"SLACK" > Have you tried it yet?

Q™

Q™

IPCT Contributor
Feb 16, 2015
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Megatroplis, USA
I'm reading how the application "SLACK" is going to replace email. Have you tried this application yet? What is your opinion of it? Is this simply more internet BS, or does this application have merit?

Any an all opinions would be greatly appreciated! :)
 
A lot of CRM platforms have something "similar" to this and they market the hell out of it. For example we operate on the Salesforce CRM platform. It has its benefits and it's challanges just like anything. For me personally, I don't believe it will ever come close to an email "replacement". I also find myself using email just as much as I did before we went to Salesforce January 2014.
 
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Q2U said:
I'm reading how the application "SLACK" is going to replace email. Have you tried this application yet? What is your opinion of it? Is this simply more internet BS, or does this application have merit?

Any an all opinions would be greatly appreciated! :)
Click to expand...

Have been using Slack daily for over a year for work comms. It's a very good way for teams of people to keep in the loop, and also works well between individuals. There is also a growing list of integrations available which helps combine data and communications pretty seamlessly from other apps into the one place. The mobile apps are good and it's simple and effective to use.

However it hasn't replaced email for us. We still use both and will continue to. As for non-work communications, I don't know of anyone using it instead of email, and we are a group of web developers and related online geeks who tend to be early adopters/testers of anything that look half interesting or innovative.

I see it as a good tool to simplify and promote team productivity and it does significantly reduce the reliance on email which is always a good thing, but it won't replace email IMHO.
 
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Thank you Atom...My organization is stuck in the IT Dark Ages, which you'll clearly see when I post a snapshot of my new "Server Cam" this weekend. I'm certain some of you guys will get quite a laugh out of that. We use email, AIM and IP phones to communicate. No one tweets...in fact, they don't even know what InstaBook is (Har!...Bill Belichick joke!). So my question to you is this: if I push my organization to use Slack (in place of AIM) will it benefit us? I thought that -- perhaps -- the ability to group discussions by topic, and to search for past content, might be very valuable. What do you think?
 
Q2U said:
Thank you Atom...My organization is stuck in the IT Dark Ages, which you'll clearly see when I post a snapshot of my new "Server Cam" this weekend. I'm certain some of you guys will get quite a laugh out of that. We use email, AIM and IP phones to communicate. No one tweets...in fact, they don't even know what InstaBook is (Har!...Bill Belichick joke!). So my question to you is this: if I push my organization to use Slack (in place of AIM) will it benefit us? I thought that -- perhaps -- the ability to group discussions by topic, and to search for past content, might be very valuable. What do you think?
Click to expand...

My opinion is a resounding yes Q, if you can get over the ever present problem of introducing anything new: making people use it. With a bit of time and familiarity with the app most people won't look back, but getting over the initial resistance is frustrating.

I haven't used AIM for years, but if it's still a pretty basic chat app then there's a world of difference between the two.
 
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@Q2U another consideration may be Microsofts Sharepoint. We also run this, it is a nice place to house, share, collaborate, communicate, etc. It will also deploy Microsoft Communicator which is your AIM replacement tool, just on stariods. Yammer is there version of a "slack" style tool that drives Sharepoint group conversations and colaborations. While Sharepoint houses everything and isn't really an API to connect to everything else (drop box, Google drive, etc) it could be a nice tool to try and bring people closer to today's technology without the "shock" of something like full Slack intigration. They have many pricing models and you can customize your deployment anyway you desire. I come out of the "precision test and measurment" manufacturing world with brilliant engineers... who are all stuck in the 80's and 90's, so Sharepoint was our IT groups way of slowing forcing change, then after 2 years we started rolling out salesforce.
 
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Thank you both!
 
I recently setup Slack and have it running in my office. It is actually very good and cannot be simpler to setup and install. I too read about it and decided to look into it more and then try it. In trying it I really had it fully setup in like three minutes. So really I ended up with fully functional Slack without even trying but after being so easy to setup and free I rolled it to more users. I still need to get everyone else on the software but for those that have it it works very well.

We send a ton of stupid one to three word emails - yes. No. Do this please. All of those are quite handily replaced with slack and the ability to share files of any size is the real feature that is used a lot. We don't have everyone on it yet and I'm still getting 500-1000 messages a week sent through Slack with very light use. It's free and easy so it is worth a shot I'd say. There is no IT backend or maintenance so no overhead in management or IT resources. Now if I could get the collaboration going better, that will come better when more people are on it though I expect.
 
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We use it at Nelly's everyday. Hands down, one of the best chat programs I've ever used.
 
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Razer...Ryan...thank you very much!
 
We also use this daily for work. It is incredibly useful but email still has its place.

Our family also has a private "domain" and we create seperate rooms for different things. Food talk, family pictures, travel arrangements, sharing recipes, ridiculousness... etc. You can also make these rooms private so if you simply want to have a room to hold notes like the Christmas list for the kiddos or groceries that need to be picked up on the way home... the possibilities are endless.

Also, as @atom was saying, their mobile app is also excellent. I use it every single day at work and for personal reasons.

Highly recommended! Enjoy!
 
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