Dear colleagues, 

We would like to make you aware of an upcoming change to Yammer services at the University of Toronto. Microsoft is currently upgrading the Yammer platform across all tenants and, at the same time, rebranding the service to Viva Engage.  

Given that Yammer is currently not institutionally supported, the Yammer service used by the community will be disabled effective July 31, 2023. As a result, all users will no longer be able to access any Yammer services after this date.  

This decision has been made based on the recommendations from a Microsoft Tactical Resources Committee (MTAC) working group in consultation with PSEC, UTC and FIPPO which identified several risks associated with the Yammer service, including:  

• • Potential legal implications over privacy and moderation; 
  • Freedom of speech barriers that can arise if the University takes on the responsibility of moderation; 
  • The fact that Yammer access for students cannot be restricted – there is concern of increased risk related to moderation, misuse, and privacy for this group; 
  • No clear organizational ownership for a potential Yammer Moderator role (including resourcing capacity); and 
  • The considerable duplication in functionality between Microsoft Teams and Yammer.  

Next Steps: 

We will notify the Yammer Community Owners beginning June 19th.  

Moving forward, we encourage users to utilize Microsoft Teams for their communication needs. Please refer to our existing training materials for Microsoft Teams to learn more about this service. As an institutional service, Microsoft Teams is supported by local IT organizations within the university as well as ITS. EASI will be contacting community owners to make them aware of this change and to provide guidance on this transition.   

Thank you for your understanding and we appreciate your cooperation. If you have any questions about this transition, please contact Imthiyaz Hameed at imthiyaz.hameed@utoronto.ca.  

Best regards, 

Gary Raposo 

Assistant Director, Enterprise Shared Services, EASI