Harnessing Slack’s intelligence to set a new standard for cross-functional teamwork

In the dynamic landscape of a thriving start-up like ShopBack, agility is paramount. 

The shopping and rewards platform spans 11 markets globally, catering to over 40 million shoppers. In 2022, the company expanded its offerings to include financial services through ShopBack Pay and PayLater.  

Keeping ShopBack’s site and mobile app running smoothly hinges on the efficient collaboration of its global workforce, which boasts over 900 employees. The adoption of Slack, an intelligent productivity platform that facilitates information sharing, team interaction and workflow optimisation, has made this process more straightforward. 

“Slack enhances our employees’ productivity by providing a single place to do everything,” said Mr San Oo, ShopBack’s chief technology officer. “Employees can quickly make clarifications over huddle calls that have screen sharing tools, while Slack’s intuitive shortcuts and quick search function make it easy to locate the right channels, teammates, documents or prior discussions.”

PROMOTING EFFICIENCY WITH AI AND AUTOMATION

With efficiency integral to ShopBack’s operations, the adoption of Slack was a logical decision. Tasks are streamlined through automated workflows, while intuitively named channels and notifications aid in learning and engagement. 

ShopBack employees also use Slack’s bot and app building features for a variety of tasks, such as creating a bot for incident management. The bot promptly identifies incident commanders and other relevant personnel, as well as provides updates on the status of incidents. 

“This allows employees to focus on resolving issues without having to constantly give progress updates,” explained Mr Oo. 

Building on Slack’s existing productivity features, the platform will be introducing Slack AI (generally available to customers in early 2024), which enables generative AI tools to tap on the collective knowledge database that exists within the platform – including every message, canvas and clip – representing yet another significant stride in workplace collaboration and efficiency. 

“Employees can search for work files, receive automated reminders and catch up on threads with AI-generated conversation summaries,” shared Mr Ramesh Gopal Krishna, regional vice president, Slack ASEAN, Salesforce. “Enabling employees to autonomously locate the information they need eliminates the need for time-consuming message exchanges.”

FOSTERING A CULTURE OF TRANSPARENCY 

Since its launch in 2014, ShopBack has amassed a wealth of institutional knowledge that is now accessible to its entire workforce through Slack’s robust search functionality, ensuring transparency and ease of communication throughout the organisation.

Every team has its own public team channel, a conduit that helps employees stay abreast of what their colleagues are working on. All employees are granted real-time access to crucial updates, including policy changes published in main announcement channels, and they can promptly offer feedback or express their views through direct replies in the thread. 

Said Mr Oo: “Public team channels help keep employees accountable as they know their contributions are visible to the entire team. The channels also create a more collaborative work environment, as anyone can join and share their ideas with the project owners.” 

Slack AI will build on these capabilities by allowing users to leverage their organisation’s legacy information. Through intelligent search results, users can obtain clear and concise answers based on past messages. For instance, when users are learning about a new project, search answers will help them quickly grasp its objectives and find out who the key stakeholders are through an easily digestible summary.

This ease of communication extends to the organisation’s external partners through Slack Connect, which boasts stringent security and ensures regulatory compliance. With mechanisms in place to verify user organisations, the platform’s centralised dashboard facilitates quick access to employees’ connections and leverages Slack’s Audit Logs API to safeguard against unauthorised access and monitor any suspicious behaviour. 

LEVERAGING SLACK CANVAS FOR EFFECTIVE COLLABORATION

With a robust and streamlined communication framework in place, employees can turn their attention to collaborative efforts and driving better outcomes for the company.

Slack Canvas serves as a dynamic surface where teams can create, organise and share essential information. Within this unified interface, text, files, applications and rich media are all readily searchable. Users can streamline processes further by using no-code workflows to embed functional buttons, such as those for IT inquiries, directly into the canvas. 

“Slack Canvas allows employees to share business-critical knowledge with the people who need it without leaving Slack’s productivity platform,” said Mr Ramesh. “When paired with a Slack channel or conversation, canvases also centralise information and drive alignment within teams.”

According to Mr Oo, Slack Canvas has raised the quality and ease of collaboration at ShopBack. 

“Instead of using external apps to track progress or keep notes, Slack Canvas allows employees to quickly jot down updates during meetings and collectively review them on the fly, reducing the chances of misunderstandings and delays,” he said. 

Noting that the future of work is set to evolve rapidly in the age of AI and automation, Mr Ramesh said: “Slack remains dedicated to advancing an intelligent productivity platform that equips customers with cutting-edge technologies, enhancing productivity and efficiency throughout the organisation.” 

Find out how you can unlock your productivity potential with Slack.