Yammer extends search, integrates Microsoft Dynamics

It's a busy time for enterprise social network provider Yammer, which is delving deeper into search and CRM solutions.

By Rachel King for Between the Lines | April 25, 2012 -- 02:30 GMT (19:30 PDT) | Topic: Microsoft

Yammer is expanding its services considerably with several new features announced on Tuesday. Many of the improvements to the enterprise social network focus on data.

Much of this surrounds the addition of Universal Search, which draws in data from files, pages, and conversations from any enterprise application to be available as a result in Yammer's search engine. Examples of those enterprise applications include integrated apps from Salesforce.com, SAP, and Microsoft SharePoint.

This also ties into the integration of Microsoft Dynamics. After selecting which accounts and records they want to follow, Yammer users will be able to see updates (such as changes to a record) from the CRM solution to appear as activity stories on the Yammer Ticker page.

Here's a rundown on the rest of the new features coming to Yammer:

Premium Groups: A workspace for teams, now available to all existing customers -- not just at the network level anymore. Administrators can manage group privacy settings, make group announcements, and delete any member's messages and files. Groups in free networks must pay $79 per month to upgrade.
Content Sharing: A Share button for sharing content across groups or via private messages, and an Email button enabling Yammer users to share content and links with third-party users via email
Yammer Embed: Previously in private beta and now generally available, Yammer users can use an embed code, which can be copied and pasted to add a Yammer feed widget inside any business application.
iPhone and Android apps updated with improved UI, slide-out navigation

It's not that difficult to understand Yammer's rapid and expansion lately. After all, the enterprise social network now has a customer base of more than five million corporate users and recently closed a $85 million round of venture capital funding -- bringing the total capital raised to-date to $142 million.