Slalom Whitepaper - Slack v Microsoft Teams

Slack vs
Microsoft Teams
A Feature-By-Feature Comparison
Bob Chiverton & David Drinkwine
(March 7, 2018)

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Table of Contents
BACKGROUND................................................................................... 5
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................... 6
FEATURES COMPARISON ................................................................ 7
1. Platform Availability............................................................................................... 7
1.1 Desktop Client .................................................................................................... 7
1.2 Mobile Apps ........................................................................................................ 7
1.3 Supported Browsers ........................................................................................... 8
2. Membership ............................................................................................................ 8
2.1 User Roles.......................................................................................................... 8
2.2 Limits .................................................................................................................. 9
2.3 Automated Access.............................................................................................. 9
3. Document Management......................................................................................... 9
3.1 File Support ........................................................................................................ 9
3.2 Storage ............................................................................................................. 10
3.3 Versioning......................................................................................................... 10
3.4 Levels of Access............................................................................................... 11
3.5 Collaboration..................................................................................................... 11
4. Integration Points................................................................................................. 11
4.1 Integration methods.......................................................................................... 11
4.2 Extensibility....................................................................................................... 11
4.3 Restrictions ....................................................................................................... 12
5. Messaging............................................................................................................. 12
5.1 Direct Messaging.............................................................................................. 12
5.2 Group Messaging ............................................................................................. 12
5.3 Voice and Video................................................................................................ 13
6. Calendar / Meetings ............................................................................................. 13
6.1 Calendar ........................................................................................................... 13
6.2 Outlook Integration ........................................................................................... 13
6.3 Hosting.............................................................................................................. 14
7. Metrics................................................................................................................... 14
7.1 Admin................................................................................................................ 14
7.2 Users ................................................................................................................ 15
8. User Access.......................................................................................................... 15
8.1 Authentication................................................................................................... 15
8.2 Profile................................................................................................................ 15
8.3 Guest Access.................................................................................................... 16

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9. Provisioning ......................................................................................................... 16
9.1 Licensing........................................................................................................... 16
9.2 Workstreams..................................................................................................... 17
10. International Support......................................................................................... 17
10.1 Language........................................................................................................ 17
10.2 Server Locations............................................................................................. 17
10.3 GDPR ............................................................................................................. 18
11. Support Model .................................................................................................... 18
10.1 Support Model ................................................................................................ 18
IMPLEMENTATION CONSIDERATIONS.......................................... 19
12. Licensing ............................................................................................................ 19
12.1 Licensing Considerations ............................................................................... 19
13. Regulatory Requirements ................................................................................. 19
13.1 Data Retention................................................................................................ 19
13.2 Activity Logging............................................................................................... 20
13.3 Retention of activity logs................................................................................. 20
13.4 eDiscovery ...................................................................................................... 21
13.5 Accessibility .................................................................................................... 21
14. Security Governance ......................................................................................... 21
14.1 User Security Access...................................................................................... 21
14.2 Administrative Control .................................................................................... 22
14.3 Lifecycle Management.................................................................................... 22
14.4 Usage Policies................................................................................................ 23
14.5 DLP (Data Loss Prevention)........................................................................... 23
15. Administration and Operations Model............................................................. 23
15.1 Monitoring System Health .............................................................................. 23
15.2 Incident Management ..................................................................................... 24
15.3 Usage Metrics and Reporting......................................................................... 24
15.4 Change Management ..................................................................................... 24
15.5 Administration Roles....................................................................................... 24
15.4 Mobile App Management................................................................................ 25
15.5 Storage ........................................................................................................... 25
15.6 Platform Configurations.................................................................................. 26
15.7 Customizations ............................................................................................... 26
15.8 Performance ................................................................................................... 27
16. Authentication, Network, and Security............................................................ 27
16.1 Identity ............................................................................................................ 27
16.2 Internal Infrastructure...................................................................................... 28
17. User Experience and Adoption......................................................................... 28
17.1 End user client................................................................................................ 28
17.2 Browser Support............................................................................................. 29

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17.3 Mobile ............................................................................................................. 30
17.4 Adoption Strategy ........................................................................................... 30
18. Integration with Office 365 Services ................................................................ 30
18.1 Integration with SharePoint Online................................................................. 30
18.2 Integration with OneDrive for Business and Sync Client................................ 31
18.3 Integration with Outlook e-mail....................................................................... 31
18.4 Integration with Skype for Business ............................................................... 31
18.5 Integration with O365 User Profiles................................................................ 31
19. Dependencies and Other Considerations ....................................................... 32
19.1 Miscellaneous................................................................................................. 32

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Background
Slalom was asked to compare Slack vs Microsoft Teams for a client who had recently
moved to Microsoft Office 365, but were undecided on which collaboration platform to
standardize on. Their choices had narrowed to Slack and Microsoft Teams (Teams), and
they asked Slalom to compare their features and provide advice.
This paper presents our findings, with a feature-by-feature comparison between the two
platforms (the feature list as dictated by client). For authoritative answers on Slack, we
contacted Slack’s online customer support team – who were remarkably responsive and
detailed with their replies. For authoritative answers on Teams, we primarily used the
official Teams website, and related Microsoft sites.
For additional insight, we consulted several Gartner reports.
Finally, our developers in the Content & Collaboration practice have used Slack
extensively for several years, and more recently, Teams. This allows us to speak from
experience on both platforms.

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Executive Summary
There is a lot of functionality overlap between Slack & Teams.
Slack has a better UI for conversational threads… it is lightweight, fast, easier to use. At
Slalom, our NYC C&C team prefers Slack for software development collaboration (we use
the free version of Slack).
Teams is a “free” add-on to an O365 license (see spreadsheet for specific license info). At
$12/user for Slack Enterprise Grid, it may be difficult to justify the added cost. Microsoft
has made Teams a core collaboration tool, and we can expect Teams to get major
upgrades (improvements) on a regular basis.
Here is what Gartner has to say:
“Persistent group chat streams are the central focus of these products. Other important
functional areas covered in this report include file sharing, application integration,
conferencing and task management.
At this time, Slack is a better workstream collaboration product than Teams. Slack has
more flexible channels, does a better job of helping users maintain awareness of all their
conversations, and has more mature business application integration.
As a new product, Teams is surprisingly easy to use and may be a good choice for your
enterprise. The product's strength is its ability to integrate conversations with simple
SharePoint-based file sharing. Teams also provides a unified collaboration experience
across Office 365.”
Reference: Slack Versus Microsoft Teams — Which Workstream Collaboration Product Is Best for You?
April 2017
“In Gartner inquiries with clients, the prioritization and weighting for unified
communications and meeting support on selection of Slack have not been high.
Organizations using Slack want an integrated application experience for audio/video
conferencing but the solution does not have to be delivered via a tight integration with
their enterprise unified communication vendor. Conferencing is an important feature, but
is considered more of a convenience or an extension of a chat stream, rather than a core
experience.” Reference: SWOT: Microsoft's New Vision for Communications and Collaboration in Office
365 Impacts Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business Customers Nov 2017
“Teams will become an everyday client for many end users, making it easy to create
WSC spaces for group work. There will be an automatic software upgrade path, wherein
most current users of Office 365 or Skype for Business Online will have access to these
services via a Microsoft Teams UI. This will rationalize the number of clients, which
currently creates confusion for users, and provide better continuity of experience across
Microsoft's suite of cloud enterprise software. Displacing Microsoft Teams or selling
additional licenses for collaboration software to enterprises with a large installed base of
Office 365 or Skype for Business Online will be very challenging for Slack.”
Reference: SWOT: Slack, Worldwide Oct 2017

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Features Comparison
1. Platform Availability
1.1 Desktop Client
Does the platform have a desktop client? What OS are supported? What are the minimum system
requirements? Does it support VDI? Can the client be packaged for enterprise deployment (SCCM)? Can
admins control client updates?
Slack
 Windows: Windows (7+)
 Mac: OS X 10.9 or later
 Linux:Ubuntu (16.04+), Fedora (25+), Red Hat Enterprise Linux (7+)
VDI: from Slack tech support:
We have several customers using our Windows app on Virtual Desktops. That said, we install to the user's
AppData directory, and that can sometimes cause issues in these environments.
To deploy Slack to your network, you might be interested in using our Microsoft Installer. You'll find further
information on that here: https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/212475728-Deploy-Slack-via-Microsoft-
Installer. Unfortunately, our app auto-updates, so you won't be able to control this as an administrator.
Teams
 Windows: Windows (7+), both 32-bit and 64-bit versions
 Mac: MacOS (10.10+)
VDI: TBD
SCCM: IT admins can choose their preferred method to distribute the installation files to machines in their
organization such as SCCM (Windows) or Casper Suite (MacOS).
Note: Distribution of the client via these mechanisms is only for the initial installation of Microsoft Team
clients and not for future updates.
Client Updates: Clients are currently updated automatically by the Microsoft Teams service with no IT
administrator intervention required. If an update is available, the client will automatically download the
update and when the app has idled for a period of time, the update process will kick off.
Note: Admin rights are not required for PC client installation but are required for installation on a Mac.
1.2 Mobile Apps
Which OS does the platform support? Does the platform support MDM or MAM? If so, what solutions?
Slack
 iOS : 10.0 or later
 Android : 4.4 or later
 Windows : Windows Phone 8.0 or later
Slack doesn't officially support MDM or MAM, but some SSO providers offer this. Slack does have a
Mobility Management program for Enterprise Grid: https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/115002579426-
Enterprise-Mobility-Management
Teams
 iOS : 10.0 or later
 Android : 4.4 or later
 Windows : Windows 10 Mobile
Mobile apps are distributed and updated through the respective mobile platform’s app store only, and are
not available to be distributed through MDM (mobile device management) solutions or side-loaded.

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1.3 Supported Browsers
Can the platform be accessed via a browser? Does it support mobile browsers? Are there are any
limitations on using the system via browser as opposed to via the client or app?
Slack
 Chrome: Version 51 and newer
 Firefox: Version 47 and newer, plus version 45 (ESR)
 Safari : 9 and newer
 Internet Explorer: 11
 Edge: Version 31 and newer
Slack isn't available on a mobile browser, but you can use the Slack administrative portal in one.
The desktop app will have screen sharing, more notification options, and a sidebar for switching between
different workspaces.
Teams
 Edge
 Chrome: The latest version, plus two previous versions
 Firefox: The latest version, plus two previous versions
2. Membership
2.1 User Roles
What roles are available for users within a Team/Workspace? What can each do?
Slack
Workspace Owners: control the highest-level security and administrative settings, but only the Primary
Owner (usually the person who created the workspace) has the ability to delete it.
Workspace Admins: can manage members, public channels, and maintenance tasks or functions.
Members: (the default role for everyone) have access to all public channels in your workspace.
Multi-Channel Guests: can only access channels they've been given permission to use. They can start a
direct message with people in those channels.
Single-Channel Guests: can only access the one channel they've been assigned to. They can start a direct
message with people in that channel.
The permission matrix for the Slack roles are at https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/201314026-Roles-
and-permissions-in-Slack
Teams
Within Microsoft Teams there are two roles: Owner and Member
Team Owner Team Member
Create team Yes No
Leave team Yes Yes
Edit team name Yes No
Delete team Yes No
Add channel Yes Yes*
Edit channel name Yes Yes*
Delete channel Yes Yes*
Add members Yes** No
Add tabs Yes Yes*
Add connectors Yes Yes*
Add bots Yes Yes*
*These items can be turned off by an owner
**After adding a member, an Owner can promote Member to Owner

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2.2 Limits
How many users can be part of a Team/Workspace? Channel?
Slack
Slack claims to allow an unlimited number of channels.
 maximum number of people in a meeting : 15
Slack Enterprise Grid was built to support organizations of up to 500,000 users.
Teams
default maximum number of teams in an Office 365 tenant: 500,000
(more can be created by global admin)
 maximum number of users in a team: 1000
 maximum number of members in a chat: 21
 maximum number of people in a meeting : 80
 maximum number of channels in a team: 100 (200 to be available soon per MSFT)
2.3 Automated Access
Does the Team/Workspace support dynamic membership? If so what attributes contribute to membership?
Slack
Slack groups are created manually. However, Slack does offer an API for programmatic creation of
groups, but there is no Out of Box dynamic group mechanism.
Teams
Teams does not support Dynamic Membership at this time.
(source: https://www.petri.com/aad-licensing-groups-teams )
note that dynamic O365 Groups can be created using dynamic group creation (w/rules), however this is
only available with azure AD Premium, and not synched with Teams at this time.
3. Document Management
3.1 File Support
What file types are supported? What is the file size limitation?
Slack
Files play a less prominent role in Slack than in Teams.
Native file-sharing capabilities are mostly limited to supporting file use within chat streams.
For more sophisticated navigation and sharing, enterprises need to use the native integrations available
with Box, Dropbox or Google Drive.
"Files play a less prominent role in Slack than they do in Microsoft Teams. Slack offers native file-sharing
capabilities. Users can share files with a channel by attaching them to a post. Users can find the files
shared within a channel or across a team through various sidebar or top-level menus. Overall, file
navigation in Slack is minimal, reinforcing the notion that the product is primarily focused on the chat
stream itself.
However, Slack has extensive integrations with leading EFSS systems. Specifically, Slack offers native file
integration with Box, Dropbox and Google Docs. Interestingly, the content of these shared files is indexed
and available in Slack's search results. Slack has no native integration with OneDrive for Business or
SharePoint Online.

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Nonetheless, Slack's file-sharing capabilities, even with these external systems, are somewhat limited.
Each file is shared individually, and there is no support for a single file repository for a team. For example,
files shared from Dropbox to a Slack channel stay in an individual user's Dropbox account. Therefore,
teams may need to use a third-party EFSS system to curate a group file repository. Slack appears to be
addressing this shortcoming via a partnership with Google. This partnership should enable alignment
between a Slack channel and an associated Google Team Drive. Team Drives are a new Google Drive
feature for enabling group file storage (Google Drive previously focused on storing files for individuals
only). The intent is for the Google Team Drive to become the default storage for a Slack channel."
source : Gartner report titled " Slack Versus Microsoft Teams — Which Workstream Collaboration Product
Is Best for You?"
Slack allows uploads of most files under 1GB.
Teams
File navigation is basic, but prominent.
Teams uses both SharePoint (for team files) and OneDrive for Business (for personal files).
Users can also access their files through SharePoint, the OneDrive desktop synchronization client or the
OneDrive mobile apps.
3.2 Storage
How is storage allocation determined? Per Team/Workspace? Per user?
Slack
You'll be given storage space on a per-user basis, but the total is shared by everyone on the workspace.
 Slack Standard: 10GB/user
 Slack Plus: 20GB/user
 Slack Enterprise Grid: 1TB/user
Teams
(1) When you create a Team in Office 365, you are creating a SPO Site Collection behind the scenes
(2) Storage for a single SPO Site Collection in Office 365 can be up to 25 TB
(3) The quota you have in total for SPO is 1 TB + # Users x 500 MB
(4) So while is true a SPO Site Collection can store up to 25 TB, this is not going to happen if you don't
have 25 TB of quota storage in your SPO tenant
3.3 Versioning
Does the platform support file versioning? Can versions be reverted? Do versions count against storage?
Slack
Slack doesn't support file versioning, but some of Slack's third-party apps might.
Teams
When a new channel is created within an existing team, a document library is created within the Office 365
Group the team is associated with. This document library is "pinned" to the channel as a tab called Files.
This allows you to interact with the files in the document library directly within Teams without having to
leave the application.
If you have an existing document library from another SharePoint team site, it's possible to connect that
library to the channel in Microsoft Teams.
Document Library versioning is controlled via SharePoint.

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3.4 Levels of Access
What levels of access can be granted on a file?
Slack
You can make Posts read-only or editable by others. If you're using a file sharing service with Slack, it will
depend on the app you're using.
Teams
Same as in SharePoint.
Microsoft Teams doesn't yet have those settings by individual or by channel. You can manage individual
file permissions through the advanced controls in the SharePoint client (click on the . . . next to the channel
name when in the Files tab )
3.5 Collaboration
Does the platform support real time co-authoring? If so, on what file types? Can files be locked for editing?
Slack
Slack Posts can only be edited by one user at a time. You may be able to have co-authoring options with
other file-sharing services.
Teams
yes… per Office 365 co-authoring.
4. Integration Points
4.1 Integration methods
How are external services integrated with a Team/Workspaces? Bots? Connectors? Etc.
Slack
There are a range of ways you can connect to external services: apps, bots, outgoing and incoming
webhooks. We also have some pre-built connectors in our App Directory.
Teams
Office 365 Connectors were previously launched in early 2016 for use within Outlook group conversations.
Similar to Slack's application notifications, Office 365 Connectors use webhook approaches. They provide
methods for formatting notifications, presenting links and enabling users to respond within the context of a
message without having to leave the Teams user experience. However, Office 365 Connectors are still
quite new, and their availability within Teams appears limited at this time. This status is changing quickly,
but for now, enterprises must use existing connectors published by Microsoft within Teams or configure the
generic Incoming Webhook connector.
4.2 Extensibility
Are there APIs to develop custom integration points? Can these integration points be on premise
solutions?
Slack
Yes, you can use Slack API to create custom integrations for your workspace. You'll find documentation on
that here: https://api.slack.com/internal-integrations .
Teams
yes and yes.

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4.3 Restrictions
Is there a way to control/limit the integration points available to end users?
Slack
Single-Channel Guests won't be able to use custom or integration slash commands, and you can choose
to restrict this for Multi-Channel Guests as well. Neither type of guest will be able to make changes to apps
or custom integrations.
Teams
Teams has multiple settings that can be turned on or turned off at the Office 365 tenant level. With Teams
turned on for a tenant, any user that is also enabled for Teams will inherit the settings from the tenant
level. Details here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/enable-features-office-365
In addition, Apps are tabs, connectors, bots, or any combination of these three, provided by a third-party
service. There are Teams admin policies that can be configured in the Office 365 admin center to control
which external third-party apps are allowed. These policies let you specify which apps are allowed and
disallowed, new external App behavior, and whether side-loading apps is allowed.
details: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/admin-settings .
5. Messaging
5.1 Direct Messaging
Does the platform support one on one messages? What capabilities exist within a one on one chat? File
share? Screen share? Are messages persistent?.
Slack
Yes, you can send Direct Messages one-on-one or in groups of up to 9 users. You can share files, voice
and video call, and use screen sharing on our paid plans. Unless deleted, all messages on paid plans are
persistent. You'll find more details here: https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/212281468-Direct-
messages-and-group-DMs .
Teams
Per Gartner: Microsoft Teams' native videoconferencing and screen-sharing capabilities are superior to
those available in Slack. Meetings with up to 80 participants can be accommodated.
5.2 Group Messaging
Does the platform support one on one messages? What capabilities exist within a one on one chat? File
share? Screen share? Are messages persistent?.
Slack
Does the platform support group chats? What is the maximum number of users that can be part of a group
chat? What capabilities do users have within a group chat? (File share, screen share?) Are messages
persistent?
Teams
Per Gartner: Microsoft Teams' native videoconferencing and screen-sharing capabilities are superior to
those available in Slack. Meetings with up to 80 participants can be accommodated.

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5.3 Voice and Video
Does the platform support voice and video chat? If so, between how many users? Do admins have the
ability to control bandwidth consumption? Quality of Service?
Slack
Yes, Slack has voice and video calling, as well as screen sharing on the paid plans. Unfortunately, there's
no way for administrators to control bandwidth consumption. Voice and video calling is stable, but Slack is
working to improve the quality of screen sharing.
You can also use one of the following third-party tools: appear.in, Blue Jeans, Google+ Hangouts,
GoToMeeting, join.me, Skype, WebEx, Zoom.
 https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/216771908-Make-calls-in-Slack
 https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/115003501303-Share-your-screen-with-Slack-Calls
 https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/208492868-Voice-video-screen-sharing-apps
In Gartner inquiries with clients, the prioritization and weighting for unified communications and meeting
support on selection of Slack have not been high. Organizations using Slack want an integrated
application experience for audio/video conferencing but the solution does not have to be delivered via a
tight integration with their enterprise unified communication vendor. Conferencing is an important feature,
but is considered more of a convenience or an extension of a chat stream, rather than a core experience
Teams
per Gartner: Microsoft Teams' native videoconferencing and screen-sharing capabilities are superior to
those available in Slack. Meetings with up to 80 participants can be accommodated. Within its Meetings
section, Teams supports scheduling of online meetings and even provides a scheduling assistant, similar
to the one provided in Outlook. In addition, ad hoc meetings can start immediately from a team
conversation thread. Participation in the full meeting experience requires the use of the desktop Teams
application, which supports audioconferencing, videoconferencing and screen sharing. Teams offers solid
team-focused conferencing services that can address the meeting needs of most enterprise groups.
6. Calendar / Meetings
6.1 Calendar
Does the platform support the creation of meetings/calendar events?
Slack
Slack doesn't offer its own calendar feature, but can integrate with Google Calendar and other third-party
scheduling tools.
Teams
The Teams Meeting add-in is automatically installed for users who have Microsoft Teams and either Office
2013 or Office 2016 installed on their Windows PC. Users will see the Teams Meeting add-in on the
Outlook Calendar ribbon.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/teams-add-in-for-outlook
6.2 Outlook Integration
Can meetings be integrated into a user’s Outlook calendar?
Slack
You can log in with an email and password or SSO/SAML. Slack also offers two-factor authentication.
You'll find some resources on this below:
 https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/220403548-Guide-to-single-sign-on-settings
 https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/203772216-SAML-single-sign-on
 https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/204509068-Set-up-two-factor-authentication

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Teams
For the full Microsoft Teams experience, every user should be enabled for Exchange Online, SharePoint
Online, and Office 365 Group creation.
Users' Exchange mailboxes can be hosted online or on-premises. Users hosted on Exchange Online or
Exchange Dedicated vNext can use all the features of Teams. They can create and join teams and
channels, create and view meetings, call and chat, modify user profile pictures, add and configure
connectors, tabs, and bots.
Users hosted on either Exchange Online Dedicated - Legacy, or Exchange on-premises, must be
synchronized to Azure Active Directory for Office 365. They can create and join teams and channels, add
and configure tabs and bots, and chat and call. However, they can’t modify user profile pictures, or add
and configure connectors. They can receive messages from connectors configured by other users. For
creating and viewing meetings, it's a mixed bag: Creating and viewing meetings is supported for Exchange
2016 cumulative update 3 (CU3) and above, but not for versions prior to Exchange 2016 CU3.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/exchange-teams-interact
6.3 Hosting
Can a meeting/calendar event be hosted/joined from the platform?
Slack
Slack doesn't offer its own calendar feature, but can integrate with Google Calendar and other third-party
scheduling tools.
Teams
Yes. Teams has deep integration with Exchange for meetings and calendar (see above)
7. Metrics
7.1 Admin
What reporting capabilities are available to admins? List of integrated services? Licensed users? Users per
team/workspace?
Slack
Non-Grid: By default, all members except for guests can view workspace analytics.
Enterprise Grid: Only Org Owners and Org Admins can view analytics for Slack for Enterprise.
Teams
Microsoft recently announced two new usage reports for Microsoft Teams that enable you to understand
how your users are leveraging Teams to communicate and collaborate.
The Microsoft Teams user activity report gives you a view of the most common activities that your users
perform in Microsoft Teams - including how many people engage in a chat in a channel, how many
communicate via private chat message, and how many participate in calls or meetings. You can see this
information both at the tenant level, as well as for each individual user.
The Microsoft Teams app usage report provides you with information about how your users connect to
Microsoft Teams, including mobile apps. The report helps admins understand what devices are popular in
their organization and how many users work on the go.
Reference: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Teams-Blog/New-usage-reports-for-
Microsoft-Teams/ba-p/132614

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7.2 Users
What reporting capabilities are available to team/workspace owners? Usage activity? Content popularity?
Slack
details are here:
https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/218407447-View-analytics-and-usage-#slack-enterprise-grid-1
Teams
(To Come)
8. User Access
8.1 Authentication
How do users log in to the platform? What authentication mechanism are supported? IDP? SSO?
Slack
You can log in with an email and password or SSO/SAML. Slack also offers two-factor authentication.
You'll find some resources on this below:
Teams
Microsoft Teams support all the identity models that are available with Office 365. Supported identity
models include:
Cloud Identity: In this model, a user is created and managed in Office 365 and stored in Azure Active
Directory, and the password is verified by Azure Active Directory.
Synchronized Identity: In this model, the user identity is managed in an on-premises server, and the
accounts and password hashes are synchronized to the cloud. The user enters the same password on-
premises as they do in the cloud, and at sign-in the password is verified by Azure Active Directory. This
model uses the Microsoft Azure Active Directory Connect Tool.
Federated Identity: This model requires a synchronized identity with the user password is verified by the
on-premises identity provider. With this model, the password hash does not need to be synchronized to
Azure AD, and Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) or a third-party identity provider is used to
authenticate users against the on-premises Active Directory.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/identify-models-authentication .
8.2 Profile
Do users have profiles? What attributes are tied to a user’s profile? How are profiles populated?
Slack
Yes, every user will have a profile. They can edit this themselves or have it set by your Identity Provider.
You can also add Custom Profile fields on top of Slack defaults (full name, display name, what I do, phone
number, time zone, Skype, profile photo).
https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/212281478-Customize-member-profiles
Teams
Teams is based on O365 Active Directory Groups.. And has the same user profiles that are available to
O365 and SharePoint Online.

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8.3 Guest Access
Does the platform support external/third party users? Who is allowed to invite guests? What controls exists
around managing what external users (who they are and what they are able to do?)
Slack
You can invite Multi-Channel and Single-Channel Guests that will have different permissions than regular
users. Your workspace settings will control who can invite guests. You'll find more details on those
accounts and a breakdown of their permissions here: https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/202518103-
Multi-Channel-and-Single-Channel-Guests
Teams
Guest access is included with all Office 365 Business Premium, Office 365 Enterprise, and Office 365
Education subscriptions. No additional Office 365 license is necessary. Guest access is a tenant-level
setting in Microsoft Teams and is turned off by default.
A guest is someone who isn't an employee, student, or member of your organization. They don't have a
school or work account with your organization. For example, guests may include partners, vendors,
suppliers, or consultants. Only users who have an email address corresponding to an Azure Active
Directory or Office 365 work or school account can be added as a guest user.
Organizations using Teams can provide external access to teams, documents in channels, resources,
chats, and applications to their partners, while maintaining complete control over their own corporate data.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/guest-access
9. Provisioning
9.1 Licensing
How is user access to the platform controlled? How are licenses applied and managed? How are
additional licensed procured?
Slack
Rather than buying a set number of licenses, you'll be billed for the number of active users you have, and
Slack adjusts it if this changes.
You'll find more information here: https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/218915077-Fair-Billing-policy
Teams
MS Teams comes O365 licenses...with no additional licensing costs.
The following Office 365 subscriptions enable users for Teams:
 Small Business Plans Enterprise Plans Education Plans
 Office 365 Business Essentials Office 365 Enterprise E1 Office 365 Education
 Office 365 Business Premium Office 365 Enterprise E3 Office 365 Education Plus
 Office 365 Enterprise E4 (retired) Office 365 Education E3 (retired)
 Office 365 Enterprise E5 Office 365 Education E5
 Office 365 Enterprise F1
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/office-365-licensing
Microsoft Teams user-level licenses are managed directly through the Office 365 admin center user
management interfaces. An administrator can assign licenses to new users when new user accounts are
created, or to users with existing accounts. The administrator must have Office 365 Global Administrator or
User Management Administrator privileges to manage Microsoft Teams licenses.

17
9.2 Workstreams
How are additional Teams/Workspaces created? Is there control over who can create
Teams/Workspaces? Who can create channels? Can Workstreams be made Public/Private? Who can
delete Teams/Workspaces?
Slack
Unless you're on Enterprise Grid, you'll probably only have one workspace. By default, all members except
Guests can create a new channel, but this can be restricted by Workspace Owners and Administrators.
Only Workspace Owners and Administrators can create a Shared Channel across different workspaces.
Public Channels can be deleted, archived, or privatized. Private Channels cannot be deleted or made
public. The workspace itself can only be deleted by the Primary Owner.
All Public Channels except for #general can be deleted by its creator or a Workspace Owner or
Administrators.
Teams
At the user-level, access to Microsoft Teams can be enabled of disabled on a per-user basis by assigning
or removing the Microsoft Teams product license.
Currently, there are no policy options for turning Microsoft Teams, or a subset of Microsoft Teams features
on or off at an individual user level outside of licensing.
Note: Microsoft recommends that Microsoft Teams is enabled for all users in a company so that teams can
be formed organically for projects and other dynamic initiatives. Even if you are deciding to pilot, it may still
be helpful to keep Microsoft Teams enabled for all users, but only target communications to the pilot group
of users.
10. International Support
10.1 Language
What languages does the platform support?
Slack
5: English, German, French, Spanish, and Japanese.
Teams
18: Chinese (Simple and Traditional), Czech, Danish,Dutch, English (US)
Finnish,French,German,Italian,Japanese,Korean,Norwegian
Portuguese (BR),Polish,Russian,Spanish,Swedish,Turkish
10.2 Server Locations
Where are the platform servers located? What’s the user experience for international users?
Slack
Slack is hosted with Amazon Web Services (AWS), using data centers hosted exclusively in the United
States. Slack tech support claims the international user experience has been "pretty good".
Teams
Teams uses O365… and the O365 servers are available world-wide:
https://products.office.com/en-us/business/international-availability
Data in Teams resides in the geographic region associated with your Office 365 tenant. Currently, Teams
supports the Americas, EMEA, and APAC regions.

18
10.3 GDPR
Does the platform support GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)?
Slack
Slack is well underway to comply with GDPR by May 2018. For more information, please refer to Slack's
GDPR Commitment available at https://slack.com/gdpr.
Teams
Microsoft has introduced a raft of security and data visibility features to its Microsoft 365 suite, claiming
they will help customers comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) when they
come into effect in May 2018, alongside new communication tools that see Teams usurp Skype for
Business.
Details on GDPR for O365 is here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/enterprise/office-365-info-
protection-for-gdpr-overview
11. Support Model
10.1 Support Model
What level of support would be made available by the platform vendor?
Slack
phone, email, and live chat support.
Teams
phone, email, and live chat support.
https://support.office.com/en-us/teams

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Implementation Considerations
12. Licensing
12.1 Licensing Considerations
Please explain the platform licensing structure(s), including the recommended approach for deployment to
an organization with 30,000+ employees.
Slack
Billing depends on plan (https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/115003205446-Plans-products-features- ).
Enterprise Grid would be the recommended Slack Plan for a large organization.
Slack Enterprise Grid gives large organizations the power to connect multiple Slack workspaces across
your entire company.
Individual project groups or departments can still work independently in separate workspaces — but as
part of your company’s Grid, they’ll be brought together through organization-wide search, direct
messaging, and shared channels.
On Slack Enterprise Grid, you’ll have all the benefits of Slack’s Plus plan, as well as features built with
enterprise-level organizations in mind:
Support for integrations with data loss prevention (DLP), eDiscovery, and offline backup providers.
24/7 support with 4-hour response time commitments and additional packages to suit your needs.
Security, compliance, billing, and integration management in a single view.
1 TB (1,000 GB) of storage per member.
Pricing for Slack Enterprise Grid will vary depending on the number of people you’d like to connect.
Teams
Teams is included in all commercial mainstream bundles (such as Office 365 Enterprise E1, E3 or E5).
Teams users log in with their Office 365 identities, and Teams leverages SharePoint platform services for
its native file storage.
13. Regulatory Requirements
13.1 Data Retention
Ability to apply immutable data retention policies on all content in the tool, including but not limited to user
posts and documents
Slack
Custom retention policies can be set up for the entire workspace or on a per-channel basis... details are
here: https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/203457187-Customize-message-and-file-retention-policies
Members can choose how long Slack will retain messages exchanged in any private channel or direct
message that they are a part of. For example, if you set a retention policy of one day, all messages in the
channel or direct message will be deleted after one day.
These settings will override any workspace-wide message retention policies that your Workspace or
Enterprise Grid Org Owner may have put in place.
additional details: https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/115005393586-Set-private-channel-and-DM-
retention-policies

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Teams
Microsoft plans to launch MS Teams Retention Policies in Q1 2018.
(https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Teams-AMA/Teams-Groups-Retention-and-
Archiving/m-p/120396#M1171)
An overview of Teams security and compliance is here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/microsoftteams/security-compliance-overview
13.2 Activity Logging
Ability to capture information about user activity, including details about a user, what they posted, what
they shared and with whom.
Slack
Reporting capability details are here: details are here:
Teams
The Teams audit log can help you investigate specific activities across Office 365 services. Teams audits
more than 20 admin-level events. Here are some of the activities that are audited:
 Team creation
 Team deletion
 Added channel
 Changed setting
To see the complete list of activities that are audited in Office 365, read
https://support.office.com/article/0d4d0f35-390b-4518-800e-
0c7ec95e946c?=&PickTab=Activities&ad=US#PickTab=Activities
13.3 Retention of activity logs
Ability to apply immutable data retention on the activity logs.
Slack
Members can choose how long Slack will retain messages exchanged in any private channel or direct
message that they are a part of. For example, if you set a retention policy of one day, all messages in the
channel or direct message will be deleted after one day.
These settings will override any workspace-wide message retention policies that your Workspace or
Enterprise Grid Org Owner may have put in place.
Slack provides the option for Team Owners to delete Customer Data at any time during a subscription
term. Within 24 hours of Team Owner initiated deletion, Slack hard deletes all information from currently-
running production systems (excluding team and channel names, and search terms embedded in URLs in
web server access logs). Slack services backups are destroyed within 14 days.
Teams

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13.4 eDiscovery
Ability to search activity logs, content on the tool, based on keywords or specific users, for the purposes of
legal investigations.
Slack
Slack Enterprise Grid offers support for integrations with data loss prevention (DLP), eDiscovery, and
offline backup providers.
https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/115003205446-Plans-products-features-#slack-for-enterprise
Teams
Teams offers support for eDiscovery & Legal Hold.
details :
 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/ediscovery-investigation
 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/legal-hold
13.5 Accessibility
Is the platform compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973? Does it cover all accessible
tools, including client, browser, and mobile app?
Slack
(to come)
Teams
Teams supports Accessibility. Details are provided here: https://support.office.com/en-
us/article/accessibility-support-for-microsoft-teams-d12ee53f-d15f-445e-be8d-f0ba2c5ee68f
14. Security Governance
14.1 User Security Access
What capabilities, controls, and processes are available in the platform to manage how users gain access?
How can security access be monitored?
Slack
Detailed access logs are available both to users and administrators of paid teams. We log every time an
account signs in, noting the type of device used and the IP address of the connection.
Teams
models include:
Teams access activities are available in the Audit Logs.

22
14.2 Administrative Control
What ability exists to establish administrator controls over the platform for the purposes of governing,
supporting, and maintaining platform security?
Slack
Team Administrators and owners of paid teams can review consolidated access logs for their whole team.
We also make it easy for administrators to remotely terminate all connections and sign out all devices
authenticated to the Slack services at any time, on-demand.
Teams
MS Teams comes with O365 licenses...with no additional licensing costs.
The following Office 365 subscriptions enable users for Teams:
 Small Business Plans Enterprise Plans Education Plans
 Office 365 Business Essentials Office 365 Enterprise E1 Office 365 Education
 Office 365 Business Premium Office 365 Enterprise E3 Office 365 Education Plus
 Office 365 Enterprise E4 (retired) Office 365 Education E3 (retired)
 Office 365 Enterprise E5 Office 365 Education E5
 Office 365 Enterprise F1
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/office-365-licensing
Microsoft Teams user-level licenses are managed directly through the Office 365 admin center user
management interfaces. An administrator can assign licenses to new users when new user accounts are
created, or to users with existing accounts. The administrator must have Office 365 Global Administrator or
User Management Administrator privileges to manage Microsoft Teams licenses.
At the user-level, access to Microsoft Teams can be enabled of disabled on a per-user basis by assigning
or removing the Microsoft Teams product license.
Currently, there are no policy options for turning off Microsoft Teams, or a subset of Microsoft Teams
features on or off at an individual user level outside of licensing.
Note
Microsoft recommends that Microsoft Teams is enabled for all users in a company so that teams can be
formed organically for projects and other dynamic initiatives. Even if you are deciding to pilot, it may still be
helpful to keep Microsoft Teams enabled for all users, but only target communications to the pilot group of
users.
14.3 Lifecycle Management
What ability exists to ensure a controlled process for lifecycle management, including disposition, data
backup/restore processes, and identification of stale data?
Slack
For information on how Slack keeps your data secure, please review our Security Practices:
https://slack.com/security-practices
For additional information on the information we collect and how it may be used, please review our Privacy
Policy.
Teams
Microsoft Teams is built on the Office 365 hyper-scale, enterprise-grade cloud, delivering the advanced
security and compliance capabilities our customers expect.
Teams is Tier C-compliant at launch. This includes the following standards: ISO 27001, ISO 27018,
SSAE16 SOC 1 and SOC 2, HIPAA, and EU Model Clauses (EUMC). Within the Microsoft compliance
framework, Microsoft classifies Office 365 applications and services into four categories. Each category is
defined by specific compliance commitments that must be met for an Office 365 service, or a related
Microsoft service, to be listed in that category.
Services in compliance categories C and D that have industry-leading compliance commitments are
enabled by default. Services in categories A and B come with controls to turn on or turn off these services
for an entire organization. Details can be found in the Compliance Framework for Industry Standards and
Regulations. Teams also supports Cloud Security Alliance compliance.

23
Teams also enforces team-wide and organization-wide two-factor authentication, single sign-on through
Active Directory, and encryption of data in transit and at rest. Files are stored in SharePoint and are
backed by SharePoint encryption. Notes are stored in OneNote and are backed by OneNote encryption.
Microsoft added support for audit log search, eDiscovery and legal hold for channels, chats and files as
well as mobile application management with Microsoft Intune.
These tools reside in the Office 365 Security and Compliance Portal.
details at: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/security-compliance-overview
14.4 Usage Policies
What abilities exist to detect, moderate, or control what content can be posted on the platform?
Slack
There are Bots for content moderation. ( https://slack.com/apps/search?q=moderation )
Teams
There are no Out of Box Moderation tools for Teams. Moderation would need to be an add-on, via
moderation Bots or a service like the Azure Content Moderator service (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/azure/cognitive-services/content-moderator/overview ).
14.5 DLP (Data Loss Prevention)
What DLP capabilities exist?
Slack
Slack Enterprise Grid offers support for integrations with data loss prevention (DLP), eDiscovery, and
offline backup providers.
Security, billing, compliance and integration management can be viewed in a single hub rather than in
separate tabs. Admins can also manage and control multiple teams with customized security features and
implement additional policies when needed, such as data logging and retention. HIPPA and FINRA are
also included, as well as support for e-Discovery, DLP and off-site backup. Dedicated account and service
teams come standard at this level as well, complete with 24/7 support and 2-hour response time.
Teams
15. Administration and Operations Model
15.1 Monitoring System Health
What ability exists for monitoring system health, incident management, storage, or any dependent
component in the infrastructure?
Slack
Incidents are tracked and made available here: https://status.slack.com/
Teams
(To come)

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15.2 Incident Management
How will issues be reported, tracked, and resolved?
Slack
In the event of a security breach, Slack will promptly notify you of any unauthorized access to your
Customer Data. Slack has incident management policies and procedures in place to handle such an event.
Details at https://slack.com/security-practices
Slack Enterprise Grid has dedicated account and service teams, complete with 24/7 support and 2-hour
response time.
Teams
Details on how Microsoft manages O365 Security Incidents are described in detail here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54302
15.3 Usage Metrics and Reporting
Ability to obtain metrics, reporting of the users, content, usage, storage, etc.
Slack
Reporting capability details are here: details are here:
Teams
Teams usage metrics and reporting is available in the O365 Admin Center.
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/office-365-reports-in-the-admin-center-microsoft-teams-user-
activity-07f67fc4-c0a4-4d3f-ad20-f40c7f6db524
15.4 Change Management
How are platform changes managed and implemented, and what processes must be implemented at client
to manage change?
Slack
N/A (Slack is a cloud-based SAAS).
Teams
N/A (Teams is a cloud-based SAAS).
15.5 Administration Roles
What administrator roles are available in the platform?
Slack
Workspace Owners: control the highest-level security and administrative settings, but only the Primary
Owner (usually the person who created the workspace) has the ability to delete it.
Workspace Admins: can manage members, public channels, and maintenance tasks or functions.
Members: (the default role for everyone) have access to all public channels in your workspace.
Multi-Channel Guests: can only access channels they've been given permission to use. They can start a
direct message with people in those channels.
Single-Channel Guests: can only access the one channel they've been assigned to. They can start a direct
message with people in that channel.
The permission matrix for the Slack roles are at https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/201314026-Roles-
and-permissions-in-Slack

25
Teams
Within Microsoft Teams there are two roles: Owner and Member
Team Owner Team Member
Create team Yes No
Leave team Yes Yes
Edit team name Yes No
Delete team Yes No
Add channel Yes Yes*
Edit channel name Yes Yes*
Delete channel Yes Yes*
Add members Yes** No
Add tabs Yes Yes*
Add connectors Yes Yes*
Add bots Yes Yes*
*These items can be turned off by an owner
**After adding a member, an Owner can promote Member to Owner
15.4 Mobile App Management
If applicable, what mobile app management capabilities exist?
Slack
Slack doesn't officially support MDM or MAM, but some SSO providers offer this. Slack does have a
Mobility Management program for Enterprise Grid: https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/115002579426-
Enterprise-Mobility-Management
Teams
Mobile apps are distributed and updated through the respective mobile platform’s app store only, and are
not available to be distributed through MDM (mobile device management) solutions or side-loaded.
15.5 Storage
How can storage be managed and controlled?
Slack
Files play a less prominent role in Slack than in Teams.
Native file-sharing capabilities are mostly limited to supporting file use within chat streams.
For more sophisticated navigation and sharing, enterprises need to use the native integrations available
with Box, Dropbox or Google Drive.
"Files play a less prominent role in Slack than they do in Microsoft Teams. Slack offers native file-sharing
capabilities. Users can share files with a channel by attaching them to a post. Users can find the files
shared within a channel or across a team through various sidebar or top-level menus. Overall, file
navigation in Slack is minimal, reinforcing the notion that the product is primarily focused on the chat
stream itself.
However, Slack has extensive integrations with leading EFSS systems. Specifically, Slack offers native file
integration with Box, Dropbox and Google Docs. Interestingly, the content of these shared files is indexed
and available in Slack's search results. Slack has no native integration with OneDrive for Business or
SharePoint Online.
Nonetheless, Slack's file-sharing capabilities, even with these external systems, are somewhat limited.
Each file is shared individually, and there is no support for a single file repository for a team. For example,
files shared from Dropbox to a Slack channel stay in an individual user's Dropbox account. Therefore,
teams may need to use a third-party EFSS system to curate a group file repository. Slack appears to be
addressing this shortcoming via a partnership with Google. This partnership should enable alignment
between a Slack channel and an associated Google Team Drive. Team Drives are a new Google Drive

26
feature for enabling group file storage (Google Drive previously focused on storing files for individuals
only). The intent is for the Google Team Drive to become the default storage for a Slack channel."
source : Gartner report titled " Slack Versus Microsoft Teams — Which Workstream Collaboration Product
Is Best for You?"
Slack allows uploads of most files under 1GB.
Teams
When a new channel is created within an existing team, a document library is created within the Office 365
Group the team is associated with. This document library is "pinned" to the channel as a tab called Files.
This allows you to interact with the files in the document library directly within Teams without having to
leave the application.
(1) When you create a Team in Office 365, you are creating a SPO Site Collection behind the scenes
(2) Storage for a single SPO Site Collection in Office 365 can be up to 25 TB
(3) The quota you have in total for SPO is 1 TB + # Users x 500 MB
(4) So while is true a SPO Site Collection can store up to 25 TB, this is not going to happen if you don't
have 25 TB of quota storage in your SPO tenant
15.6 Platform Configurations
What custom configurations can be applied to the platform? For example, can some features be disabled?
How are configurations achieved?
Slack
There are a variety of Administrative options for workspace configuration. Details are at:
https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/categories/200122103-Workspace-Administration
Teams
Teams has multiple settings that can be turned on or turned off at the Office 365 tenant level. With Teams
turned on for a tenant, any user that is also enabled for Teams will inherit the settings from the tenant
level. The list of customizations is large... details are here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/enable-features-office-365
15.7 Customizations
Beyond configurations, are any parts of the platform customizable? For example, branding, styles,
themes, custom app integrations?
Slack
You can customize your Slack theme to match your company’s brand colors, and ensure that your
company branding remains consistent across all touch points.
There is a range of ways you can connect to external services: apps, bots, outgoing and incoming
webhooks. Slack also offers some pre-built connectors in the App Directory.
Slack has opened APIs to enable software developers to build new products (apps, product extensions
and chatbots) specifically for the Slack platform. About 700 of these are available on Slack's App Directory
today. The platform APIs are also being used by enterprises to develop custom plug-ins and integrations
with their legacy software. Slack offers SaaS vendors technical and commercial incentives to work in its
ecosystem, so it can establish its platform as an enterprise OS. Slack currently does not charge for either
its APIs or for a presence in the App Directory, which acts as a discovery and distribution channel.
Teams
There are limited "Branding" options in MS Teams currently. You can "brand" with Team Names and their
associated images, and your group classification.

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15.8 Performance
How is system performance measured, tuned, and managed?
Slack
Slack is a SAAS offering. Slack Service Level Agreement (SLA) for customers on the Plus plan and above
guarantees a 99.99% monthly uptime
If Slack falls short of 99.99% uptime guarantee, Slack refunds customers on the Plus plan and above 100
times the amount your workspace paid during the period Slack was down.
SLA details are here: https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/204113126-Service-Level-Agreements-SLA-
Teams
Office 365 lives inside a high-capacity, dedicated Microsoft network that is steadily monitored not just by
automation, but by real people. Part of the role of maintaining the Office 365 cloud is building-in
performance tuning and streamlining where it's possible. Since clients of the Office 365 cloud have to
connect across the Internet, there is a continuous effort to fine-tune the performance across Office 365
services too.
Details on O365 performance and tuning are here: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/office-365-
performance-tuning-using-baselines-and-performance-history-1492cb94-bd62-43e6-b8d0-2a61ed88ebae
16. Authentication, Network, and Security
16.1 Identity
What identity solutions are compatible with the platform?
Slack
You can log in with an email and password or SSO/SAML. Slack offers two-factor authentication. You'll
find some resources on this below:
Teams
models include:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/identify-models-authentication

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16.2 Internal Infrastructure
Is the platform accessible via client software?
Slack
Slack offers an API for programmatic access.
If referring to Slack Desktop clients, the supported O/S are:
Teams
There are Teams APIs for connecting via client software. If referring to Teams Desktop clients, the
supported O/S are:
 Mac: MacOS (10.10+)
17. User Experience and Adoption
17.1 End user client
Is the platform accessible via client software? If so, what operating systems are supported? Does the client
support customer-managed deployments to users?
Slack
Slack offers an API for programmatic access.
If referring to Slack Desktop clients, the supported O/S are:

VDI: (from Slack tech support): We have several customers using our Windows app on Virtual Desktops.
That said, we install to the user's AppData directory, and that can sometimes cause issues in these
environments. To deploy Slack to your network, you might be interested in using Slack's Microsoft
Installer. You'll find further information on that here: https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/212475728-
Deploy-Slack-via-Microsoft-Installer . Slack app auto-updates, so you won't be able to control this as an
administrator.
Teams
There are Teams APIs for connecting via client software. If referring to Teams Desktop clients, the
supported O/S are:
 Mac: MacOS (10.10+)
SCCM: IT admins can choose their preferred method to distribute the installation files to machines in their
organization such as SCCM (Windows) or Casper Suite (MacOS).
Note: Distribution of the client via these mechanisms is only for the initial installation of Microsoft Team
clients and not for future updates.
Client Updates: Clients are currently updated automatically by the Microsoft Teams service with no IT
administrator intervention required. If an update is available, the client will automatically download the
update and when the app has idled for a period of time, the update process will kick off.
Note: Admin rights are not required for PC client installation but are required for installation on a Mac.

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17.2 Browser Support
Is the platform accessible via web browser? Which ones? If applicable, what user experience or
functionality differences exist between the web browser and client experiences?
Slack
Supported Browsers:
 Chrome: Version 51 and newer
 Firefox: Version 47 and newer, plus version 45 (ESR)
 Safari : 9 and newer
 Edge: Version 31 and newer
Teams
Supported Browsers:
 Edge
 Chrome: The latest version, plus two previous versions
 Firefox: The latest version, plus two previous versions
The web client (https://teams.microsoft.com ) is a full, functional client that can be used from a variety of
browsers. At this point, the web client does not support real-time communications (namely, joining
meetings and having one-to-one calls). The browser must also be configured to allow 3rd-party cookies.
There is no plugin or download required to run Teams in a web browser.
The Web client performs browser version detection upon connecting to https://teams.microsoft.com and if
an unsupported browser version is detected, it will block access to the Web interface and recommend that
the user download the desktop client or mobile app.
Microsoft Teams desktop client is a standalone application and currently not part of Office Pro Plus.
Microsoft Teams is available for both Windows (7+), both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, and MacOS (10.10+).
The desktop clients provide real-time communications support (audio, video, and content sharing) for team
meetings, group calling and private one-on-one calls.
Desktop clients can be downloaded and installed by end users directly from
https://teams.microsoft.com/downloads if they have the appropriate local permissions (admin rights are
not required to install the Teams client on a PC but are required on a Mac).
IT admins can choose their preferred method to distribute the installation files to machines in their
organization such as System Center Configuration Manager (Windows) or Casper Suite (MacOS).
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/MicrosoftTeams/get-clients

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17.3 Mobile
Is the platform accessible via mobile app? If applicable, what user experience or functionality differences
exist between the browser, client, and mobile app?
Slack
Slack is available via a mobile app.
Teams
Teams is available via a mobile app.
Details on app vs browser differences are here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/MicrosoftTeams/get-
clients .
17.4 Adoption Strategy
Does the platform have a documented adoption strategy or any other documented guidance for users, but
also for the support areas responsible for deploying the platform?
Slack
details provided here:
https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/115005476903-Enterprise-Grid-guide-to-success
Teams
details are here:
 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/continue-journey
 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/change-management-strategy
18. Integration with Office 365 Services
18.1 Integration with SharePoint Online
how the platform integrates with this Office 365 service
Slack
MS Flow has connectors to integrate Slack and SPO.
(https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/40294.integrate-sharepoint-online-with-slack-
using-microsoft-flow.aspx)
Teams
Out of the Box (OOTB).
When a team is created, a SharePoint directory is automatically provisioned behind the scenes with a
folder representing every channel. From there, you can choose a file and open it up directly in Microsoft
Word or Excel, or within that integrated Microsoft Office 365 tab directly in Microsoft Teams. This makes
the content more searchable and easier to interact with than in Slack.

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18.2 Integration with OneDrive for Business and Sync Client
Slack
 Only a single OneDrive account can be authorized per Slack member.
 The OneDrive app for Slack works with the following types of accounts: non-Enterprise Microsoft
accounts and Office 365 accounts (including SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business)
 The OneDrive app for Slack doesn't yet support on-premises SharePoint installations.
https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/115002272646-OneDrive-for-Slack
Teams
OOTB
Teams uses both SharePoint (for team files) and OneDrive for Business (for personal files).
Users can also access their files through SharePoint, the OneDrive desktop synchronization client or the
OneDrive mobile apps.
18.3 Integration with Outlook e-mail
Slack
3rd party connectors provide Slack integration with Exchange Calendars.
Teams
OOTB
18.4 Integration with Skype for Business
Slack
N/A
Teams
OOTB
18.5 Integration with O365 User Profiles
Slack
via 3rd party IDP solutions (with Slack Enterprise Grid plan)
Teams
OOTB

32
19. Dependencies and Other Considerations
19.1 Miscellaneous
The introduction of any new platform may be dependent on additional infrastructure, software, support
services, or other types of resources. Please indicate where applicable below any potential dependencies
not already identified:
 Reporting, auditing, or monitoring software
 Backup/Archiving solutions
 Storage
 Other (Please specify)
Slack
N/A
Teams
N/A

1
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