Microsoft Does Not Want Its Employees Using Slack Or Google Docs

Microsoft makes a lot of products for productivity, but given that it’s hardly the most niche of categories, it’s not surprising that there are a ton of (free) alternatives out there to what Microsoft has to offer. We imagine that the company would much prefer if people used its products, and as such, we’re not surprised to learn that the company has banned a bunch of competitor products from being used in its offices.

According to a report from GeekWire, they have managed to get their hands on what is allegedly Microsoft’s internal list of software and technology that is either prohibited or discouraged from being used, which includes apps such as Slack and services like Google Docs. While it might seem that Microsoft has banned these services due to them being the competition, the company claims that it is due to security reasons.

In their reasoning for banning the use of Slack, “Slack Free, Slack Standard and Slack Plus versions do not provide required controls to properly protect Microsoft Intellectual Property (IP). Existing users of these solutions should migrate chat history and files related to Microsoft business to Microsoft Teams, which offers the same features and integrated Office 365 apps, calling and meeting functionality. Learn more about the additional features that Teams can provide your workgroup. Slack Enterprise Grid version complies with Microsoft security requirements; however, we encourage use of Microsoft Teams rather than a competitive software.”

For those unfamiliar, Microsoft Teams was launched several years ago as an alternative to Slack so as we said, it’s not surprising that Microsoft would prefer its employees to use the company’s own software.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Computers
Tags: google docs, Microsoft, Slack