Microsoft Teams has always been known as a strong competitor of Slack, the popular and successful collaboration software. Recently, Microsoft has upped its game by giving Microsoft Teams a boost.
The company is bringing in some of the best features developed by its new collaboration partner - the technology expert Chalkup.
As part of the collaboration deal, Justin Chando, CEO and founder of Chalkup, will join Microsoft. Ex CTO of Chalkup, Tim Costa, will also be joining the technology giant. According to Microsoft, the deal with Chalkup should not be considered an acquisition, but more of a hiring process instead.
Although Chalkup is not a big company, it has achieved considerable success with its classroom collaboration platform startup, which simplifies discussions of course material among teachers and students. Teachers are also able to share homework and resources with students, making the Chalkup software well received among educational institutions in the US.
When Microsoft rolled out its Microsoft Teams for Education in early 2017, Chalkup found its position in the market threatened by this new competitor. Furthermore, Microsoft started offering Microsoft Teams free of charge for users who subscribed to the Microsoft Office 365 for Education bundle. Since both Microsoft Teams and Chalkup offer similar services and share the same commitment to providing efficient and comprehensive teaching and learning tools for the classroom, the two competitors soon learned that it would be a win-win situation for both sides to join forces.
According to Justin Chando, some of the most popular Chalkup features will soon be made available in Microsoft Teams, such as the much-loved grading rubrics, which allow educators to provide feedback on their students’ assignments. For the convenience of Chalkup users, the software will remain available until around June 2018, in order to avoid causing disruptions to those who are in the middle of a school term. Users will later go through a transition phase, during which they will be asked to carry out the exporting of course information from Chalkup over to Microsoft Teams.
Earlier in January 2018, Microsoft introduced a series of new features to Microsoft Teams, such as an app store, new app integrations, better search features, and additional user commands. This marked the biggest product update in the history of Teams. By rolling out these updates, the technology giant further stabilised the position of Teams as a strong competitor for Slack.
Although Slack is currently leading the market, Microsoft is making smart moves that may see it catch up. The company’s efforts thus far have resulted in Microsoft Teams being adopted by an increasing user base – in September 2017, Microsoft announced that more than 100,000 organisations were using Microsoft Teams services.
Following a strategic collaborative deal with Chalkup, Microsoft has proven its commitment towards adopting an open-minded approach to business growth and product development.
Why not contact WM Reply today for some friendly and useful tips on how Microsoft’s ever-improving products and tools could help the development of your organisation?