Boost your teamwork Fortune 500 style with Yammer - SmartBrief

All Articles Marketing Marketing Strategy Boost your teamwork Fortune 500 style with Yammer

Boost your teamwork Fortune 500 style with Yammer

Businesses still employing outdated communications strategies limit themselves as information gets stuck behind internal barriers. Fortune 500 companies have long ago updated their internal practices by using Yammer.

5 min read

Marketing Strategy

Yammer

Microsoft

All images in this post are courtesy of Microsoft.

In these modern times, many companies employ chat and video conferencing software, which could be improved, but is not bad. However, the many companies that are still using Outlook’s “Reply to all” button for group discussions are the ones that should especially consider new tactics. Such unwieldy type of dialogue, often encumbered with file attachments, creates disorder and clutter and stifles productivity. Businesses still employing such outdated strategies limit themselves as information gets stuck behind internal barriers.

Fortune 500 companies have long ago updated their internal practices by using Yammer, a free social network service that has revolutionized large corporations such as eBay and Verizon. Other large companies including Xerox and 7-Eleven have also seen the light and have started using Yammer. Moreover, some institutions such as the European Commission have also adopted the service.

Broken communication channels and geographic boundaries often keep information trapped at the top of large corporations, slowing decision-making processes to a crawl. Meanwhile, employees with actionable intelligence often keep their knowledge to themselves to preserve their value in the corporate pecking order. Yammer changes all that.

The basics of Yammer

Companies can harness the power of social networking for their internal operations using Yammer. The cloud-based service scales to fit small businesses as well as global enterprises, giving the business world the power to communicate and collaborate across all business units and external partners.

Yammer gives companies the tools needed to move their communications to the cloud, improving the accessibility of information and speeding up decision-making processes. The service provides a secure environment for social media groups as well as private and public messaging.

The app supports file sharing and the simultaneous editing of documents. It has a translation tool that helps international companies deal with language barriers. The service also provides company-wide feeds used for announcements and a Praise action to publicly commend employees.

Companies can quickly add their employees to Yammer using any email address. This service works through a browser as well as mobile apps for Windows Phone, Android and iOS.

Groups

Yammer groups provide dedicated workspaces for every team or project in your company and they can be internal or external.

You instantly join groups or assemble new ones on the fly in real time for practically any reason. So, as daily business unfolds, Yammer can keep up with almost any workflow. Thanks to its agility, everyone in the company can see the important news that affects and encourages them to engage in conversations.

Employees can also use Yammer to socialize during their breaks and free time. Such powerful social functions help workers in global corporations to meet and get to know each other in ways that were never before possible. Employees can also create groups based on their interests. For example, they might create a chess group or a group for bonsai plant enthusiasts.

The real-time Yammer Discovery Feed connects employees with relevant conversations from various groups in the navigation pane on the left. A banner prompts users to move to their next group after reading all new conversations in their current group. Companies use designated groups with onboarding resources and access to experts to speed employee training and customer service.

Integrations and external storage

Yammer integrates with many applications with which it coexists in the corporate environment. Companies using other software can visit the Yammer Developer Center for guidance.

Yammer seamlessly integrates with Office Online making it social networking features natural extensions of the popular Microsoft apps. The tools boost the collaborative creation of documents and support multi-user co-authoring. Yammer can connect with Office 365 groups to support cross-workload requirements using OneNote and Skype. It also can leverage OneDrive and Outlook. 

Yammer offers an impressive array of native file storage and sharing options and also integrates with popular cloud-based storage services such as the famous Dropbox and Microsoft’s OneDrive which is also quite good and offers a lot also on its own, thus gaining popularity.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

Companies that use Microsoft Dynamics CRM online will also enjoy Yammer integrations. The Yammer service as a social layer to existing CRM software and can jumpstart collaboration from familiar screens. You can visit the Dynamics CRM resource center to learn more about installing Yammer for use with the Microsoft app. 

Salesforce.com

Microsoft code has empowered Salesforce CRM users to use Yammer in real time. Without having to leave the app, employees can check the progress of Salesforce objects such as accounts and opportunities. Users can also orchestrate campaigns and manage leads within Yammer and instantly connect with coworkers.

John Porter is a Southampton-based freelance writer and a tech head, so he enjoys writing about new technology and is particularly interested in all types of productivity apps. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.