The full integration of Yammer and SharePoint 2013 is still probably 8 to 12 months away, at which time we should see the SharePoint native social feed replaced by the much more robust Yammer feed. But for now, SharePoint 2013 still offers its native social feed, as well as the ability to add a social enterprise layer with the Yammer Web Part.
This interim phase is a good time to develop a strategy for introducing the new social enterprise tool to your SharePoint intranet users, so you might as well get started now.
Essentially, the Yammer Web Part allows you to embed Yammer feeds on any SharePoint pages, giving users the option to share documents with a group through Yammer. And since the Yammer Web Part is configurable as either general for the organization or specific to a group, you’re also able to associate Yammer groups with various sites and pages, sharing information that’s relevant to specific audiences.
Using these tools together might sound a bit clunky, but the single sign-on capability streamlines the user experience so there’s no need to go back-and-forth between platforms.
Here are a few tips for getting started:
- Place newsfeeds strategically in high-traffic locations: If you put Yammer newsfeeds in every area of your SharePoint intranet, some sites won’t attract much activity, so it makes sense to start with those that require a fair amount of interaction, such as a project site. And from there, you’re ready to experiment with expanding to more locations.As you integrate the two platforms, it’s best to avoid going to extremes and turning Yammer feeds into just more white noise for users to ignore. On one hand, you don’t want to miss out on improved collaboration and communication by not taking advantage of coupling the Yammer social layer to different areas of content. The other extreme to avoid is if you create far too many groups in places where people would never chat otherwise.
- Connect specific Yammer feeds and group sites: If you have an organization feed, it doesn’t make sense to place that same feed everywhere. Instead, try to add the most relevant group feed for the site. For example, you could create a Yammer group for human resources, and then embed that Yammer Web Part into the HR department’s site, providing users with the most relevant social information for that context.
- Consider custom development (if you just can’t wait for the full integration): While the Yammer Web Part is great for getting started, it does have technical limitations — especially in terms of your ability to change the presentation.If the Web Part isn’t able to provide an element that is critical for your organization’s user experience, you do have the option of doing custom development, making use of Yammer’s application program interface (API). Any development you pursue is likely to be an interim solution, however, with the more robust integration on the horizon, so keep yourself abreast of Microsoft’s Office365 roadmap and develop strategically.
While the full integration of Yammer and SharePoint 2013 is still months away on Microsoft’s roadmap, it’s a great time to get started. Integrating the Yammer Web Part is a useful solution in the short term, as well as an opportunity to familiarize your SharePoint intranet users with Yammer.
To learn more about what your organization has to gain from social enterprise capabilities, contact Portal Solutions.
