What Happens if Slack offers UCaaS?

If Slack joins the UCaaS market, companies should plan for happier customers

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Slack UC Today
Unified Communications

Published: March 8, 2019

Ian Taylor Editor

Ian Taylor

Editor

Slack has long been a player in the team collaboration field, helping connect employees across a global workforce. The collaboration tool enables users to share channels with companies they work with, be it vendors, partners or clients.

It also fosters face-to-face communication, allowing users to talk directly to others via Slack’s voice or video calling features. Slack even has an integrated file sharing option, with drag-and-drop capabilities.

Likely its biggest advantage – Slack has a catalog of over 1,500 apps and integrations such as Google Docs, Dropbox, Zoom, and Salesforce. For developers, Slack is a godsend, because it lets them build their own AIPs, for further customization of the platform.

As it stands, there are a lot of stakeholders who would benefit from Slack joining the UCaaS market.

What if Slack makes the plunge into UCaaS?

In January, Slack announced that it reached 10 million daily active users. In its last series of funding – the collaboration tool was valued at $7.1 billion, according to the New York Times.

Today, Slack has over 150 customers using the enterprise version of its workplace collaboration software, Slack’s Chief Executive Stewart Butterfield told Reuters. In the same interview, Butterfield stated several other key figures. In 2018, Slack added some big names to its client roster. Among those listed as new customers of Slack’s enterprise solution are Target, BBC, and E*Trade.

Any UCaaS company that purchased Slack would do so with a few goals in mind:

  • To create the simplest solution for unified communications
  • Increased brand recognition.
  • A better Customer Experience

With all its capabilities – Slack would have no problem playing a role in providing a UCaaS solution loaded with possibilities.

Who are Slack’s potential purchasers?

Amazon

Amazon is the most obvious potential buyer because the company would gain a lot of new functions for Amazon Web Services. Located within AWS is Chime – Amazon’s communication and video conferencing service for enterprises. Adding the APIs and apps of Slack could give Amazon an even tighter stronghold on the UCaaS market.

Salesforce

Salesforce would be another clear choice. In fact, this would be a wise move for the cloud-based software company. Slack has massive brand recognition, which may act as a major selling point when motivating more customers to make the switch from their current provider.

Oracle

Oracle’s already been on a buying spree. Not to mention, the pair became partners in 2017 when Oracle agreed to incorporate Slack’s enterprise solution. The current romance between the two allows employees to access Oracle’s sales, human resources, and business software through Slack’s interface, according to Reuters.

If slack were to join the UCaaS market, it would give high levels of dexterity to the UCaaS market. As for now, only time will tell what happens to the young privately-held company. There has been plenty of buzz about the potential of an IPO in 2019.

 

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