4 ms·

> Third, you’ve got to do this with love. You’ll need to take a radically different approach to supporting and partnering with customers to help them adjust to

> Third, you’ve got to do this with love. You’ll need to take a radically different approach to supporting and partnering with customers to help them adjust to new and better ways of working. This is so cringe-inducing, I can't believe they paid to have this in the NYT. Microsoft stock up to all-time highs as Teams eats Slack's lunch (for better or worse), while Slack bought for scrap by a company way worse than MSFT. Maybe don't publicly shame potential acquirers in passive-aggressive paid advertisements?

KingMachiavelli 6y ago
Agreed. I think in 2016 Slack just got absorbed in their own thing. Slack is pretty good and has some nice features but not really anything a big Acme corp can't copy. And I'd expect Slack to be another case where 90% of people just use direct & channel messaging, no or few apps, etc. which means the switching costs are very low. Although on another side, MS Teams is still miles behind Slack. While you can be signed into multiple orgs in Teams, switching orgs literally restarts the program which means that switching from your org to a client's org is super disruptive. If you are in a video call your only option is to open teams in the browser to view another organization.
- mgkimsal 6y ago
  Yet the mobile app version seems to allow team switching pretty easily. So disappointing, as I've had multiple clients switch to teams over the last year. It was easier to keep multiple slack channels open and jump between as needed to keep an eye on things. Teams is really only focused on 'internal teams at one company' - users external to a company are, at best, an afterthought.
- adwww 6y ago
  Slack is still just about a better standalone product, but the Teams integration (and bundling) with 365 makes it a very strong product overall.
  - MangoCoffee 6y ago
    its free with 365 subscription. our VP of IT love it. its good enough why pay for another similar product (Slack)
    - arkitaip 6y ago
      A 365 sub probably is the single most useful and valuable service most companies can get. I mean, just look at what you get for $15 per user [0]. [0] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/compare-all-microsoft-365-business-products https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/compa...
- kemiller2002 6y ago
  I would agree with the low barrier to switch. At my last company, we switched 3 times within a year. Away from Slack, then to Stride, and back to Slack (due to stride being discontinued). The point being that it wasn't too difficult to switch. We didn't suffer from "lock-in" or anything.
- ethbr0 6y ago
  > multiple orgs in Teams Microsoft's IAM features have always suffered from design by committee. See: Team Foundation Server, SharePoint. The only explanation I've been able to come up with for how such a technically competent company can repeatedly generate such UX incompetent output is that they source all their IAM features from talking to (1) PMs & (2) HR.
chrisjc 6y ago
>as Teams eats Slack's lunch Is this true? I thought Slack was dominating corp chat+?
- ska 6y ago
  IIRC sometime last year teams passed slack for daily & weekly users pretty comprehensively. Office 365 is heading close to 200m users. Slack and Teams use is both in the low 10s, but teams is growing fast into that 200m since it is bundled and interacts with the other parts.
- arkitaip 6y ago
  That's just the HN/startup echo chamber doing its thing. Out there, MS's offerings have never been stronger for small/medium businesses.
- cutenewt 6y ago
  Slack is getting eaten by both the top and bottom. From the top, Teams has been effective in beating Slack, especially with Office 365 subscribers. From the bottom, Discord is doing a pretty decent job. Slack is increasingly stuck in the messy middle.
mandeepj 6y ago
> while Slack bought for scrap Slack’s today’s valuation is ~25B so my guess is Salesforce would buy them for around 30B. If that’s scrap to you then dip me in it 24*7 and never take me out
- paxys 6y ago
  Small correction - Slack's valuation is $25B after the bump from the Salesforce acquisition rumors. So the premium is likely already factored in.
at-fates-hands 6y ago
I work at a large corporation. We had teams that were using all kinds of different collaborative tools. A LOT of teams were using Slack. About four months ago, the edict came down, everybody was being moved to Teams. Usually you hear a lot of grumbling and lots of internal postings about how much better Slack or other tools are, this is a stupid move, etc. This time? Exact opposite. People liked the integrating of most of their MS tools in once place. The transition was pretty smooth and people were happy about moving to Teams. Now, instead of using several different tools, I basically just use Teams now for most of my daily workflow. I'm not sure how the move went at other companies, but it went a lot smoother than I thought it would here.
- cutenewt 6y ago
  Much of the narrative compares Teams w/ Slack. While that's true, the better narrative compares Teams w/ Zoom. And Teams has done a good job making video seamless and easy to initiate.
higerordermap 6y ago
> You’ll need to take a radically different approach to supporting and partnering with customers to help them adjust to new and better ways of working. Another day in PR cringe. Yet another zero information statement.

KingMachiavelli 6y ago

Agreed. I think in 2016 Slack just got absorbed in their own thing. Slack is pretty good and has some nice features but not really anything a big Acme corp can't copy. And I'd expect Slack to be another case where 90% of people just use direct & channel messaging, no or few apps, etc. which means the switching costs are very low. Although on another side, MS Teams is still miles behind Slack. While you can be signed into multiple orgs in Teams, switching orgs literally restarts the program which means that switching from your org to a client's org is super disruptive. If you are in a video call your only option is to open teams in the browser to view another organization.

mgkimsal 6y ago
Yet the mobile app version seems to allow team switching pretty easily. So disappointing, as I've had multiple clients switch to teams over the last year. It was easier to keep multiple slack channels open and jump between as needed to keep an eye on things. Teams is really only focused on 'internal teams at one company' - users external to a company are, at best, an afterthought.
adwww 6y ago
Slack is still just about a better standalone product, but the Teams integration (and bundling) with 365 makes it a very strong product overall.
- MangoCoffee 6y ago
  its free with 365 subscription. our VP of IT love it. its good enough why pay for another similar product (Slack)
  - arkitaip 6y ago
    A 365 sub probably is the single most useful and valuable service most companies can get. I mean, just look at what you get for $15 per user [0]. [0] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/compare-all-microsoft-365-business-products https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/compa...
kemiller2002 6y ago
I would agree with the low barrier to switch. At my last company, we switched 3 times within a year. Away from Slack, then to Stride, and back to Slack (due to stride being discontinued). The point being that it wasn't too difficult to switch. We didn't suffer from "lock-in" or anything.
ethbr0 6y ago
> multiple orgs in Teams Microsoft's IAM features have always suffered from design by committee. See: Team Foundation Server, SharePoint. The only explanation I've been able to come up with for how such a technically competent company can repeatedly generate such UX incompetent output is that they source all their IAM features from talking to (1) PMs & (2) HR.

chrisjc 6y ago

>as Teams eats Slack's lunch Is this true? I thought Slack was dominating corp chat+?

ska 6y ago
IIRC sometime last year teams passed slack for daily & weekly users pretty comprehensively. Office 365 is heading close to 200m users. Slack and Teams use is both in the low 10s, but teams is growing fast into that 200m since it is bundled and interacts with the other parts.
arkitaip 6y ago
That's just the HN/startup echo chamber doing its thing. Out there, MS's offerings have never been stronger for small/medium businesses.
cutenewt 6y ago
Slack is getting eaten by both the top and bottom. From the top, Teams has been effective in beating Slack, especially with Office 365 subscribers. From the bottom, Discord is doing a pretty decent job. Slack is increasingly stuck in the messy middle.

mandeepj 6y ago

> while Slack bought for scrap Slack’s today’s valuation is ~25B so my guess is Salesforce would buy them for around 30B. If that’s scrap to you then dip me in it 24*7 and never take me out

paxys 6y ago
Small correction - Slack's valuation is $25B after the bump from the Salesforce acquisition rumors. So the premium is likely already factored in.

at-fates-hands 6y ago

I work at a large corporation. We had teams that were using all kinds of different collaborative tools. A LOT of teams were using Slack. About four months ago, the edict came down, everybody was being moved to Teams. Usually you hear a lot of grumbling and lots of internal postings about how much better Slack or other tools are, this is a stupid move, etc. This time? Exact opposite. People liked the integrating of most of their MS tools in once place. The transition was pretty smooth and people were happy about moving to Teams. Now, instead of using several different tools, I basically just use Teams now for most of my daily workflow. I'm not sure how the move went at other companies, but it went a lot smoother than I thought it would here.

cutenewt 6y ago
Much of the narrative compares Teams w/ Slack. While that's true, the better narrative compares Teams w/ Zoom. And Teams has done a good job making video seamless and easy to initiate.

higerordermap 6y ago

> You’ll need to take a radically different approach to supporting and partnering with customers to help them adjust to new and better ways of working. Another day in PR cringe. Yet another zero information statement.