Yammer expands with full Enterprise 2.0 suite

Yammer, which until recently was known for its micro-blogging tool, or "Twitter for the Enterprise" announced this week it was expanding its capabilities to include a full Enterprise 2.0 collaboration suite. David Sacks, founder and CEO at Yammer, says his customers were demanding a more comprehensive solution.

"The new Yammer is all about making it easier to turn the ideas and knowledge generated in Yammer networks into structured data and action," Sacks said.

Analyst Dan Keldsen from Information Architected says this was a move Yammer absolutely needed to make to remain relevant. "Obviously Yammer couldn't remain 'pure' microblogging--that's a feature, not a full-blown enterprise need, as I've said for a few years now," Keldsen said. "The abandonment of some of Yammer's early adopters, who outgrew the limited feature-set and moved on to a larger Enterprise 2.0 capability, only made the need to expand their capabilities even more apparent."

Larry Hawes, an analyst at Gilbane Group, says Yammer has grown quickly and is trying to convert that initial business into the full-fledged suite, but adds that while the first wave grew through viral adoption on the Yammer website, the next wave will require a more sophisticated sale. He believes the transition from direct sale to a sales team can be rocky, and historically many vendors have struggled to make that shift.

Yammer is updating with a new activity stream, not unlike Facebook. Keldsen remains skeptical that Yammer can separate itself from vendors who have been in the space for a while and have a big head start, but Sacks thinks his customer base will remain loyal to the brand. Eventually, we'll find out who is right.

For more information:
- see the Yammer press release