Simplifying the Yammer and Office 365 integration

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Michael Kophs
Cloud Partner Technology Strategist

A lot of you are experts on Office 365, and many of you know that Microsoft is betting big on improving business communication through enterprise social, specifically Yammer, but how many of you know the details behind the Office 365/Yammer integration?  I’ve received a lot of questions from my Office 365 partners on how they can tell the Yammer story to their existing Office 365 customers.  Following is a simplified description of what’s available now, what’s coming and how customers can buy it:

What integration is available today?

A basic integration between Yammer and Office 365 is available today.  Yammer is on a completely separate platform than Office 365.  This integration simply replaces the Office 365 toolbar “Newsfeed” link with a “Yammer” link that redirects users to www.yammer.com.  Organizations most likely will either choose to use the SharePoint Online Newsfeed social capabilities OR Yammer social capabilities as using both may confuse the user base.  SharePoint admins can go into the SharePoint Admin Center and easily make this change (see screenshot below):

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The second Office 365/Yammer integration available today is the Yammer App for SharePoint, that can be added for free from the Office App Store.  This App gives page owners the ability to add Yammer feeds directly into their SharePoint Online site.  Think of it as an iFrame App that displays Yammer.com feed pages.

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What integration is coming?

A deeper connection between Office 365 and Yammer is coming later this year and will include Single Sign-On and seamless navigation.  You’ll click your Yammer link in your Office 365 portal top navigation bar and the navigation bar will remain, all while using the same credentials that you used to login to your Office 365 portal!

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For more information on the O365/Yammer roadmap, check out the following blog:  Yammer and SharePoint Roadmap Update

How do I buy Yammer?

Check out the following Yammer pricing page, which does an excellent job of outlining your customer’s purchase options.  SMB customers (under 250 seats) have the left two options.  They can start with the free account, then purchase the Enterprise account for $3/user/mo if they need some of the advanced features.  Customer on Enterprise Agreements (EA’s) get Yammer included.  The good news for SMB’s is that Yammer Enterprise inclusion into Office 365 packages (non-EA) is “coming soon”*.

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*I’ll provide a follow-up post on as soon as the Yammer/Office 365 packages for under 250 seats are announced.

Yammer Pricing for under 250 seats