Today's businesses are operating in increasingly complex environments that need constant collaboration to communicate intricate information. Thus, the number and types of communication platforms are burgeoning under such circumstances. It's so much that leading companies like Microsoft offer over half a dozen collaboration platforms. They can be used for interactions within an organization and among its external stakeholders.
At the outset, it might appear futile to have so many communication channels. But the truth remains that these tools serve unique purposes. Some tools enable users to collaborate privately or with a small audience while others broadcast messages better. It is with this background that the comparison between Yammer vs Teams, two of Microsoft's widely used collaboration tools arises.
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- The primary difference between Yammer and Teams is the number of users who participate in discussions. Teams are limited to 10,000 users, although the overwhelming majority consist of just a handful. In Yammer, as many users as needed can join a group, extending the possibility to communicate across the entire company.
- Yammer and Teams are most often used for internal communications. Consequently, their user bases are more or less similar. Both Yammer and Teams have people with subscribers ranging from small and medium businesses to large enterprises.
Collaboration Tools Available for Office 365 Suite
Depending upon the Office 365 subscription, users get different tools for collaboration. Some of the other tools that could be a part of the package are:
Exchange Online: It is a cloud-based hosted email messaging service.
SharePoint Online: It is a service for sharing files, applications, codes, and other knowledge for seamless collaboration among peers.
Skype for Business Online: It is a service that enables organizing online meetings. This is being merged with Microsoft Teams for enhanced capabilities.
Yammer: This is a social networking service designed for enterprises. We will see more about it in the ensuing section on the Yammer vs Teams comparison.
Kaizala: It is a phone system for team members, executives, and management to communicate and coordinate. It is available to all the people across the organization and outside of it.
There is certainly no dearth of platforms to share ideas. On the contrary, it is their abundance that leads to confusion and comparisons of platforms like Microsoft Teams vs Yammer.
What is Yammer?
Yammer is a social networking tool for connecting and engaging with people across the organization. Large enterprises, in particular, tend to require groups and communities to share ideas. Yammer groups are a convenient method for all Office 365 users. These groups are often spread across geographies that come together and participate in discussions. Employees can keep track of the progress their peers make and the latest news in the organization. Yammer allows for spontaneous conversations with people who may not even know each other personally. This means you can build on your work by leveraging other's experience on the community platform.
What is Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams is a unified platform for workplace chat, conducting online conferences, and sharing files. Microsoft Teams allows users within and outside an organization to collaborate in real-time to get things done.
Microsoft Teams is much more than a simple chatting platform. Users can perform tasks like editing documents, access other applications and services simultaneously while collaborating on Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams is primarily useful for collaboration between individuals and groups of people across an organization.
Now that we have seen what the two collaboration platforms are, let us proceed with the MS Teams vs Yammer comparison:
Teams vs Yammer: The Similarities
Some pundits would argue that Teams and Yammer are as different as chalk and cheese. However, we opine that the MS Teams vs Yammer comparison without looking at the similarities. While the two tools cater to different uses, they do share an extensive list of features. This also includes the fact that they are compatible with each other. In other words, users can continue their Yammer conversations in Teams and vice versa. Here's a rundown of the features shared by Yammer and Teams.
- Multi-Platform support
Apart from the web-based interface, both Yammer and Teams have dedicated applications for Android and iOS.
- Multi-Platform support
- Userbase
Yammer and Teams are most often used for internal communications. Consequently, their user bases are more or less similar. Both Yammer and Teams have people with subscribers ranging from small and medium businesses to large enterprises.
- Userbase
- Conversation threading
Both applications group their conversations in serial order. This format preserves the context of the replies with the help of visual formatting. The messages in both application support tagging to make searches and aid conversations for executive engagement.
- Conversation threading
Users do not have to be on either application to get the latest updates. They can simply enable notifications that pop upon real-time as long as they are logged in.
Teams vs Yammer: The Differences
Exchange Online: It is a cloud-based hosted email messaging service.
SharePoint Online: It is a service for sharing files, applications, codes, and other knowledge for seamless collaboration among peers.
Skype for Business Online: It is a service that enables organizing online meetings. This is being merged with Microsoft Teams for enhanced capabilities.
Yammer: This is a social networking service designed for enterprises. We will see more about it in the ensuing section on the Yammer vs Teams comparison.
Kaizala: It is a phone system for team members, executives, and management to communicate and coordinate. It is available to all the people across the organization and outside of it.
There is certainly no dearth of platforms to share ideas. On the contrary, it is their abundance that leads to confusion and comparisons of platforms like Microsoft Teams vs Yammer.
What is Yammer?
Yammer is a social networking tool for connecting and engaging with people across the organization. Large enterprises, in particular, tend to require groups and communities to share ideas. Yammer groups are a convenient method for all Office 365 users. These groups are often spread across geographies that come together and participate in discussions. Employees can keep track of the progress their peers make and the latest news in the organization. Yammer allows for spontaneous conversations with people who may not even know each other personally. This means you can build on your work by leveraging other's experience on the community platform.
What is Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams is a unified platform for workplace chat, conducting online conferences, and sharing files. Microsoft Teams allows users within and outside an organization to collaborate in real-time to get things done.
Microsoft Teams is much more than a simple chatting platform. Users can perform tasks like editing documents, access other applications and services simultaneously while collaborating on Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams is primarily useful for collaboration between individuals and groups of people across an organization.
Now that we have seen what the two collaboration platforms are, let us proceed with the MS Teams vs Yammer comparison:
Teams vs Yammer: The Similarities
Some pundits would argue that Teams and Yammer are as different as chalk and cheese. However, we opine that the MS Teams vs Yammer comparison without looking at the similarities. While the two tools cater to different uses, they do share an extensive list of features. This also includes the fact that they are compatible with each other. In other words, users can continue their Yammer conversations in Teams and vice versa. Here's a rundown of the features shared by Yammer and Teams.
- Multi-Platform support
Apart from the web-based interface, both Yammer and Teams have dedicated applications for Android and iOS.
- Multi-Platform support
- Userbase
Yammer and Teams are most often used for internal communications. Consequently, their user bases are more or less similar. Both Yammer and Teams have people with subscribers ranging from small and medium businesses to large enterprises.
- Userbase
- Conversation threading
Both applications group their conversations in serial order. This format preserves the context of the replies with the help of visual formatting. The messages in both application support tagging to make searches and aid conversations for executive engagement.
- Conversation threading
Users do not have to be on either application to get the latest updates. They can simply enable notifications that pop upon real-time as long as they are logged in.
Teams vs Yammer: The Differences
Yammer and Teams differ in the ways they are used for communication. Microsoft suggests the use of Yammer for 'outer loop' communication while Teams for the 'inner loop'. The loop is the reference to the number of people typically involved in a communication. The divergence between the two applications begins with the audience.
- Number of participants
Though Microsoft Teams and Yammer fall under the collaboration category, they can be specifically different in their use. Teams channels close to a messaging app with features to help small teams to work on projects together. On the other hand, Yammer encompasses a wider audience and functions more like an enterprise social network. The messages on Teams are usually addressed to a specific person or a group of people. On the other hand, Yammer is a platform for garnering opinions of the public and make announcements.
- Number of participants
- Communication frequency and volume
Microsoft Teams is ideal for high frequency and high-volume communications. While using Teams, the conversations are typically focused and goal-oriented. They are often geared towards resolving problems quickly. Yammer conversations are more likely to be generic. Each thread will likely have contributions from many users. So, the aggregate volume of messages appearing on a single dashboard of a user will be more for Yammer users. However, most users post less frequently in open conversations.
- Communication frequency and volume
- Privacy issues
Conversations and groups in Microsoft Teams are private by default. This makes Teams the ideal platform for collaborating on projects in real-time. Communications are fast and informal in Teams. This is ideal when participants are dependent on each other or at least well acquainted with each other for maximizing collaboration. Yammer, on the other hand, is an open platform. Messages are visible to all users unless the groups they have been posted in have specifically made private by the admins. This is ideal for communication across the organization, which may be formal or questions and suggestions which are likely to be informal. The participants might not know each other but may take interest in the messages conveyed on Yammer.
Teams vs Yammer: What Should You Choose?
In most cases, Microsoft Teams is a default collaboration tool with Office 365. That does not automatically make Yammer redundant. Yammer, in particular, is a handy application for democratizing organizations by involving virtually every employee. It helps to keep everyone informed about any progress and events. It also helps to arrive at better decisions by harvesting the wisdom of the crowd.
Thankfully, most of the Office 365 groups do not have to face the Teams vs Yammer comparison. Both applications come bundled with select subscriptions. We hope this comparison between Yammer vs Teams would have helped. After all, it boils down to people working in the organization.
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- Privacy issues
Coke or Pepsi? Cat or Dog? Republican or Democrat? Life is full of choices. In this post, however, I would like to help you resolve one of the biggest choices you have to make in your Microsoft 365 environment. I am, of course, talking about the Teams vs. Yammer debate. Both, on the surface, happen to be doing the same thing, but in reality, are different and meant for different objectives and use cases. So with this post, I would like to share the comparison between the two and advise if and when you should them.
Yammer
I will start with Yammer, since it makes sense from a chronological standpoint. Yammer was acquired by Microsoft in 2012 and was meant to be a corporate social network. That said, it got little traction within most organizations as it was not really integrated well with other applications within Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) eco-system. The major appeal of Yammer was the fact that it integrated with SharePoint – you could easily embed a conversation for a Yammer group (called Community now) on a SharePoint page, making it a bit more social and fun.
Yammer Integration with SharePoint
Teams
Then, in 2017, Microsoft released Teams. It felt like a sexy lover appearing on the scene all of a sudden, after several years of a bad marriage. Teams application was well-received and embraced by most organizations due to its simplicity, ability to customize, and heavy integration with the rest of the applications within Microsoft 365 (SharePoint, Outlook, Forms, Power Automate, etc.).
The primary advantage of Teams over Yammer is its integration with other apps via a Microsoft 365 Group. And of course, the added ability to have Teams Calls (video calls, formerly Skype), all integrated together in one package.
Use Cases for Teams and Yammer
Teams
- 2-way Project collaboration
- Temporary projects/endeavors
- Document Management
- Group Teams Calls
- Integration with Power Automate and other Microsoft 365 resources
Microsoft Teams Yammer App
Yammer
- Alternate communication tool with the employees (i.e., HR having informal Q&A channel or CEO hosting virtual 'Townhall' with its employees)
- Forum-style conversations on specific topics
When to use Teams vs. Yammer?
Large organizations
If you are a large organization (by that, I mean thousands of users), you can definitely benefit from using Yammer as an alternate communication tool. Just like with the example above, Human Resources can have an informal Community to answer those burning questions about vacation policy and medical benefits. Or, a CEO can have its own community to hold virtual (Townhalls) with the employees. I also see some of my clients creating communities for specific topics to discuss (i.e., SharePoint Tips & Tricks).
Small Organizations
If you have under a hundred or a few hundred employees, Yammer might not be necessary. Why create another channel for communication when your users already live in Outlook and Teams? Most of my small clients do exactly that.
Teams Yammer Connector
Yammer Alternative
Another thing that you can do if you desire for that company-wide reach of Yammer is to create an Org-Wide Team in Teams. The beauty of this type of Group is that it automatically includes everyone within the organization as people come and go.
Teams Yammer Integration
The creation of such type of group in Teams requires you to be a Microsoft 365 Global Admin. While the creation of the group does create other assets, you don't need to use them. Also, if you want to control the conversations for various channels, you can moderate them if need be. I documented all you need to know about an org-wide Team in this post.
