Item: Slack
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Slack

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it within our IT department along with select business leaders for project alignment, incident management, and general communication. It is particularly useful at keeping everyone in the loop as major updates are tied to automations that post to relevant channels and, in some cases, those posts allow for direct interaction such as approvals. getting input/feedback on general issues is handled really well inside text threads that also keep everything organized when a lot is going on at once.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Multi-threaded communication channels keep volatility more manageable.
The number of fairly seamless integrations that allow for a host of automated tasks and workflows.
Really responsive system in general with superb uptime/availability.

Cons

Not all integrations are as easy to implement, but never really sure who is “at fault” in most of those cases.
The Slack call feature feels unreliable, forcing us to continue using systems like Teams or Zoom.
Browser-based Slack will effectively timeout and stop sending notifications on certain browsers, likely due to the browser implementing memory conservation methods on less active tabs.

Return on Investment

Resolution times for incidents improved by at least 20-25%.
General response times for questions and requests for developer assistance improved dramatically. Can't give this a fair number as we were coming from email based communication between departments, but people are naturally more responsive in chat situations vs emails.
Can’t assign a hard number here either, but the IT department’s overall enjoyment of collaborating and the ability to get to know each other is far beyond what I could’ve hoped for.

Usability

Nothing is perfect, but for us, Slack is darn close. It is a great tool for almost anyone who is tired of the struggles of poor communication practices. It’s important to point out that no tool will make things better if your business practices involving said tool aren’t aligned. If you are going to get new tools, learn how to use them from those with experience.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Teams and Google Chat

Google is only really useful if you’re heavily invested in their ecosystem. Teams exists as a part of enterprise licensing for Office. Slack exists because people were tired of poor options that seemed to only really come up as a part of something else. Slack is what they do, it’s not just something else they threw in with other things.

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

B2W Schedule, B2W Estimate, B2W Track

Likelihood to Recommend

It is phenomenal at leveraging good communication practices and assisting in places it can be difficult for a human to care enough about. Hopping between active text threads across the ecosystem is near seamless for us. Notifying the right people at the right time across multiple departments is a brief detour when handling multiple incidents at once. Searching for information on repeat issues is almost always time intensive, but Slack’s search functionality really helps there too. If set up properly (including your communication practices), it really goes out of its way to make life a lot simpler for everyone involved.

Slack Feature Ratings

Comments

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A great tool that supports effective business practices