A new report shows that IBM prefers Slack for internal communication. According to the report, IBM preferred Slack for 350,000 company employees after their trials. In terms of Slack, this is a big win. Slack’s trial at IBM took several years. The trials that started in 2014 ended when the whole company started using Slack. Commenting on Slack being responsible for IBM’s internal communication, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield said that Slack will work for large companies from now on. IBM’s choice of Slack after the trials makes IBM the biggest customer of Slack. However, in a report released by the Slack administration, it has already been stated that IBM has been the biggest customer for several years. In fact, it is reported in the report that Slack also improved during the trials conducted at IBM. Speaking about his agreements with IBM, Slack spokesperson explained that IBM has more than 300,000 users and Slack scales itself to reach every employee. Slack announced in 2019 that it served 165,000 IBM employees. It is an important development that this number has doubled. IBM’s Slack decision came right after Microsoft aired a television commercial for Teams. Microsoft was able to beat Slack last year with Teams. While Teams was used by 20 million people, Slack was used by 12 million people. It is now an important development by Slack to include IBM in the customer list with such a large number. It is not clear whether IBM will use Slack for a fee or free. Whatever the outcome, it is certain that IBM’s decision gave Slack great power in the Slack-Microsoft struggle. IBM’s decision also helped Slack’s shares gain 15 percent.
