As South Africa contends with another wave of Covid and level 4 lockdown, the country is being severely tested on all fronts. Businesses are being tested. Churches are being tested. Families are being tested.
It is easy to lose hope during a test of this magnitude. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is hope! I do not think that my optimism is wishful thinking. Like every test in life, this Covid pressure has the potential to make us stronger as a country. Consider the analogy of steel for a minute.
Steel is valuable. It is stronger than iron, but also flexible and can be shaped into a number of various products. However, in order to get steel one needs a specific recipe.
Like baking a cake it requires key ingredients like iron ore, coke, limestone, air, and water. These ingredients are cooked in a blast furnace that can reach temperatures up to 900 degrees Celsius.
The intense heat is needed to separate the impurities. The heat causes the slag of impurities to remain at the top while the true iron remains at the bottom. So, the fire and heat are crucial ingredients. Without them it would not be possible to make steel.
The heat caused by Covid seems almost unbearable for our country right now. Many South Africans are fearful and anxious about their livelihoods, families, and even their own personal well-being.
So, I want to encourage you not to lose hope because this time of testing is producing steel in our souls. When this time of testing has passed, we will be stronger together!
A few weeks ago, we kicked off a blog series called ‘Microsoft 365 for Dummies’ because we wanted to educate both employers and employees about Microsoft. We’ve already answered questions like “What is Microsoft 365?” and “What is Microsoft Teams?” In this blog we’ll answer the question, “What is Microsoft Yammer?”
Microsoft Teams focuses on small, close-knit groups or teams within a business. On the other hand, Microsoft Yammer is designed to enhance community within an organization by making these “inner circles” a little bigger. So, it helps team members to communicate with those outside their immediate circle.
You could think of Yammer as a unique social networking service designed with business communication in mind. I love how Amanda Barnes describes this social aspect,
“You can think of Yammer as being the Facebook of the corporate world. An extremely inclusive Facebook, where friends are replaced with colleagues, ads are replaced with corporate reminders, and updates are related to events, questions, and problems colleagues are trying to solve.”
You can think of Yammer as being the Facebook of the corporate world.
The word “corporate” may be slightly misleading. Yammer is not all about business per se. It is designed to create collaboration but without minimizing the human element. It allows for plenty of opportunity for friendly banter, fun, and laughter. Barnes adds,
“Yammer is informal enough to post gifs, jokes, and have fun, but formal enough to be perfectly suited for the workplace. It is a great way for each office to communicate internally while allowing other offices to join in via comments and get a feel for their colleagues’ culture.”
Yammer is informal enough to post gifs, jokes, and have fun, but formal enough to be perfectly suited for the workplace.
There is so much to learn about Microsoft 365 and Yammer in particular. If you are interested in doing some more research for your business, then you can download this free Yammer Look book resource here or watch this short YouTube video below.
At Syntelo we use the latest Microsoft 365 applications to provide other businesses with swift, scalable, and secure solutions that will help them to accelerate their business goals, save them unwanted costs on software and devices, and give them peace of mind regarding cybersecurity all in one unified service and flexible contract. In the next blog we’ll answer the question, “What is Microsoft OneDrive?”
As always, we’d love to hear from you to see how we can help you begin you’re your first steps with Microsoft.
