Welcome to the No Jitter Roll, the regular round-up of news about the communications and collaboration industry. In today's edition: We recap some recent Slack announcements from Dreamforce, Microsoft Viva news, and then wrap with a bundle from BlueJeans and Owl Labs.
Slack Adds Canvas, Updates Platform at Dreamforce
At Salesforce's customer and partner event Dreamforce this week, Slack shared several updates to its platform, including a new canvas feature, Slack huddles are now generally available (GA), and tools for developers on Slack.
First, the company
introduced Slack canvas, a new feature that allows users to curate, organize, and share resources within a single screen (i.e., canvas), which will be available next year. With this canvas feature, users can pull data from systems of record to create a dashboard. Users will also be able to refresh data and make updates directly in the canvas without needing to switch apps, Slack added.
Additionally, the company went GA with Slack huddles, which were
previously revealed last June, and added several features to the ad hoc voice collaboration tool. (Slack allow users to join audio meetings in any channel or direct message). With the updated version, Slack users will now be able to turn on video within Huddles as well. Additionally, multiple users can now screen-share at the same, and information shared during a huddle will be automatically saved in the channel or DM where the huddle was started.
Lastly, the company revealed that
the new Slack platform is available to developers in open beta. It now features developer-friendly features like a new command-line interface and software development kits, reusable functions, and the ability to add a link trigger to a workflow.
Microsoft Updates Viva
- Viva Pulse: This app Viva allows managers and team leads to solicit team members for feedback on their work experience. Viva Pulse provides templates and pre-made questions that can be used to gain insight into the employee experience.
- Viva Amplify: This app designed to boost workplace communications nu centralizing communications campaigns, providing writing guidance to improve message resonance, allowing for the message to be shared across Microsoft 365, and providing metrics on the communications.
- Answers in Viva: Leveraging AI technology, this Viva feature takes employee questions and matches them to answers and experts from within the enterprise.
- People in Viva: With this new app through Microsoft 365, users can create profile cards that outline their interests, knowledge, and team goals.
- Leadership Corner in Viva Engage: With a new Leadership Corner in Viva Engage, employees can interact with leadership directly to share ideas and participate in organizational initiatives.
- Viva Goals integrations: Now organizations can integrate Viva Goals with Teams for OKR tracking, Azure DevOps for work items, Power Bi datasets to track KPIs and key results, and Microsoft Planner and Project to receive automatic project management updates.
- Viva Sales: GA in October, Viva Sales is an app that combines Microsoft 365 and Teams to allow sales professionals to connect with customers. Additionally, Microsoft has partnered with AI-based coaching and training company Seismic to leverage their AI-generated content recommendations for use with Viva Sales.
- New home experience for Viva Connections: With the updated home screen, users can access all their Viva apps, and Viva briefing emails will provide more personalized work and meeting recommendations.
These features will roll out to Microsoft Viva customers starting in 2023 unless noted otherwise.
Owl Labs, BlueJeans Partner on Video Meeting Bundle
Lastly, hardware provider Owl Labs and video meeting provider BlueJeans by Verizon
announced a partnership that'll combine Owl Labs devices and BlueJeans Meetings software licenses into a monthly subscription model. The BlueJeans' Meetings+ With Owl Labs plan will include the Meeting Owl Pro camera and app and three BlueJeans Meetings Enterprise licenses. Available only in North America, the package is currently available for a promotional rate of $29 per month now, but will cost $39 per month regularly.
ICYMI: More Comms, Collaboration News From No Jitter
Catch up on other communications and collaboration news and insight from No Jitter with these recent articles from top thought leaders in the industry:
