Alternatives to using Microsoft Teams in your digital business transformation

By Fay Capstick

In previous weeks we have looked at multiple aspects of digital business transformation. This has included what digital business transformation actually is, how and why Microsoft has come to dominate the marketplace, and what trends we are expecting to see in 2022.

This week we will be looking at what alternative product tools there are to Microsoft Teams when it comes to undertaking a digital business transformation.

Microsoft is currently the world’s second most valuable public company, with a valuation that stands at $2 trillion, giving it a dominant market position. Microsoft’s size and pedigree make it a challenge for competitors to enter the market, but it can be done.

We will be looking at alternatives to the MS Teams platform in terms of the video calling and messaging areas, focusing on Webex, Zoom, Rocket.chat and Slack.

Webex

Webex is a well established alternative to MS Teams, having been around since 1995, and was taken over by Cisco is 2007 (changing its name from WebEx). Like other platforms, Webex experienced unexpected growth during Covid, reporting 500 million meeting attendees (https://yhoo.it/3y5xIcV). By September 2020, Cisco had launched Webex Classrooms to help support the change to virtual learning as regional lockdowns caused havoc for the education sector worldwide.

We undertook our own internal transformation 18 months ago and swapped from Webex (webex.com) to Microsoft Teams. Webex provided a great solution to our video call, meetings and messaging needs, however ultimately we swapped to Microsoft Teams. This was mainly a financial decision, as Teams was included with our Office 365 subscription and it seems unnecessary to involve another product.

Zoom Video Communications, Inc.

It felt like Zoom (the cloud based peer to peer software platform) came out of nowhere to achieve dominance last year (especially in the home user market during the Covid pandemic).

Zoom has actually been around since September 2012, having been founded in 2011. However it has only been profitable since 2019. Zoom listed on the NASDAQ in April 2020 and saw a huge growth during Covid. However, there have been repeated problems reported with security and privacy according to CNET (https://cnet.co/3pSORDl), which may prompt CIOs to want to use more established enterprise options.

Rocket.Chat

Rocket.chat is unusual in that it is an open source product. Open source products have their source code public so that advanced users can customise and fix problems themselves. Open source products are also free, unless users buy a supported version from a third party seller.

Rocket.chat may appeal to some IT managers for the added flexibility and customisability that it can offer. After initially being closed sourced (the code was inaccessible or unchangeable by users), Rocket.chat was open sourced in 2015. As an Internet of Things (IoT) application it runs best on small devices such as the Raspberry Pi Zero. Its features, including help desk, voice messaging and video chat mean that it might be a suitable option for a smaller tech-savvy business to use.

Slack

Slack, owned by Slack Technologies, was initially launched in 2013 and is mainly an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) application. Slack had achieved enough growth to be floated by 2019. This year Slack was bought out by Sales Force, itself a product with a heavy presence in digital business transformation projects.

A key to Slack’s success is its integration possibilities. Integration is possible with many third party services such as DropBox, GitHub and Google Drive. This opens up a real alternative for many business users.

Slack is another product that we have previously used internally before switching to MS Teams during our recent transformation.

Final Thoughts

In our experience, the most important thing is to take advice and choose the transformation product that best fits your current and future needs. It also has to be a product that your staff will be comfortable to use. This can be achieved through meetings, training, feedback and staff development. Ultimately transformation is as much about people as it is about technology.

As one of the UK’s most respected and longest established IT recruitment agencies, we are uniquely placed to help advise you on your own digital business transformation and how it can be successfully achieved.