Microsoft today turned on a new “external groups” collaboration feature in its Yammer enterprise social networking service.
The external groups feature permits Yammer collaboration with people outside an organization. It can be used today by those who have Yammer group creation privileges, according to Microsoft’s announcement. The creation of Yammer external groups requires approval by a group administrator.
Yammer Enterprise edition is needed to use the external groups feature. It doesn’t work with Yammer Basic.
Security
Security controls are enabled through Exchange Transport Rules for configuring Exchange Online, according to an Office 365 support article. It doesn’t work for premises-based Exchange Transport Rules if an organization lacks an Office 365 tenant.