May the best platform win.
Microsoft will take on Slack next week with its Microsoft Teams. The software giant will launch its Slack competitor on its Office 365 through an online event on March 14. They designed the chat platform as a way for employees in companies to better communicate with each other via online conversations – just like Slack.
Microsoft initially launched the platform, as an alternative to Slack but with tighter office Integration. The platform will, of course integrate seamlessly into Skype and Office with Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote all built into Microsoft Teams. Just like slack, you can search across people, files and chats but Teams has more to offer.
Microsoft has demonstrated a number of integrations for Teams, including the ability to connect Twitter accounts to chat rooms and integrate Skype for audio and voice calls. This integration will be key to how Microsoft expands its Teams chat service in the future, and we’ll be looking to see whether Microsoft has more of this third-party support ready to show off next week.
Why It’s Better Than Slack
Slack has done a great job integrating a range of third party services such as Trello, Dropbox and
even Google Drive, but Microsoft isn’t backing down – you can create tabs that integrate with other cloud services and channels, making Teams extensible with open APIs.
The Twitter integration allows you to push messages from particular accounts into chat rooms, create quick polls or even share custom meme images – employees can send a Grumpy cat meme to his co-worker when it gets all too overwhelming.
Team’s Prospects
The software maker has 85 million active Office 365 commercial customers, and Microsoft is simply providing the chat platform as part of that existing subscription. Team’s trump card is their ability to pretty much do it all without leaving the friendly confines of the app.
Slack’s Not Backing Down Either
In January, Slack upped its game, launching a service for large corporations. With Enterprise Grid, Slack took a new approach by allowing companies to connect multiple workspaces under a single network. It also took the opportunity to enhance the security feature by allowing companies to adjust data security features.
Slack is being used by 28 of the companies on Fortune 100, and includes key companies like eBay, Pintrest and even IBM. They have also seen impressive growth with 4 million daily active users, but haven’t managed to break into all of the big companies that are dominated by Microsoft’s tools.
May The Best Platform Win
Slack has the benefit of reaching emerging startups, small businesses and others who don’t rely on Windows or Office.
While Slack has seen impressive growth with 4 million daily active users, the real question is how Microsoft plans to extend Teams beyond just Microsoft services.