Item: Microsoft Yammer
Rating: 8
Author: Erica Mijon

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Yammer is used across the enterprise - Both Unum employees, Colonial Life's parent company, and Colonial Life employees use Yammer to engage with one another in a more casual setting. Rather than bombarding inboxes with emails, employees post on Yammer for company events, congratulations and relevant life updates. Groups are also formed for specific committees and resource groups. Yammer is used for a hub of updates and keeping people in the loop without having to read lengthy emails.

Pros and Cons

Keeping employees connected across the enterprise
The use of gifs and images
Private message option

I think the news feed should be updated chronologically, not by post "relevance" like many other social channels do now

Return on Investment

People in other business areas are able to connect more than they would be without Yammer
Employees can scroll on Yammer for company updates and news like they'd scroll on Facebook, but arguably it's productive scrolling

Support Rating

Yammer took several months to successfully implement on the communications team and a few more months after that to get a sampling of employees on the site. It wasn't an easy process explaining to leadership why they should be on another mode of communication or to career employees how Yammer is used differently than email.

Key Insights

Do you think Microsoft Yammer delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Microsoft Yammer's feature set?

Yes

Did Microsoft Yammer live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Microsoft Yammer go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Microsoft Yammer again?

Yes

Other Software Used

MS SharePoint, DivvyHQ

Likelihood to Recommend

Yammer is great for segmenting your audiences. If you want only one specific group of people to see a post, say, those following Corporate Social Responsibility, you're able to tailor your post to those followers. Yammer is a new form of communication for the workplace - instead of sending stale, formal emails, Yammer gives you the ability to add gifs, emojis, and images to spice up your announcement or even make a flu shot event seem more fun.

I think it's best used for more casual announcements. I don't think it's appropriate to post something all employees NEED to see, like a fire drill announcement, because not everyone who needs to see it may see it.

It's still a struggle getting all our employees signed up for Yammer. While the process is easy, there was a lot of pushback because there are so many channels of communication in place already. We have maybe half of all employees on Yammer now. It's progress, but we may never have everyone signed up.

Lots to Yammer on about

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Yammer