All Together Now

We came to Yammer in a moment of crisis.

I had been hired to help launch an online community platform for volunteers and professionals associated with our non-profit organization. Work had already begun on a Microsoft SharePoint site by the time I had arrived, and we were getting ready for a big roll-out.

In 2013, access to Microsoft SharePoint sites was limited to users who all shared a common email domain. As most of our users were external, the decision was made to build the site using a new domain, and all users would receive a user name that looked like an email address in that domain. So, even if you had a jsmith@gmail.com email address, your user name for our new SharePoint site would be jsmith@onlinecommunity.net.

Negative backlash to our approach to user names was swift and passionate.

“What makes you think I want another email address?”

“I refuse to create an account unless I can use my work email!”

The complaints went on and on. After about a year, we realized we were fighting a losing battle. Microsoft had just bought the enterprise social networking platform Yammer, where we could have conversations and share resources in a manner that was reminiscent of LinkedIn and Facebook. Users could use whatever email address they wanted (more on that later), and we quickly onboarded over 2,000 users in our first few months. Everything was working great.

Then, Microsoft incorporated Yammer into Microsoft 365, and that is where our troubles began. Suddenly, anyone accessing our Yammer network with a Single Sign-On work email address had to be sure the password they used for Yammer was the same password they used for their email. Any password changes had to be done by them or their system administrator (not ours) in their 365 system, while people using major ISP addresses like gmail and Yahoo could update their password on their own right in Yammer. Our community was confused.

Yammer was designed as an “out of the box” intranet solution, an internal network only accessible by users with a common email domain. However, Yammer also provided external networks, for organizations like ours who wanted to connect with external users, stakeholders or customers.

For obvious reasons, Yammer poured their resources and attention into internal networks, improving the interface, and connecting with Microsoft SharePoint and Teams for a truly cohesive workplace user experience. The external network experience however remained stagnant. We were told improvements were on the way. We were told that all the enhancements we were seeing for internal networks would soon come to external networks.

And then, there was the spam attack. Our external Yammer network was hit with almost 10,000 messages sent by anonymous bots. If not for the support of our partners at the Aware Collaborative Intelligence platform, and their ability to identify unwanted posts before they got posted to our network in the first place, we would have been completely flooded with bogus messages and might have had to shut down. If not for our partners at SWOOP Analytics, we would have never appreciated the impact that spam attacks and intermittent system outages had on the community we were working so hard to sustain.

And then there was the inability to log in. Dozens of users, with both work and home email addresses, have reported that Yammer does not recognize their password. They would request a password reset from the Yammer system, and nothing would be received. We advised emptying their cache and clearing their browser history. We advised using a private browser window. Often, the only viable solution left was to create a new account with a different email address.

And then there was the news that Yammer was becoming Viva Engage, and we saw more resources and support being given to internal networks with still no additional support for external networks. At one time, we heard that major improvements would be coming to Yammer external networks soon. Now, we hear rumors that external networks might shut down completely, or that external networks might become much more expensive to use.

In the meantime, we feel like our Yammer network is a slowly crumbling house. What works one day does not work the next. Users can’t get in. Links in Yammer email alerts don’t work. Our users see developing functionality in other platforms and wonder why we don’t have similar functionality in Yammer.

We first began to use Yammer in 2014, and finally in 2023 we made the very difficult decision to move away to Mighty Networks, a platform designed for online community engagement that is intuitive, easy to use, and is constantly updated. Through Yammer, our organization was able to connect with some truly great companies and people, we learned valuable lessons about online user engagement, and along the way I even had the honor of becoming a Microsoft MVP.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of all this is to watch all the exciting Viva Engage developments for internal networks, while nothing happened in our external network. Fully integrated into Teams, Viva Engage brings colleagues from the work they are doing in Teams to seamlessly connect them with information shared by their company in Viva Engage and as they connect with each other (kind of like the office water cooler) around issues of work, hobbies and personal connections. Integrated also with amazing technology like the AI powered Viva Topics, Viva Learning and Viva Insights, Viva Engage is realizing its full potential as a platform that enables staff to fully engage with their work, with other work being done elsewhere at their organization, and with colleagues they may never otherwise cross paths with. In the meantime, external networks have not changed at all.

For almost 10 years, Yammer served the needs of our organization well. We hosted over 17,000 users, and saw significant usage and engagement during that time. Users were able to connect with each other, they were able to learn from each other, and our community became richer and more robust.

Microsoft has not made any official announcements regarding the retirement or enhancement of Yammer external networks, but they should. They should give current customers ample opportunity to understand and plan for the inevitable changes ahead, whatever those changes might be.

The last time I contacted Microsoft support for a problem we were having in Yammer, the support technician actually laughed out loud. “I didn’t realize anyone was using Yammer external networks anymore.”

Thanks Yammer, but I think it’s time to leave. It’s been good to know you. It really has.