Key Highlights:
- Slack has announced a substantial redesign of its online collaboration platform to make work easier and productive.
- The main update focuses on a redesigned version of the Slack Workflow Builder, a tool that allows any worker to automate their processes.
- Since its launch, the service has been used by over 100,000 enterprises globally, according to Slack.
A major overhaul for Slack
Slack has announced a substantial redesign of its online collaboration platform, with elements “rebuilt and re-engineered from the group up” to make work easier and more productive.
CEO Stewart Butterfield stated at the company’s annual Frontiers event that the enhancements will generate new options for process automation and solve the inefficiencies associated with managing several different business apps.
“Having a digital HQ into which everything can plug is really powerful for permitting unfettered exchange of information.” “We want to create a world with a lot more flexibility,” he stated.
Automating Slack
The main update focuses on a redesigned version of the Slack Workflow Builder, a tool that allows any worker to automate their processes without relying on overloaded development teams or writing the code themselves.
Although clients have been imaginative in their use of the Workflow Builder so far, the service currently offers rather simple features. Slack, on the other hand, has rebuilt this platform from the bottom up, significantly extending the pool of potential use cases.
Users will soon have access to a large library of “building blocks” that may be put together using a simple drag-and-drop approach to develop new automation integrating various third-party apps.
Any user, for example, would be able to rapidly create automation that streamlines the process of document approval or time off requests, which would normally require bouncing between numerous distinct apps. And this is only one example.
If a “building block” that fulfills a specific duty is not accessible, a developer can step in and construct one on an employee’s behalf. This new block will subsequently be made available throughout the business and maybe “remixed” into a variety of additional workflows.
The developer-facing tools will immediately enter private beta, providing developers the opportunity to create new building blocks before the Workflow Builder upgrade is released to general users next year.
Slack Connect
Frontiers’ secondary target area is Slack Connect, which was introduced last year to provide businesses with a better method to interact and cooperate with external groups without relying on time-consuming email chains.
Since its launch, the service has been used by over 100,000 enterprises globally, according to Slack. And the firm is now expanding its portfolio with additional features.
Up to 250 companies will be able to join in a single channel beginning early next year. Slack users will also be able to build up “protected work environments” for large projects that require the involvement of thousands of different partners in the future.
Although small firms are unlikely to employ this new feature, major enterprises that need to manage complicated projects or arrange large-scale events would undoubtedly profit.
