Microsoft Teams vs Slack - Which is Really Better Tool?

A complicated Workspace

Modern workspace is getting complicated every day. At the core of this complication, lies the problem of communication. Modern teams are different. They are scattered across the globe and team members work in different time zones. The efficiency of modern teams cannot be just measured by adding the individual capabilities; they must collaborate in such a way that their individual contributions complement each other harmoniously.

Internet has connected us all and services like emails has added accountability to this accessibility. Nevertheless, the question of collaboration faced by enterprises cannot be solved by such traditional mediums. A collaborative platform, which acts as a virtual conference room where entire team connects, collaborates, discusses and shares information is the answer we need.

The Collaboration Hub

It’s about getting work done together! You don’t need to drop emails and leave voice messages in order to get your work done. Collaboration software get it all done, at the same place. It is efficient, time saving and improves team spirit. Collaboration software products have been in the market for a while now but only lately, enterprises have started to realize the full potential and benefits of these products. Slack, Monday.com, Microsoft team, Wrike etc. are few of the market leaders. In this article, we will analyze and compare Slack and Microsoft teams but before that, let’s look into key features offered by a Collaboration software

Key features of a collaboration software

• • Organize everything at one spot- With collaboration software, we can keep all the files, attachments, conversations at one place. It ensures that there is no need for endless email threads. It also ensures that fewer meetings are needed to get the job done.

• • Plan timelines- We can easily assign work to individuals and keep a track of progress.

• • Chat on the go- We can connect with team members with on screen chat support.

• • Calendar and alerts/notifications- With calendar and alerts, we are always on top of the assigned work.

• • Edit on the go- Team members can edit files on the go as compared to editing and sharing over email. It saves time and is much efficient.

• • Templates- Many collaboration software products offer readymade templates which you can utilize for your organizational tasks. For e.g. you can customize a newsletter template and create your own.

Slack vs Microsoft Teams

Slack stands for “Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge." Launched in 2013, Slack provides collaboration and online services exclusively through cloud. It has grown exponentially and in just one year, Slack had acquired 500,000 active users and it was adding over 1 million in annual recurring revenue every 11 days. Presently it boasts of 10 million users who use Slack daily, split across more than 600,000 organizations. In its latest financial report, Slack reported a revenue of 400.6 million USD, growing from 105.2 million USD it hit over the past three fiscal years.

Microsoft teams was launched in 2017 and is positioned by Microsoft as the central hub of communications and collaboration within Office 365 suite. According to a recent survey conducted by Spiceworks, Microsoft Teams is the second most popular chat app and is now ahead of Slack in terms of market share. The most popular tool is Skype for Business, another Microsoft product. In the previous Ignite conference , Microsoft reported Teams grew over 165% in the past 1 year and at present, over 329,000 organizations are leveraging the application. Spiceworks also reported that Teams is set for fastest growth among all collaboration apps over the next two years.

The speedy rise for Microsoft Teams can be attributed to Microsoft’s strategy of bundling Teams with the Office 365 suite. It taps directly to the 155 million businesses worldwide who use the office productivity suite. Microsoft is also positioning Teams to replace Skype for Business in the long term.

Let us compare the key attributes of Slack and Microsoft Teams