“It put companies like Zoom, Slack, DocuSign, among others, on the map. The hall of fame winners during this dark period of time, from a stock perspective, have really been those three. Slack, as an independent application, might work better for smaller teams, and Zoom is more suitable for those who often work with external collaborators that want simple-to-use meeting options. On the other hand, Microsoft Teams has an advantage as a tool suitable for more complex organizations. Visit the Zoom app page in the Slack App Directory. Click Add to Slack. From the Zoom website, click Add to Slack. Click Allow to grant Zoom access to Slack. Over the past five years, organizations adopted Slack, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams in droves. Think of COVID-19 as pouring gasoline on the fire. The pandemic didn't start a trend as much as it accelerated an existing one. Unfortunately, far too many of us mistakenly view these applications as Email 2.0. Slack is a new way to communicate with your team. It’s faster, better organized, and more secure than email.
Overview
Zoom’s Slack App lets you start an instant meeting or join a scheduled meeting by using the /zoom command directly in a Slack channel, private group, or direct message. Additionally, Zoom Phone calls are supported through slash commands. When the meeting or call ends, you will receive a notification that includes the meeting summary and, if applicable, a link to the meeting recording.
Note: If you have already installed the Slack app and would like to switch from a User managed install to an Account level installation, please see the section below.
Note: Slack has recently updated permissions for integrations. If your orgazation already has installed the Slack-Zoom integration and would like to use the new granular permissions, please follow the steps below:
1. The Slack Workspace administrator needs to remove the Zoom App from all Slack workspaces.
2. The Slack Workspace administrator then needs to re-install Zoom App into workspaces.
3. Enter ‘/zoom’ in the chat to go to authorization page and follow the instructions there.Please note, only admin need to do the aforementioned steps. Any new installs of the Zoom app will automatically use the new granular permissions.
1. The Slack Workspace administrator needs to remove the Zoom App from all Slack workspaces.
2. The Slack Workspace administrator then needs to re-install Zoom App into workspaces.
3. Enter ‘/zoom’ in the chat to go to authorization page and follow the instructions there.Please note, only admin need to do the aforementioned steps. Any new installs of the Zoom app will automatically use the new granular permissions.
This guide covers:
Prerequisite
- Free or Paid Zoom Account
- A Slack Account
- Pre-approval of the Slack app in the Zoom MarketplaceNote: If the app is not pre-approved, please contact your Zoom admin.
Installation and Configuration
Installing and configuring from the Zoom Marketplace
Note: If you are currently using the Zoom Slack integration previously configured for your account, pre-approving the Slack App from the Marketplace will require all users on the account to individually re-authorize their Slack account with Zoom. For more information please see the Transitioning from Previously Enabled Slack Integration section below.
- Login to your Zoom account and navigate to the Zoom Marketplace.
- Search for Slack and click the app.
- If the app is not pre-approved, please contact your Zoom admin to approve this app for your account.
- Click Visit Site to Install, confirm the permissions the app requires and choose Allow.
- You will be redirected to a page letting you choose how you would like to install the app:
Note: If you have already installed the Slack app and would like to switch from a personal install to an account wide installation, please see the section below.- To install for your entire organization (admin privilege required):
- Click Install Zoom for Slack company wide.
- Verify the permissions the app requires and click Authorize.
Note: If you do not have admin privileges on Zoom, you will need to contact your Zoom admin to install the app for your account. - You will now select the Slack Workspace in which you would like to install. Click Connect to Slack workspace.
- Verify the permissions, and click Allow.
- The app is now ready to use.
- To install for ONLY yourself:
- Click Add Zoom to ONLY my Slack account
- Verify the permissions the app requires and click Allow.
- The Slack app is now installed. To finish the configuration, navigate to a Slack channel and enter “/zoom”.
- Click the link in the reply.
- Verify the permissions and click Authorize.
- To install for your entire organization (admin privilege required):
Changing from User Install to Account Level Install
If you have already installed the Slack app and would like to switch from a personal install to an account wide installation, follow the steps below:
- Login to your Zoom account and navigate to the Zoom Marketplace.
- Click Manage
- Find Slack and click Uninstall
- Confirm the dialogue and continue.
- Search for Slack in the Zoom Marketplace and click the app.
- Click Visit Site to Install, confirm the permissions the app requires and choose Allow.
- Click Install Zoom for Slack company wide.
- Verify the permissions the app requires and click Authorize.
Note: If you do not have admin privileges on Zoom, you will need to contact your Zoom admin to install the app for your account. - You will now select the Slack Workspace in which you would like to install. Click Connect to Slack workspace.
- Verify the permissions, and click Allow.
- The app is now ready to use.
Using the Zoom App on Slack
Zoom Slack App Features
- Zoom Command Help: Type /zoom help to list the Zoom commands available.
- Start a Zoom Meeting: Type /zoom to start a meeting.
Note: This will use your default settings from your meeting settings and create a meeting in your Zoom Meeting list. If you have turned on the setting: “Use Personal Meeting ID (PMI) when scheduling a meeting”, Slack will start your meeting using your PMI. Additionally, if your meeting settings require a password, the password will be displayed in the Slack channel for all members.
When the meeting ends, the channel will receive the following notification on the meeting details:
Note: Meeting Summary and Recording are not supported for Basic/Free users.
If a cloud recording is generated, the channel will receive the following notification to view the recording: - Start a Zoom Meeting with a Topic: Type /zoom meeting [Meeting Topic]
- Join a Zoom Meeting: Type /zoom join <Meeting ID> or /zoom join <personal link name>
- Start your personal meeting room: Type /zoom join me
- Initiate a Zoom Phone Call: Type /zoom call [@contact or phone number] to call another Slack user or any phone number.
Note: To use the /zoom call command, your account must have an active Zoom Phone subscription.
Once the slash command is entered, the Zoom app will provide a Call button to place the call.
Note: Clicking the call button will launch the Zoom desktop client and start your Zoom Phone call. You may need to sign into Zoom if you are not signed in.
Once the phone call is complete, you will see a summary of your call in the Zoom app on Slack. - Using the Slack Call Button to Start a Zoom Meeting or a Zoom Phone Call:
- In a Channel:
Note: Only Zoom Meetings using the Slack Call button are supported in channels.
Selecting the Call button with the hint “Start a call with Zoom” will start an instant Zoom meeting. A channel will receive the following notification: - In a Direct Message:
Note: Direct messages support calling with Zoom Audio & Video or Zoom Phone Calling
Click the Call icon next to the search bar at the top of the page. You can choose between Audio & Video: Zoom (for a Zoom Meeting) or a Phone: Zoom (if your account has a Zoom Phone plan).
Selecting an option will start a Zoom Meeting or Zoom Phone Call. If you choose a Audio & Video: Zoom for a Zoom Meeting, the contact(s) will receive a notification to join from the channel. :
If a Zoom Phone Call is selected, your contact will be called directly with Zoom Phone.
- In a Channel:
- Direct Zoom Meeting or Zoom Phone call with Workspace Contact: To directly call or start a meeting with someone in your workspace contacts, navigate to People and find the person you would like to call. Click their name and find the Profile Card on the right. Click Call, and then choose between Audio & Video: Zoom (for a Zoom Meeting) or a Phone: Zoom (if your account has a Zoom Phone plan).
Selecting an option will start a Zoom Meeting or Zoom Phone Call. If you choose a Audio & Vide: Zoom for a Zoom Meeting, the contact will receive an option to join in the channel.
If a Zoom Phone Call is selected, your contact will be called directly with Zoom Phone. - Logout from Zoom: Type /zoom logout to log out of Zoom from all your Slack channels
Additional Configurations
Enable calling in Slack through Zoom Meetings
- The Slack team owner will need to go to Administration > Workspace Settings
In the Settings tab, expand on Calls and choose your desired options. You can choose Zoom for both video calls and direct phone number calls. Below you can see what it would look like to set slack up to use Zoom for both video and direct phone number calls.
Selecting the Call button with the hint “Start a call with Zoom” will start an instant Zoom meeting. A channel will receive the following notification:
Uninstalling the Zoom App
- Login to your Zoom account and navigate to the Zoom Marketplace.
- Search for Slack and click the app or navigate to your authorized apps via Manage Apps and choose Slack.
- Choose the Manage tab and click Uninstall.
- Confirm the dialogue and click OK.
Meeting Summary and Recording Link
Slack Zoom Status
Receiving Meeting Summary and Recording link in a public channel
- If you start a meeting for a public channel, when the meeting ends the Zoom app will post the meeting summary and recording link when available to the channel.
Receiving Meeting Summary and Recording link in a private channel or group DM
- You can receive the meeting summary and recording link in a private channel or group DM only if the Zoom app is a member of the channel. To add the app:
- Invite the Zoom app by typing: /invite @Zoom
- The Zoom app will be added and meetings started from the channel will post the meeting summary and recording link when available.
Note: Adding the Zoom app to a group DM or a 1:1 DM will create a new chat.
Please Note:
- Meeting summary and recording link is not provided in 1:1 DMs. See Known Limitations
- Zoom app is not available for “older” integrations. Do not attempt to upgrade the integration unless you want to change the integration behavior as described in Transitioning from Previously Enabled Slack Integration. You can tell if you are using the “older” integration if your Zoom app help screen looks like this:
You are using the “newer” integration if your help screen looks like this: - Zoom app is only available for integrations installed after 4/7/2019. If you installed prior to this date, please update your integration using the following steps:
- Go to the Slack App Directory and find the Zoom app
- Click the “App Homepage” button on the left column
- Click the “Add to Slack” button and authorize
Transitioning from Previously Enabled Slack Integration
If you wish to install the Marketplace Slack integration and have already configured the Slack integration with Zoom prior to the Zoom Marketplace, you will need to be aware of all users on the account being required to login/authenticate the integration between Slack and Zoom. This is required due to an increased security measure for this integration. The Zoom Marketplace now uses OAuth 2.0 for all integrations to ensure your data is kept more secure. The user flow once the Slack integration from the Marketplace is enabled is as follows:
- Upon admin Pre-approval in the Zoom Marketplace, when users on Slack attempt to use the /zoom slash command, they will receive this message:
- The user will need to click Authorize Zoom.
- The user will be redirected to Zoom and required to sign in, if not already. Once signed in, the user will be required to Allow permissions for the integration. They will need to click Allow to continue.
- The user will then see an Authorization page for Slack, they will need to confirm the permissions and click Authorize.
- After these steps are completed, the user will be able to use the Slack integration. This is a one time Authorization.
Known Limitations
- Meetings started from Slack 1:1 DMs do not support receiving meeting summary and recording links. This feature is only supported in meetings started from Slack channels or group DMs.
How Your Data is Used
This app accesses and uses the following information from your Zoom account:
- User ID - used to associate your Slack and Zoom accounts
- Account ID - used to associate your Slack workspaces with your Zoom account
- Meeting settings - used when creating a meeting from the integration. The created meeting will follow these settings.
- Meeting info (meeting ID, topic, start time, meeting password, join link, attendee names) - displayed in the Slack channel after a meeting created to let the channel members know about the meeting and to join it. Attendee names are dynamically updated as attendees join and leave the meeting.
- Meeting summary (meeting ID, start time, duration, attendees) - used for displaying a summary of a meeting after it is completed.
- Recording info (meeting ID, playback link, password) - used for displaying recording details after the meeting is completed.
- Phone call info (phone number, caller, callee) - used to display the call info after a call is created and to let you intiate the call.
- Phone call summary (phone number, caller, callee, duration, start time) - used for displaying a summary of a call after it is completed.
This app uses the following information from your Slack account:
- Slack user ID - used to associate your Slack account to your Zoom account.
- Team ID - used to verify the current workspace has the app installed.
- Channel ID - used to identify the channel where meeting participant, recording, and summary info will be displayed on.
For additional help or technical support, please submit a ticket.
It is difficult to discuss enterprise software without at least mentioning Microsoft, and there is no better time than now: last week the company (briefly) became the third U.S. company, after Apple and Amazon, to achieve a market capitalization of over $1 trillion, and is currently the most valuable publicly-listed company in the world.
It is a remarkable turnaround, and, thanks to the fact that I started Stratechery just months before the exit of former CEO Steve Ballmer, it is one that I have been able to document stage-by-stage. The critical breakthrough was three-fold, and, as is so often the case, the three breakthroughs were really about the same existential question — whither Windows:
- First, Microsoft’s leadership accepted that its nature was that of a horizontal company, not a highly differentiated vertical one built around Windows.
- Second, Microsoft embraced a world where Windows was one client amongst many, and targeted its services to iPhone, Android, Linux, and Mac.
- Third, and most importantly, Satya Nadella brilliantly navigated The End of Windows internally, freeing Microsoft employees to build products that customers actually wanted, not that Microsoft needed.
The most important factor that made all of this possible, though, is that for all of the disruption that the enterprise market has faced thanks to the rise of Software-as-a-Service (Saas), Microsoft was remarkably well-placed to take advantage of this new paradigm, if only they could get out of their own way.
At least in part. Mac os x 10.6 snow leopard download free.
The SaaS Business Model
There are three parts of any new paradigm in technology: doing current use cases better, coming up with a new business model, and creating entirely new use cases. Microsoft, to Ballmer’s credit, was actually very early to the new business model aspect of SaaS.
Previously, enterprise software was sold on a license basis: companies bought software on a per-seat basis (or per-server or per-core basis in the case of back-end software), and when new versions of the software came out, they would potentially update — or not. Or not wasn’t great for anyone: companies would be running on out-of-date software, and vendors would not make new revenue.
What Microsoft figured out is that it made far more sense for both Microsoft and their customers to pay on a subscription basis: companies would pay a set price on a monthly or annual basis, and receive access to the latest-and-greatest software. This wasn’t a complete panacea — updating software was still a significant undertaking — but at least the incentive to avoid upgrades was removed.
There were also subtle advantages from a balance sheet perspective: now companies were paying for software in a rough approximation to their usage over time — an operational expense — as opposed to a fixed-cost basis. This improved their return-on-invested-capital (ROIC) measurements, if nothing else. And, for Microsoft, revenue became much more predictable.
SaaS and Current Use Cases
A more profound implication of SaaS, though — and to be clear, I mean software accessed over the Internet, not datacenter software paid for on a subscription basis — is how it makes current use cases more efficient for existing enterprise customers on one hand, and accessible for completely new customers on the other.
Start with enterprise customers: the reality for many industries is that their needs are variable. Sometimes they need more seats for a particular piece of software, and sometimes they need less; this is particularly pronounced in the case of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), where computing needs may change seasonally. The brilliance of paying on a subscription basis is that a company can buy exactly what it needs, when it needs it, and no more. Microsoft, again in credit to Ballmer, was moving this way with Office 365: seats could be provisioned on a monthly basis, with no major upfront expenditure required.
That lack of upfront expenditure, though, also expanded the market: buying an
Exchange seat on Office 365 means hiring Microsoft to run your email server, something that previously needed to be done internally. Now all kinds of small-and-medium sized companies could use enterprise level software without needing their own IT departments.
Exchange seat on Office 365 means hiring Microsoft to run your email server, something that previously needed to be done internally. Now all kinds of small-and-medium sized companies could use enterprise level software without needing their own IT departments.
Microsoft’s SaaS Challenge
This was also a challenge for Microsoft, to be sure: “hiring” SaaS providers meant it was easier to find providers that actually cared about modern use cases, particularly mobile. I wrote about this in 2015 in Redmond and Reality, in the context of cloud storage:
Once you remove the burden of support and maintenance — that’s handled by the service provider — it suddenly doesn’t necessarily make sense to buy from only one vendor simply because they are integrated. There is more freedom to evaluate a particular product on different characteristics, like, say, how easy it is to use, or how well it supports mobile. And it’s here that Microsoft products, particularly the hated SharePoint, were found to be lacking.
Zoom Slack Teams
This is where Nadella made the biggest difference. It was notable, from a symbolic perspective, if nothing else, that his first public event was unveiling Office for iPad:
This is the power CEOs have. They cannot do all the work, and they cannot impact industry trends beyond their control. But they can choose whether or not to accept reality, and in so doing, impact the worldview of all those they lead. This is why it matters that the first public event Satya Nadella appeared at was Office for iPad. This is why it matters that Microsoft released it even though the Windows Touch version wasn’t finished. This is why it matters that Microsoft gave up the pretense of Windows Phone license payments that were already effectively zero and simply made it free.
Predator hunting grounds steam. This is the only possible route for a SaaS provider: the entire point is to host all of the infrastructure in one place, which means the greatest possible gains come from increasing the addressable market, which further means serving all devices, not simply the ones owned by one’s company. That, though, is the burden of incumbency: what is obviously right from the outside is often counter to what is obviously right when it comes to company cash flows and especially company culture.
Zoom and Being Better
Redmond and Reality was about file-sharing software, but the broader idea — that SaaS changes the plane of competition from ease-of-integration to ease-of-use — is perhaps best exemplified by the rise of Zoom. It turns out that video-conferencing software is an exceptionally difficult technical problem, and Zoom has done a better job than anyone in solving those technical challenges. It is simply better than the alternatives.
Even so, if said video-conferencing software had to be delivered via an on-premises software installation, it is doubtful that Zoom would be as successful as it has been: just as important is that signing up for Zoom requires nothing more than an email address; a paid plan takes only a credit card. This reduction in friction means that quality matters more than it ever did previously, which is why Zoom is such a success.
The challenge for incumbents, including Microsoft and also other competitors like Citrix, Cisco, etc., is that years of building their business on leveraging their existing relationships with enterprises left them vulnerable to a company like Zoom singularly focused on delivering a superior product, at least once a SaaS architecture made distribution so much easier. Make no mistake, enterprise software still requires a sales force, but it is far easier to start with customers that have already discovered and tried the product on their own than it is to sell something without any sort of pre-existing relationship.
Slack and New Use Cases
There remains, though, one final implication of a new paradigm, and this one is the most profound: completely new use cases. This was something Slack sought to highlight in their S-1, which was made public last week.
First, the company argued that Slack transforms internal communications:
The most helpful explanation of Slack is often that it replaces the use of email inside the organization. Like email (or the Internet or electricity), Slack has very general and broad applicability. It is not aimed at any one specific purpose, but nearly anything that people do together at work.
Unlike email, however, most of this activity happens in team-based channels, rather than in individual inboxes. Channels offer a persistent record of the conversations, data, documents, and application workflows relevant to a project or a topic. Membership of a channel can change over time as people join or leave a project or organization, and users benefit from the accumulated historical information in a way an employee never could when starting with an empty email inbox. Depending on the size of the organization, this might provide tens, hundreds or even thousands of times more access to information than is available to individuals working in environments where email is the primary means of communication.
Secondly, Slack argues that it changes what it means to integrate software:
Also unlike email, Slack was designed from the ground up to integrate with external software systems. Slack provides an easy way for users to share and aggregate information from other software, take action on notifications, and advance workflows in a multitude of third-party applications, over 1,500 of which are listed in the Slack App Directory. Further, Slack’s platform capabilities extend beyond integrations with third-party applications and allow for easy integrations with an organization’s internally-developed software. During the three months ended January 31, 2019, our more than 10 million daily active users included more than 500,000 registered developers. Developers have collectively created more than 450,000 third-party applications or custom integrations that were used in a typical week during the three months ended January 31, 2019. Additionally, we are currently developing low-code solutions to create integrations and workflows entirely in Slack, suitable for all users and based on a simple, non-technical user interface.
There is a two-part challenge when it comes to introducing a completely new way to work: first, you have to convince companies that the new way to work is better, and second, you have to actually help them implement it. It is here that the Internet’s impact on enterprise software is the most profound:
- First, the Internet is inherently viral, thanks to the fact that information can be transmitted with zero marginal cost. In the case of Slack, telling others about its benefits required little more than a post on social media, and over time, an invitation to a Slack team.
- Second, and related to the prior point, it is actually cost-effective for Slack to provide a free product: there is no need for a customer installation, simply a few entries in a database.
- Third, implementation is a matter of paying — and that’s it. There are no qualms about using scarce IT resources, simply a question about costs, and this decision is usually based on an originally-free implementation.
Slack Zoom Command
This gets at why I believe Slack is the poster child for the impact of the Internet on the enterprise software market: Zoom is in some respects a more impressive business, but its use-case was a pre-existing one. Slack, on the other hand, introduced an entirely new way to work, and based on its S-1, did so in a way that will produce a very profitable company over time (Slack is losing money, but at a far lower rate than it is growing revenue; this is a company that has leverage on its costs and will be very profitable in the future).
What Microsoft is Missing
Make no mistake: the Microsoft optimism that is driving a (near) trillion dollar valuation is justified. Azure is the biggest reason, of course, but Office 365 benefits from all of the dynamics I described above: as I noted last week, its market is increasing both in terms of current customers, new users at companies it already serves, and upselling all of those users to new functionality.
At the same time, the reason to use Microsoft is very much grounded in the past: Office documents are familiar, and Exchange remains the standard for enterprise email. The advantage of going with Microsoft is that everything works mostly as it has previously. That, though, raises an existential question that Nadella’s Microsoft has yet to answer: why would a new company, without any attachment to Microsoft-based workflows, choose Office 365?
Note that this is a separate question as to whether Teams, Office 365’s answers to Slack, is viable: distribution still matters in enterprise software, and Teams has valuable strengths that derive from its integration with Microsoft’s other products.
![Slack Zoom Slack Zoom](/uploads/1/1/9/7/119777267/309619672.jpg)
Using Zoom In Slack
At the same time, even the bullish case for Teams is that it captures a segment of Microsoft’s existing userbase:
This is precisely what you would expect from a product leveraging an existing use case and an existing customer relationship. Contrast this first to Zoom, which addresses an existing use case with the need to acquire new customer relationships: Zoom had a challenge building their initial customer base, but from that base they have growth opportunities both in terms of new use cases and also deepening their engagement with their customers.
Slack Zoom App
Slack’s opportunity is even more striking: by virtue of starting with both new customers and a new use case, the opportunity to absorb both existing use cases (always easier than creating new ones) and also deepening utility with existing customers is significant. That is how you get IPO graphs that look like this:
Slack Zoom
Slack is not only growing users, it is also growing its monetization of those users over time, and it is fair to expect both to continue. This is exactly what Microsoft is lacking: at best the company is transitioning existing Microsoft users to a SaaS model, and keeping them away from companies like Zoom or Slack. That, though, is not a recipe for growth in the very long run.
Slack Zoom
The Enterprise Growth Framework
You can chart these three products on those two vectors — the pre-existence of a customer relationship, and the pre-existence of a customer use case:
This is where Nadella’s Microsoft has fallen short. The company has done well to leverage its pre-existing strengths into more valuable relationships with its existing customers and a viable option for new ones, and, as I noted above, has indeed moved into new use cases; Teams clearly goes in the lower-right part of the above graph:
The problem is that to the extent Teams is successful it is because it is exploiting Microsoft’s existing customer base, not necessarily winning customers who would have never considered Microsoft in the first place. There is not nearly enough industry-leading technology (as is the case with Zoom) or innovation in new use cases (as was the case with Slack) to engender confidence that the company can grow beyond its existing customer relationships in the very long run. This is why companies like Zoom and especially Slack are so valuable: they create new customers who are primed for growth; Microsoft, meanwhile, is mostly keeping its existing customers in-house.
This, then, is Nadella’s new challenge: the company could have acquired Slack early in Nadella’s tenure, and considered Zoom, but waited too long on both. Microsoft has figured out how to leverage its existing userbase: how to increase it remains an open question.