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor and Microsoft Viva Engage
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Viva Engage
    9.1
    42 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Versioning00 Ratings9.728 Ratings
    Video files00 Ratings9.436 Ratings
    Audio files00 Ratings9.334 Ratings
    Document collaboration00 Ratings9.135 Ratings
    Access control00 Ratings9.035 Ratings
    Advanced security features00 Ratings8.433 Ratings
    Integrates with Google Drive00 Ratings8.014 Ratings
    Device sync00 Ratings9.528 Ratings
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    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorMicrosoft Viva Engage
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    Score9.8 out of 10
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    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorMicrosoft Viva Engage
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    8.9
    (59 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (11 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.8
    (9 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    7.0
    (12 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorMicrosoft Viva Engage
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Lightning Tools
    Having experience of SharePoint On Premise and also SharePoint Online, there isn't an out of the box app/webpart that enables you to 'roll up content' from a variety of source's (in my case SP Lists, but there are many other data sources it works with) across site collections with an easy to use and intuitive interface which is what Lightning tools excels at.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Yammer is great when you have a company culture that encourages friendly collaboration and communication. It can be a great supplement (but certainly not a substitute) for bonding and sharing ideas and thoughts. Certain channels can be really successful, too, like a channel where people can post dog pictures or something fun like that!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Lightning Tools
    • Aggregate documents across SharePoint site & libraries
    • Filtering for owner/person responsible & due dates
    • Ease of end-user filtering on columns
    • Color-coding & other formatting
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Providing a platform for social news in the company where "bottom up" topics can percolate freely across department
    • Social networking across the company where folks can divide their work into topics instead of teams
    • Basic collaboration within a group including document sharing with ability to pin documents to a team
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Lightning Tools
    • Mobile Friendly
    • Calendar/Gantt views
    • Complex/Custom Logic
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Although the social enterprise network works very well, there is room for some slight improvement - such as the ability to attract users. By being part of the Microsoft Office Suite, it is offered as an "add-on" and many overlook it and see it as unnecessary at first. It would be smart for Microsoft to sell it as its own product so it could gather more popularity as a "social network".
    • Giving an option to filter results could be better as well as giving an option to turn off the "recent activity" bar on the home page.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Microsoft is dedicated to continual improvement on Yammer. They realize the value that Yammer brings to the table with their clients. In the short time that we have had Yammer implemented, we are just now beginning to see the strong impact it has on becoming more effective and efficient around collaboration.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Overall easy to use and intuitive, although limited in the possibility to personalize layout and look & feel of a site. Some functionalities are not easy to use, like document editing, but some others are quick and effective (posts and tagging above all). Performance and responsiveness of the Yammer site is typically acceptable, in my experience.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Very available
    Read full review
    Performance
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    It's a simple product but it does provide value.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Lightning Tools
    The Lightning Tools support team responds quickly, and team members are very friendly and helpful.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    We have never had to use the support for Yammer. The tool works well and we have not come across any bugs. User Interface is simple and easy to use, similar to other forum type products, thereby removing the need for any extensive training. Team members are invited in and immediately are able to start using the tool.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    The training that Microsoft provides is very generic training for Yammer. I like the fact the training is short and easy to understand
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    We organically implemented the product
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Lightning Tools
    I haven't found another product to compare this one to. Only in SharePoint Online which has a similar App 'Highlight Webpart' ... it's far too complicated to set up and requires learning yet another language and exporting and importing via PowerShell to get any real results that would be useful.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Our team briefly used Salesforce.com's Chatter product before switching over to Yammer in 2012. While Chatter is essentially the same product as Yammer, it left much to be desired. Chatter's design was (and remains) clunky and difficult to navigate. Yammer is a simple, easy-to-use product that offers similar functionality as Salesforce's Chatter.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Lightning Tools
    • Policies easier to portray
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • My company is pleased with the positive impact Yammer has created departmentally and on an individual basis with work flow efficiency.
    • Adversely, most old and new employees are more familiar with SharePoint, causing the company to pay for training for all current and incoming employees.
    • As Yammer becomes more widely used, the need for training may diminish, which is where we will see our return on investment, as the product clearly provides a more effective form of file sharing and communication between employees and their department.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor Screenshots

    Screenshot of MODERN SHAREPOINT LIST ROLLUP
The Lightning Conductor is a SharePoint Content Aggregator that can be configured quickly by business users. The Lightning Conductor can be used to aggregate content from SharePoint Lists such as Tasks, Document Libraries, Contact Lists, and Custom Lists making it easy to view content in one place even if it is distributed across many sites and site collections. Key data can be highlighted using conditional formatting and data-bars as shown. Content from Search and Microsoft Graph can also be aggregated with the Lightning Conductor.Screenshot of CONTENT AGGREGATION WITHIN MICROSOFT TEAMS
The Lightning Conductor Web Part can be used within Microsoft SharePoint or Microsoft Teams. Even if content is stored within SharePoint sites, it is useful to have aggregated Documents, Tasks, Announcements, Calendars or Custom Lists from multiple sites displayed in a single handy view in Microsoft Teams. The Lightning Conductor can be added as a Teams Tab in any Microsoft Teams Channel.Screenshot of BUILDING REPORTS ON MICROSOFT GRAPH
The Lightning Conductor can be used (without code) to aggregate content from Microsoft Graph as well as Search and SharePoint Lists. This example displays Microsoft Planner Plans and Microsoft Planner Tasks where users can Add new Tasks, Assign Users to Planner Tasks, Delete Tasks, and Complete Tasks. The same can be performed on Microsoft To Do items and displayed within Modern SharePoint pages or Microsoft Teams Tabs. The Lighting Conductor can also contain multiple views of content, making it ideal to display all of your tasks from SharePoint Task lists, Microsoft To Do and Microsoft Planner in a single web part or Teams Tab.

*Microsoft Graph Reports are only available for SharePoint Online and not SharePoint 2019.Screenshot of BUILDING REPORTS ON MICROSOFT 365 GROUPS
Powered by Microsoft Graph, the Microsoft 365 Group Rollup Provider enables users to aggregate content by browsing and selecting Microsoft 365 Groups. Within Microsoft 365 Groups, you’ll be able to select entities such as Drive Items, Owners, Members, Planner Plans, Planner Tasks, Events, Posts,  Sites, Lists, and Calendars.

*Microsoft Graph Reports are only available for SharePoint Online and not SharePoint 2019.Screenshot of AGGREGATING USING SEARCH
When performance is critical, search can be used for rollups. The Lightning Conductor offers three data source configurations to get to content. Object Model (Real Time Aggregation from SharePoint Lists), Microsoft Graph (Aggregation from Graph Entities such as Planner, OneDrive, Outlook), and Search. The Search Data Source enables the aggregation of content from large SharePoint lists and libraries when performance is critical. Thousands of documents can be displayed in under a second using Search.Screenshot of HIGHLIGHTING KEY BUSINESS DATA WITHIN VIEWS
End users and Site Owners can highlight the data that is important to them, the data that they need to prioritize. Using conditional formatting, data bars, and icons, conditions can be configured to highlight the data that is most important. Icons and Data Bars can be any color or size desired. Examples include highlighting High Priority tasks, Showing data bars for the completion progress of Tasks, or indicating which tasks are assigned to any particular user.