The Official Blog of Benifys HR Solutions

Anyone who follows Web 2.0 with any level of interest in all probability already knows what Yammer is, if you are not one of them, here is a guide to what you need to know, why you need to know it and how to implement it for your organization.

What is Yammer?

Yammer is a micro-blogging platform made specifically for organizational use, consider it a ‘version’  of twitter that is used for work (not that it is affiliated with twitter in any way). By way of posting short status updates, one can be constantly aware about what his colleagues are up to, it is also a great tool for encouraging a team support system wherein the team can not only be updated about any problem that their co-worker is facing but also discuss it in real-time and provide a solution.

Why do I need Yammer?

Did people ask why they need email, while they were using snail mail? Quite an interesting thought that! There are other tools which can and are being used to the same effect, but none that matches the popularity and features of Yammer, you need Yammer because:

• It brings a real-time element to the conversations.
• It is more collaborative than other modes of communication because of threaded commenting system.
• You can attach files just like email.
• You will gradually build a searchable database of all conversations that occur: A knowledge bank.
• Yammer provides free applications to use the platform with Blackberry, iPhone, SMS and even IMs.

While a total replacement of email might not seem like a legitimate option, Yammer does indeed have its share of benefits over it.

Implementing Yammer

Setting up Yammer is a very straightforward process, although it might take a little co-ordination to get it up and running. We will provide you with all the links that you might need in order to setup yammer for your organization at the end of this article. But before that, let us tell you how it works – once a person signs-up at Yammer with the domain name of their organization (e.g. Allen@abc.co.uk), they are sent a confirmation link to confirm the sign-up, after which they can invite other people from their organization from within Yammer.

Every employee gets a profile on Yammer where they setup a profile picture, expertise, role and background. An organization chart is built after the relationship between the employees is entered in the database.

In our team we have a blackberry that runs Yammer by the application provided by them, and the others are a combination of a very nifty Firefox plug-in and Yammer desktop client. Irrespective of where the Yam (that’s what an update is called) originated, everyone is pinged in real-time through their respective services and then they can respond to the message or just follow the flow of conversation.

Resources

Yammer Website

Firefox Plug-in for Yammer