Now anyone can customize the way work gets done across teams, partners, customers and tools in Slack

The way companies, teams and individuals work has changed more in the past 20 months than at any period in history. No matter what an organization’s return-to-work strategy looks like, from in person to hybrid to fully remote, digital infrastructure is replacing the physical headquarters as the backbone of work.

Here at Slack, in partnership with Salesforce, we’re focused on developing products that help companies build their digital headquarters so they can thrive in this new digital-first era of work. This isn’t about translating our existing work patterns to a virtual space, but fundamentally reshaping how we work.

That’s why today at our annual user conference, Slack Frontiers, we’re announcing that we have completely rebuilt and re-engineered the Slack platform from the ground up to empower everyone at your organization—developers and non-developers alike—to make work simpler, more pleasant and more productive with Slack as your Digital HQ. We’re also sharing updates to Slack Connect that can help you extend the power of the Slack platform to your customers and external partners.

Just like no two businesses run the same, no two digital HQs are alike. Teams need the ability to tailor solutions based on their unique business needs and we’re on a mission to make that happen. In fact, we’ve already seen thousands of organizations like Noom use Workflow Builder to automate routine onboarding tasks and offer essential resources to new hires, saving time while achieving 100% new-hire engagement.

But the best is yet to come. From everyday business users like sales representatives, administrators and marketers to seasoned engineers, everyone can customize their Slack experience and digital HQ to fit how they work, now and in the future.

Customize your digital HQ and effortlessly automate work

First, let’s take a look at everyday users. Every organization has people motivated to solve problems and make work easier, some call them citizen developers, but they don’t always have immediate access to developers or IT support when they need it. Our completely reimagined Workflow Builder, a core element of the new Slack platform, will allow them to automate work for themselves and their teams without writing a line of code. Anyone at an organization can create a workflow in Slack by dragging and dropping pieces of existing apps and then customizing how they work together as they see fit—no training required.

So many people are already finding joy and empowerment in using workflows to automate their work. Since Workflow Builder launched, more than 400,000 users have built workflows. What’s more, 80% of customers building workflows in their digital HQs are non-developers. Whether you’re tackling approvals, resolving priority incidents or approving PTO requests, the new Slack platform gives anyone the power to automate everyday tasks in more flexible ways than ever before, freeing up your time to focus on what really matters like more strategic, creative and fulfilling projects.

Connect your everyday tools with Slack in seconds

Millions of links are shared in Slack each day, as users jump between tools to get work done. Now with just one click, you’ll be able to use your Slack account to quickly sign in to your work apps, skipping painful, time-consuming logins.

You’ll even be able to subscribe yourself or your channel to custom notifications without installing an external app—making it faster and easier to integrate third-party tools while maintaining security and control. From upcoming project deadlines on Smartsheet, to reviewing new ideas on your MURAL whiteboard, the whole team can stay up to date on key updates.

Ship higher quality apps and workflows in minutes

*What’s new: Slack-first app deployment. Developers can host and store the data that powers their apps in Slack.

Here at Slack, we recognize that building, coding and shipping apps can take developers weeks, sometimes months. Currently in private developer beta, our community of more than 1 million Slack developers—who have built more than 935,000 custom apps and integrations—will soon have access to a set of tools, hosting support and data storage that make it easier to swiftly build, deploy and host apps in Slack.

Developers will be able to create and ship powerful apps and automations in minutes in an environment that’s secure and compliant by design. This is powered by our completely new way of developing workflows for Slack. Now developers will be able to create reusable workflow “building blocks” that can be shared with other developers and non-technical users to deploy and remix for their custom use cases.

Developers will be able to attach invisible metadata to their messages that other apps can use to communicate across silos. This means different software tools and apps can now communicate with each other via Slack, just like humans. Just take a moment to let that sink in.

Imagine the calendar apps of two people at two different companies talking to each other and scheduling a meeting through Slack when they’re linked through Slack Connect. Customers, partners and now software can communicate in Slack, taking automation of work to the next level.

*Join our private beta for developers to pilot these tools.

Collaborating with customers, partners and vendors just got easier with Slack Connect

When building your digital HQ, quick and effective collaboration is important with internal and external partners, from clients to vendors to customers. That’s why we created Slack Connect, to take siloed communication out of emails and into channels. Teams can securely collaborate with everyone both inside and outside their organization—no flights required. The best part? Slack Connect extends the power of your workflows and app integrations to your entire network, making work more simple, pleasant and productive for everyone.

Slack Connect has experienced explosive growth with more than 200% endpoint growth year-over-year. Each unique organization in a connected Slack Connect channel represents one endpoint.

More than 100,000 organizations from Zendesk to Procore now work with customers and external partners every day in Slack. One example of an organization realizing huge value with Slack Connect is Stripe. More than 300 members of Stripe’s sales team use Slack Connect every day to create and maintain strong connections with prospects, leading to trusted relationships that ultimately close deals faster.

Today we’re helping customers further build out and customize their digital HQ with the introduction of powerful new functionality in Slack Connect. Coming early next year, you’ll be able to collaborate with up to 250 organizations in one channel. Later in the year, customers will have the ability to set up secure work environments for large, complex projects with thousands of partners right in Slack.

Whether you’re planning a large-scale event like Dreamforce with hundreds of vendors or managing a multi-year construction project spanning thousands of vendors, everyone has access to the channels, apps and people needed to get their jobs done. This gives teams a monumental leap forward in collaboration, flexibility and control.

Transform your digital HQ with Slack and Salesforce

By incorporating new Slack capabilities with Salesforce, teams can collaborate faster in Slack channels and streamline workflows built around CRM data. All these innovations unlock the power of your Digital HQ for Sales to close deals faster, Digital HQ for Service to provide top-notch customer experiences, and more by enabling faster, more flexible collaboration between departments, customers and partners.

We’re living through a massive shift in the way we work, and we have a unique opportunity to shape what that looks like alongside our teams, customers and partners. Slack and Salesforce aim to offer the tools you need to thrive in today’s digital-first world while adapting to meet any new changes that come your way. Tune in to Frontiers to learn more about how you can power up your team and build your digital HQ.