Teams as My New Work Hub: An Ex-Slack Devotee's Perspective

I once evangelized Slack to anyone who would listen. It's an amazing tool, and if your business is still communicating internally via email and text messages- quit it!  For years, I was that person—the one who would corner you at industry events to explain why Slack was revolutionary. I'd walk colleagues through the intricacies of channels, threads, and custom emoji reactions. I maintained that Slack wasn't just a messaging platform; it was a cultural phenomenon that fundamentally changed how teams collaborate.

So when I joined Sentry Technology Solutions and discovered Microsoft Teams would be my primary communication tool, I felt a twinge of dread. Would I be transported back to the clunky corporate chat tools of yesteryear? Would Clippy be there to welcome me after 25 years of not seeing him?!? Would I lose the fluid, intuitive experience I'd grown accustomed to?

Six months later, my perspective has completely changed. While Teams isn't perfect (no platform is), its role as the central hub of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem creates workflow possibilities that standalone messaging apps simply can't match.

The Core Messaging Experience: Teams vs. Slack

Let's address the elephant in the room first. If we're comparing just the core messaging functionality, Slack still wins on user interface polish and certain nuanced features:

• Slack's thread management is more intuitive
• Its emoji reactions are more expressive and customizable (which is super fun)
• Channel organization feels cleaner, simpler and more flexible
• The mobile experience is more refined

But these advantages are narrowing with each Teams update. The fundamental messaging experience—direct messages, group chats, channels, threads, file sharing, and search—is now largely comparable between both platforms.

Where Teams begins to pull ahead is everything beyond basic messaging.

Teams as Command Central

Teams honeslty can't really be compared to Slack, they are really in different categories.  What I didn't appreciate before using Teams daily was how it serves as the command center for my entire workday. Rather than constantly switching between applications, I can:

• Join video meetings with a single click
• Access, edit, and collaborate on documents without leaving the interface
• Manage tasks and projects through integrated Planner tabs
• View team calendars and schedule meetings
• Access company resources and information
• Add additional apps inside teams that I access frequently

This integration isn't superficial—it's deeply woven into the experience. When someone shares a Word document in a Teams chat, I don't just see a link or a preview. I can open it right there, collaborate in real-time with my colleagues, and save it automatically to the relevant SharePoint library. The document maintains its connection to the conversation where it was shared, creating a persistent context that's impossible to achieve with separate apps.

It's not just a chat tool, it's your work Command Central.

The App Ecosystem: More Than Messaging

Both Slack and Teams offer app integrations, but there's a fundamental difference in how they're implemented.

In Slack, integrations primarily push notifications into channels or enable slash commands. They feel like add-ons to the core messaging experience.

In Teams, apps can be embedded directly into channels as tabs, creating dedicated spaces for different tools and workflows without leaving the Teams environment. For our marketing team, this means:

• Our content calendar lives as a tab in our Marketing channel
• Our project tracking board is instantly accessible in the same space
• Our file library is organized and accessible within the team context

This tab-based approach reduces the constant context-switching that fragments attention throughout the workday. Instead of juggling multiple browser tabs and applications, my team stays within Teams for the majority of their work.

The Meeting Experience: Beyond Video Calls

Meeting in Teams isn't just about video calling—it's a complete collaboration environment that extends before, during, and after the meeting itself.

Before the meeting, everyone has access to the agenda, relevant documents, and context from previous conversations. During the meeting, we can collaboratively edit documents, take shared notes, and manage the conversation flow.  With integrations like Loop and Whiteboard, the collaboration is incredible, all from the same ecosystem.  No need to exit it.

But where Teams truly shines is what happens after the meeting. The chat, shared files, notes, and recordings remain permanently linked to the meeting in your calendar and in the Teams App, creating a persistent record that anyone can reference later.  In your activity right inside of Teams you can see the transcript and review of the meeting you just had.

And now with Copilot integration, Teams meetings reach a new level of productivity:

• Real-time transcription with speaker identification
• AI-generated meeting summaries and action items
• The ability to ask questions about what was discussed weeks later
• Automatic follow-ups on commitments made during the meeting

The result is that meetings are no longer isolated events that exist only in the moment—they become part of your team's knowledge base and workflow.

The Business Case: Integration vs. Fragmentation

For business leaders weighing technology investments, the Teams vs. Slack discussion isn't merely about feature comparisons. It's about whether to maintain separate tools for communication, document collaboration, video conferencing, and project management, or to consolidate around an integrated platform.

Consider the costs beyond the subscription fees:

• Training and onboarding costs across multiple platforms
• Productivity loss from constant context switching
• Knowledge fragmentation across different tools
• Security and compliance complications with multiple vendors
• IT management overhead for separate systems

A medium-sized business might easily spend $15 per user per month on Slack, plus additional costs for premium video conferencing and project management tools. These same capabilities are all included in most Microsoft 365 business subscriptions—creating a redundant expense that's increasingly difficult to justify.

The Transition Experience: Honest Reflections

Despite my current enthusiasm, I won't pretend the transition from Slack to Teams was entirely smooth. There were learning curves, moments of frustration, and features I missed.  I did miss the simplicity of the work chat with #channels.  And it took me a bit to get Teams chat figured out in a smilar way with groups & teams.

However the biggest adjustment was psychological—learning to think of Teams not as a Slack alternative but as a fundamentally different approach to collaboration. Once I stopped trying to make Teams work like Slack and embraced its role as an integrated hub, my productivity increased dramatically.

For organizations considering a similar transition, setting expectations is crucial. Teams isn't just a messaging tool; it's a collaboration environment that works best when fully integrated with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

Looking Forward: The Evolving Work Hub

Microsoft's vision for Teams continues to evolve. The integration with Copilot has transformed how we access information, automate routine tasks, and capture knowledge across the organization.

The most exciting aspect isn't what Teams does today, but how it's positioning itself as the interface to your entire digital workplace. As artificial intelligence becomes more deeply integrated into our workflows, having a central hub that connects all your business applications and data becomes increasingly valuable.

For business leaders evaluating their technology stack, the question isn't whether Teams has every feature that Slack has. It's whether maintaining separate, disconnected tools still makes sense in an era of integrated digital workplaces.

In my case, as someone who once advocated passionately for Slack, the answer is increasingly clear: The future belongs to integrated ecosystems, not isolated applications—no matter how polished they may be.

Next in this series: "Finding My Way in SharePoint: A Google Drive User's New Reality"—where I'll explore how Microsoft's document management platform compares to Google Drive and why the learning curve is worth the eventual productivity gains.

Jason Lee is the Marketing Director at Sentry Technology Solutions, a trusted guide helping businesses navigate today's complex technological landscape. With over 25 years of experience in marketing and creative direction, Jason brings a unique perspective on technology adoption and digital transformation. Connect with Jason and the Sentry team at sentrytechsolutions.com.