Enterprise Chat News Round Up #27
The crossover between September and October has been an exciting week, with rumors of an IPO offering for Slack and yet more new apps for Microsoft Teams.
Here are the biggest stories we’ve seen this week.
Slack is Preparing to Go Public in 2019
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Slack is planning an Initial Public Offering (IPO) for 2019. The story comes from “people familiar with the company’s plans,” but it’s yet to be confirmed by the leaders at Slack. A rep for Slack said that the business is unwilling to comment on rumors and speculation.
Even though Slack is treating the story as little more than gossip, there are already musings that Slack’s value could start at around $7 billion in the public market next year. However, during 2017, CEO Stewart Butterfield did say in 2017 that an IPO was still a long way off.
Slack Joins BSA Software Alliance to Tackle Privacy Issues
Whispers about an IPO aren’t the only news for Slack this week. Alongside content delivery network “Akamai,” Slack also announced that it had joined the BSA Software Alliance as a new global policy member. The BSA is an industry group that works to provide better solutions for the worldwide software industry.
In a press release, the CEO of BSA, Victoria Espinel announced that Slack would be helping the team to address issues like online privacy, software security and artificial intelligence.
Microsoft Delivers New Developer Support and Certification for Teams
Microsoft Ignite set the stage for countless exciting updates to Microsoft Teams in September. To help business leaders and innovators embrace those changes, Microsoft has introduced a new program. Certified for Microsoft Teams allows customers to learn more about the devices that are supported by Teams.
Microsoft also made significant changes to its developer platform, improving the experience for those who want to build on the app. The general availability of Adaptive Cards was announced, which offers an interactive card system for organizing information across Teams, Cortana, Windows and Outlook.
Microsoft is also previewing Task Module Integration for developers who want to create pop up experiences within Teams.
Microsoft Retires StaffHub in Favor of Home and Shifts
Staffhub will soon be retired to make way for new “Home” and “Shifts” features in Microsoft Teams. The update announced at Microsoft Ignite will give shift workers more opportunities to efficiently manage their schedule.
The Home mobile experience will help workers see the most important information they need for their day. Home allows workers to click in and out of shifts and receive important notes from managers. Shifts allows managers to plan schedules for employees in an integrated self-service experience on Teams. Both features are part of Microsoft’s app-wide upgrade for first-line workers.
Cisco Webex Teams Delays October Update
An October 4th release for Cisco WebEx Teams featuring updates like Screen Reader accessibility, Link Preview and audio-only calls has been delayed this week. The delay follows an outage on the 24th of September at around 8:30 pm EST. Cisco’s CEO immediately apologized for the issue.
Since then, Cisco reports that engineers are currently working day and night to resolve the service issues. In the meantime, all updates to the Cisco WebEx Teams experience have been put on hold until the app is successfully back up and running. You can check for real time updates on the Cisco site.
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