My opinion on Yammer for intra-company networking

Yammer/Viva Engage is an incredibly useful tool for formal and informal internal networks in an organization.

Yammer is where

• You can call out into the forest and quickly get an answer.
• You can share both good and less good experiences with the aim of strengthening your colleagues.
• The transparency of an organization really shines through.
• The shy ones who otherwise do not dare to stand up and express themselves have a forum in which they can feel included and comfortable.
• Leaders can inform by using posts and announcements and all employees are involved and given the opportunity to comment.

If you’ve read this far in this text, you’ve already understood that I’m a big fan of Yammer. I have always been a big supporter of transparency and knowledge-/experience sharing. The best way for me to learn something is to “Work out loud”. Yammer is the tool that gives me exactly what I need.

The best way for me to learn something is to “Work out loud”

But where is my information stored?

Yammer Data Residency

Regardless of which platforms or solutions you use but depending on which country or region you work in, it may be of different importance where your information is stored and handled.

For me/us who work in the Nordics, this is an important theme. Yammer is no exception. Therefore, it is important to have knowledge of “Data Residency“.

It’s actually that way, that even if your M365 Tenant is located in Europe, your Yammers Geo can be in the US.

This is how You find out the geographic location of your Yammer network.

If you are a Yammer administrator, you can click the gear and then click “Edit network admin settings”.

On the page that now appears, you can see in which GEO your Yammer network is activated.

If You need to Move

If your organization operates in the Nordics and perhaps has regulations which mean that you must or should have your Yammer in the EU Geo and your Yammer network is not activated in the EU Geo, it is possible to have your Yammer network moved.

“Move” is perhaps not the right word because then you cannot move your content, but instead Yammer will be set up again but then in the EU Geo. Once it is in place there, you can rebuild your communities. Of course, this is not only positive if you have worked up a lot of content in your Yammer. At the same time, it is a golden opportunity to redo and do it right and also become compliant with the requirements you have on the organization’s data storage.

“Customers can have their Yammer Enterprise network reprovisioned to Yammer EU Geo. Please talk to your Microsoft account team representative for details.” (Source: Data Residency)

If You need assistance

I have now helped several organizations with this migration process and also with configuring Yammer correctly after the migration. Apart from the disadvantage of not being able to move the content with you, this is not a complicated process.

If you want to get tips and advice and possibly help with moving your Yammer network to EU GEO, please feel free to contact me via a direct message on LinkedIn or Twitter.

In conclusion.

Yammer is fantastic and if you haven’t started using it yet, I highly recommend it. You can see the arguments initially in this blog entry.

And, not to forget! Security & Compliance in Yammer

All who are Yammer admins should be familiar with “Overview of security and compliance in Yammer“. Here you can find basic information about how security in Yammer can and should be managed.

Featured image for this Post by Anh Tuan To on Unsplash