Microsoft Yammer vs SharePoint: Difference and Comparison

Microsoft provides several options to its customers for productivity and collaboration. There are several applications like Microsoft Yammer and SharePoint which possess multiple functionalities overlapping each other.

These two applications of Microsoft were introduced in the market for increasing communication, production, and collaboration. For a better understanding of when to use these applications, you need to first understand the difference between these two.

Key Takeaways

1. Yammer is a social network for organizations, promoting communication and collaboration, while SharePoint is a web-based document management and sharing platform.
2. Yammer is more informal and conversation-driven, while SharePoint offers structured content management and team collaboration tools.
3. Yammer is ideal for company-wide announcements and discussions, while SharePoint is better suited for team-specific projects and document storage.

Microsoft Yammer vs SharePoint

Microsoft Yammer is a collaboration tool from Microsoft that works as a social networking tool designed for enterprise communication, allowing teams to communicate and share knowledge. SharePoint is a Microsoft platform for document management, collaboration, and knowledge sharing.

Microsoft Yammer refers to an application under Microsoft 365 subscription and is considered to be very important to today’s changing business landscape.

Yammer provides collaborations and communications and works as a social media tool or social networking tool that is for internal business.

Using Yammer employees can communicate, create groups. Using Yammer employees can communicate with other employees of similar industries and know what’s going on in the industry.

SharePoint refers to a platform for creating powerful websites and with the help of those you can have access to features allowing you and your team to work together.

Microsoft SharePoint is not installed on the computer locally, rather users connect to it through browsers.

SharePoint is the most significant sharing and collaboration platform using which users can automate tasks and create workflows. It is also used as a storage of documents.

Comparison Table

Parameters of Comparison	Microsoft Yammer	SharePoint
Definition	It is an ESN or enterprise social networking platform.	It is a content collaboration and management platform.
Launch	2008	2001
Audiences	Every employee within or outside the organization.	Generally, for the employees within the organization who are closely related to the task. External employees also can join if necessary.
Confidentiality	Not ideal for sharing confidential information.	Ideal for sharing confidential information.
Professionalism	It is used in less professional activities of the organizations.	It is completely used for the professional or work-related activities of the organization.

What is Microsoft Yammer?

Microsoft Yammer refers to an ESN or enterprise social networking platform, used for business organizations, that is built into the Microsoft 365 enterprise editions.

Yammer works as a closed-circle Facebook allowing coworkers to share files, chat, hold surveys, and many other non-business activities to understand the industry better.

This social networking platform is built for collaboration and communication within and outside the organization.

Yammer was first launched in 2008 and later in 2012, Microsoft purchased Yammer. Currently, it is a part of the Microsoft 365 subscription.

Only employees within a particular corporate domain have access to Yammer as it is a closed social networking platform. Only employees with Microsoft 365 plans can access it. 

Microsoft Yammer is also known as Facebook for the business. Yammer has some features like social media platforms (for instance, it has a news feed) and can be accessed through a stand-alone application or a browser.

The news feed in Yammer shows the latest posts by co-workers within the industry. Yammer also provides a feature of creating groups where employees can talk about the work within the organization and get feedback.

Microsoft Yammer comes with the Microsoft 365 plan and users can install the web version as a PWA or progressive web application in Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.

After the installation of the web version Yammer can be used as a PWA and will work as any stand-alone desktop application.

What is SharePoint? 

In this type of work culture, teamwork can’t be done face-to-face. Thus, the relevance of Microsoft SharePoint, Skype, and Outlook is increasing. 

SharePoint refers to a web-based collaboration and communication platform which is primarily used for creating websites.

Microsoft SharePoint also provides other benefits like document management, centralized administration, enhanced security, application integration, and so on.The primary use of Microsoft SharePoint is to create powerful websites.

It also allows its users to share files. Using it, employees within an organization can easily communicate and find and edit files and it can be accessed from any device with an internet connection.

SharePoint also allows customizing the platform to create custom layouts for websites and add some additional features like galleries, events, news, and so on.

The page content, navigation, workflow, forms, and design can be personalized in SharePoint. 

It also provides a secure place for storing, sharing, accessing, and organizing important information of the company. Management of the policy documents, records, lists, and other business documents is easy with SharePoint.

Another significant advantage of Microsoft SharePoint is that it can integrate other business apps like Microsoft Exchange Server, CRM, Microsoft OneDrive, and so on.

Main Differences Between Microsoft Yammer and SharePoint 

1. Microsoft Yammer is an ESN or enterprise social networking platform whereas SharePoint is a content collaboration and management platform.
2. Microsoft Yammer was launched in 2008, SharePoint, on the other hand, launched earlier than Yammer. It was launched in 2001.
3. Microsoft Yammer is not ideal for sharing data that is confidential as information sharing in it is organization-wide. On the other hand, confidentiality in information sharing in SharePoint is much higher as the information is shared within the team sites and accessibility of the information is limited by several settings.
4. Microsoft Yammer is mainly used mostly for non-business activities, whereas SharePoint is used for core business activities. 
5. The best usage of Microsoft Yammer is Communication, building employee engagements and company culture, making non-business announcements. On the other hand, the best usage of SharePoint is Team-based communication, content governance and records management, Document sharing, storage, collaboration, and storage.

References

1. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Microsoft+Yammer+&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DXCajpsXqIxcJ
2. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=SharePoint+&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DYLIR9xVHhRAJ

Last Updated : 13 July, 2023