Google’s Vision for Enterprise Collaboration Exacerbates Slack’s Battle

Last month, the notoriously sticky workstream collaboration app Slack kick-started a battle with Microsoft by filing an antitrust lawsuit in Europe. The business chat app which provides a much-needed way for users to align asynchronous collaboration claims that Microsoft’s move to bundle its suite of productivity applications together with Teams is an anticompetitive behavior that unfairly threatens Slack’s footing as a workplace app. 

The heated rivalry between Slack and Microsoft is not new. Last year, Slack CEO publicly accused Microsoft of “surprisingly unsportsmanlike” behaviour,Opens a new window rel=”nofollow noopener” title=”Opens a new window” target=”_blank”> Business Insider Opens a new window reported.  After filing the antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft in July, Slack’s vice president of communications and policy Jonathan Prince stated in a virtual meeting that “Slack threatens Microsoft’s hold on business email, the cornerstone of Office, which means Slack threatens Microsoft’s lock on enterprise software.”

Slack claims that their product which streamlines communications between workers has given Microsoft a run for its money, placing the company in the same playing field as the tech-giant and going toe-to-toe with Microsoft’s latest software. 

Why Slack Is Worried About Microsoft  

In the past, Slack has disavowed Microsoft as a possible competitor to their service; however, now they’ve changed their tune because of Microsoft’s apparently aggressive strategies to adapt to their remote, distributed clientele. 

Slack’s concerns go beyond email. Their lawsuit challenges Microsoft because of three distinct obstacles that it causes other competing softwares. 

Firstly, Microsoft forces installation of Teams upon users so that they may be less likely to choose competitor software. 

Secondly, Microsoft now blocks the removal of Teams. It’s much like getting a new phone with unwanted, unremovable apps which forever clutter up your device. Customers may come to realize that if they cannot fight them, then they might as well join them. 

In other words, if businesses are already using a Microsoft Suite app like Excel, they could easier streamline co-worker collaboration by using Teams instead of Slack simply for the fact that it is already connected and ready to integrate into daily workflow. 

Lastly, Slack opposes that Microsoft’s new integration of Teams makes some work functions incompatible with rival softwares, creating an unfair advantage against smaller companies. 

Learn More: Slack Turns Up Heat on Microsoft With Antitrust Complaint

Microsoft is Reverting to Past Behavior 

Slack’s antitrust suit against Microsoft harkens many tech-savvy users back to the case filed in the 90s by Netscape, whereby Netscape challenged Microsoft’s use of Internet Explorer as the exclusive browsing system permitted within the Windows operating system. 

Much like Slack’s situation, this old lawsuit suggested that Microsoft was pushing rivals out of the way, even so far as to create a monopoly and squash competition. Microsoft lost the suit and got labeled a bully by many other corporate companies, which gives some credence to Slack’s current complaints. If Microsoft cannot monopolize internet browsing, then they should not be able to push out the competition for project management and collaboration software either. 

Slack vs. Microsoft

Since Microsoft Team’s release and integration into the Microsoft Suite, most of its users utilize it as a work-friendly message board. Compared to Slack, its layout is nearly identical on desktop, and like Slack, it allows for emojis, at mentions, and organization in chat feeds. 

The similarities do not end there. Microsoft Teams splits up communication into team members, then delineates by topic channel, chats, and tabs. One of the benefits to using either Teams or Slack is that users can create a linear history of projects by tracking conversation topics, planning, scheduling, and file sharing. Both apps offer video and audio conferencing as another added bonus to collaborating teams. 

However, there are marginal differences. Slack can do more to fulfill its potential when married to other technologies like Google Drive. Whereas Microsoft Teams already acts as its own platform for file creation and sharing by integrating the rest of the Microsoft Suite into the Team’s interface. 

Slack directs you to the right places for collaboration between teams, but Microsoft Teams is the junction for collaboration. For example, if you wanted to collaborate on a file with a team member through Slack, you could share a Google Doc, give that person permissions, then do your collaboration on Docs with notifications pinging to your Slack app. 

With Microsoft Teams, the Word feature already exists embedded in the system so you can easily share and collaborate without jumping through hoops for team member access or flipping from screen to screen for document updates. 

Slack is an accessory, an app that bundles others together in order to streamline project management, collaboration, and communication. Teams is a platform for Microsoft Office in the workspace. Instead of bundling other softwares, it provides its own through the Microsoft Suite.

Learn More: What Regulating Big Tech Would Mean for HR

Google Poised to Leap Ahead of Rival Slack  

Given all of this, it seems apparent as to why Slack feels threatened by a company as large and well established as Microsoft. Despite that Slack continues to grow its base of clients, it may not stand up to the challenge while Microsoft continues to promote Teams. In addition to this major threat, Slack may have to soon compete with Google for users since Google publicized its intent to release its own workspace managing software.

Around the same time that Slack filed its lawsuit against Microsoft, Google updated its cloud blog to reveal that it will transform the at-home workflow by integrating new technologies into G Suite. The announcement alluded that Google plans to amalgamate tasks, files, and communications in order to make Google more useful for team collaborations. 

Google will implement a streamlined communication system that combines the best parts of Gmail, Hangouts, Google chats, and will allow users to integrate third-party apps (much like Slack’s current model for communication and project management). Unlike Slack’s and Microsoft’s current systems, Google suggests that they will expand further with features like picture-in-picture video calls in Gmail and the integration of Google Meet into Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc.

Slack has not made any statement in response to Google’s announcement, but given their stance against Microsoft’s new Teams software, it’s likely that the company is feeling a little more than threatened. Not only will they need to hold their ground in the antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, but now they need to consider the rumblings of another fearsome tech-giant — Google. 

Furthermore, Slack’s current use of Google apps to share files and emails — a feature that makes it particularly useful to project managers —  elevates the software beyond the status of a sophisticated messaging app. When Google releases its own G Suite workplace manager, it begs the question: why bother using Slack at all? 

Learn More: No, Slack Hasn’t Left the Room. It’s Still Working on Killing Email

Remote Work’s Collaboration Showdown

In the context where many people work from home, and nearly all businesses implement some kind of technology for communication or management, companies will flock to whichever software proves the most useful. Regardless of how their lawsuit concludes, Slack runs the risk of becoming obsolete, eclipsed by the competitors, given that so many companies are now interested in competing in this space. 

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