Microsoft Viva Engage vs. Socialcast (discontinued)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Viva Engage
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Viva Engage, formerly Yammer, is used for private communication within organizations or between organizational members and pre-designated groups.
$24
per year per user
Socialcast (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Socialcast was an enterprise social networking and collaboration platform acquired by VMware in 2011. The platform allowed an organization's employees to share information and documents with co-workers in real time through a Facebook- or Twitter-like news feed. VMware announced its end of availability (EOA) effective May 2018.N/A
Pricing
Microsoft Viva EngageSocialcast (discontinued)
Editions & Modules
Microsoft Viva Employee Communications and Communities
$24
per year per user
Microsoft Viva Suite
$144
per year per user
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Viva EngageSocialcast (discontinued)
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsMicrosoft Viva Engage is also available in some Microsoft 365 packages.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft Viva EngageSocialcast (discontinued)
Features
Microsoft Viva EngageSocialcast (discontinued)
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Viva Engage
5.4
Ratings
35% below category average
Socialcast (discontinued)
6.3
Ratings
20% below category average
Task Management6.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Gantt Charts7.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Scheduling3.00 Ratings6.30 Ratings
Workflow Automation2.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Mobile Access8.00 Ratings3.80 Ratings
Search8.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Visual planning tools4.00 Ratings3.40 Ratings
Communication
Comparison of Communication features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Viva Engage
7.6
Ratings
4% below category average
Socialcast (discontinued)
7.5
Ratings
5% below category average
Chat8.00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Notifications7.00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Discussions8.00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Surveys6.00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Internal knowledgebase9.00 Ratings6.10 Ratings
Integrates with GoToMeeting7.30 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts6.70 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Integrates with Outlook8.60 Ratings7.90 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Viva Engage
5.0
Ratings
44% below category average
Socialcast (discontinued)
5.7
Ratings
31% below category average
Versioning7.00 Ratings2.10 Ratings
Video files5.00 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Audio files4.00 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Document collaboration1.00 Ratings6.70 Ratings
Access control3.00 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Advanced security features5.00 Ratings5.80 Ratings
Integrates with Google Drive8.00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Device sync7.00 Ratings4.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Microsoft Viva EngageSocialcast (discontinued)
Small Businesses
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.0 out of 10
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
Score 9.8 out of 10
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
Score 9.8 out of 10
Enterprises
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 9.0 out of 10
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft Viva EngageSocialcast (discontinued)
Likelihood to Recommend
7.0
(0 ratings)
7.7
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
6.9
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft Viva EngageSocialcast (discontinued)
Likelihood to Recommend
Yammer provides a social network experience for the enterprise, providing a "Facebook for work". Its mobile app provides an excellent user experience, showing the full mix of communications happening across topics and teams. The web app, while it hasn't evolved much in the last few years, provides a good experience consuming news. Personally, I use Yammer every morning to see what's happening across my company and comment, like, and share to interact across silos. As long as the size of the network inside of Yammer is managed - likely partitioning a large organization into business units, etc., - then Yammer provides an excellent platform for social news and "bottom up" collaboration across teams. Its free-form posting style, including articles and polls for interactive content, helps break down silos across the organization. Contrasted with the boring world of email, Yammer is a tantalizing world of pictures, GIFs, and videos. At LiveTiles, we share company and team news via Yammer, enabling others to see the progress and milestones - from a new office to a new customer - without the heavy burden of a company newsletter or similarly curated content. Even though we have fully adopted Teams for day-to-day, intra-team communication, Yammer is still the gold standard for inter-team communication.
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Socialcast has been a great tool for FactSet. I would recommend it to any firm looking for an easy-to-use tool to centralize communication and collaborate on a global scale.
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Pros
  • No one likes getting a long thread of reply-alls. With Yammer announcements and updates can be shared — without cluttering your inbox.
  • Yammer's mobile apps are great for our on-the-go sales team to stay in touch with our office staff.
  • Yammer's social aspect makes it incredibly easy to use, even for our less tech savvy teammates. If you've used Facebook, learning Yammer will be a cinch.
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  • Had an easy to use interface.
  • The ability to opt in and out of various groups is great.
  • It works great for large companies with lots of people.
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Cons
  • While Yammer has been an easy transition from SharePoint, it's still relatively new and unknown. Some employees claim that feel like the product was just another "add on" to the entire Microsoft Office experience.
  • When introducing new employees to Yammer, they are not as receptive because of how widely used SharePoint is across businesses and industries.
  • Functionality is simple, but still vastly different from SharePoint, thus creating a learning curve.
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  • Mobile App does not provide enough functionality to be useful, but improvements have been made.
  • More workflow tools
  • More common business process apps
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Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft is dedicated to continual improvement on Yammer. They realize the value that Yammer brings to the table with their clients. In the short time that we have had Yammer implemented, we are just now beginning to see the strong impact it has on becoming more effective and efficient around collaboration.
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Beyond the value FactSet derives from using the platform, Socialcast (the firm) has been a good partner to FactSet. We've experienced very little downtime with the service and they have been responsive and fair with enhancement requests and questions
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Usability
Overall easy to use and intuitive, although limited in the possibility to personalize layout and look & feel of a site. Some functionalities are not easy to use, like document editing, but some others are quick and effective (posts and tagging above all). Performance and responsiveness of the Yammer site is typically acceptable, in my experience.
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The UX is its best feature
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Reliability and Availability
Very available
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No answers on this topic
Performance
It's a simple product but it does provide value.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
We have never had to use the support for Yammer. The tool works well and we have not come across any bugs. User Interface is simple and easy to use, similar to other forum type products, thereby removing the need for any extensive training. Team members are invited in and immediately are able to start using the tool.
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Excellent support; of course not perfect. :-)
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Online Training
The training that Microsoft provides is very generic training for Yammer. I like the fact the training is short and easy to understand
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
We organically implemented the product
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Not applicable, as it is a SaaS platform with minimal implementation
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Alternatives Considered
I like how Yammer has functions that are fun and interactive, which can give you much more to do than using Teams or even Microsoft Forms. Yammer helps people feel included and gives people a better sense of how their friends and co-workers are feeling on certain issues. Yammer is a lot more like a social media platform than a work tool even!
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CA Flowdock, Igloo and SocialCast are similar tools that deliver essential features to build an internal social network.
SocialCast is reliable and supported by VmWare. This can make people feel "safer".
SocialCast has also a clean interface where you can find options and features quickly. The interface is friendly and fast and is not annoying like the CA Flowdock interface (which opens a new tab/window in almost every place you click).
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Return on Investment
  • Nothing negative. But what we tend to forget is that Yammer is just a product, not a vision for change. The true and deep implementation and adoption of an enterprise network needs work and commitment, just like everything else. The true benefits will only emerge over time.
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  • Definitely more organized project management and team collaboration.
  • Efficiency in carrying out tasks.
  • Creates a spirit of collaboration and friendliness among colleagues.
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ScreenShots