What’s the hardest part of managing an enterprise IT team? Responding to tickets? Keeping stakeholders happy? Or is it juggling all your collaboration apps?
What started as a new category pioneered by Slack has become the norm for digital work.
With platforms like Microsoft Teams, Webex, and even Zoom now a hub for teamwork, collaboration apps are the core infrastructure for getting work done. We used to think of the office and the internet as foundations for work, but thanks to cloud innovations, rapid feature deployment, and exponential growth, many of us couldn’t begin the day without a collaboration platform installed on our devices.
But most of us have several. According to our researchOpens a new window , 91% of businesses have at least two messaging apps, with the average rising to 3.3. So managing these multiple streams of collaboration and communication can become a cumbersome task.
Thankfully, collaboration leaders are now starting to embrace platform interop.
The Changing Attitude to Platform Interoperability
The historical attitude to building an open and interoperable platform was that you were leaving the door open to competitors stealing your customers.
For example, if Webex allowed Microsoft Teams users to interoperate, there was the possibility that everybody might start using Teams, and Webex would become redundant.Â
In reality, Webex users will always prefer Webex and Teams users will always prefer Teams. The only issue here is connecting the two platforms. When you accept you need both platforms, the next step is connecting them so teams can operate as a whole rather than forming silos in the workplace.
Today’s attitude makes for better reading. Leaders of all the major platforms have publicly expressed their support for platform interop.
Here’s what Stewart Butterfield, CEO, Slack, said recentlyOpens a new window :
“The siloing and fragmentation of knowledge into these different systems, while it’s still definitely a huge net plus to use them, is a real challenge for organizations. And if you have this central medium, you have this lightweight fabric for systems integration. It’s disproportionately valuable.â€
Options for Platform Interop
Thanks to open APIs, combining platforms is simpler than it’s been since the days of open SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol).Â
The majority of collaboration platforms have native integrations to embed one platform into another. A step further is enabling users to stay in their preferred app and see no difference when connected to other platforms.Â
For example, you can send messages between Webex and Slack without introducing a new interface for your users to get used to.
1. Video conferencing interoperability
In some cases, it takes a third party to enable platform interoperability. One example is OneMeeting by Nasstar (acquired Modality Systems).Â
If you’re specifically looking for Microsoft Teams integration with Cisco video conferencing, OneMeeting enables you to dial in from a Cisco meeting device and join a Teams meeting.
When you’ve already invested in in-room meeting technology but want to use Microsoft Teams to standardize your meeting interface, OneMeeting provides the video interoperability to get this done.Â
Regardless of the originating platform (Zoom, Cisco, Lifesize, Polycom, etc.), you can use Teams to front the meeting, and participants can join using whatever technology was already in place.
2. Message interoperability
Outside of video conferencing, message interoperability is becoming more and more of a requirement in both the consumer and business messaging world.
Apps like Beeper enable platform interop between:
- iMessage
- Android
- Twitter DMs
- Facebook Messenger
- Slack
- Discord
- Telegram
- Hangouts
- Signal
- IRC
- Matrix
Instead of switching between these apps throughout your day, you can move them into a unified inbox.
There are companies that provide a native way for businesses with two or more of:
- Microsoft Teams
- Slack
- Webex
- Zoom Chat
Instead of using a new app for messages to be received in and sent from, you can send cross-platform messages from your preferred app
When businesses have multiple messaging apps, opening up your lesser-used app loses momentum, disrupts workflow, and removes context.
Conclusion
Platform interoperability used to be thought of as a scary term. Why would vendors let other vendors into their platforms when they might lose their customers?
Today’s collaboration leadership teams are different. They welcome interoperability as they recognize it as the best experience for their users. It’s this mindset, along with continuous innovation, that will see interoperability thrive, and users finally get the most out of their collaboration platforms.
How are you managing multiple collaboration platforms? And challenges do you often face? Let us know on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .