Team Collaboration Tools Deemed Essential for the Modern Workplace
Info-Tech Research Group Inc., a world-class research and advisory firm, released its influential review of the Team Collaboration marketplace yesterday. I am proud to share the fact that Webex Teams has been recognized as a significant and highly popular player in this quickly accelerating business.
“Team collaboration software is an integral part of business process and efficiency,” Info-Tech stated in the press release. They continued, “Exemplary scoring across the board positioned Slack, Asana, and Cisco Webex Teams as the defined leaders in the category.” Webex Teams placed highly in every category, and the report shows that the model that Cisco has embraced stands poised to overtake both the “first-out-of-the-gate” startups like Slack, as well as the long-in-the-tooth stalwart brands like Microsoft.
This is an exciting time to be a busy professional. Mobile technologies have made it much easier for people to work and collaborate from wherever they happen to be. They’re discovering they can cast aside the older approaches to teamwork and collaboration, such as email, meeting rooms, and printed documents, and replace them with a dynamic, mobile, and seamless solution that is available from anywhere.
Naturally, as with any business technology revolution, many companies have entered the race, seeking to strike that perfect balance of functionality and reliability. Hence, it is important that respected and neutral industry leaders present unbiased, clear reviews for the benefit of companies and teams who are still wrestling with the numerous choices available to them.
So, How Did We Rate in Team Collaboration?
I think we did quite well. Cisco was named a “Leader” in team collaboration and received a Gold Medal award in the category. As you will see in the report, we placed third overall. First place went to Slack, with an 8.8/10 composite score, followed by Asana, who scored 8.6. Our Cisco Webex Teams solution came in third with a composite score of 8.3.
We were quite delighted, however, to notice that our relatively recent presence in this market has already sped past Microsoft, whose own Teams product came in sixth, with a composite score of 7.5.
When comparing ourselves to the first and second place companies, Slack and Asana, it is significant to note a disparity in the number of reviews cast. Slack’s ratings (8.8 composite, +88 emotional footprint, and 92% likeliness to recommend) were based on 32 reviews. Asana’s numbers (8.6 composite, +84 emotional footprint, and 87% likeliness to recommend) were based on 28 reviews. Similar numbers were recorded for the fourth and fifth-place companies, Basecamp3 (31 reviews) and Igloo (32 reviews).
Webex Teams, by contrast, was based on double this average: 64 reviews. Microsoft Teams had 85 reviews. The larger the sample size, the more accurate the data. So, it is significant to note the Webex Teams achievement is based on a larger user base, and so, too, is Microsoft’s middling position. Ultimately, higher reviewer numbers carry considerable weight as indicators of the relative strengths of the two products.
What’s So Special about Info-Tech’s Report?
The report looks at several brands currently working to build a more dynamic and practical solution for the team collaboration space. What makes the Info-Tech report useful, as compared, let’s say, to those by Gartner or Forrester, is that rather than stemming from peer reviews, the data comes from 427 user reviews provided by ten different vendors. The rankings are based upon vendor capabilities, product features, likeliness to recommend, and the number of reviews. There’s no analyst input. It’s all based on who is in which category and the number of customers who reviewed the product.
We feel this allows the analysis and comparisons to be more granular and more directly relevant to the needs of the consumer base.
It is also very gratifying to be able to take a step back and see our product as others see it, especially when the responses are so positive.
How Does Webex Teams Compare to Slack?
It is not a surprise to see Slack continue to dominate the team collaboration sphere at this point in time. Slack has been around for six years and has developed a strong following through its easy-to-use chat window interface.
But as customers become comfortable with the opportunities available through enhanced team collaboration techniques, we feel they will start looking for more than what Slack has to offer. Cisco is a market leader in business technology, and in developing the Webex Teams solution, we listened closely to what people were asking for in areas of team collaboration and productivity. We took our experience and strength and created a next-generation team collaboration product that people obviously love.
In addition to the already impressive suite of tools for collaborating and communicating through video, online, and mobile, we are adding some innovations that use AI and ML to further enhance the team collaboration experience.
Webex Teams Outranks Microsoft
One of the most significant observations to draw from the report is our success compared to Microsoft’s own Teams product. Microsoft is a fixture of business and office life in companies large and small, all over the globe. Its market dominance often gives it home field advantage in the deployment of any new solution, simply by being there first.
Our significantly higher ranking in the Info-Tech report helps us feel we have developed a product that has demonstrably greater value and appeal than the one that would be most easily in reach to any Microsoft supported business.
It Took a Lot of Thought to Prepare this Team Collaboration Report, which is Fitting
It took a lot of thought and effort for Info-Tech to prepare this report, which is fitting because our customers also recognize that choosing to work with a provider of team collaboration technologies requires careful consideration and research. The solution not only has to work as promised, but it must also appeal to the individual user, with a straightforward, one button activation, and a seamless, invisible functionality. This is what helps people get on with their projects and their progress, and I feel that’s what we have succeeded in creating.
The Info-Tech Report serves to bolster this confidence. I hope you will take the time to download it and decide for yourself. Then visit our website to learn more about Team Collaboration and Cisco Webex Teams – and try Teams free!
Thank you for this info and analysis, Aruna!