For years, Salesforce has been making groundbreaking announcements at Dreamforce, the company’s annual user fest. The tradition continued this year too, and Dreamforce 2020 became the occasion for the announcement of Salesforce’s acquisition of Slack, a leading developer of online collaboration solutions. While industry observers speculate the impact of the $27.7 billion deal on Slack and Salesforce, there is one thing everyone agrees – the acquisition is indeed a gamechanger. Today, we will see why Salesforce’s purchase of Slack is creating ripples in the IT industry and the wider corporate world. But first, let us see what Slack is (there’s a good chance you haven’t heard about it) and how it helps users.
Slack – Connecting Users the Seamless Way
Slack is a powerful digital solution that connects business users in a simple, hassle-free manner. It is mainly used as an alternative to traditional email, although in recent years Slack has emerged as a major player in the instant messaging space. Uses of this innovative application can receive chat-based messages on their computers or smartphones, instead of lengthy emails.
What makes Slack very appealing to businesses is its rich and varied features. They can create public or private groups to enable their people to chat and integrate the collaboration tool with widely used applications such as Google Docs. And like any popular instant messaging service, Slack enables users to share images, emojis and links to online contests.
Why is the acquisition of Slack by Salesforce the talk of the town?
The marriage of Slack and Salesforce can dramatically alter the status quo in 3 ways viz. widen the choice of Work-from-Home (WFH) users, connect companies and their customers more effectively and improve the efficiency of Salesforce 360 users. Let us look at each of these aspects in detail.
Slack can emerge as a better alternative to MS-Teams
The COVID-19 pandemic has made WFH a necessity for many organizations, and most of these businesses rely on MS-Teams to keep their people connected. Although Microsoft’s instant messaging service is robust, there have been demands from several quarters for a solution that can seamlessly integrate with all platforms, and this is where Slack can make a huge difference.
The collaboration software can be seamlessly integrated with all major enterprise systems, and this enables it to become a major competitor to MS-Teams. Microsoft too has launched an initiative to integrate with various enterprise systems including Salesforce, but Slack emerges as the clear winner in terms of integration.
Customer interactions with companies can be more efficient
Staying on with connectivity, it’s well-known businesses that facilitate seamless communication with their customers emerge as winners in the digital era. Developers of many CRM systems have attempted to come up with tools to facilitate smooth customer interactions, and Salesforce was no different; the company acquired Quip, and later, came up with Community Cloud.
The acquisition of Slack can go a long way in transforming the way companies communicate with their customers. With Salesforce occupying a dominant position in the CRM market, there is every reason to believe the organization would integrate Slack into its portfolio of collaboration-facilitating applications, thereby enhancing the ability of its clients to connect with their customers better.
Combine the capabilities of Salesforce 360 and Slack’s app ecosystem
Salesforce announced Slack would become the new interface of Salesforce 360, and this can change the way people communicate and work together. The acquisition will enable the users to integrate with various apps (including apps not developed by Salesforce) without any issues, thereby improving productivity levels to new highs.
Combine the capabilities of Salesforce 360 and Slack’s app ecosystem Salesforce announced Slack would become the new interface of Salesforce 360, and this can change the way people communicate and work together. The acquisition will enable the users to integrate with various apps (including apps not developed by Salesforce) without any issues, thereby improving productivity levels to new highs.
Companies will also be able to access the largest open ecosystem of apps, which will be created as a result of the acquisition. Slack’s platform-neutral architecture enables it to connect with more than 2400 apps; when this feature is combined with the high levels of flexibility offered by Salesforce platform to develop apps, users will be able to truly enjoy the immense benefits offered by the world of business apps.
As you can see, the acquisition of Slack will go a long way in helping users connect better and be more productive. What do you think will be the impact of this landmark corporate event? We’d be glad to know.
About Solunus:
Solunus is a dedicated Salesforce partner organization, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Our unrelenting focus on comprehending the unique needs of our clients coupled with our unrivaled expertise of the Salesforce platform enable us to deliver the perfect solutions that create the best value. Our unflinching commitment to quality and affordability has earned us a 100% Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score from all our customers.
