Powell 365 works hand in hand with Microsoft’s Office 365. The Office 365 suite provides several different Microsoft tools that can be used alone, or in sync with each other. Here, at Powell Software, we feel that the tools work better together, so Powell 365 was built. The solution is built on top of the Microsoft office tool, SharePoint online. SharePoint online is a cloud based serviced hosted by Microsoft that is used to create secure websites where one can store, organize, share and access information. When creating a team site within SharePoint, different apps can be added, such as Yammer. However, using Yammer in SharePoint isn’t as straightforward or smooth as we all might expect.
Currently, there are quite a few pain points when you try to integrate Yammer in SharePoint:
- Simply creating a SharePoint site for Yammer is not enough. After a site is created in SharePoint, Yammer groups need to then be created in the original Yammer app, and then manually copy & pasted a Yammer embed short code into SharePoint. A very tedious and time consuming task.
- This embed Yammer short code actually uses iframes for its display. This kind of responsive approach is limited and the design is not customizable.
- Plus, this Yammer embed code is missing very important Yammer features:
- You can’t attach files (images/video/documents…) to your conversations
- You can’t create a poll
- You can’t create announcement
- Managing groups becomes twice as difficult, as the rights access to a Yammer group must now be regulated in both tools. So if you add a person into the SharePoint site, you also need to add him or her to the Yammer group.
- Sometime, the complete feed of a Yammer group does not need to be displayed in the page and smoother integration with your portal is needed.
Powell 365 brings together all the best tools in the Office 365 suite into one collaborative intranet. So naturally our team came across these different integration issues. The Powell 365 team solved all the identified problems with a more functional and smoother integration of Yammer in SharePoint online.
- When you create a new SharePoint site within Powell 365, the associated Yammer group in Yammer is directly created in your SharePoint site. The process has been simplified into one click.
- The Powell 365 Yammer web partdoesn’t use iframe for displaying Yammer. This web part also allows you to integrate a company’s design and brand. So, you don’t need to use the simple blue/grey design of the Yammer embed code.
- The Powell 365 Yammer web part uses all the functions available in Yammer:
- You can add files to a conversation (from the desktop or from a SharePoint site)
- You can create a Yammer Poll
- You can create an announcement
- The Powell 365 members web part allows you to manage the SharePoint security group AND your Yammer group member in the same place. When a new member is added in your SharePoint site through the Powell 365 members web part, the user is added to the SharePoint group and Yammer group in one click.
- Powell 365 Yammer web part offers a large variety of display templates to meet your needs. It gives you viewing options, like compact or full view, that are not possible with the Yammer embedded code.
Powell 365 takes Yammer one step further in SharePoint with the Powell 365 Yammer web part. The Powell 365 Yammer web part includes new progressive features like a VCARD mapped with Delve information. It allows for the creation of user profiles and access to recent documents. This makes daily tasks even more fluid for users.
Get the best out of Office 365 with Powell 365. Powell 365 lets you leverage, not only Yammer, but all the best tools within the Office 365 suite. Contact us today for a demo and see for yourself!