Amazon hopes to push Alexa into the office. At the same time, Cisco and Microsoft also see potential for voice-activated A.I. assistants to automate mundane tasks such as starting video conferences and booking meeting rooms.
The launch of the company’s Whiteboard public preview for Surface devices is a ‘step in the right direction’ for a more modern and natural style of collaboration, analyst says.
Messaging apps and mobile services from companies like Zinc and Crew are springing up to help connect workers not bound to a desk with colleagues in the office.
The move enables users to embed third-applications directly into Quip documents and spreadsheets. Analysts say the company sees documents as team workspaces for collaboration.
Cisco envisions a phased rollout of Spark Assistant, a new service designed to end some of the pain out of setting up office meetings.
Showcase is designed to make it easier for freelancers and small teams of professionals to share content.
Users of Oracle’s sales, HR and ERP applications will be able to retrieve information directly from the messaging app after Slack’s latest chatbot partnership.
The company’s Slack rival, launched six months ago, will ‘over time’ become the primary communications client in Office 365.
The collaboration software will also gain support for the German, French and Spanish languages, with Japanese support on the way.
The company also plans support for BlackBerry Dynamics and SAP SuccessFactors in its 4.2 release.
But more features are needed to catch up with collaboration competitors like Slack and Cisco Spark.
The two firms extend partnership with integrations involving Adobe Sign and Microsoft’s collaboration platform.
With WhatsApp Business, the company could be eyeing future collaboration efforts.
Microsoft has promised to renew its focus on the enterprise and recover its credibility with businesses following the disaster of Windows 8.
Google's mobile payments service will face similar challenges to Apple, says expert
