Yammer vs Zoho Connect

2018. Zoho Connect gets Projects integration, board templates


Zoho Connect, the social collaboration platform, has introduced integration with Zoho Projects, enabling users to seamlessly convert their conversations into actionable tasks. With this integration, you can now create new tasks in Zoho Projects directly from any of your Connect conversations and easily track their progress. Additionally, you can conveniently view and access tasks from all your Projects portals within Connect. Zoho Connect has also integrated ShowTime, enabling you to deliver presentations and training sessions effortlessly. Furthermore, the platform has introduced a new feature called board templates, which allows you to conveniently select and reuse any of your existing project boards whenever needed.


2017. Microsoft retires Yammer as stand-alone service



Microsoft has made the decision to replace the standalone enterprise social network Yammer in favor of achieving more extensive integration with Office 365 services. In the previous year, Microsoft made Yammer the default option for all eligible Office 365 customers, resulting in the majority of Yammer users utilizing it as part of their Office 365 subscription. Going forward, new customers interested in using Yammer will be required to sign up for an eligible Office 365 plan. In an official notice regarding Yammer, Microsoft stated its objective of "strengthening Yammer integration" with various collaboration tools within Office 365, including SharePoint, OneNote, and Planner.


2016. Yammer now allows to create External groups



Microsoft has introduced a new feature called external groups in Yammer, facilitating collaboration with individuals outside your organization. This feature enables the inclusion of external team members in a Yammer group, simplifying teamwork for extended teams. With external groups, team members from outside your company, who have the appropriate permissions, can actively participate in projects and initiatives by accessing all the group's conversations and content. This capability enhances existing methods of collaboration with external individuals, such as external networks and external messaging. These options allow you to directly add individuals from outside your organization to a thread within your organization's Yammer network.


2014. Zoho Connect allows to create external networks



Zoho's enterprise social network solution, Zoho Connect, introduces a new feature called "External Networks." This feature allows businesses to extend their collaboration capabilities to partners, suppliers, agents, franchises, or contract workers. Zoho Connect's external networks function similarly to internal networks for employees, offering the same interface and tools. By utilizing external networks, businesses can tap into the collective knowledge and creativity of their partners or vendors, leading to smarter solutions. In addition, Zoho has introduced several other enhancements to Zoho Connect, including features like Chatroom, Events, Network Analytics, and Active Directory integration, all aimed at further enhancing collaboration capabilities for businesses.


2014. Zoho Connect gets hashtags



Zoho Connect, the enterprise social networking service, has introduced a new feature called Hashtags to enhance the searchability and organization of posts. The inclusion of hashtags enables users to effectively organize their news feed and effortlessly locate specific threads to stay up-to-date with the latest discussions. By utilizing hashtags, users can efficiently navigate through extensive archives of conversations within their organization. They can also perform searches and follow tagged conversations, allowing them to focus on discussions related to specific topics of interest. Additionally, users have the option to receive email notifications whenever a tag they follow is used, ensuring they stay informed and engaged with relevant conversations.


2014. Yammer adds conversations to OneDrive and SharePoint Online files


Today, Microsoft has introduced a new social feature for Office 365 called document conversations. This feature integrates the collaborative capabilities of Yammer directly into the Office apps. Here's how document conversations work: when you access a file in your browser from your cloud storage, you will see the file displayed on the left side, accompanied by a contextual Yammer conversation pane on the right. The Yammer pane can be expanded or collapsed according to your needs. In addition to joining conversations from the Yammer pane, you can also post messages, @mention your coworkers, and publish to a Yammer group, whether it's public or private. Since it's powered by Yammer, you can also view and participate in discussions beyond the scope of the document, using your mobile device, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, or any other application where a Yammer feed is embedded. Document conversations are being gradually rolled out to customers throughout the summer and will eventually be available across all sites within a tenant.


2013. Microsoft social networks: Yammer vs SharePoint Newsfeed



Last year, when Microsoft acquired Yammer (the service for building enterprise social networks), it already had own the own social network based on SharePoint (now it's called SharePoint Newsfeed). And that's OK, because Microsoft bought Yammer not for the engine, but for the customer base and the image of  social vendor. But now, it seems, Microsoft doesn't know what to do with two almost identical solutions. In June, Office 365 users got the opportunity to replace SharePoint Newsfeed to Yammer, and Microsoft continues to insist that Yammer - is its future and that soon Yammer will become the platform for all its business apps. But on the other hand SharePoint Newsfeed also continues to evolve. For example, today SharePoint Newsfeed app for Windows 8 has been launched. And it's very similar to Yammer app for Windows (guess where is what on the screenshots). ***


2013. Zoho launched social intranet Zoho Pulse



If you compete with Google and Salesforce, you have to constantly go forward and improve your offering. And Zoho continues to do this. Today they have launched very useful service for their app suite - social intranet Zoho Pulse. It's a worthy alternative to the famous Salesforce Chatter and the significant advantage over Google Apps, which lacks such a tool. Now with full confidence we can say that in terms of functionality Zoho's collaboration suite is again the most advanced on the market. Moreover, from the start, Zoho Pulse is not an entry-level service, but a fully competitive solution with microblogging, communities, subscriptions, employee social network, wiki pages, forums, private messaging, embedded apps and documents, mobile apps for iPhone and Android. ***


2013. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online adds iPad, Yammer support



Recently Terrasoft released mobile (iOS and Android) apps for its BPMonline CRM, and may be it remembered to Microsoft that the users of its CRM system also want to have a normal mobile access to customer data. Microsoft promised to release the mobile client for Microsoft Dynamics CRM back in May 2012, then at the end of the last year, then by February 2013. It's now March and Microsoft has really launched something. But it's not a full-fledged mobile app, but just a web interface for the iPad browser, which of course, can't work offline and has many limitations. When the normal mobile CRM app will appear? Microsoft promises "in the first half of this year." ***


2012. SharePoint 2013 will integrate Yammer, provide platform around the online version



At the  SharePoint Conference 2012 Microsoft revealed some new facts about the upcoming SharePoint 2013. But nothing specific has been announced - just few promises. The exact release date is also still unknown. Microsoft's corporate vice president of the Office Division Kris Koenigsbauer promises a launch during the first fiscal quarter of 2013, which falls between October 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012. Now about the Yammer. As expected, Microsoft will integrate this social intranet service (acquired in June) into SharePoint. The integration will be done via Yammer Web Parts and Yammer Open Graph. Got it? And soon (Microsoft says) SharePoint will become a system "powered by Yammer". Ok, let's look what is the real sense of integration between SharePoint and Yammer. ***