Spring Product Release Accelerates Shift from Intranets to Enterprise Social Networks
SAN FRANCISCO – (April 24, 2012) – Yammer, Inc., the leading provider of Enterprise Social Networks, today announced its Spring Release of new features designed to bring together people, content and business data from across all enterprise applications and devices. Key new features include: Universal Search, Premium Groups, Official Content, Yammer Embed, a new Office 365 integration and updated mobile apps.
According to a report last month by Aragon Research, “Enterprise social networks are replacing corporate intranets as the most comprehensive and reliable places to find information about the company, its processes and procedures, and the people who work there. It may take a few weeks or months for users to understand the potential of an ESN, but once they realize how much a socialcommunity can enhance sharing and collaboration, they often begin to see the corporate intranet as stagnant and outdated. At that point, the process of replacing the intranet with the ESN has begun.”
Yammer’s Spring Release will accelerate that transition as Yammer offers capabilities that are similar to — but far surpass — those of intranets. It includes the following new features:
Universal Search
Universal Search allows business data from any enterprise application to be accessed in Yammer’s search engine. It utilizes Yammer’s existing Activity Stream API, so third-party content from easy, lightweight activity stream integrations automatically appears in search. Key elements include:
? Records and content are searchable from all of Yammer’s existing integration partners including Salesforce.com, SAP and Microsoft SharePoint.
? Selection of a third-party record in search seamlessly opens that system in a separate tab.
? The API contains features to respect the permissions of the underlying applications so that only employees authorized to view a record can find it.
? Search results are type-ahead based on a relevance algorithm individualized to each user and categorized into people, groups, files, Pages, topics and applications.
? Files, Pages and conversations are full-text searchable.
“Existing enterprise search systems typically crawl and index all of the information behind the firewall but cannot access data behind the login walls of cloud applications. As more and more data moves to the cloud, a new approach is needed,” said Yammer founder and CEO David Sacks. “Universal Search demonstrates the power of the Yammer platform to be the common communication, discovery and collaboration layer across business applications.”
Premium Groups
Premium Groups is Yammer’s team workspace product and includes increased file storage limits and advanced admin controls, such as the ability to:
? Change group privacy settings
? Mark content as official and read-only
? Make group announcements
? Delete any member’s messages, files and Pages
Premium groups are available to all existing customers. Groups in free networks must pay $79/month to upgrade. This new tier of service offers teams and departments the ability to upgrade their Yammer group without paying for the whole company. Previously Yammer only offered admin functionality at the network level.
Content Sharing
Yammer has added two new features to make it easier to share content both internally and externally:
? A Share button allows conversations, files and Pages to be cross-posted from one group to another or to start a private message about a file, Page or conversation.
? An Email File button enables employees to email third-parties such as customers and partners a secure, one-time URL to view a file or Page. The link cookies the recipient’s browser and can only be used once to ensure that only the intended recipient can view the content. Viewing rights can be revoked at any time, making it significantly more secure than email. In addition, a group or network admin can enable or disable external sharing.
Integration Tools
Yammer’s Spring Release contains two new integration products:
? Yammer Embed, previously in private beta, is now available for every Yammer group. Appearing next to every group feed, a embed code can be copied and pasted to add a Yammer feed widget inside any business application. Only logged-in users can view the embedded feed; otherwise, they areprompted to log in. The embed widget automatically sizes to fit the available space.
? A new webpart for Microsoft Office 365 allows users to embed their Yammer feed directly into Office 365, making the online suite more social, mobile and engaging.
Mobile
Yammer is also updating its iPhone and Android mobile apps so teams can stay connected on-the-go. New features include:
? Slide-out navigation provides easy access to groups, user profiles and My Feed
? Improved user experience with in-line file thumbnails, access to more file types and a cleaner design
Watch the demo video here: http://vimeo.com/40245251
About Yammer, Inc.
Yammer (www.yammer.com) is the leading provider of enterprisesocial networks, enabling organizations to make transformative changes quickly by empowering employees to collaborate across departments, geographies, content and business applications. The basic version of Yammer is free, and customers can pay to upgrade their network to receive additional administrative and security controls, priority customer service and a dedicated customer success manager. Companies and organizations from across the globe, including more than 85 percent of the Fortune 500, are using our award-winning Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution to improve employee productivity and engagement. Visit our blog to see how our customers are benefiting from Yammer.
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