Slack has unveiled an important new addition a collaboration platform which he says can go some way to eliminating a number of common bottlenecks for customers.
Slack Canvas gives employees a new way to collect, organize, and share data using persistent and customizable dashboards. These so-called “canvases” are attached to each channel by default and can be created manually for one-off projects or events.
Not only can users embed contextual information, data, and multimedia content into canvases, but they can also perform everyday tasks on-site thanks to third-party integrations already available in Sluggish.
Sluggish canvas
In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Slack began talking publicly about a new strategy that involves focusing on the challenges specific to this new era of remote and hybrid work. In general, the ambition is for the platform to become a centralized hub of work, a so-called “digital headquarters” for each customer.
Since then, Slack has launched a number of new features that push the platform in this direction. For example, the company announced a new impromptu meeting feature called Huddles designed to minimize the friction associated with quick calls. The firm also launched Slack Clips, a way for colleagues to record and send short video clips to each other to support asynchronous ways of working.
Slack Canvas, meanwhile, can be seen as an extension of that same vision, bringing more of the functionality workers rely on to a single platform in a more unified way, so users don’t have to switch between multiple different apps to get their work done.
This feature also pairs well with other recent additions, including workflow automation built inside the Slack Platform. The idea is that by making it easier to identify auomotions, workers will spend less time on administration and more time on creative tasks.
Talking to TechRadar Pro Ahead of Dreamforce 2022, Slack’s Chief Product Officer Tamar Yehoshua elaborated on the rationale behind the new tool and its role in the larger digital headquarters strategy.
“Canvas will help people be more productive in their digital headquarters by giving them a surface that makes it easier to access the information they need to do their jobs,” she told us. “It will be easier to automate, and it will be easier and faster to find information related to the task at hand.”
“We’re hoping that people will be able to engage employees faster, do deals faster, resolve incidents faster by having that information more readily available in a consistent place at this permanent level.”
While Slack has always been about helping customers optimize efficiency, she added that it’s a “new day for work,” and new approaches to collaboration are all the more important.
Slack Canvas is already in the hands of a small group of customers for testing and is expected to be generally available in the coming months.
https://www.techradar.com/news/slacks-latest-big-update-gives-you-new-ways-to-work-smart-not-hard/
