Slack is relying on a modular system for the future

Slack wants to do justice to this with the converted platform. Its purpose is to ensure that the function blocks developed by software providers are compatible with one another. One goal is to automate processes in the background. If, for example, an employee is given a day off via Slack, it should be possible to record this directly in the company’s personnel management program without any further need for action. The roll-out of the modular system is planned for the coming year.

Slack itself has basically gotten a lot of momentum from two directions. On the one hand, the communication tool benefited from the explosive increase in mobile offices caused by the pandemic. In addition, Slack was taken over by the software giant Salesforce in a deal worth nearly 25 billion dollars in the summer.

With Salesforce behind them, Slack also wants to expand its position in Europe. To this end, the company is also expanding its top management. Pip White will operate as Senior Vice President and General Manager for the EMEA (Europe, Middle-East & Africa) region. White is a seasoned digital expert. She previously held senior positions at Salesforce before moving to Google Cloud as Managing Director for the UK and Ireland. Now she is returning to Salesforce as Slack European Head.

The framework conditions for the development of Slack are not exactly bad. This is also shown by some usage figures from Europe that Slack presented at Frontiers. According to this, 65 percent of the companies in the Dax are 40 paying customers at Slack. The platform also presented figures in other areas that are intended to prove growth. In Germany alone, the proportion of companies that use the Slack Connect service as part of a paid plan to network with external customers and partners has increased by 37 percent compared to the previous year. There are similar figures from England and France.

For the new European boss Pip White, this is also proof of “how important it has become for companies to establish a digital office as a central place for work and social interactions”. She also sees this as a contribution to diversity and a better work-life balance. That’s very important to her, says White. As the mother of school-age children, she speaks from her own experience. Together with Salesforce, Slack is working on a “business operating system that is specially designed for collaboration in the new world of work. Companies have thus combined all information on a single platform and can use it to network all applications and employees at the same time ”.