We're consolidating Yammer networks

[Mohammed Nihal Javeed Ahmed]

Action required by September 25, 2018

Starting September 26, 2018, Yammer will no longer support multiple internal Yammer networks associated with one Office 365 tenant. We will be consolidating your internal Yammer networks into a parent Yammer network. During this process, content will no longer be available from the subsidiary networks. We recommend you migrate your own networks prior to September 26.
This change does not impact external Yammer networks.

Question:
I have one tenant and multiple domain 
How do I know how many internal and external I have?
Which one is parent and subsidiary network?

Thanks

[#2]

You need an O365 global admin account on the same domain as the parent network (the network you want to keep). You can find a network merge wizard in the admin settings of that network and the networks you can "migrate" to the parent network will be listed there. You can create a ticket with MSFT support if you want to change the URL after performing the merge. This does require you to verify the domain in O365 first. The reporting feature in the O365 admin center has the info you need regarding the different networks/statistics (i.e. export user list and look at their email domains). 

[#3]

Hi Pooya Obbohat,

Thanks for your reply 

Just now I confirmed both my internal network are in same domain which is primary domain 

Network migration wizard is available for Network1 only but not network2 So as per your saying I can merge network2 from network1 and after I can able to access all the network2 data from network1 url. 

Thanks

[#4]

The network merge wizard is available on a network if you have an O365 global admin account with an emails address from that domain. You can get it to appear on any network you want, but you should only use it on the network you want to keep. 

Merging networks isn't the same as migrating them. There are no migration options for Yammer. The data on the networks you merge into you parent network will be lost. All this does is connect your users to a different network. 

Some other things to keep in mind:

- I prefer having an admin account on all the networks. This allows me to post an announcement in the all company group to give them a heads-up and answer any questions they might have. You can also use the report (O365 admin center - reports) to get their info and send them an email. 

- Recommend giving the users some time to create a backup of conversation/files (they have to do this manually. You can export the data as an admin, but there are no options to import data. You would have to dive into the files to find what they need which will take a lot of time. 

- Users get a "welcome email" when they are connected to a different Yammer network. You can temporarily block Yammer emails in Exchange when you are using the network merge wizard

Hope this helps. 

[#5]

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@Pooya Obbohat wrote:

The network merge wizard is available on a network if you have an O365 global admin account with an emails address from that domain. You can get it to appear on any network you want, but you should only use it on the network you want to keep. 

Merging networks isn't the same as migrating them. There are no migration options for Yammer. The data on the networks you merge into you parent network will be lost. All this does is connect your users to a different network. 

Some other things to keep in mind:

- I prefer having an admin account on all the networks. This allows me to post an announcement in the all company group to give them a heads-up and answer any questions they might have. You can also use the report (O365 admin center - reports) to get their info and send them an email. 

- Recommend giving the users some time to create a backup of conversation/files (they have to do this manually. You can export the data as an admin, but there are no options to import data. You would have to dive into the files to find what they need which will take a lot of time. 

- Users get a "welcome email" when they are connected to a different Yammer network. You can temporarily block Yammer emails in Exchange when you are using the network merge wizard

Hope this helps. 

---

Thanks for the clear explanation 

So, you can merge only users not data? What an idiotic move!! What would I do with the backup which can't be imported back to yammer? So its likely we will lose all valuable conversations and datas

Very disappointed...Time has come to ditch yammer  

[#6]

No problem. Understand the disappointment as losing data is the last thing you want to confront users with, but I wouldn't ditch Yammer because of this. You could use Microsoft Teams, but there is a limit of 2,500 members. Yammer also has an algorithm to surface relevant conversations, something you won't find in another application in Office 365. Yammer is the best application for communities IMHO. You're also not losing the external networks, they will all be connected to the parent network after the merge. 

A lot of companies are not aware that they have multiple Yammer networks. This is because of the freemium design of Yammer, which was already there before the acquisition in 2012. They are addressing this now by consolidating multiple networks in September and not supporting them going forward. This is the only time they will be confronted with data loss. The longer you wait with merging the networks, the more data will be lost and waiting for Microsoft to do it means losing data without any notice.

Here are some tips that could help:

- Explain to the users why you have multiple networks (i.e. Yammer freemium design)

- Explain that Microsoft will merge the networks in September automatically 

- Explain how important it is to have everyone connect to the same network 

- Consider following this up with a network launch (set up governance and improve the experience)

- Tell them to capture the members of their group, making it easier to add them later

- There are some instructions in this forum on how to get the members of large groups

- They can upload the files without creating new posts (click on the files tab and upload them there)

Have helped several companies with merging their Yammer networks. The messaging to the users is key. Users won't like losing data, but they will understand when you share the bigger picture. This is why I go the extra mile to post an announcement in the all company group in their network as I prefer to be as transparent as possible during this process. 

[#7]

Hi Pooya Obbohat,

I am extremely grateful for your clear explanation

As I said before I have 2 internal network

• Network1 with less data and frequently used
• Network2 has larger number of users & data and daily used 

But both network has the same users so I have decided to export Network1 data and delete the Network1 and replace them with Microsoft Team (Please confirm this will work as per MS said) 

I hope you are familiar with Microsoft Teams Is anyway possible to import/move those yammer group to Microsoft Team?

Thanks 

[#8]

What do you mean by "this will work as per MS said"? Can you provide a link or screenshot of what MS has said? Personally, I don't consider Microsoft Teams as a replacement for Yammer. Microsoft Teams is missing the algorithm/feed, the all company group, it has a limit of 2,500 members, requires users to join the Team to see the conversations etc. Microsoft is also adding new features to Yammer, such as live broadcasting. My recommendation would be not to switch to Microsoft Teams, but use both applications. Use Microsoft Teams primarily to collaborate on projects (private Teams) and use Yammer for the communities (public groups). There is some redundancy between the applications, but there are too many differences IMHO to only select one of them. 

I am familiar with Microsoft Teams and there is no feature to import data from Yammer. Migrating data from social networks isn't supported because this would require:

- using the same account to create the post/comments or they won't receive notifications 

- the timestamps need to be correct

Would recommend watching this video from Ignite. It explains the differences between the applications. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjv5VoSNdXw

[#9]

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@Pooya Obbohat wrote:

What do you mean by "this will work as per MS said"? Can you provide a link or screenshot of what MS has said? 

---

I was refereeing to O365 message "consolidating yammer networks" 
I mean i have 2 internal network if I delete one internal network I will be left with only one internal network in my tenant So, I am no longer applied to yammer consolidation.  

[#10]

When you merge/consolidate the networks and only have 1 network left, then in September Microsoft can't consolidate multiple networks for you. They won't support multiple networks going forward, which means that new accounts will automatically be created in the network you already have. 

You can't really "delete" a network. You have to use the network merge wizard. You could remove the domain from your tenant, but I wouldn't recommend doing that. You mentioned having the same users on both networks. This happens when your users have multiple email accounts with different domains or when emails sent to a different email address end up in their email inbox. Merging the networks will result in duplicate accounts. You have to enforce Office 365 identities in your parent network to address this. This will deactivate accounts not associated with an Office 365 account and remove them from search. The external networks will be connected to your parent network, but they won't have access to them because their accounts will be deactivated. As an admin, you have access to all external networks after the merge, allowing you to give the correct account admin priveledges. 

Can still imagine that you can end up having multiple networks before September. As an example: when you add a new domain to the tenant and users can use that email address to sign up for an account on Yammer, this will result in a new network. Another scenario is that you already have an additional domain, but users never signed up for an account on Yammer using that email address. This problem shouldn't be there anymore after September as they will stop supporting multiple networks. Would recommend monitoring this and figuring out why you have multiple networks with the same accounts. All the subsidiary networks you merge into your primary network can't be created anymore. You can see all the domains connected to your network when you access the network merge wizard.