Having learned about digital transformation with Yammer in the previous chapter, we will now apply this transformation to improve the way you collaborate with your clients, suppliers, and partners. The purpose of this chapter is to explain how, by using Yammer features such as Yammer external networks and Yammer external groups, external collaboration with users such as clients, partners, and suppliers can be achieved for the benefit of your business.
Today, not only do the service provider or product company use social collaboration platforms such as Yammer, but also the client organization or supplier organization. So, business collaboration is taking place on Yammer. Clients, suppliers, and business partners now understand the culture of being social and anticipate business results to be delivered with a collaborative approach. The advantages of this new way of working are transparency, agility, and continuous communication between services providers or product owners and clients, partners, and suppliers.
The use of Yammer external networks or external groups is not only limited to clients, partners, and suppliers, but can also be used to collaborate, connect, and share with a like-minded community outside organizational boundaries. For example, a group of knowledge-management practitioners or cyber security or quality managers can remain connected over a Yammer external network to share best practices and contribute to innovation in their respective areas. An alumni Yammer external network can also be used to remain in contact with your former employees.
Why Is External Collaboration Required?
Collaboration is an action where two or more people or groups get together to achieve business goals. In a traditional hierarchical way of working, queries to clients, suppliers, or partners are normally addressed by a specific set of people at the top of the hierarchy, with a lot of reviews and discussions involved. Such activity consumes a lot of time, and sometimes the original intent of the queries is lost. People who are part of the external community normally percolate the queries or issues to their subordinates for answers. In such a work environment, there is delegation of activities rather than collaboration between an organization and its clients, suppliers, or partners.
Organization and its partners work like a network or a team to achieve business goals.
Discussions in progress are transparent and open.
People who work on issues are able to provide feedback, and there is no work delegation.
Transparency and trust are built with your clients.
Both the organization and its clients become responsive and work as one team to create a win–win situation for both parties.
Such external collaboration can be achieved using features of Yammer, such as Yammer networks and Yammer external groups.
What Are Yammer External Networks?
A Yammer external network allows any user that is part of the Yammer network to create a dedicated Yammer network with which to collaborate with their clients, suppliers, or partners. In this dedicated Yammer network, users from the external world cannot access the home Yammer network, whereas internal Yammer users can switch between the home Yammer network and external networks. An external network could be public or require users to request access via an invitation.
Note
A home Yammer network is accessed only by company employees and not external users, such as client, suppliers, and partners.
What Is an External Group?
External groups in Yammer enable you to include people outside your company in a Yammer group, making it easier for extended teams to work together. External groups allow you to add people outside your organization directly to a thread in your organization’s Yammer network. They allow team members with appropriate permissions from outside your organization to fully participate in projects and initiatives by providing access to all the conversations and content in the group. Each external group requires group admin approval for external members to join, and a set of proactive controls via Exchange Transport Rules prevents sensitive company information from being shared. All participants in an external group need to belong to a home Yammer network, which requires a corporate domain.
When Do We Use External Networks and Groups?
External networks are great for hosting external communities and managing long-term projects. The external groups feature is meant for one-off, short-term communications that don’t call for the creation of a new network.
How Do You Create an External Network?
Any user can create a Yammer network on their home Yammer network (Figure 9-1).
Creation of an external network
External networks are nearly identical to home networks, and in an external network admins have options to upload a dedicated logo, define network policies, create different groups, and more. In short, most user features that are available on Yammer networks also exist in an external network.
The admin can decide to make an external network public or invitation-only.
Admins of external networks can delete the external networks.
Generally, the Yammer external network feature is easy to use, and currently there are no feature-specific challenges . The only challenge from the user’s perspective is that sometimes it becomes clumsy to manage multiple external networks.
How Do You Manage External Groups?
Yammer allows you to create a group that includes external users. This is called an external group. You must create the group as an external group—you cannot change an existing group to be an external group.
Only the group admin can add external users to the group.
In public external groups, other users in the group can suggest adding an external user, but the admin has control over whether that user is added and must approve the addition of the external member.
In private external groups, only the admin can add external members, just like in private groups today.
- External groups look different than regular Yammer groups, so you can easily distinguish which groups have external participants. The group header for an external group will show that additional networks are participating in the group, as shown in Figure 9-2.
Figure 9-2Group header for an external Yammer Network
- External groups will be included in a separate section in the left navigation under the Subscribed Groups list, as shown in Figure 9-3.
Figure 9-3List of external groups you are subscribed to
Users invited to participate in an external group hosted on a different network will be required to accept the invitation before being able to view any content in the group.
External participants can only participate in conversations they have been explicitly invited to. They access these conversations via their Yammer inbox (on their own network). They have no access to the rest of your network.
If you do not want to allow external groups in your network, you can opt out of external groups. Some companies have already deactivated the ability to create an external group.
You must invite people using their company or work email address.
External participants can upload files to the conversation, view and download files, and view Yammer notes.
External participants can add others to the conversation, just as they can @mention people in that conversation.
External participants can only see a limited view of your hover/profile card. Fields listed on the hover card include your name, title, email address, and network. Your profile picture, phone number, and more remain hidden to external participants.
How Do You Create an External Group?
Creation of a external group
Select External Group.
Type a name in the Group Name box.
Type the names of people to add to the group in the Group Members box.
Choose whether to make the group public or private.
Choose Create Group.
Note
Some companies have allowed inbound external groups only. Users are blocked from creating external groups in their network, but still allow users to be invited to groups hosted on other networks.
Recommendation
As Yammer external groups provide users with a real-time opportunity to collaborate on business issues, it is high time that organizations enable this feature by reviewing Yammer security policies at Microsoft: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/yammer-security-faq-yammer-admin-guide-a2c84111-1da6-4c70-8646-bfe585b93c90 .
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between this feature and external networks?
External networks are great for hosting external communities and managing long-term projects. This feature is meant for one-off, short-term communications that don’t warrant provisioning a new network.
What information can external participants see about me?
External participants will only see a limited view of your hover card. Fields listed on the hover card include your name, title, email address, and network. Your profile picture, phone number, and more remain hidden to external participants.
Where does the data live?
Data lives in the network in which the conversation originated.
What rights do verified admins have?
Verified admins can remove all external participants from any conversation at any time. We’ve also added additional functionality to data export to help verified admins see which files and conversations are accessible to external users.
Can external collaborators invite participants as well?
Yes, but only to conversations they themselves have been invited to first. External collaborators (participants you invite to conversations in your network) can invite members from their own network as well as those external to them.
What happens when I remove an external participant?
While the comments made by the external participant remain intact in the conversation, the conversation is pulled from that external participant’s Yammer network. They will no longer retain a copy within their Yammer network. However, external participants can still find a record of the conversation within their email inbox up to the point they were removed.
What permissions do external collaborators have for content uploaded to the conversation?
For files, external collaborators can only view and download. For notes, external collaborators can only view.
Can an external collaborator “share” this conversation?
No. Because permissions restrict the audience to privileged members, external participants must be added individually to the conversation.
What happens if I accidentally add an external participant to the conversation?
Don’t worry—it happens to the best of us. Simply click “Remove Participant” on the system-generated comment announcing that participant has been added to the thread. For a visual description, please see end-user documentation.
What happens when I remove an external participant from a conversation?
The conversation is removed from their Yammer network. However, their comments remain intact in the conversation.
Can external collaborators upload files to the conversation?
This will be possible in the future depending on Yammer’s product roadmap.
What happens if I click “Stop following in inbox” for an external message?
The message is completely removed from your inbox.
Will Yammer users who unsubscribe from email notifications receive an invite when they have been added to a conversation?
No.
Will pending Yammer users who have been added to a conversation receive an email to join Yammer?
Yes.
Collaboration Between Project Team and Customer
Tools Used: SharePoint , Yammer, TEAMS, OneDrive for Business, Skype for Business, and Outlook.
Situation: A project team, let’s say ABC, receives a high-priority incident—an application is down and cannot be accessed by most of the users. The project team has strict SLAs signed with its customers, and any break would result in huge costs. Normally, a P1 ticket is supposed to be closed within three or four hours. This incident was received after working hours. The project team is based out of India, and the customer is based out of North America, but a project offshore manager is sitting in the customer’s office.
Incident Acceptance: After reaching home, the project manager of the ABC project team receives an email notification from the Office 365 mobile app—i.e., through Outlook—that the customer’s application is down and users are unable to access the application. This is business critical, as users cannot function without access to the application. A high-priority email is received from the offshore service manager that the application is down and to get it back to normal as soon as possible.
The project manager quickly realizes through Skype for Business that the offshore manager is available for discussion and initiates a Skype call to understand and assess the situation.
Discuss Incident Resolution Using Skype for Business and OneDrive: The project manager pings the offshore service manager on Skype for Business and they exchange Skype chats. The offshore manager is on the way to the customer’s office, so he requests to schedule a Skype call after a gap of 30 minutes to discuss the incident.
In the meantime, both the project manager and the offshore service manager access OneDrive for Business to access an incident-management process document to check out SLAs, escalation contacts, and customer points of contact for major incidents.
During the Skype call, they are able to share screens, discuss the precise problem, and come up with a probable solution. After this discussion, an official email is sent to the customer to provide a status update.
Team Helps to Collaborate in a Project’s Environment: Both the project and service managers chalk out a plan to fix the incident to restore the application. Communication is sent across the TEAM site, along with steps and actions contained in a Word document and Excel file. These Office documents are uploaded on SharePoint, and a link is shared on the TEAM site.
The project team working on the night shift receives instructions on incident resolution but are not convinced about the steps and actions, so they get into an immediate Skype call with the project manager, who is at home, and the service manager, who is in the United States at the customer’s office. There is no agreement made in the call, and the team is instructed to share ideas on the TEAM site and suggest anything that could be a solution.
Yammer Helps Build Collaborative Solution: A project team member posts a conversation on Yammer looking for a solution that might have been implemented by other teams in the same area. Within a few minutes, a lot of replies are generated. In some Yammer replies, people from other projects share solution documents by sharing their SharePoint URLs. Other Yammer replies contain some queries, which the project team is able to answer on Yammer; for some answers, they must refer to documents hosted on the TEAM site, and other answers are provided through the TEAM site chat.
The solution provided in one of the Yammer replies is positive; however, the solution provider requests some information from the customer, which is accessed by the customer in the present state. The project team, with the help of a Yammer external network that exists between the project team and the customer team, is able to share questions and get responses from the customer. However, this takes time, as the project team comes up with questions and then sends them to the customer over the Yammer external network, and answering questions from the customer side requires some intervention from the project team. In short, the project team is building a solution using Yammer and a Yammer external network.
To make the process more efficient and to work as one team, the project team created an external group on their home Yammer network and invited the customer and their team and the solution provider and their team. In real-time, these three different teams were able to collaborate and share documents with each other, and finally they were able to build a comprehensive solution to fix the incident. During the ongoing flow of the Yammer conversation, a solution was deployed. The customer gave User Acceptance Test confirmation through the Yammer external group, and the okay to go live as well. Finally, the customer expressed their appreciation in the external group.
This is a situation where an issue was reported over email, the initial discussion of the issue took place over Skype and TEAM site and the building of a collaborative solution happened through Yammer using features such as external networks and external groups. Document sharing also took place through Yammer, though the documents were hosted on SharePoint.
Summary
Skype for Business: To schedule planned/unplanned meetings between different teams and customers
TEAM site: To work collaboratively in project-specific environment
SharePoint Online: To store documents or manage content
Yammer: To build collaborative solutions, connect with teams/customers, and share content (even though hosted in SharePoint/OneDrive) with team/customers. No project-specific boundaries, as it exists in TEAM site.
Tips to Build a Successful Yammer External Network
Become a Yammer super-user or champion.
Build learning community using Yammer.
Ask questions about using the platform; get access to product news, webinars, and more.
Subscribe to Yammer’s Vimeo channel to stay current with fresh info and tutorial videos.
Understand the Yammer admin functions.
The Yammer Admin Guide will help you understand how to administer and customize your external network.
The Admin panel is where you can upload a network logo, set the header color, specify a usage policy, and bulk invite members.
Set up the network to drive discussion and help new members.
Determine a full list of individuals who should be part of the network. Invite just a handful first (those most likely to contribute and who have a clear vision of the purpose of the community) to seed activity that will shape the focus of the discussion.
Create a few groups to guide the direction of the community.
Set up a group specifically for posting questions, providing help, and sharing updates about Yammer. Use this group to post user guides, education materials, videos, etc. Post critical material in the Info tab so it’s easily accessible.
Invite all your other users (you can use Bulk Update in Admin panel if there are many of them), and you’re on your way!
- “Walk the talk” of community management. Good community management is critical to keep a network humming. Try the following to help your community succeed:
Lead by example—be present, responsive, and helpful.
Welcome newcomers, encourage them to post an introduction, and help point them in the right direction.
Ask questions and share information, photos, videos, and links.
Help turn negative comments into positive action.
Build bridges between members: @mention individuals and share conversations between groups.
Keep things relevant and alive. Often, an off-topic group can help keep the main feed focused on relevant topics. Let members know that such a group exists as a place for chat and social conversations—these kinds of interactions are often critical for building a sense of community, so don’t shut them down; just create an appropriate place for them.
Take initiative in sharing links and ideas, asking questions, and promoting discussion. Don’t dominate, but play an active role in keeping conversation and collaboration alive.
What to Share and What Not to Share
Thousands of people from diverse cultures based in different countries perform one common action—collaborating, connecting, and sharing through Yammer. It is transforming the way we work to make employees more engaged, boost team collaboration, and enable organizations to be more agile.
Within the organizational and technical environment, project information (consisting of a client’s credentials and confidential information) is logically segregated and accessible only to resources working on the respective client account. We need to adhere to the same principles when sharing information on Yammer, meaning client-related discussions should happen in closed groups (a team where members are authorized) and are accessible to only those resources. If any client-related discussion needs to take place outside of a closed group, client reference and confidential information should not be mentioned. To summarize, sharing should not lead to any leakage of information for clients.
In addition, users needs to respects the intellectual property rights of third parties (including clients) and desires to offer a platform that contains no content that violates those rights. The information posted by users must be accurate, lawful, and not in violation of the rights of third parties. It is required that users do not post any content owned by any third party without the permission of the copyright holder.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I mention the client name or client contact names on Yammer?
You can mention the client name or client contact names in any group as long as doing so does not violate the client’s contractual requirements on confidentiality and information security.
Can I publish client-related information on Yammer?
Client-related information can be published in accordance with client contractual agreements:In situations where the client has specifically forbidden publishing information on any cloud-based platform, you should not publish client-related information on Yammer, even in private groups.
In situations where confidentiality restrictions apply, but agreement does not explicitly mention cloud-based platforms, you can publish client-related information in private groups, exercising the same caution as if you were publishing on any other organizational platform.
In all other situations, client-related information can be shared in a way that will help other users to understand the business situation and respond accordingly.
If you are unsure about the client contractual restrictions, consult your legal department.
What kind of client-related information should be classified as confidential?
Any information qualified as confidential as per client contractual requirements. Confidential information varies depending on the client’s own information-security classifications and requirements.
Does thumbnail preview of URL that displays client information lead to security violation?
If the URL is accessible to all users then it is not a violation. Further, if the URL is accessible to only a specific set of users, then a thumbnail preview of the URL that displays confidential client information could be a risk.
What action do I need to perform when mobile devices (smartphones and iPads) are lost when an active Yammer session was already logged in?
Risk occurs when the mobile device is lost, and in that case the user can access the web version of Yammer and disable mobile access through available Yammer feature. Some control exists.
Is there a security risk when data from Yammer is extracted using an API?
This is not a risk as only registered users can pull information using APIs.
Is it safe to use apps made available by Yammer through the apps directory?
Yes, it is safe to use apps, as Yammer is now an ISO27001 certified organization. Further, users are advised to read terms and conditions of the app provider when trying to install the app.
Who owns responsibility for any security violation related to client’s information?
Responsibility related to security violations of client information is defined in the client contract. Failure to comply with the client contractual requirements can expose employees and/or employer to civil damages, criminal fines, and other penalties. Employees are informed that any breach will be taken extremely seriously and may lead to appropriate disciplinary actions.
Can I upload content to Yammer if I am not sure whether that would infringe someone’s copyright?
If you’re not certain that you are legally authorized to use the content, do not upload it. If you have done so already, you should remove it. If you don’t own the copyright to content you wish to post, posting it without permission of the copyright holder might be a violation of the law. Note that posting a link that gives you access to a third party’s information will be considered as posting the information and so would be copyright infringement. If you have any question whatsoever as to whether you are legally authorized to post any content, consult your legal department.
Can I upload content to Yammer that I filmed from the television, live concert, or any other event?
Filming content with your own personal device does not necessarily mean that you have the right to film or that you are authorized to use it. Disclaiming ownership of that content cannot protect you from infringing on the third-party rights.
Can I copy information or upload content to Yammer that I found on the internet through Google or any other search engine?
Information found on the internet is not all free to use. If you want to copy or use content (extracts from books, journals, or other publications; or illustrations such as images, maps, photographs, tables, etc.) from the internet, make sure you check if there are any terms and conditions linked to its use (normally as a license agreement). In other cases, you have to contact the author of the content and ask for his/her prior approval. These rules apply even if the work is old, if there is no copyright notice, or if you use only a small part of the work. In any case, contact your legal department.
Can I upload to Yammer the work developed on a client project that is not confidential?
Uploading a work is considered use. Before using any work developed on a client project that is not confidential, make sure that your employer owns the work and grants you the right to reproduce it on a social network. If the intellectual property rights of the work have been transferred to the client in the contract, it cannot be used unless you have the written permission of the client.
An Example of Yammer Usage Policy
POLICIES/RULES
The following example of a Yammer Usage Policy will give you an idea of how you can build a policy covering areas such as confidentiality, intellectual property (IP) and data privacy, and ideal user behavior and etiquette.
Think Before You Post
What you post reflects who you are and will be interpreted as such by readers.
Do not do anything that would reflect negatively on you, the company, or the people you work with.
What you post in the “All Company” group and in public groups is visible to any employee. What you post in a private group is only visible to the members of that group. So, carefully think about who you want to communicate with before posting.
Be Aware of Your Personal Responsibility
You are responsible for your words and actions.
You are not an anonymous person, and all content you post is associated with your name.
Most of the content you post should be business oriented.
Ensure content is factual and not in any way misleading or misrepresentative.
Make sure your Yammer activity does not interfere with performing your job responsibilities and commitments to clients.
Behave in an Appropriate Way
Your online behavior should comply with the Organizational Code of Business Ethics.
Share your expert knowledge, ask questions, help to resolve issues, promote learning, and communicate successes.
Build trust by being polite and keeping a respectful and courteous tone when offering your opinion or debating on matters.
Bear in mind that your tone may be perceived in various ways, depending on the reader’s context and culture.
Any non-business-related content should be posted in dedicated groups, not in the “All Company” group.
Do not engage in a conversation that would be unacceptable in the workplace or that is unlawful.
Be aware that the company reserves the right to moderate the use of Yammer.
Respect Confidentiality
Protect proprietary information, be it company, client, partners’ or suppliers’.
In a situation where confidentiality restrictions apply, but the agreement does not explicitly mention cloud-based platforms, it is permitted to publish client information in a restricted private group.
Share client-related information in a way that will help other users to understand the business situation and respond accordingly.
Do not mention client name or client contact names in a situation that will lead to infringement of client contractual agreements.
Do not publish client information where the client has specifically forbidden publishing information on any cloud-based platform.
Do not violate any non-disclosure agreement, including the one included in your employee contractual agreement.
Reposting content from a private group to a public group is not permitted.
If you are not sure you can share something, do not share it.
Intellectual Property Rights
Do not post information or upload files that infringe upon patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights, or other proprietary rights of the organization, clients, partners, suppliers, or any other third party.
If you don’t own the copyright for the content you wish to post or upload, you need previous permission of the copyright holder to post or upload such content.
Do not duplicate, license, sublicense, publish, broadcast, transmit, distribute, perform, display, sell, rebrand, or otherwise transfer information found on Yammer except if you have written permission of the owner.
Do not use information, content, or data you obtain from Yammer to provide your own services to a client that would directly or indirectly compete with organization’s business activities.
Do not remove any copyright, trademark, or other proprietary rights notices contained in the documents or the information you upload.
Do not use employer brand or third-party brands except as explained in the organization’s Brand Policy and in the respective third-party policy.
Comply with Laws and Regulations
Comply with copyright and trademark laws.
Comply with Organization Brand Policy.
Comply with data privacy laws.
Respect Yammer Terms of Use.
Understand Data Privacy
If you leave the organization, your profile information (including your picture) will be deleted and replaced by a “former member” mention, but your posts, notes, and files will remain available and attached to your name, unless you formally ask for them to be removed.
Do not disclose any personal information about someone else, or publish photos portraying other people, without their explicit permission.
Use external networks only when you have a need to use Yammer for collaborating with people outside of the organization.
If you participate in external networks, be aware that your profile information is shared across all networks (home and external networks).
How Can You Be a Yammer Star?
Yammer Etiquette
Be honest: If you get help off Yammer, acknowledge the ones who helped you.
Be bold: If you are seeking information or advice, then simply ask the Yammer community. But do not forget that your own knowledge is probably valuable to others, so please share it. And if you find a new, effective way of using Yammer, please share that as well (both inside and outside of the Yammer community).
You are a trusted member of the Yammer community, so please do not abuse that trust. If you are not sure about the information you are sharing, please say so, so others can verify it. Keep in mind that you are responsible for what you write.
You have the freedom to put Yammer to good use for your daily work, so apply your expertise, offer your opinion, and enter into debates. But this freedom comes with responsibilities: respect the freedom of others and be tolerant of their opinions.
On Yammer, you are part of one team. Help where you can, ask your peers, share your knowledge. Be sure to let the other users know who you are: fill in your profile so you can easily be contacted by new joiners and be found by those looking for your expertise. Constantly try to imagine how others might interpret your posts, and to this end try to write as concisely as possible.
Be modest and refrain from posting boastful, pretentious messages. If you do not have an answer to a question, do not give an answer just to be heard. Rather, refer to an expert you know and who may have the answer.
Celebrate your successes on Yammer, especially when the Yammer community contributed to it. And do not forget to have fun in collaborating with your colleagues on Yammer.
10 Ways to Maximize External Collaboration
Minimize email communication with your client and create a Yammer external network to socialize with your client.
Build an external network to create communities of practices on various topics, such as cyber security, data privacy laws, and others to hear what other companies are doing and get ideas from those.
Involve your clients, suppliers, and partners in your day-to-day delivery-related matters by using Yammer external groups.
Create Yammer external groups or networks for each of your clients, suppliers, and partners and build a foundation for social selling.
External networks can be used for long-term customer engagement, whereas external groups can be used for real-time issues or for a mini engagement.
Create a Yammer external network to collaborate with alumni.
Brand your organization on external networks to attract exceptional talent.
Make your new hires aware of your company before the join the organization by engaging them through Yammer external networks.
Use Yammer external networks to communicate announcements and share general information and content with your clients, suppliers, and partners.
Minimize usage of distribution lists and use Yammer external networks and external groups for external collaboration.
Summary
In this chapter, we have learned how to make use of Yammer external networks and external groups to collaborate, connect, and share with clients, suppliers, and partners and to create a social journey with them. In addition to making our workplace social and collaborative with Yammer, we can do so for our external business world.
The next and last chapter of this book is based on exciting ideas that envision Yammer as a next-generation platform for making collaboration an awesome experience for the user community.