Slack woos big business with new enterprise service
SAN FRANCISCO -- Slack is finally launching the long-awaited enterprise version of its service.
Called Slack Enterprise Grid, the service comes with a range of new features designed for organizations with 500 to 500,000 employees.
Previously, large companies that used Slack didn't have an efficient way to implement the service across their entire organization, which resulted in disparate versions of Slack being used by different teams at the same company.
The new version of the service aims to solve this with unlimited workspaces, which allow multiple teams within an organization to have separate, but connected, areas of Slack. It also comes with shared channels (so those in different workspaces can collaborate) and universal search so employees can search Slack and find information from the entire company.
As you'd expect with an enterprise offering, it also comes with new enterprise-grade security features so corporate IT departments can have tighter control over security settings and how data is managed.
Slack also previewed a few features like channel highlights and daily briefings that will help people catch up on important conversations they may have missed.
The company has been testing Enterprise Grid with a handful of companies, including IBM and Capital One, but will now begin to make the service more widely available. The enterprise service will have a different price structure than Slack's other offerings, but Slack isn't disclosing specifics yet.
During a press event in San Francisco Tuesday, Slack executives said the new version of its service will help enable people to actually get more work done, rather than just providing a place for employees to chat. That's a lofty claim -- and a goal that many other companies share -- but the new enterprise offering will certainly help Slack gain a foothold in the increasingly competitive enterprise space.
Microsoft recently launched its own Slack competitor, Microsoft Teams, and Facebook has its own enterprise communication service as well, Workplace by Facebook.
Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.
