Guide to Measuring Business Value

AgendaIII. Quantitative Measures

II. Qualitative Measures

I. Introduction

Table of Contents

A. Analytics Dashboard

B. Data Export

C. Data Export API

D. Third-Party Applications

I. Introduction

Understand Three Key ThemesBusiness value is defined by quantitative and qualitative analysis of your network measured against your vision for enterprise social – a vision inspired by one or more of these three themes.

Listen to the conversations that matter.

Adapt and make smarter decisions.

Innovate, develop better products and enhance customer experience.

Listen. Adapt. Grow.

Keep Use Cases In MindThe three themes inspire your company’s vision for enterprise social, and provide context for identifying high-priority business outcomes and individual use cases.

Identifying use cases enables you to define concrete, actionable outcomes, which you can measure.

Vision

High-priority business outcomes

Use cases

Understand Outcomes of ConversationsThere are three key steps to finding business value in your network.

1. Getting people talking on your network is an important first step, but not knowing what they are talking about makes it difficult to understand the value.

2. Knowing what people are talking about is helpful, but not knowing the outcomes of the conversations makes it hard to understand the value.

3. Understanding the outcomes from those conversations is the key to finding business value.

People talking

People talking about sales

People talking about sales, thereby increasing revenue.

Business Value

Business Value Depends on Network MaturityRemember that connections in a network grow almost exponentially with the number of users on the network. As a result, it is important to have enough active people on your Yammer network before focusing on business value.

As your network matures, adjust your goals with respect to business outcomes and business value. In other words:

In beginning, focus on adoption and other quantitative measures of network health – simply put: Get people talking on the network.

Next, focus on engagement, which means getting people talking about specific business areas and topics.

Finally, focus on delivering business value.

Tailor Your Use Cases to Network MaturityWhen considering use cases, keep network maturity in mind. Mature networks are best at handling sophisticated use cases that drive business value the most.

• Employee Connectedness• Culture Initiatives• Sharing Industry Articles &

News

• Replace Meetings• Team & Department FAQ

Sharing• Employee Recognition

• Streamlining Any Business-Related Function or Task

• Co-Authoring Content• Sharing Best Practices

Quantitative & Qualitative MeasuresMeasuring business value requires quantitative and qualitative analysis.

When describing quantitative measures, we are referring to the network statistics obtained from the Yammer analytics dashboard and data export. These statistics give you a quick snapshot of network health that is particularly useful for young networks.

When describing qualitative measures, we’re referring to success stories that illustrate the business value that your Yammer network is delivering. These stories are harder to capture, but are the most effective way to demonstrate business value because they identify the subject matter of Yammer interactions, as well as the business outcomes they generate.

II. Qualitative Measures

Qualitative Measures of Business ValueQualitative measures are the best way to understand the business value of Yammer.

This is because enterprise social networking is like infrastructure, as opposed to a tool. While tools can be easily measured on ROI, the valuable impact of infrastructure, including social infrastructure like Yammer, can be hard to predict.

Just think: Would you rather have 100 people on your network just chatting, or 25 people on your network improving sales revenue by sharing examples of what helped them close their biggest deals?

The Relevance of Qualitative MeasuresRather than

measuring (which suggests quantitative data collection), storytelling in my view is a much more powerful way to demonstrate usefulness, benefit and ROI. Often, one success case can outweigh the cost for an ESN for a year.

Kai Riemer At CIO Strategy Summit

The true value of an enterprise social network is not reflected in the measurable data that is presented to you in a dashboard, but rather in its ability to strengthen the informal social network that creates interactions and fosters the completion of work inside your company.

CMS Wire

Four Steps to Qualitative Measurement1. Remember your vision. Analyse your network by comparing it to your vision

for how Yammer will help your organization listen, adapt and grow.

2. Take a poll. Use surveys to measure engagement of coworkers and employees. You might include questions in the annual employee surveys that your company already prepares.

3. Track #YamWins. To keep track of good Yammer conversations, create a topic in Yammer, e.g. #YamWin. Add the topic to any conversations demonstrating business value so you can easily locate them within the network.

4. Share stories. Encourage network members to share their own Yammer wins or “a-ha” moments, so others can learn from their stories.

Remember Your VisionA clear vision is important because it:

Enables employees to foresee the value that Yammer will bring to the organization and to them personally

Achieves a clarity of purpose, which helps secure buy-in and support

Broadly defines how Yammer can help clear communication barriers

Reflects the goals of individuals throughout your organization

Take a PollOne of the easiest ways to find out whether your network is achieving business value is by talking to your coworkers or network members.

You can create a poll or survey to assess the level of enterprise social adoption, collect feedback and identify opportunities to improve the network. Here are some sample questions you can ask:

1. What are some of the primary ways you use Yammer?

2. How often do you use Yammer?

3. How often do you use Yammer for business related purposes?

4. To what degree have you experienced value in using Yammer as part of your workflow?

Track #YamWinsIdentify conversations demonstrating cross-functional collaboration and teamwork.

Tag these conversations with the topic #YamWin to follow their progression.

Search for the #YamWin topic when doing an analysis of the network to quickly locate conversations demonstrating business value.

An employee on the night crew flags a non-routine problem.

Other stores across the country confirm the problem.

Charleston

Dallas

Salt Lake City

Phoenix

An executive acknowledges the issue.

The problem is resolved.

Chicago

Share StoriesCapturing and sharing stories about your network’s successes and #YamWin moments is one of the best ways to demonstrate business value.

When sharing a story about your Yammer network, be sure to include these details:

Time. The story should begin with a time marker, so the audience knows when it happened.Characters. The story should feature names, so the audience knows who was involved.Events. The story should recount the events that took place.Visuals. The audience should be able to picture what has happened.

Stories about business value can easily be shared internally through a Yammer Success Stories group in the network. You can also share stories externally with the wider Yammer community via the Yammer Customer Network.

Examples of Success StoriesHere are some examples of customer success stories. Create a Yammer Success Stories group on your network to share your own successes with your organization.

When Red Robin introduced the bacon-laden Pig Out burger, management was disappointed by the lack of customer feedback on Red Robin’s Facebook page but learned a great deal from the considerable buzz on Yammer.

“Managers started talking about ways to tweak the Pig Out recipe, and four weeks later, we had an improved, kitchen-tested version to roll out to restaurants. That’s a process that would have taken 12 to 18 months before.”

Chris LapingCIO

“We have lots of events in our shopping centers, and Yammer’s mobile functionality makes it easy for staff on the ground to post updates and videos, giving the rest of us a feed of activity as it happens.”

When the winner of The X Factor Australia did a tour of several centers, “the team did a live feed of photographs and videos from various locations. That was phenomenal not only as a way of sharing the excitement, but it helped us learn and improve each appearance based on the one before.”

Andy HedgesShopping Center Management

Technovision is an annual internal document that outlines how customers in different sectors can best deploy technology. It’s put together by a small number of CTOs, but in 2012, they shared the preliminary report on Yammer and asked for feedback.

“Our Technovision reports have always been based on the experiences of a few very senior, very clever, technologists… But this year’s document is even more powerful, because people across the company were able to see those ideas and develop them, drawing on examples of client work around the globe. Yammer helped our CTOs refine the report by mining the perspective of the 40,000 people on our network – and they did it in two weeks. You sure couldn’t do that with email.”

Tom BartonHead of Communications

Further ResourcesCheck out these resources for further information on measuring business value from a qualitative perspective.

CMS Wire - The Enterprise Social Networking Data Party is Over 

Enterprise Social Network Analytics vs. Scoring; Why One Works and the Other Doesn’t

Blog Post - Measuring Business Value

Kai Riemer Keynote on Enterprise Social Network Adoption

III. Quantitative Measures

Importance of Quantitative MeasuresMonitoring and tracking the performance of your network allows you to observe its health, keep track of how your organization is using Yammer and identify opportunities for growth. Quantitative measurement is particularly relevant for measuring growth in young networks, if they haven’t yet realized their full potential for business value.

We offer a number of tools to assist with quantitative measurement. In the following slides, we explain how these tools help you analyse network data:

Analytics Dashboard Data ExportData Export APIThird-Party Applications

Quantitative Metrics Highlight OpportunitiesQuantitative metrics highlight areas for growth in your network, so you can take action to boost adoption and engagement company wide. For example:

If files and notes usage is low, organize training sessions on collaborating using these tools.

If mobile usage is low, launch a campaign to raise awareness and promote usage.

If a particular group is popular, invite the group admins to share best practices for keeping the group active.

How Do I Start Measuring?After reviewing the resources in this section of the deck, start analyzing quantitative metrics in your network by:

Examining your Analytics Dashboard

Planning a Data Export schedule

Performing a Data Export

Creating a pivot table in Excel using your data

Sharing what kind of report you’ve created (and how you created it) in the Yammer Customer Network

A. Analytics Dashboard

Using Your DashboardThe Yammer Analytics Dashboard provides certain statistics on network activity that can help in gauging network health, especially in young networks. These statistics are great for illustrating the growth of your network and confirming that the network is active. For example, an upward trend in the number of posts indicates that the network is active and that employees are engaging with the network.

The following slides explain the key metrics, which include:

Number of membersNumber of likesNumber of postsNumber of groups

Overview Your Network Analytics

TIP

To analyze how a launch event affects engagement levels, compare the overview metrics before and after the event.

Toggle to see network activity for the past 7 or 28 days.

Quantify Engaged Members

TIP

Analyze the number of engaged members vs. total members.

An engaged member has:

Sent a private message, started a thread, replied to a thread, liked or shared a conversation.

Viewed a full conversation, or clicked to expand a post.

Understand Message Volume

TIP

Analyze the number of messages posted in a group vs. in a private message.

Measure the number of monthly messages posted in the past 6 months.

Analyze Group Activity

TIP

Review the percentage of active groups on the network.

If a particular group is popular, invite the group admins to share their best practices for keeping a group active.

Quantify File Sharing

TIP

View the total number of files that have been uploaded to the network over time.

If files usage is low, organize a training session on collaboration best practices.

Understand Notes Usage

TIP

Analyze the number of notes that have been created over time and the number of unique note edits and views.

If notes usage is low, organize a training session on collaboration best practices.

Understand Notes Usage

TIP

Analyze how your members are using notes based on the number of views and purpose of the note (e.g., business- or project-related notes vs. water-cooler conversation).

Identify Login Access Points

TIP

Identify how your members are accessing Yammer, e.g., via web, mobile, desktop or SharePoint.

Are there opportunities to raise awareness about certain access points?

Analyze Mobile Devices Usage

TIP

Identify which mobile platforms your users are using. Then, host a mobile app training for the most popular platform.

If mobile app usage is low, organize a campaign to promote using Yammer on mobile devices.

B. Data Export

What Can I Export From Yammer?The Yammer Data Export will package and export all messages (public and private), notes, files, topics, users and groups. The Yammer Data Export is available to Verified Admins only.

Data will be exported into separate .CSV files. The .CSV files will contain details of each data type, such as message ID, time stamps, participants, group names, etc. 

Files will be in their native format, and notes will be exported in .html format. Exports will only contain files and notes created or modified during the time period specified for the export.

What Can I Do With My Data?Create a PivotTable, a Microsoft Excel feature which allows you to aggregate and visualize the exported data.

By analysing the Messages.csv file, you can:

Find the Top 10 groups based on posts or conversations; drill down to see the breakdown by day.

Find the Top 10 posters; drill down to see the breakdown by day.

By analysing the Topics.csv file, you can:

Break down the number of topics created by day.

Comparing Dashboard & Data ExportYammer Dashboard

Network growth, weekly or monthly

Engaged members

Number of messages posted

Number of groups, total and active

Number of files, total and uploaded

Number of notes, total and created

Top notes and files

How your organization is accessing Yammer

Mobile devices used

Data Export & Excel

Using formulas, search for keywords, like a specific campaign or project name

Using pivot tables, drill down or aggregate your data at a deeper level, such as:

Network growth at a daily level

Number of messages posted per day, week or month

Number of messages posted in each group

Create charts and graphs to display analytics

The Yammer Analytics Dashboard and Data Export give you access to different metrics.

C. Data Export API

What is the Data Export API?The Data Export API allows an IT administrator to set up and customize automatic, recurring exports for your network. This allows greater control, flexibility and customization.

URL: https://www.yammer.com/api/v1/export

Method: GET

Authentication: OAuth 2 access token, user must be a verified admin. See the Yammer Developer Network for generating an access token.

Query Parametersaccess_token – The OAuth bearer token of a verified admin.

model - Indicates which models to be exported. All available models will be exported if no model is specified. Multiple models may be specified with multiple parameters with the 'model' name. Available models include:

UserGroupMessageTopicUploadedFileVersionDocumentVersion

since - Indicates the start date of the export. All exported changes will have occurred on or after this date. Must be encoded as an ISO-8601 date.

include – Defines whether to include file attachments or not. Options are ‘csv’ (no attachments) or ‘all’ (include attachments).

network – Which network(s) you wish to export. Must be accessible using the provided OAuth bearer token. i.e. the network associated with the token, or associated external networks.

include_ens – If ‘true’, automatically include all external networks related to the network associated with the OAuth bearer token.

D. Third-Party Applications

GoodDataWhat is it? GoodData is a Yammer Partner Application which allows the verified admin to extract and analyze data exported via the API. It is an analytics and reporting app built around best practices and key performance indicators for measuring Yammer networks. The app sits on top of GoodData’s powerful business intelligence platform and consists of prepackaged dashboards.

What can it do? Key areas of analytic focus include group activity tracking, identification of influencers and champions, trending topics and virality analytics. GoodData can:

Easily be extended and customized to meet your organization’s unique needs.

Include other data sources to provide a complete view of your organization’s social investments, including sources such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, other enterprise social networks or internal data sources. 

Track and analyze internal Yammer usage and adoption, ensuring that your organization makes the most out of its investment in enterprise social. 

ViewPoint EnterpriseViewPoint Enterprise is a Yammer Partner Application which provides federated visibility of your company’s Yammer and SharePoint platforms. With ViewPoint, you can:

Watch changes in user and group adoption over time.

See which groups and sites are most and least active – by posts, likes, shares, documents and more.

Identify your most influential users across the enterprise.

For more information about ViewPoint Enterprise, see ViewDo Labs: http://www.viewdolabs.com/

Appendix

Example Data Export API QueriesExport all data since February 9, 2012:

https://www.yammer.com/api/v1/export?since=2012-02-09T00:00:00+00:00&access_token=WOOT8377DHL

Export all data since February 9, 2012 but exclude file attachments:

https://www.yammer.com/api/v1/export?since=2012-02-09T00:00:00+00:00&include=csv&access_token=WOOT8377DHL

Export message data since February 9, 2012 and exclude attachments:

https://www.yammer.com/api/v1/export?since=2012-02-9T00:00:00+00:00&model=Message&include=csv&access_token=WOOT8377DHL

Tips for creating a Pivot TableMake a copy of your .CSV files

Expand all columns

Separate your date columns (“created_at”, “deleted_at”, etc.) into just a Date column

In an empty column, call it “Date” and include this formula in the adjacent row:

"=CONCATENATE(LEFT(X#,10))" where "X#" is a date/time cell for that row.For example, in the Messages.csv file:

In cell U1, title it, “Create Date”In cell U2, enter the formula, “=CONCATENATE(LEFT(S2,10))"

Add a column for # of days since the last activity occurred, include this formula:

“=TODAY()-X#” where “X#” is the resulting cell from above.

Pivot Table ResourcesHere are some great resources from the Microsoft Office Team on getting started with PivotTables:

Create a PivotTable to Analyze Worksheet Data

Use the Field List to arrange fields in an PivotTable

Update (refresh) data in a PivotTable

Filter data in a PivotTable

Sort data in a PivotTable

Delete a PivotTable

GoodData ResourcesFor pricing information please contact team@gooddata.com.

For other information, check out:

GoodData for Yammer

GoodData Group in the YCN Network