Seminole State College of Florida Chat Applications Case Study Please see attachment . Read the Bloomberg Case on page 548 “Slack Consultants are Bringin

Seminole State College of Florida Chat Applications Case Study Please see attachment .

Read the Bloomberg Case on page 548 “Slack Consultants are Bringing the Chat App. to Corporate America.” Answer questions 1-3. One to two paragraphs per question. Make sure you leverage book content on effective communication as you respond to questions. Take risks, expand your thoughts. Don’t be succinct.

Rubric:

50% – turn in Assignment

25% – Complete, answer all Questions

10% – Use book content/citing to support your answers

15% – Critical thinking – use own experience, own perspective, opinion Bloomberg Case in the News
Slack Consultants Are Bringing the Chat App to Corporate America
For $1,000 a day. David Markovich will teach the old people in your office how use Slack.
Don’t know what Slack is? He can help. The 27 year old runs Chat-Overload, a consulting firm
that helps companies modernize team communications using the popular, two year-old
messaging platform. For less tech-savvy (or millennial-savvy) organizations, Markovich holds
seminars, builds custom Slackbots, and explains how to “have fun” with group chat. So far he
said worked with about half of dozen companies (though he can’t disclose which they are).
Slack Technologies Inc. is one of a handful of group messaging services that if you’re in certain
industry and of a certain age, have seemingly taken over your workplace. Many offices have
moved a chunk of internal communications to Slack and its competitor, HipChat and Campfire
Bassed in San Francisco. Slack first took off with companies that had young teams whose
members spend all day online anyway, and for whom chatting was a natural and intuitive way
to communicate. Chatting is faster easier, and more efficient than e-mail, a much hated part of
office life. It’s also fun. Since its inception, the service has amassed 3 million daily user through
word-of-millennial-mouth.
That growth has come with problems. Over the last six months, dissatisfaction with the service,
aka the Slacklash, has been brewing. Instead of the inbox bloat, user suffer from notification
overload. ( Chat messages can appear, with an audible alert, while you’re doing things.)
Chatting it turns out, is too much fun; it’s hard to get work done when the party is just a tab
away. And if e-mail kept us chained to our digital desks. Slack is even worse. Bosses who
refrained from sending late night e-mail knowing it made employees feel pressured to respond
think a Slack chat is less “threatening” one user wrote over the Cut. Facing these issues, one
office took a break from Slack to see if it was even useful anymore.
Just as current user harp about the downsides of group chat, Slack, currently valued at almost
$4 billion, is looking to grow even more. “Slack is in the middle of a jump from tech startups and
early adopters,” said Alex Godin, 22, who runs the consultancy Slash-Hyphen. The next logical
place to look: big companies with employees over the age of 30-not millennials. Those
companies need help. It’s not only logistically more difficult to implement Slack with big
companies that have hundreds, or thousands, of employees, but it doesn’t happen as
organically as when you’re dealing with a startup. If the kids are already having Slack crises,
how will the adults ever manage on their own?
Though it appreciates the help from consultants, Slack has been making its own moves to court
new customers, including creating compliance exports and offering other business friendly
features with its most expensive “Plus” plan. It’s already made significant inroads at some of
the biggest companies. There’s also promise of an “Enterprise” option that will come out some
time year. We’re thrilled that there are consultants helping teams using Slack”, a spokesperson
said in a statement. “However, we do not have an official program for Slack consultants yet”.
That leave the room for people like Malkovich and Godin. Adopting an entire new way of
communication is especially tough in big corporations. “ it’s a really big transition,” said
Markovich, 27. That’s especially true for Gen X-ers and baby boomers, who force and might
hold on to such communication relics as say, e-mail, telephones, or even talking face to face.
Those demographics might not be as lucrative marketing-wise as 18-34 bracket, but they
deserve consultants, too.
Godin said just getting in the door is a battle when dealing with big companies. “A good chunk
of Slack’s users are tech startups. They don’t buy software the way a big company buys
software,” he said. “ [Big companies] “ aren’t just downloading it from the app store and
hopping that everyone in the company is going to use it one day.”
Once brought on board, the Slack consultants are doing companywide training, making sure it
works across teams, and customizing it with additional services that will help employees get
their specific tasks done. Both Godin and Markovich have built custom bots (programs that
sometimes have cutesy personalities like Clippy ). One of Godin’s bots takes a Slack chat and
turns it into a list in Google Sheets. This is useful for brainstorming, as venture capitalist Fred
Wilson explained in a blog post. Discussion don’t happen in Slack. The bolt will take ideas
generated in chat and send them to a living constantly updating document. Bots can make work
life a little easier in lots of small ways. For sales people, there will be sales bots. For analytics
bots.(Bloomberg Beta, the venture capital arm of Bloomberg LP. Is an investor in Slack.)
What makes someone qualified to be Slack consultant? Being under 30 and very into Slack
helps. Both Godin and Markovich got on the Slack bandwagon early and have since turned into
evangelists. Markovich runs several large Slack groups, Including Vapor Hangout, “a place for
the Vape community to talk about our shared passion.” Godin was so sold on Slack that he
stopped checking e-mail at this old job.
As a consultant he’s worked with about half a dozen companies including the Acumen. Fund a
nonprofit. Like many, the companies he works with are frustrated by e-mail. A non -millennial
manager at the Acumen Fund had heard of Slack and, facing sought out Godin for help. ( Godin
demurred when asked how much he charges.)
A consultant’s main job is to help teams bypass the fun (but ultimately frustrating) Slack
honeymoon period and get straight to the service’s utility. Most offices have to learn the dos
and don’t of Slack, workers can’t help but abuse the novelties: They send GIFs create non-work
related chatrooms, and spend more time goofing, off than working.
Consultants expedite the process: “We explain the things that can do wrong.” Said Godin.
One of those things is chat overload, the key complaint of Slack’s growing contingent of
disgruntled legacy users. “If you join every room in the company, all of a sudden you’re
covered in notifications, a position I’ve been in he said. He suggests that people don’t join every
room and consider how connected they might want to be.
Markovich has a more all-in philosophy. I actually encourage people to be an it as much as
possible, that’s my job said. “They might be messing around, but they’re not in their e-mail
them a picture of a puppy. Everything is work relate. Event if they’re just chatting with a friend,
that’s culture.”
The best way to learn to use Slack is to get extreme Markovich suggests that bosses and
managers avoid e-mail for internal communications for two days. “You don’t have a fork: you
have chopsticks.” He said. “You learn.”
Source Greenfield, Rebecca,” Slack Consultants Are Bringing the Chat App to Corporate America,” Bloomberg . May
31, 2016. Used with permission of Bloomberg Copyright © 2016. All rights reserved.
Questions for Discussion
1. How can managers make written communications via email more efficient and more
productive?
2. What are some of the reasons that email communications seem to be so overwhelming
and time consuming? What can be done to eliminate the “reply all” approach to business
communications?
3. Do you see communication apps like Slack replacing face-to-face meetings employees?
Explain you answer.

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