Great news today we announced the availability of Yammer Enterprise in your Office 365 Education tenant.  It is in the process being rolled out to all education tenants as we speak so check your tenant as it should be arriving in the near future if you do not already see it.

I put together a quick FAQ to help with the launch:

What is Yammer Enterprise?

Yammer Enterprise is an enterprise social platform providing seamless open sharing and cross collaboration within your campus/district/school. It is a transformational technology which has changed the way we work inside of Microsoft where we share ideas, thoughts, find information and ask questions where previously we may not have had this insight.

See an excellent overview and demo of Yammer here and here:

What are the requirements for Yammer to work?

All HTML5 browsers are supported (see here) which is consistent with the Office 365 browser requirements and there are also mobile/tablet apps for iOS, Android and Windows Phone and Windows 8.1. See here.

Yammer for Windows Phone 8

Yammer for iOS app

Yammer for Android app

Yammer for Windows 8.1 app

Does this cost extra to use in my Office 365 Education tenant?

No, it is included with the A2, A3, and A4 SKUs.

Can I use this with external users? Does this require an additional license?

Yes, you can use it with external users parents, partners, companies with no extra licensing required.

What scenarios in education can I use Yammer Enterprise?

The possibilities for using Yammer in education are endless. Here just a few scenarios that might help get the ideas going:

• Classroom collaboration – teacher to student, student to student, mentoring, questions, announcements
• Teacher collaboration – teacher to teacher sharing, sharing ideas/lesson plans
• Campus/School collaboration – campus communities – freshmen, sports, interests/clubs, announcements, questions/answers, financial aid, etc.
• Departmental collaboration – professor sharing, collaboration, information sharing
• Projects – project information, graduate student projects, sharing of ideas
• IT helpdesk – questions, information sharing
• Research – sharing ideas, working cross teams, working with external parties securely
• Alumni – Alumni collaboration, announcements, jobs
• Parents – parent discussion, collaboration, feedback
• External collaboration with researchers, companies, other universities/schools

If I have an existing Office 365 Education tenant what do I have to do to get Yammer Enterprise?

If you already have A2 or A3 academic skus enabled the ‘Yammer Enterprise’ license will just appear in your tenant. You do not have to order anything additional to make this work.  You still have to activate Yammer within your Office 365 Education tenant. See steps here and Activation FAQ here.

If I am using Yammer Basic for my school/campus already what do I have to do?

The good news is you can upgrade your Yammer Basic to Yammer Enterprise. See steps here.

Where can I find more information on learning about Yammer or deploying Yammer?

Please visit this training link here and deployment link here for more information on Yammer.

I will be posting a more detailed Yammer Enterprise deployment in this blog coming soon.

Great news, beginning today Yammer Enterprise will ship with all Office 365 A plans at no additional cost. The availability was announced yesterday in this blog post.

Schools are facing increasing pressure to provide faculty, staff and students with the highly connected tools and information that both match today’s consumer social networking experiences and are at the forefront of 21st century learning models.

Microsoft’s vision for Enterprise Social is to empower institutions to work like a   network. By connecting individuals to a dynamic network of people and information, we help schools, teachers and students listen, adapt, and grow in new ways, enabling them to form better partnerships, communicate and collaborate faster and achieve their goals of deep learning.

With Office 365 and Yammer, schools can foster a new kind of learning that is more engaging and more connected to real life and better prepares young people for life and work in today’s world.

Yammer Enterprise provides all of the features of Yammer Basic but adds branding, security, and administrative features that enable customization and protection of the private network.

Features shipped with plans A2, A3 and A4 include:

• The option to create a custom design so you can brand the network with the school’s look and feel
• Advanced configuration settings that provide overall user governance and content management
• Robust security controls that help manage network access and security
• The ability to export network data for reporting, retention, and analysis
• Advanced integrations including Directory Sync and Single Sign-on

You can learn more about Yammer and the academic plans by visiting these sites.

Customer Success Center

Office 365 Education Plans

Yammer Plans and Pricing

Please speak to your Microsoft reseller about deploying Yammer.

Are you getting ready to make the Student Advantage benefit available to your school or university?

Visit Office.com/GetOffice365Resources to download a wide selection of easily customizable emails, print materials, templates, and more designed to help deliver a clear, school-wide message.

This combination of digital and print communications will:

• Announce that Office 365 ProPlus is free for all students at the school
• Communicate the benefits of these newly available tools
• Inform students how to access and install Office 365 ProPlus
• Promote overall awareness and usage of these services on an ongoing basis  

Example image

Example messages

In order to help our students prepare for success this school year, we’re providing Office to every one of our students at no charge. With Office 365, your child will now have access to the latest version of Word, for writing; Excel, for spreadsheets; PowerPoint, for presentations; OneNote, for organization and note taking; and much more. Install on up to 5 compatible PCs and Macs, plus 5 tablets (including iPad!)

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Thanks for joining us today!

Zion Brewer

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