Viva Engage

Viva Engage
Type of site
Enterprise collaboration
Founded10 March 2008; 16 years ago (2008-03-10)
Area servedWorldwide
OwnerMicrosoft
Founder(s)
General managerMurali Sitaram
IndustryInternet
URLyammer.com
RegistrationCompany Email
Launched8 September 2008; 16 years ago (2008-09-08)

Viva Engage (formerly Yammer) is an enterprise social networking service that is part of the Microsoft 365 family of products.[1][2][3] It is used mainly for private communication within organizations but is also used for networks spanning various organizations. Access to a Yammer network is determined by a user's Internet domain, so only individuals with approved email addresses may join their respective networks.[4][5][2]

The service began as an internal communication system for the genealogy website Geni.com[6] and was launched as an independent product in 2008.[7] Microsoft later acquired Yammer in 2012 for US$1.2 billion (~$1.57 billion in 2023).[8] Currently,[when?] Yammer is included in all enterprise plans of Microsoft 365, and evolved into Viva Engage as of February 2023.[5][9][10] Viva was re-launched as an "employee experience platform" and to make it more community- friendly.[10]

History

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Pre-acquisition

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In 2008, Yammer was built as an internal feature for Geni by David O. Sacks. After 6 months of use at Geni, Sacks brought Yammer to TechCrunch50 to showcase its abilities and launch the product as an independent service away from Geni. Yammer won top prize at TechCrunch50, which allowed them to invest more money into the project. It was determined early on that a corporate email address would be required to use Yammer.[7]

In 2009, Yammer underwent its first redesign. The main feature set included profiles, profile photos for groups, following suggestions, and a product called "YammerFox", which was an extension for Firefox that alerted the end user when a message was received.[11]

In 2010, new integrations were launched in the application, such as polls, chat, events, links, topics, Q&A, and ideas. Yammer also launched its own app store, which included Crocodoc and Zendesk.[12] By this time, Yammer had grown to over 1 million total users on the platform.[13] Yammer also released its SharePoint 2007 Integration and transitioned to Scala for its real-time work.[14]

In 2011, Yammer made the move from Scala back to Java for its real-time work due to the complexity of implementing Scala.[15][16] Yammer Notifications was released as a replacement for YammerFox.[17] During this period, Yammer grew its user base to 4 million total users.[18]

In 2012, Yammer acquired OneDrum, which enabled the implementation of real-time document editing and document edit history.[19] Shortly after, Microsoft acquired Yammer for US$1.2 billion.[20][21] Microsoft announced that the Yammer team would be integrated into the Microsoft Office division but would continue to report to Sacks.[22]

Post-acquisition

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In 2013, Microsoft integrated Yammer into Dynamics CRM and included Yammer subscriptions in their Office 365 enterprise plans.[23] In 2014, Microsoft announced the transition of Yammer development to the Office 365 development team, while Sacks announced his departure from Microsoft and Yammer.[24] Yammer also introduced the option to log in through Office 365, and there were plans to integrate Yammer into the Office 365 header for easy selection by end users.[23]

In 2015, Yammer removed several features related to how it worked with SharePoint, including support for SharePoint Server 2013. There was renewed focus on the Yammer Embed Feed.[25]

In 2016, Yammer removed the Yammer Enterprise Plan, due to a shift in using the more general Office 365 subscription structure. They also announced that Yammer would integrate with Office 365 Groups as well as allow end users the ability to create and edit Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents using Office Online.[26]

In 2019, Microsoft announced "the new Yammer", which featured a redesign based on Microsoft's Fluent Design System.[27] In November, they announced full integration into Microsoft Teams, Microsoft's competitor product to Slack.[28]

In February 2023, Microsoft announced that Yammer would be fully integrated into its "employee experience platform" Viva and its own social networking system Viva Engage (which is derived from Yammer), with Yammer to be phased out and replaced by Viva Engage over 2023.[9][29][30]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Cooper, Sam (24 November 2022). "The Complete Guide To How Yammer Works In 2023". Changing Social. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  2. ^ a b Roylance, Jessica. "What is Yammer?". www.brainstorminc.com. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  3. ^ Gerencer, Tom (3 November 2020). "Yammer: Everything You Need to Know". Archived from the original on 10 August 2023. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  4. ^ Chacos, Brad (7 August 2012). "What the Heck Is Yammer?". PC World. IDG Consumer & SMB. Archived from the original on 15 February 2014. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  5. ^ a b Patton, Seth (13 February 2023). "Yammer is evolving to Microsoft Viva Engage". Microsoft 365 Blog. Archived from the original on 20 June 2023. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  6. ^ Welch, Liz (November 2011). "The Way I Work: David Sacks, Yammer". Inc.com. Mansueto Ventures LLC. Archived from the original on 17 October 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  7. ^ a b Schonfeld, Erick (8 September 2008). "Yammer Launches at TC50: Twitter For Companies". TechCrunch. Palo Alto, California. Archived from the original on 11 August 2017. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
  8. ^ Lietdke, Michael (25 June 2012). "Microsoft Buys Yammer For $1.2 Billion". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  9. ^ a b Sitaram, Murali (13 February 2023). "Yammer is evolving to Viva Engage". Microsoft TechCommunity. Archived from the original on 5 May 2023. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  10. ^ a b Sawers, Paul (14 February 2023). "Microsoft ditches Yammer brand and goes all-in on Viva Engage". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 14 February 2023. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  11. ^ "Yammer Adds a Flurry of New and Enhanced Features". Microsoft.com. 17 January 2009. Archived from the original on 6 February 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  12. ^ Rao, Leena (28 September 2010). "Yammer Debuts A Facebook For the Enterprise". techcrunch.com. Tech Crunch. Archived from the original on 25 September 2011. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  13. ^ "One Million Users and Counting!". microsoft.com. 20 July 2010. Archived from the original on 6 February 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  14. ^ Krill, Paul (5 December 2011). "Yammer banks on Scala, ends up moving to Java". infoworld.com. IDG. Archived from the original on 6 February 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  15. ^ Blewitt, Alex. "Yammer Moving from Scala to Java". InfoQ. C4Media Inc. Archived from the original on 6 February 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  16. ^ "gist:1406238". github.com. Archived from the original on 6 February 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  17. ^ "Never Miss a Message Again with Yammer Notifications". microsoft.com. 25 January 2011. Archived from the original on 6 February 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  18. ^ Schonfeld, Erick (3 February 2012). "Yammer Time: In 2011 "Pretty Much Everything Tripled"". techcrunch.com. Tech Crunch. Archived from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  19. ^ King, Rachel. "Yammer acquires OneDrum for Google Docs, Office tools". cnet.com. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 6 February 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  20. ^ Israel, Shel (25 June 2012). "It's Official: Microsoft Buys Yammer for $1.4 Billion Cash". Forbes. Archived from the original on 9 September 2017. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
  21. ^ "Yammer: Microsoft's billion-dollar social bid". The Christian Science Monitor. 26 June 2012. Archived from the original on 30 September 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
  22. ^ "With $1.2 Billion Yammer Buy, Microsoft's Social Enterprise Strategy Takes Shape". TechCrunch. Aol Tech. 25 June 2012. Archived from the original on 27 November 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  23. ^ a b Roe, David. "The Problem with Yammer? People don't Use It". cmswire.com. CMS Wire. Archived from the original on 25 July 2014. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  24. ^ Foley, Mary Jo (24 July 2014). "Microsoft moves Yammer under Office 365; Co-founder David Sacks is out". ZDNet. Archived from the original on 24 July 2014. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  25. ^ Mackie, Kurt. "Microsoft Gives Update on Yammer Roadmap, Deprecation Plans". rcpmag.com. Redmond Channel Partner. Archived from the original on 25 October 2015. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  26. ^ Roe, David. "It's Official: Microsoft Eliminates Yammer Enterprise Plan". cmswire.com. CMS Wire. Archived from the original on 5 January 2017. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  27. ^ Holme, Dan (4 November 2019). "The New Yammer". Microsoft. Archived from the original on 5 February 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  28. ^ Lardinois, Frederic (4 November 2019). "Microsoft Teams gets Yammer integration, secure private channels and more". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 5 November 2019. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  29. ^ Sawers, Paul (14 February 2023). "Microsoft ditches Yammer brand and goes all-in on Viva Engage". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 14 February 2023. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  30. ^ Wiggers, Kyle (19 July 2022). "Microsoft wants to add Stories to company intranets". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 19 July 2022. Retrieved 14 February 2023.