Our top takeaways from the Slack keynote and actions you can take
By Brett Stineman, Principal
Organizations that efficiently and effectively leverage the latest generation of digital collaboration tools will be the best positioned to thrive as we move increasingly into hybrid work. And few of those tools are likely to prove as powerful as Slack.
Read on for four key takeaways about the future of Slack as the hub of a digital headquarters strategy and how you can apply them to your organization.
Organizations that view or use Slack as only a messaging app are missing out. It has the power to make companies more agile by removing barriers to collaboration and making communications more transparent with a variety of features:
Actions you can take:
Slack has the ability to integrate with multiple systems of record. Both existing and potential Slack customers should examine the number of applications required for their critical business processes. Then they should use this analysis to explore how Slack apps and workflows could help centralize interactions and reduce the need for switching between applications to get work done.
If you’re an existing Slack customer, you should also assess the maturity of how you leverage channels within your workspace(s). What percentage of messages are happening in channels versus direct messaging? What business functions could be improved by leveraging channel-based communication instead of ad hoc interactions across various communication channels?
Most organizations leverage Slack as an internal tool, but it can also dramatically improve communication and collaboration with external stakeholders like customers, partners, and suppliers. This is possible because of Slack Connect, which allows for shared Slack channels between organizations. In fact, up to 20 different organizations can communicate and share information on a single Slack Connect channel.
Slack announced at Dreamforce 21 that organizations with Slack Enterprise Grid can leverage Slack Connect whether or not the organization they’re collaborating with has a paid Slack workspace. If you work with external stakeholders who do not have paid Slack workspaces, consider Slack’s Enterprise Grid offering so you can leverage Slack Connect to improve collaboration, decrease time-to-value, and optimize workflows.
With a dramatic shift toward distributed, hybrid, and remote workforces, investing in digital collaboration tools has never been a higher priority. The ability to share information and maintain team synergy regardless of physical location can create a significant competitive advantage. Reducing friction in workflows across an organization drives the efficiency that’s necessary for smart, scalable growth.
If you’re looking for opportunities to improve collaboration for your remote or hybrid workers, encourage your people to take advantage of these two new Slack capabilities:
If you’re actively developing a future of work strategy for your organization, try thinking in terms of a digital headquarters. One of Salesforce’s most memorable speakers this year was President and COO Bret Taylor, who said that our mindset about work is shifting from a place that we go to something that we do. Every company needs a digital HQ to connect its employees, customers, and partners and thrive in a work-from-anywhere world. He argued that a digital HQ is critical to “work better and grow faster.”
Actions you can take: If you’re already using Salesforce products for customer relationship management in your sales, service, marketing, and community business functions, Slack could become your universal system of engagement.
Salesforce announced more than 20 current and future integrations that will move information seamlessly between Slack and various Salesforce Clouds to address common use cases and business processes. Salesforce partners like Slalom can assist you by enhancing and customizing the interoperability between Salesforce and Slack so they can fit your organization’s unique needs.
Slack is designed to streamline communications and remove obstacles to collaboration. With more distributed workers than ever, and highly interconnected customer and partner touchpoints, it gives leaders an opportunity to make working together simpler, more pleasant, and more productive for their employees. As Stewart Butterfield, CEO and founder of Slack said at the keynote, organizations “have the opportunity, today, to reimagine how work gets done.”
Explore our other takeaways from Dreamforce 2021 here.