RMIT University is a world leader in Art and Design, Architecture and the Built Environment, Engineering, Accounting and Finance and Business and Management Studies.
Customer
RMIT
Products and Services
Yammer, Teams
Industry
Education
Organisation Size
Large (50,000+ employees)
Country
Australia
Context
RMIT undertook a relaunch of Yammer, combined with the launch of Teams, for all staff across multiple campuses. Working with Engage Squared, the university achieved astonishing levels of growth within months, with four Yammer communities amongst the top 1% of performers in the world.*
Why relaunch Yammer?
RMIT had introduced Yammer several years earlier, but the network had received little attention and monthly active users had dropped to insignificant levels. The transition to Microsoft 365 licences for all staff^ presented an excellent opportunity to relaunch Yammer as part of the suite. The university has close to 10,000 staff and reigniting the enterprise social network provided an opportunity to build better collaboration between the various schools and campuses in Melbourne and internationally.
“Technically an enterprise social network can be set up relatively easily, so it’s important to give consideration to the people side of the equation: with inspiring communication, leadership involvement and best practises in community management” said Mark Woodrow, Evangelist, Engage Squared.
Engage Squared worked with RMIT on a range of adoption activities including champions engagement, community management workshops and launch activities. A distinctive communication campaign Yammer Time crystalized the massaging to staff University wide.
Achieving results
Between January and May 2019 there was a 1000% increase in the number of active users in Yammer. The number of posts, comments and likes over the same period increased by a multiple of 20.
And, as Yammer has demonstrated its value to employee experience at the University, the growth and engagement has been sustained.
Benchmarking of Yammer Communities
More recently, Swoop Analytics* has rated RMIT among the Top 10 for multiple high-performing Yammer Communities globally. This is a great achievement for a recently relaunched Enterprise Social Network, with four of RMIT’s Yammer Communities being listed in the top 1% worldwide. The period Swoop Analytics analysed in their ‘Benchmarking of Yammer Communities’ for 2020 covered interaction data over the common period from March to August 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The advantage of launching Teams and Yammer simultaneously
Teams was officially launched at the same time as Yammer, using a different tagline – Take it to Teams.
The impact of the campaign was amplified by promoting Teams and Yammer concurrently, and it was easier for staff to understand the purpose and choices in ‘Which tool when’. The successful launch video included both Yammer and Teams alongside each other.
Results
After a period of organic growth, the Take it to Teams campaign helped produce a 100% increase in active users over four months, and a 50% increase in posts. Credit must go Trevor McGuire, Community Manager RMIT, who was the advocate for Teams and advised or trained many staff across the university.
- 100% increase in Yammer users
- Posts, comments and likes increased by a multiple of 20
