Yammer Adds Sentiment to Social with Kanjoya

Pedro Hernandez

Updated · Aug 03, 2012

Yammer is teaming with Kanjoya, an emotion-aware sentiment analysis specialist, to help organizations draw insights into what workforces are really thinking and feeling.

For Microsoft, which bought the enterprise social network provider last month, it’s an encouraging sign that the Yammer ecosystem remains desirable for developers. Microsoft acquired Yammer for the hefty sum of $1.2 billion in order to establish a foothold in the sizzling social enterprise software market.

At the heart of the new functionality is Kanjoya’s emotional intelligence engine called Crane. The software analyzes Yammer conversations to unearth data on overall employee sentiment, discover trending topics and unmask a network’s top influencers.

Social Sentiment Analysis

The result, according to Kanjoya CEO Armen Berjikly, is an analytics platform that demystifies the touchy-feely study of sentiment in the workplace.

“The conversations in Yammer provide a wealth of insight into employee sentiment across all facets of the business. Kanjoya’s Emotional Intelligence engine takes this data from Yammer and delivers detailed, actionable analytics, changing the way companies monitor internal sentiment from subjective gut-feel to data-driven,” said Berjikly in an announcement.

Crane for Yammer generates a sentiment graph that takes stock of emotions such as joy, excitement, surprise and anger, and compares the volume and prevalence of each over time. An emotional index reveals the distribution of those emotions and the intensity of emotions as they pertain to certain topics.

A word cloud displays themes and terms that keep surfacing in trending conversations. Finally, influencer analysis shows which individuals most drive engagement.

Kanjoya’s technology provides an “additional layer of analytics to our customers who are eager to gain deeper awareness and understanding of the discussions happening in their Yammer networks,” said Yammer’s Chief Product Officer Jim Patterson in a statement. “By enabling this integration, Yammer customers will be able to recognize when something has affected employees either positively or negatively — and take action.”

Crane for Yammer is currently being offered as a free, 30-day trial for all Yammer Enterprise customers.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.

Pedro Hernandez
Pedro Hernandez

Pedro Hernandez contributes to Enterprise Apps Today, and 11Press, the technology network. He was previously the managing editor of Internet.com, an IT-related website network. He has expertise in Smart Tech, CRM, and Mobile Tech, Helping Banks and Fintechs, Telcos and Automotive OEMs, and Healthcare and Identity Service Providers to Protect Mobile Apps.

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