Digital communication and collaboration are vital for every company, no matter if employees are dispersed across customer sites, working from home, or working together in an office. Team chat allows employees to work together in real time, crowdsource answers, share valuable knowledge and socialize with their peers. While you may be tempted to use consumer chat apps like WhatsApp at work, this a bad idea for many reasons. Instead, have a look at these leading enterprise chat platforms that each represent a unique approach to workplace communication.

Zinc — Real-Time Communication

Zinc is a real-time communication app that enables 1:1 and group messaging, voice and video calling, content sharing, location sharing, broadcasts, hotline groups, and analytics. Built to connect field service teams with the knowledge and information need to quickly complete their work, Zinc is easy to use while still guaranteeing compliance, security and central administration. Unique features like Hotline Groups (a way to connect instantly with experts while on the job) allow service companies to streamline communication and boost service results.

Zinc app; tech built for deskless workers

Enterprise Chat Platforms: Zinc

Slack — Collaboration Hub

Slack is a widely used collaboration hub that organizes communication into channels where users can message, share files, hold audio and video calls and search conversation histories. With hundreds of apps and integrations into common work apps like Box, Asana, Zoom, Google Calendar, Survey Monkey and Salesforce, Slack allows users to easily bring existing workflows into Slack.

Enterprise Chat Platforms

Enterprise Chat Platforms: Slack

Microsoft Teams — Team Chat

Microsoft Teams is a team chat app included with an Office 365 Business Premium or Essentials subscription. In Teams, users can chat, hold audio and video calls, collaborate on files, and work with other 3rd-party apps. While internal teams can chat freely, Microsoft Teams does not support access for anyone outside of the organization, such as customers, contractors or vendors.

Enterprise Chat Platforms

Enterprise Chat Platforms: Microsoft Teams

Salesforce Chatter — Enterprise Collaboration

Chatter is a collaboration and knowledge-sharing platform from Salesforce that allows users to collaborate on sales opportunities, service cases, campaigns, tasks, and projects with embedded apps and custom actions. Employees can collaborate by “following” both people and documents as well as creating Chatter Groups where they can discuss particular topics with the ability to customize email notifications for new messages.

Enterprise Chat Platforms

Enterprise Chat Platforms: Chatter

Beekeeper — Internal Communication

Beekeeper is a digital workplace app that supports corporate information sharing as well as 1:1 and group messaging and file sharing. Automated workflows allow leaders to easily schedule announcements, create communication streams, distribute employee surveys and respond to common HR and IT questions. With a focus on the hospitality industry, Beekeeper streamlines communication and operations at companies with distributed, frontline workforces.

Enterprise Chat Platforms

Enterprise Chat Platforms: Beekeeper

To learn more about workplace communication apps, check out our post: Team Communication Apps: 5 Differentiators That Set Them Apart

ABOUT Kristen Wells

Kristen is the senior manager of corporate communications at PTC and editor of Field Service Digital. She is passionate about elevating the stories of women in field service and improving communication between the field and the office. Prior to ServiceMax, Kristen held content marketing roles at startups such as Zinc and cielo24. Kristen holds a B.A. in Communication with an emphasis on Professional Writing from the University of California, Santa Barbara.