News from several sources including suggests that Microsoft has acquired the social enterprise network Yammer for $1.2 billion. This move could help propel Microsoft into the forefront of the race to offer social CRM features to customers.
Yammer provides enterprises with a private secure social networking system, which the company asserts is just as easy as Facebook or Twitter, but without the headache that goes along with using one of those public services. It is primarily designed for business collaboration, which makes sense for Microsoft's business software, including .
What does this mean for Microsoft? It could initiate the next evolutionary step for Microsoft Dynamics products, which could benefit from more social networking and collaboration tools, particularly something as well-established and easy to use as Yammer.
One of the challenges with the acquisition will be Microsoft's ability to retain the talent that will come with Yammer. In order to truly build the type of social network integration Microsoft executives likely want, they will need the people from Yammer who created their networks to stick around.
Some have speculated that this acquisition was in the works for quite some time, especially after the two companies collaborated to make Yammer social plugins for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. If that is true, Dynamics CRM may just be the beginning of a new social enterprise network from Microsoft that reaches across a good number of its software products.
Want to talk more about changes in the CRM industry and how CRM can help your business, contact at PDG Consultants.
By PDG Consultants, serving New Jersey
Hi Rich - I work for a here in Houston, TX and Microsoft Dynamics is already one of our most popular products. I'm excited to see what this acquisition will do for Dynamics and also the industry as a whole. It'll be interesting to see how the other big players step up their social CRM game!
Anyhow, thanks for sharing! - Aly