I enjoy how this industry keeps pulling us in directions that challenge the norm and highlight the value of innovation. It has quickly become evident that connecting people over video is the low bar in creating immersive experiences for employees and customers. Remember back two years ago that not everyone was very comfortable on video and would frequently not even turn their cameras on. Fast forward to today and what I saw Slack highlight at Frontiers and you will see that video is one small piece of the way people interact, managers manage, and companies connect with customers. I appreciated how Slack used the below simple message at Slack Frontiers to provide inspiration across three very important constituents: teams, partners, AND customers.
Let’s face it, businesses are at risk if they can’t embrace and preserve their most important asset, their people. The reduction in business real estate, the “great resignation era,” and the support of hybrid work are challenging legacy business process, management philosophies and applications. Slack is out to address all these challenges (and more) as they build modern ways to collaborate, create efficient workflows, and empower employees to make work easier. The two most fascinating business dynamics are:
- Generational gaps. Slack was born and fueled by developers and engineers that recognized that antiquated ticketing systems, code repositories, QA process, bug fixes, etc., could all be streamlined but businesses are also rich with experienced folks that revolve their work life and business process inside of email. Melting these generations together with Slack is a fascinating challenge and opportunity.
- Executive advocates. Investing in Slack is going to take a leadership team that supports change and can engineer a financial model that highlights the value of the investment to senior leadership, employees, and shareholders.
Hyperconnected businesses will take advantage of solutions like Slack to inspire employee engagement, build efficient workflows, interact with business partners, and interface with customers. The race in the market has become a platform race where solutions like Slack create the foundation for application integration and the aggregation for communication channels. ESG will be tracking this market closely as we continue to research buyer intentions, challenges, and benefits. Slack is certainly a top player that we have our eyes on as they engage with businesses and change how people work.
