Microsoft Yammer vs. Higher Logic Vanilla

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Yammer
Score 7.1 out of 10
N/A
Yammer is used for private communication within organizations or between organizational members and pre-designated groups, making it an example of enterprise social software. It originally launched as an enterprise microblogging service and now has applications on several different operating systems and devices. The company was acquired by Microsoft in 2012.N/A
Higher Logic Vanilla
Score 6.0 out of 10
N/A
Higher Logic Vanilla is a customizable and themable forum software. It can be used for support communities, Q&A Communities and more. There are numerous integrations, including SSO, and connectors to popular software such as Mailchimp, WordPress, Zendesk and Salesforce.N/A
Pricing
Microsoft YammerHigher Logic Vanilla
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Essential
Contact sales team
Corporate
Contact sales team
Enterprise
Contact sales team
Enterprise Plus
Contact sales team
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft YammerHigher Logic Vanilla
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft YammerHigher Logic Vanilla
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Microsoft YammerHigher Logic Vanilla
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Yammer
7.8
40 Ratings
1% below category average
Higher Logic Vanilla
-
Ratings
Task Management8.024 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts8.012 Ratings00 Ratings
Scheduling8.218 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow Automation8.020 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Access7.238 Ratings00 Ratings
Search7.338 Ratings00 Ratings
Visual planning tools8.022 Ratings00 Ratings
Communication
Comparison of Communication features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Yammer
7.8
43 Ratings
3% below category average
Higher Logic Vanilla
-
Ratings
Chat8.539 Ratings00 Ratings
Notifications8.343 Ratings00 Ratings
Discussions9.042 Ratings00 Ratings
Surveys7.033 Ratings00 Ratings
Internal knowledgebase7.632 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with GoToMeeting7.414 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts6.613 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Outlook8.332 Ratings00 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Yammer
8.4
36 Ratings
3% above category average
Higher Logic Vanilla
-
Ratings
Versioning7.025 Ratings00 Ratings
Video files8.631 Ratings00 Ratings
Audio files9.029 Ratings00 Ratings
Document collaboration8.730 Ratings00 Ratings
Access control8.030 Ratings00 Ratings
Advanced security features8.627 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Google Drive8.014 Ratings00 Ratings
Device sync9.023 Ratings00 Ratings
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Microsoft YammerHigher Logic Vanilla
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Enterprises
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User Ratings
Microsoft YammerHigher Logic Vanilla
Likelihood to Recommend
7.8
(53 ratings)
9.0
(10 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
6.9
(10 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(3 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(12 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
7.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft YammerHigher Logic Vanilla
Likelihood to Recommend
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!
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Higher Logic
For companies that want to customize almost anything and make the forum look like your site, Vanilla Forums is the one for you. Customization and automation of the data via the API with other systems is more than possible and they serve to be great as a hosting provider, dealing with all the upgrades, deployments and maintenance and threat management well. I would say they might be less turn key for a small application but the fact they have an open source community, the ability to find help and information can lower the barrier of entry for most.
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Pros
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
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Higher Logic
  • Gamification: The ability to incentivise community members to get involved with ranks and badges is one of the main reasons that we purchased the tool.
  • Support: The Vanilla support team are incredible, often responding to issues very late at night and proactively fixing issues as soon as they occur.
  • Customisation: Vanilla can be completely styled with css allowing us to match it to the branding of the rest of our website.
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Cons
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.
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Higher Logic
  • There are some features I wish Vanilla would implement that could improve ease of use in our specific community, but some of the ideas we have are not necessarily something that would benefit all of the forums that Vanilla works with.
  • In the past, we've had issues with releases breaking some of our specific site features they built for us, but this has improved drastically recently.
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Likelihood to Renew
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.
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Higher Logic
No answers on this topic
Usability
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.
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Higher Logic
It is very intuitive and simple to operate. Our customers immediately came up with the curve and began contributing content.
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Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
Very available
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Higher Logic
No answers on this topic
Performance
Microsoft
It's a simple product but it does provide value.
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Higher Logic
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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.
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Higher Logic
They did an amazing job transferring our content from GetSatisfaction. We had almost 100% success in the transfer of 8 years worth of content.
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Online Training
Microsoft
The training that Microsoft provides is very generic training for Yammer. I like the fact the training is short and easy to understand
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Higher Logic
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Microsoft
We organically implemented the product
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Higher Logic
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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.
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Higher Logic
From a footprint standpoint, Vanilla has less technical bloat than vbulletin or InVision, and it outdoes Lithium as far as features and service go. The bloat of other services and ability to use new ways of engaging communities such as through Reactions are part of the reason Vanilla was selected. However, the features are better on a couple more seasoned platforms and more equipped to deal with issues and technical problems.
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Return on Investment
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.
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Higher Logic
  • Increased uptime and overall speed in the forum (compared to our previous phpbb solution)
  • Increased usage by users which resulted in a higher pages/session in a short amount of time
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ScreenShots

Higher Logic Vanilla Screenshots

Screenshot of Looks great on any device, including desktop, tablet or mobile device.Screenshot of We offer over 60 plugins that can add functionality to your community.Screenshot of Many different themes to choose from, which you can further customize as you like.Screenshot of You have full access to edit HTML and CSS of your theme, to make any changes you need.