So Many, so Different But so Needed: Corporate Messengers at Work
Corporate messengers reveal which principles a company follows. Communication is an important aspect of any business; everyone will need to communicate with their coworkers at some point.
The 21st century has offered us many new possible approaches to develop ourselves and private businesses. New companies emerge new ideas are born, and new start-ups are launched. We have already thoroughly analyzed this new trend in one of our previous articles. If you have skipped it by any chance, you may take a look at it: User’s Complete Guide to Start-Ups: Tips & Tricks from Those Who Survived. The key to success is understanding and communication in the process of collaboration. And today’s article will deal with the possible ways of being updated and keeping in touch.
A corporate messenger is the most convenient and cost-effective way for employees to communicate with one another. It is especially important for large organizations and businesses, where a large proportion of employees work remotely or “in the field”. Social media is not the best option because people share personal information on it, and few people like to mix their personal and professional lives. Furthermore, the functionality of messengers in social networks is limited, making it extremely difficult to regulate employee communication in them, implying that monitoring network security is difficult.
Corporate messengers reveal which principles a company follows. Communication is an important aspect of any business; everyone will need to communicate with their coworkers at some point.
Within a company, there are numerous new and established contacts with whom you must interact: admin, HR manager, project manager, and so on. And how a messenger tends to work, appears to look, and the way it sounds will create an image of your company that will last.
To your attention, we present a number of corporate messengers in the modern business that will give the general impression of your company.
So if you haven’t used any of the corporate messengers yet and you don’t know where to begin with, we will gladly share our knowledge and provide the info that will help you connect the dots and work to your full potential.
It’s important to mention that some corporate messengers obtain the same features as to say: muting of the sound to some extent of time, audio functions, etc. But our priority task is to single out the distinct specifications and how one messenger clearly differs from the other, what benefits it will give. Henceforth, it will sufficiently save your time doing your own research and investigation.
Slack
The first version of Slack was nothing like the one we use today. It was created for small businesses, primarily in the IT industry. However, after releasing this messenger, there was a request to leave feedback and report any problems or inconveniences encountered while using the service. Based on this feedback, the service’s creator modified Slack’s functionality to meet the needs of various organizations, ranging from small startups with a team of ten to large multinational corporations.
What we use today is the result of collaborative efforts between developers and users. Here are some of Slack’s key features that set it apart from other instant messengers:
- Slack can be synced with a large number of other work-related services, including Google Drive, Google Docs, Twitter, Trello, Google Hangouts, Dropbox, and others. To give you a better and clearer understanding, you may check out our previous article: Top tools that will navigate you in your Start-Up: Been there, know that, ready to help on product management software and the overall reviews of top services.
- functions of audio and video calls and conferences.
- the ability to display the working screen to other users in real-time during video calls and conferences.
- You can create a separate channel for each department or discussion and invite as many people as you want.
- the ability to administer polls and surveys.
- possibility of private chats for two employees and as well as a big group of people.
- function for task creation, management, and tracking readiness.
- the ability to mention individual users in group chats — with this feature, the likelihood of a person missing an important message addressed to him is significantly reduced.
- Statistics on application usage. It can be quite important in tracking employees’ work.
Slack is a very efficient messenger with a friendly and straightforward interface and a wide range of features. It is a versatile and useful internal communication tool that is appropriate for any size or industry of business.
Slack is the most popular corporate messenger today, with 1.5 million users. Before this corporate messenger, most businesses relied on corporate email, social messengers, and Skype. However, these alternatives did not fully meet the staff members’ necessities.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is an all-in-one business communication and conferencing platform. The program adopted many important applications from Skype for Business messenger and some of Slack’s functionality.
Microsoft has released a new version of the Microsoft Teams messenger that is available for free. As a result, the company anticipates luring small businesses and coworking spaces. It includes the ability to use all Microsoft Office 365 web services, in addition to integrating various applications.
Microsoft Teams’ basic features
- Microsoft Teams can be accessed via both corporate and personal email.
- Audio and video calls are built-in. If you intend to use the service for distance work or online learning, the company provides a comprehensive set of video conferencing functions. For example, the organizer can quickly schedule a conference, pre-define all participants, and add it to the calendar.
- There are no limits to the number of messages or searches that can be performed in chats.
- Storage capacity is 10 GB shared and 2 GB, individual.
- Integration with third-party web services such as Adobe product and Trello, etc.
- Integration with Office Online components such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. You can use the program to create separate teams for employees, record and assign tasks, and much more. If users actively interact with other Microsoft products at the same time, they can easily export transferred files to cloud storage and assignments to OneNote.
If you only use office programs and the most popular services, Microsoft Teams will meet all of your requirements. However, if your staff is small, the function of video call messages may be important to you, although this messenger does not provide it.
Skype
Skype for Business is an enhanced version of Skype that provides solutions for conducting online meetings. The service is intended for corporate meetings in medium and large organizations. It has applications in consulting, marketing, and information technology. Managers will value the ability to communicate with their teams via multiple channels, and employers will value the cost savings on international and long-distance calls.
List of features:
- VoIP telephony, the creation of personal and group chats, and audio and video conferencing for up to 250 participants are all system functions.
- Meeting scheduling, multi-user sessions, and desktop sharing with PowerPoint support.
- The Skype Meeting Broadcast tool will assist you in increasing the number of participants to 10,000.
- Meetings can be joined without registering by using a unique URL.
- Options for meeting recording screen sharing, and PowerPoint annotation.
- A whiteboard can also be used for sketches and group discussions during the communication process.
Skype for Business is being phased out in favor of Microsoft Teams for professional use in businesses of all sizes, and the company’s primary focus is on supporting and developing the latter. Of course, if you are only at the selection stage, it is preferable to give preference to Teams, unless otherwise specified by the company’s regulations.
Recently, an increasing number of computer, laptop, tablet, and smartphone users prioritize social networks when communicating. However, chats, such as Google Talk, WhatsApp, ICQ, Skype, and others, have not lost all of their popularity.
“WhatsApp” is one of the applications that is actively being developed. It is also beneficial to be aware of the option to create groups, send any number of messages, video and audio files, and photos within it.
- The main benefit is the lack of passwords and logins, as well as the ability to transfer not only messages and but files too.
- Binding to your phone number and phone book integration.
- Easy to install the program.
- The presence of push notifications that work even when the messenger is closed.
- Miscellaneous features are a simple and understandable interface, possibility to edit your profile.
- You can now download “Whatsapp” for your computer or laptop.
- WhatsApp has transformed traditional SMS by providing a simple messaging app that anyone who knows how to use a phone can use.
- WhatsApp uses your internet connection to call and instant message, allowing you to avoid mobile data charges.
- WhatsApp users can send and receive free messages and calls from anywhere in the world.
- It allows you to record and send voice messages, which is ideal for setting the right tone of a conversation.
In general, most people praise “WhatsApp,” and they are pleased with its functionality. One of the flaws is that the program must be downloaded very carefully, only from official sources, because there is a risk of getting a virus or being blackmailed. You can mark important messages with a star so you can find them later in the Starred section of your menu. This helps you remember to respond to someone and save the messages you value the most. New messages are displayed in your sidebar, so you don’t have to check your phone every minute for missed calls. If you want to take a break, you can always mute WhatsApp message notifications or simply log out.
Instant Messengers are useful for quickly transmitting information. They allow you to communicate with coworkers online via text or voice chat. Typically, they improve communication and facilitate collaboration.
UNITEDCODE uses Slack as a corporate messenger because of its functionality. However, this is not a requirement for team members to communicate with one another only via Slack. We frequently use third-party messengers to share memes and send funny stickers. What corporate messenger is best for you is a very personal decision that is determined by your preferences in terms of convenience, features, and security levels. We can assure you that switching messengers during a workflow is inconvenient, so we recommend that you make your decision carefully early on, taking into account all pros and cons of all messengers available, to avoid future discomfort.
