Yammer Reviews, Competitors and Pricing

it_user9720

Owner with 51-200 employees

Apr 22, 2014

Alternatives to Yammer exist, but it can be very useful within an organization to help with communication

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

reviewer903702

General Manager: Internal Communication at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees

Oct 17, 2019

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Integrates well with Teams but cannot stream on its own

Pros and Cons

"The integration with Teams is the biggest value for us. In fact, it has only become more valuable now that it has integration with Teams. Teams allows you to stream, so that's good."

"The solution must be able to stream by itself, without integration, the same way that you are able to do it on Facebook Live, Instagram, etc. Streaming must be embedded into it."

What is most valuable?

The integration with Teams is the biggest value for us. In fact, it has only become more valuable now that it has integration with Teams. Teams allows you to stream, so that's good.

What needs improvement?

The solution must be able to stream by itself, without integration, the same way that you are able to do it on Facebook Live, Instagram, etc. Streaming must be embedded into it.

The ability to just be live, I think is very important. You don't want to leave the app to go live. You want to be able to just go live within the app. So I think that their internet streaming ability would be a very good feature to add.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using this solution for about two years.

What other advice do I have?

I'll give it a six out of ten because I'm comparing it to what's out there. It's not the best solution out there. It doesn't compare well to the new tools that are in the market. It's not the best, but it's getting there.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.

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it_user651843

Global Communications Manager at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees

May 14, 2017

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People from around the world can share posts, create polls, and make group announcements. I want more control over the all network feed.

What is most valuable?

The ability for people from anywhere around the world, from any team, to connect and share their posts in groups, create polls, make group announcements, and provide feedback and recognition posts.

How has it helped my organization?

In its simplicity, it has given our people across our organization and around the world a voice
Helped people to network, ask questions, and get answers
Helped people to share activity and best practices
Segments liked-minded people together
Creates engagement
Allows people to give feedback and improve our culture

What needs improvement?

It's constantly evolving and Microsoft allows users to suggest ideas to improve.

There's always going to be room for improvement, because it's not the answer for everything. But it is a start.

For me, it's about:

Having more control over the all network feed
Improving how people filter the good stuff from all the noise
Allowing you to make certain important posts sticky at the top
Improving the removal process of people who are no longer with your business
Better integration with Microsoft products in the cloud

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Yammer for about three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There are not problems with stability. It's all Microsoft stuff, so it’s pretty well managed.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have had no scalability issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

I haven't used support yet, but plan to soon.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We didn't have a previous solution.

How was the initial setup?

It was a really simple setup. You can either join Yammer Freemium or purchase an Enterprise Office 365 licenses, which includes Yammer. I'd recommend this approach.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Go for a corporate/enterprise license to give you full admin control of Yammer, rather than the limited free version.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We didn’t look at alternatives, simply because this social network came with the license. Therefore, it was a one-time price.

What other advice do I have?

First consider whether you plan to purchase a license. If not, then I'd look into other software to suit your needs. If, however, you are investing in Microsoft software for your business, then Yammer is a great product.

Really understand what you need in terms of socially connecting your people and teams. If your teams are spread across a country or around the world, this is a great way of connecting everyone together.

Make sure you invest a bit of time to train, guide, and build up a solid and competent community manager network.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user180864

Web and Intranet Content Management Advisor at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jul 23, 2017

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You can join networks outside of the organization

What is most valuable?

Ease of use and the ability to join networks outside of the organization. These are valuable to drive adoption and to collaborate, be informed of events, and developments in related organizations.

How has it helped my organization?

We have set Yammer up inside IFrames that appear on our intranet home page, most content pages, and in all-team sites. This has enabled us to cater to large and very small audiences where they interact and not require a separate application or login.

What needs improvement?

The ability to edit replies to previous posts or answers would be useful. Navigation to different Yammer Groups could be improved. Navigation to external groups could be better integrated to reduce clicks. This is a minor annoyance only.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There were no issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There were no issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

No external support has been needed from the vendor. Online help and community support has been enough.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Apart from chat programs and discussion lists (e.g., SharePoint, MS Lync, and IBM Sametime), there hasn't been a similar product I've used at work previously.

How was the initial setup?

The installation was very simple. Just follow the prompts and the setup help.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I haven't been involved with licensing issues.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

This was installed when I joined this company.

What other advice do I have?

Undertake a small trial before rolling it out to an enterprise. This will help build interest. Don't attempt to control what gets posted, apart from the usual ethical/legal guidelines and rules.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user68022

Business Consultant with 1,001-5,000 employees

Nov 3, 2013

To Yammer or not to Yammer – can we guarantee success with enterprise social tools?

I’m very keen on the idea of the enterprise social network Yammer and what it could mean for internal business communication.

I visualise a time when our interstate frontline staff are discussing the pros and cons of a new business initiative with our senior managers at Head Office. When the CEO spots a game-changing idea from a new employee during his daily check of the site. When our sales teams are reporting back from the field, creating excitement about wins as they happen.

But enterprise social tools like Yammer are not like our traditional internal communication tools:

- We don’t control the message.

- We can’t force people to get involved - and success relies on interaction.

- We can’t guarantee success.

It’s actually pretty scary. I know of plenty of organisations that have experimented with Yammer and it failed. People didn’t see the value, they didn’t find the time and it fizzled out.

At this moment in time, the success of Yammer within my own organisation is at make or break point. Over one-sixth of our workforce signed up within the first few weeks of my soft launch, simply via word of mouth. I invited those people I could rely on to join first. That worked well. A key group of about half a dozen people from across the business were very keen and began posting updates, asking questions, replying to threads and creating groups.

Next, with a good proportion of staff onboard I sent an email to our Senior Management Team, outlining the benefits and asking for their commitment to the network – just five minutes a day, twice a week to begin with.

I also spoke face-to-face with a number of staff: if they were working on an interesting project I suggested a Yammer post. If I was writing an intranet news story on behalf of a business unit, I suggested that they could also promote their work in a status update.

I’ve nudged conversations along, introduced talking points, asked questions and tried to encourage the lurkers.

Now, we’re six weeks in. The initial excitement has died off. There are other business priorities. Less people are joining. Those who signed-up haven’t revisited the site. The goodwill of our Senior Managers is there, but they just haven’t found the time.

So, I’m asking myself some key questions and I’d be interested to hear your thoughts:

- do we just ‘experiment’ with enterprise social tools such as Yammer, or do we strategise the roll-out as we do with all other internal comms channels?

- by creating a strategy for success, can we ever guarantee a social tool like Yammer is a success?

- what does success look like on these tools anyway?

- finally, what can we learn about our employee engagement if there is low interaction through Yammer. How can we use this to influence the rest of our internal communications strategy?

These are the questions I’ll be working through over the coming months…..I’ll keep you updated.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user96480‎Social business consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Report as inappropriate

Jan 10, 2017

Allthough the article is a couple of years old, some statements keep nagging as I keep hearing them. They can be summarized by the following quote:
"But enterprise social tools like Yammer are not like our traditional internal communication tools:
- We don’t control the message.
- We can’t force people to get involved - and success relies on interaction.
- We can’t guarantee success."
Starting with the third item: Can you name any tool that actually does guarantee success?
And the first: when your goal is to control the message, don't use a collaboration tool. Use a send to all mechanism, preferably with a 'do-not-reply' from address. ;-) You then automatically arrive at your second point: if you want involvement, let go of the control issues....

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it_user616521

Head of People Operations at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees

Feb 28, 2017

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Enables internal communication between different countries and locations.

What is most valuable?

Enables internal communication between different countries and locations.
Provides easy access and low hierarchy: Everyone is able to comment, ask questions, share knowledge, and get to know colleagues.

How has it helped my organization?

Has brought leaders closer to people: Leaders can share video messages which are more engaging than just faceless email messages.
People are encouraged to comment on these messages or ask questions
Leaders/managers can respond back

What needs improvement?

They need to somehow enable better document sharing features. They need to provide joint drafting of documents.

In regards to the document sharing and modifying feature, currently it does not entirely work together with the mobile devices.

If the documents are saved in OneDrive, then the connection to Yammer is not very easy to use.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for a little over three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There were no stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

At first, we did encounter some scalability issues on some mobile devices.

How are customer service and technical support?

I would give the technical support a rating of 6/10.

It takes a long time before getting a reply. Sometimes there are language barriers in terms of poor English or when no Finnish speakers are available.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not have any other tool before this one.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was very easy. It helped a lot that I participated in the Yammer Community Manager training that was organized by Blue Meteorite.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is good to know that Yammer is now included in the Microsoft Office 365 subscription without any extra fee.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at the WhatsApp business version, but it was not sufficient. Later, we also looked into Slack. However, we still haven't decided whether we should change or not.

What other advice do I have?

You should exchange experiences with other companies who have implemented this solution. You might also participate in the Yammer Community Manager training as well. However, the exact way to launch Yammer depends on the needs of the organization.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user220764

IT Business Analyst for Sales Enablement with 1,001-5,000 employees

Feb 23, 2017

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Secure collaboration environment for crowdsourcing knowledge

What is most valuable?

Inline video
Mobile apps
Secure collaboration environment for crowdsourcing knowledge
Translation tool

How has it helped my organization?

We have been able to have multi-country project teams where members can interact in their own language.

What needs improvement?

Ability to edit posts and also rich text would be good. Currently, unlike other social tools like Facebook at Work and Chatter, Yammer does not have the ability to edit posts. Also, the only rich text (bold/italics/bullets) that are supported are in the Announcements.

I know that Microsoft are currently testing the editing feature and it is due to be released in the next couple of months. This is the most requested feature which we receive from our users.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for eighteen months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Occasionally we have some stability issues. But that is to be expected in a rapidly developing platform and the A-B testing does give some stability issues sometimes.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I did not encounter any issues with scalability.

How is customer service and technical support?

Technical support is very good and responsive. We have premier support.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was straightforward but inconsistent. Now that it is fully integrated with Office 365, the consistency is there.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Jive and Facebook Business.

What other advice do I have?

Go for it, especially if you are a Microsoft shop.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user8916

Owner with 51-200 employees

May 1, 2014

Do You Use Yammer at Work? And Why Not SharePoint?

There was a question a while back on the Microsoft MVPs LinkedIn group (YAFSN! – see below) wondering “Do you use Yammer at work?” I’m still trying to figure out how much I want to use Yammer. As when Google+ came out, I’m trying it. I pretty much abandoned G+, and Yammer may well go the same way for most things. I got into Yammer via an invitation into SPYam from Bjørn Furuknap with my USPJA email address. Now I’m trapped into that identity for SPYam (the network for SharePoint discussions that Joel Oleson set up – ping me if you’d like an invitation) but have to use my work email address to access the SharePoint MVP network into which Microsoft has seemingly decided to move all communications. That tying of one’s identity to a single email domain (it seems you can’t combine domains into one über identity) is my biggest beef with the Yammer platform. I’m sure they will work that out, though. (Yammer probably could have done it in a few weeks. Now that it’s a Microsoft product, maybe in Yammer 2016, and you’ll only need to add a three server farm to enable it.) I read a constant stream of complaints about other aspects of how Yammer works in – natch – Yammer. Sure, there are some true annoyances (no Shift-Enter in post entry, no parity between clients, Adobe Air!) but I could give you a litany of similar annoyances for every single YAFSN. User interfaces seem to always have annoyances. The important thing is how fast the people who develop the platform can react to consistent complaints and improve. Everyone seems to think we need YAFSN (Yet Another Fantastic Social Network), but each new one that comes along simply fragments the landscape further. Who has the time to check dozens of these damn things? Social in the workplace must be a performance improvement, not a detriment. (I’d argue we should hold our personal social network use to the same standard. LOL catz!) if I have to check four or five social networks constantly in order to be well-informed, that drags down my efficiency. I’ll keep using Yammer for the MVP stuff because I don’t have any choice, of course. Gotta get all those “secrets” somehow. It really makes me wonder, though, why we don’t use SharePoint to talk about SharePoint. It seems that in the vast majority of cases, SharePointilists prefer to use a different technology to communicate about SharePoint. That, to me, raises a far more important question: “Do you use SharePoint at work?”

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.