How SharePoint, Confluence, IBM Connections and Yammer compare

Web-based tech can help companies in a variety of ways: agile information sharing, tighter integration and better productivity. It can also save time, improve collaboration and even lead to greater transparency.

For IT, DevOps and business professionals, the ROI from enterprise social software often comes from the analytics capabilities, which can uncover actionable data that’s both accessible and easily integrated into corporate systems.

Microsoft SharePoint, Atlassian Confluence, IBM Connections and Microsoft Yammer all fit the bill in some ways. But is one better than the others?

At IT Central Station, users who have evaluated and shared feedback on enterprise social software discuss how the solutions they use deliver these requirements.

On the whole, are real-world users satisfied with the information sharing and analytics that their enterprise social tools provide?

Microsoft SharePoint

Wissam H., Manager of Business Process & Lean Management at a financial services firm, describes how SharePoint has helped his organization:

“It helped us manage our documents and records effectively and at a reasonable cost. The TAT [turnaround time] for process/document review, approval and publication cycles have significantly improved from maximum of three months for each document down to two weeks.”

Erwin F., IT & PMO Manager at a retail company, specifies one difficulty that he’s had using SharePoint:

Erwin explains that at his organization, SharePoint is used “for all intensive document sharing business units and especially for document versioning control (quality control area in manufacturing).” With that, he notes, the “cloud-local file synchronization application (OneDrive for Business)” could use improvement and/or be made simpler.

Read more Sharepoint reviews by real users at IT Central Station.

Atlassian Confluence

A Senior Development Manager at a financial services firm describes what he benefits from the most in Atlassian Confluence:

“The most valuable features are the collaboration and sharing of information. The ability to crowdsource the gathering of information and have anyone edit and correct it instantly. Quite simply, information is king. We have been able to share effectively and reduce our reliance on the usual Word docs and shared drives.”

Anthony D., Program Manager at a government agency, suggests certain improvements be made to Atlassian Confluence:

“The basic improvement needed from my perspective (and it may be more to do with how Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has allowed certain features of Confluence to be used) is the ability to move multiple attachments at a time.

I would like to be able to copy a set of pages in Confluence as a template. It would be nice to have better business collaboration examples.”

Read more Atlassian Confluence reviews by real users at IT Central Station.

IBM Connections

Rajesh R., Senior Messaging & Mobility Analyst at a construction company, shares what he values most in IBM Connections:

“Communities and activities are very useful for team collaboration and project level communication. This prevents breakdowns and keeps all the information in a centralized location.”

A Web Development Manager at a financial services firm discusses improvements that he would like to see made to IBM Connections:

“I would love for the communities to be more row-based, where you could have more of a community, so that you could set up the email alerts to be mandatory for some of the communities and to be standard for the others; those kinds of functionalities.”

Read more IBM Connections reviews by real users at IT Central Station.

Microsoft Yammer

Jeff E., Web and Intranet Content Management Advisor at a tech services company, shares how and why his organization benefits from using Yammer:

“Ease of use and the ability to join networks outside of the organization. These are valuable to drive adoption and to collaborate, be informed of events, and developments in related organizations.

We have set Yammer up inside iFrames that appear on our intranet home page, most content pages, and in all-team sites. This has enabled us to cater to large and very small audiences where they interact and don’t require a separate application or login.”

An IT Director at a financial services firm suggests how Yammer could further improve its software offering:

“Yammer can improve the effectiveness of its usage by addressing the metrics that measure user trust and perception. It measures the sentiments of posts using analytics and increases the ease of use.”