O365 security groups with Yammer

Question

I'm struggeling with understanding how to manage permissions on both SharePoint and Yammer.

Let me describe an example:

• We have a local AD with x number of security groups

• The groupes are synced to O365 and used on multiple sites in SharePoint

• Now, I want to create one Yammer group for each of these sites with the exact same permissions

How can this be done? Do we really need to maintain two equal groups? One for SP and one for Yammer?

I have seen the latest news regarding Yammer and O365 groups integration but this wont allow me maintain the group membership in our local AD. In addition it would require me to recreate all the groups in Yammer and get new sites and so on..

Any input would be appriciated. What is the best practices regarding SP and Yammer group management?

Answer 1

This might be something you are already aware of, but at least I'll be echoing the facts we have. I don't have a first-hand experience on this, but based on the available documentation & material, this would be the status:

• Yammer has a deep integration to Office 365 Groups
• Office 365 Groups are security groups created into Azure Active Directory
• Office 365 Connected Yammer groups can be created only in Yammer

• Q: Can I create an Office 365 connected Yammer group in the Office 365 admin center? A: No, this will be added in later waves. However, you will be able to manage members and delete groups from the Office 365 admin center. Metadata updates can also be applied to groups from the admin center.

• ... and a bunch of other less related details available in the first link below.

What can be concluded from these is that you indeed need to maintain duplicates of your group. An exception would be when you at first create your Office 365 connected group in Yammer, which you further utilize in SharePoint's environment, but reality check: I don't think this happens in any real-life organization.

References:

• Yammer and Office 365 Groups (worth of going through entirely)
• Yes! Yammer Will Work Together with Office 365 Groups!