Workplace by Facebook adds bevy of features, passes 3 million paid users, eyes frontline workers
Summary
I have to admit that Ive been skeptical about Workplace by Facebook largely because of the corporate parents numerous public relations, data, and regulatory challenges. Karandeep Anand, vice president and head of Workplace, is a Microsoft alum and acknowledges that software as a service and enterprise sales are new to Facebook, but the company sees the opportunity and now is "starting to sell more aggressively. " When you consider that you have four video conferencing tools, multiple chats, too many Slack channels, and email is just as unwieldy as ever, its hard to believe Workplace has been able to find a solid subscriber base. " As video conferencing and presence become lead technologies in managing distributed workforces, it stands to reason that Workplace could be a key tool alongside Zoom. (See: Slacks State of Work survey finds communications gap between aligned and unaligned workers) Nevertheless, Workplace will face a crowded field but aims to integrate with what is becoming a disparate collaboration stack.