Microsoft Teams Vs Slack

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a leading communication and collaboration platform introduced by Microsoft in 2017 to compete with Slack. Microsoft offers it as a part of the Office 365 suite. However, many organizations started using it as a unified communication platform. It works by creating a central virtual workplace that brings together globally dispersed and remote working employees. It integrates with numerous Office 365 services, including OneDrive, OneNote, Planner, Exchange, and SharePoint.

Slack

Slack is a trusted workplace communication tool. It once used to dominate the space before the introduction of Microsoft Teams. It offers a central huh for messaging, tools, and files. In short, slack is an instant messaging system that has numerous add-ins available to make workplace tools more efficient. Slack divides the workplace into small channels (group chats) and direct messages (one-on-one chat). Each channel has different topics and might repeat the members. Slack allows seamless communication between employees.

Microsoft Teams is Always Superior

Four years after the initial release of Microsoft Teams, it continues to grow as one of the most trusted, reliable, and deserving communication, collaboration, and productivity tools available for any size of business. The adoption of Microsoft Teams has increased during the Pandemic even though options like Slack and Zoom are available in the market.

During this period, everyone is working remotely by keeping distance from their colleagues whom they meet every day; Microsoft Teams has played a pivotal role in bridging this gap. Not only it kept people engaged, but it also kept people connected and productive. It helped boost employee engagement, enhance productivity, reduced costs, and empowered remote workers to be more flexible.

Microsoft Teams is Ahead of the Game

The COVID_19 Pandemic has drastically changed the world we knew. Countries went into lockdown, and organizations big and small were all forced to mandate remote working. With a scattered workforce and remote employees, the need to have efficient communication and collaboration tool was more significant than ever.

Many companies continued using the default in-office tools, but soon they realized the limitations of the in-office communication tool. Microsoft Teams emerged as a savior for such organizations and many more eying to build a future-proof business. The adoption of Microsoft Teams during the COVID era surged beyond imagination.

The fact that Microsoft Teams is available as a freemium and comes bundled with the Microsoft 365 suite helped a great deal in accelerated its adoption. Enterprises already using Microsoft 365 subscriptions were able to use it without paying additional license fees. As many worldwide organizations are using Microsoft’s Enterprise and Business suites, MS Teams in a short time became the default video conferencing and IM tool for many. However, it took some time for enterprises to understand the real potential of Microsoft Teams. Today, Microsoft Teams is not just used for communication and collaboration; but has become the default unified communication platform.

Microsoft Teams Surpassed Slack in Numbers

Microsoft Teams surpassed Slack to become a market leader based on the sheer number of active users and rapidly became the chosen collaboration platform amongst global enterprises.

According to the buzz, making rounds in those times, Microsoft planned to acquire Slack in 2016 for an $8 billion bid. However, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates argued that it is better to invest the same amount in Skype to build a competitor platform for Slack. In 2017, Microsoft thus bundled all its collaborative software into Teams and, after shifting Classroom to Teams, announced the discontinuation of Skype for Business to launch Microsoft Teams.

• In 2019, Microsoft surpassed Slack in terms of active users hitting the 13 million mark in July. On the contrary, Slack took almost six years to reach 10 million active users.
• In 2020 alone, Microsoft Teams added 95 million users to become the fastest-growing apps during the Pandemic.
• Today, Microsoft Teams has 145 million daily active users, which used to be 75 million in the last year.
• More than 500,000 organizations worldwide use Microsoft Teams as their default messaging platform.
• According to estimates, Microsoft Teams generated $6.8 billion in revenue for the 2020 financial year, recording a growth of whooping 700 percent increase year-on-year.
• Microsoft Teams is available in 181 countries and 44 different languages.
• More than 183,000 educational institutions leverage Microsoft Teams for continuing the study of their students.