Item: Slack
Rating: 9
Author: Janne Mikola

Overall Satisfaction with Slack

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Efficiency of any organization is much dependent on the amount and quality of the communication between its members. This applies especially now in COVID-19 times. We are using Slack as the minute-to-minute tool on keeping our team members in touch, in sync and living the same pulse. Slack is being used by most parts of our organization, but some parts are still resisting and willing to stay in the old solutions, including mass amounts of emails.

Pros and Cons

Pros

User interface options (web, mobile, application on PC) and overall look and feel with the color schemes are great
2FA with Google Authenticator is reliable and works flawlessy
During screenshares, possibility to highlight items (or draw) in real time is awesome

Cons

Video conferencing could be better for quality, audio-video synchronization
Slack could do a better job implementing security in the product in ways that would make it acceptable by enterprise ITs more easily
Slackbot is sometimes highlighting users annoyingly

Return on Investment

More than 2000 users are now able to communicate more efficiently in our organization
Better handling of the remote working situation through-out COVID-19
Easier to have ad hoc meetings with subcontractors we work with daily

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Teams, Skype, Microsoft Yammer and Webex App

None of the competition coming from the Microsoft or Cisco provide the user experience of today's consumerized social media. Slack, on the other hand, is fully on par with the best and most known social media applications that consumers use. Consumerization of IT shows here as well, as people want to use the style of tools they are happy with in the free time as well.

Key Insights

Do you think Slack delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Slack's feature set?

Yes

Did Slack live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Slack go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Slack again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Jira Software, Jenkins, GitLab, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

Likelihood to Recommend

I don't know a better remote collaboration platform, and I've tried many. Slack works perfect for giving the feeling that you and your co-workers or teammates are in the same time and space, unlike some de facto office applications in my opinion. This for example is shown in how much better the response times are on Slack with our team than any other application. The main problem is that for some users, starting to use Slack seems to be too challenging and difficult.

Slack Feature Ratings

Comments

Please log in to join the conversation

Slack behaves like a social media app, and that's great!