附近上门

The growth of Windows has slowed as Microsoft鈥檚 mobile platform goals have faded and the PC market matured. As a result, Microsoft has had to seek new revenue outside of its operating system.

In 2017, as part of that effort to grow, Microsoft a new subscription product called Microsoft 365, bringing together Windows, the company鈥檚 cloud-centered productivity suite Office 365, and enterprise tooling into a single package.

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The introduction of Microsoft 365 presaged the company鈥檚 re-organization which, , 鈥渞ebuilt the company around the cloud instead of Windows.鈥� This seems reasonable; if Windows isn鈥檛 going to return to growth, other services have to keep adding top line revenue. Microsoft鈥檚 evolution to a cloud-powered, services-focused company is therefore set to continue.

In the pursuit of new, non-Windows top line, Microsoft wagered that it could expand its 鈥渃ommercial cloud鈥� revenue by the end of its fiscal 2018. It , reaching the $20 billion mark far ahead of the calendar-equivalent date of mid-Summer of this year.

One of those products, Teams, is a component to Office 365 and part of what a 鈥済rowth opportunity鈥� that is 鈥渓ot bigger than anything [his company has] achieved.鈥�

Today we鈥檙e going to explore Microsoft鈥檚 current actions in one part of the cloud productivity space through the lens of Teams.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft鈥檚 Teams product is a communications tool often compared to Slack. TechCrunch, for example, recently called the software service 鈥�.鈥� ComputerWorld, in a news item earlier this year, 鈥淢icrosoft turn[ed] up [the] heat on Slack鈥� when it announced new Teams features.

It goes on and on, allowing us to comfortably hold up Microsoft Teams as Redmond鈥檚 answer to Slack, a company famous for its quick growth, impressive mindshare, and its independent status from any major tech company. That last fact remains true despite , along with .

To see Microsoft invest in its own tool that competes with Slack isn鈥檛 surprising. There is a large market for the product, and Redmond is loath to let any rival service cut in on its productivity revenue.

Therefore, if there is a hot productivity tool in the market and Microsoft isn鈥檛 going to buy it, it might as well build one of its own. Unsurprisingly, the company has been hard at work doing just that.

News that Teams could release a free version . Teams also , its introduction of Cortana integration , and this week Microsoft announced new 鈥溾�� for Teams.

All that and Microsoft this year in the form of , a collaboration company focused on the education world.

In short, Teams is adding new features while building its org chart and expanding access. All good things, certainly. However, it was not too long ago Microsoft spent quite a lot of money to buy a different, distinct collaboration tool. What happened to it?

Yammer

Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012 for $1.2 billion, building out what TechCrunch 鈥淪ocial Enterprise Strategy.鈥� And while the Yammer-Microsoft deal was 鈥済reat news鈥� for the company and its investors, it also marked the beginning of the 鈥渢ough part鈥� for the newly-acquired startup.

Joining a big company when you are a comparatively small company can be arduous. And if you do so when the larger company is undergoing a massive change in leadership (Microsoft hired a new CEO two years after the Yammer deal) and a business model change-up (Microsoft bought Nokia in 2014, also two years after the Yammer deal, before closing that strategic idea out years later), it鈥檚 probably even harder to integrate.

Externally, that difficulty showed. Following the Microsoft deal, Yammer grew before stagnating and later slipping. The product was eventually switched on for free for Office 365 customers in early 2016, four years after it was purchased. Office 365 itself launched a , making the moment a bit long in the works.

But all that is the past, and, notably, Microsoft is putting more emphasis on Yammer today than it has in recent years. That may feel odd, given what we just went over concerning Teams.

To dig into that, 附近上门 News got Microsoft鈥檚 Seth Patton on the phone, who explained the company鈥檚 thinking. According to the 15-year company veteran who now works on Office 365, Microsoft has two separate views for Teams and Yammer. Teams is built for what Patton calls inner-loop communication: stuff for teams, smaller companies, and the like; Yammer, in contrast, is better for outer-loop communication: less tactical decisions and more company-wide communications.

The split between Slack and Teams products and the Yammers and Convos of the world isn鈥檛 hokum or mere corporate-speak. I鈥檝e worked in newsrooms that used the mix of tools to allow for simple direct messaging between individuals (Slack) and team-wide threaded communications (Yammer). It takes a little getting used to, but it can flow well if you need that level of inter-party discussion.

Even more interesting than the fact that Yammer is not dead is that Microsoft is actively investing in it. According to Patton, Microsoft鈥檚 chiefs 鈥渄oubled down鈥� on Yammer while Teams was being brought in late 2016. This gave Yammer about a year of redoubled investment and attention.

Taking all that together, Microsoft is investing in two communications products at the same time, both of which are baked into its productivity suite. So why the huge push now?

Slack: Software鈥檚 Favorite Rocket Ship

You are no doubt familiar with Slack鈥檚 growth arc. It鈥檚 been a nearly chronic narrative in tech for the past few years. And I don鈥檛 mean that in a pejorative sense. (I鈥檓 as guilty as anyone else.)

But, in case you have a life, here are some highlights: Slack reached ARR of $50 million . In October of 2016, Slack hit . Then the company bested $200 million . That鈥檚 darn quick, and investors took notice, and ever-rising valuations.

Fueling Slack鈥檚 continued growth is a push into the realm of bigger companies. The firm launched Slack Enterprise Grid last January, bringing enterprise-grade management tools to Slack鈥檚 product. With Enterprise Grid, Slack can keep going after bigger accounts. (To that point, IBM has over 200,000 active users on Slack that use Enterprise Grid.)

That quick growth has made Slack an acquisition target. One way to get acquired, after all, is to stick out by worrying the biggest companies in the market through growth. It鈥檚 just hard as heck to do, as incumbent revenue numbers are so large that, well, you have to grow fast to become interesting.

An Even Bigger Scrap

As we know, Slack has rebuffed acquisition offers. As a result, we鈥檙e seeing Microsoft, the dominant player in the world of productivity, attempt to slow Slack down in an effort to not lose future users and future dollars. Hell, even Google is in on the race. Its for early users in February. Facebook is also tinkering around the edges. It鈥檚 .

But productivity is Microsoft鈥檚 cash cow. For Google, it鈥檚 a big side project, but nothing compared to its advertising revenue. That puts Microsoft and Slack more up against one another in the enterprise chat fight.

(In mid-March, Microsoft announced that 200,000 organizations now use Teams, up from 125,000 in September of 2017. That鈥檚 60 percent growth in a half year or so鈥攁 quick growth pace, too.)

What we鈥檒l learn over the next few years is if Microsoft鈥檚 enormous enterprise channel can be leveraged enough to slow Slack鈥檚 growth, or if Slack鈥檚 momentum can actually capture a piece of the productivity market and hold onto it.

It鈥檚 a startup against a platform company, a classic enough battle. But with big tech bigger, richer, and more powerful than ever, it鈥檚 a more relevant business case than we might think at first blush. More when one draws blood or Slack goes public.

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