Collaboration platforms are at the forefront of business operations, more so than ever before. As the world becomes increasingly digitally inclined, with the number of remote workers increasing even before COVID-19 induced lockdowns, such platforms are crucial to ensuring communication between staff and customers remain efficient. Microsoft Teams has surged ahead in popularity over Slack, with a reported 115 million daily active users to the latter’s 12 million. At first glance, these rival collaboration platforms appear similar, in truth, they differ considerably in their design and structure, which begs the question: What attracts people to Teams over Slack and vice-versa? This blog aims to be your one-stop cheat sheet to knowing which of these tools suits your business best, so here are some key differences to assess when making your choice:
PRICING
As always, when running a business, you want maximum performance with a minimum spend. So, which of these platforms is the most cost-efficient? That depends on your requirements. The great thing with both, however, is that they kindly offer free taster plans to allow you to test drive the app before you commit. For paid programs, Slack Standard offers three with the pricing ranging from £5.25 for the standard package to over £10 per month for the Enterprise plan, with each plan offering varying degrees of capabilities to accommodate businesses of different sizes. The Standard cover provides uncapped message history and integrations, and 10 GB file storage per user. As well as external collaboration and security capabilities. Microsoft Teams' three plans range from £3.80 to £17.60. With their cheapest package, the Business Essentials Plan, users gain 1 TB of file storage, file attachments in chat, and file sharing within teams and channels. Also included are security and compliance and administration capabilities, and various Office 365 services including, SharePoint, Online, and Stream. Unlike Slack, however, Microsoft Teams is an add-on product with any Office 365 plan. Yet still caters to businesses of any size via the different plan option tiers.
SECURITY AND COMPLIANCE
Microsoft Teams begins to separate and shine from the field through its administration controls and data security. Both platforms provide data encryption and compliance certification, such as ISO/IEC 27001 and two-factor authentication. However, Microsoft distinguishes itself with its four tiers of compliance frameworks. Categorised as Tier D-compliant, Teams operates at peak compliance commitment levels, and all its services enabled by default. Additionally, Teams delivers extensive admin controls not found anywhere else- modifying member, owner, file, and SharePoint permissions. To name a few.
CHANNELS
Slack and Teams both contain easily accessible private messaging and channel capabilities. In Microsoft Teams, when creating a team, a dedicated Office 365 Group forms, integrating the team with the other applications available in Office 365. Additionally, you can add private channels within a channel, providing a security blockade for subsets of users. This isn’t the case with Slack, as you cannot have channels within a channel. Putting them at a disadvantage as the ability to create channels within a team is a great benefit to administrators, allowing them to contain the spread of collaboration groups in an environment.
TEAMS WITH CENTERPRISE
Microsoft Teams is extremely convenient, utilising seamless integration between the Microsoft Teams platform and Office 365 to curate a perfect digital working environment. In the Work-From-Home age we live in, the ability to offer remote working is both an attractive recruitment proposition and a tool for business continuity. Centerprise International can offer customers a 6-month trial of Teams with free licensing and possess the ability to plan, deliver, and support a full Microsoft Teams deployment. Contact us now! To discuss any queries you may have and walk through the terms and conditions of the trial.