A survey of users, admittedly conducted by the firm itself, suggests that team productivity increases by around a third when they start using the software, primarily by reducing internal e-mail and meetings. Slack has decided to open itself up to other apps, becoming a platform by which employees can log into and use other software tools. Today it has 2.7m daily active users, up from 1m last June. Around 800,000 of them are paying subscribers; their firms pay around $80 or more a year for each employee using the service. The firm has $75m in annual recurring revenue and is breaking even, says Mr Butterfield.
Slack自己做的用戶調查顯示，在使用該軟件后，團隊效率提升近三分之一，主要是由于內部郵件及會議的減少。Slack已決定向其他應用開放，成為企業員工可以登陸并使用其他軟件工具的平臺。去年六月時，該軟件的日活躍用戶為100萬，目前已上升至270萬，其中約有80萬是付費用戶，公司為每位使用服務的員工支付至少80美元的年費。巴特菲爾德表示，Slack的年度經常性收入為7500萬美元，公司正逐漸實現收支平衡。
Slack's rise points to three important changes in the workplace. First, people are completing work across different devices from wherever they are, so they need software that can work seamlessly on mobile devices. Messaging naturally lends itself to this format. Second, communication is becoming more open. Just as offices went from closed, hived-off rooms to open-plan, Slack is the virtual equivalent, fostering a collaborative work environment, says Venkatesh Rao of Ribbonfarm, a consultancy. Slack's default setting is to make conversations public within a firm.
Slack的崛起昭示著職場的三個重要變化。首先，人們現在會在不同地點，通過各種設備來完成工作，所以他們需要能在移動設備上無縫運作的軟件。發送消息天生適合這種形式。第二，通訊正變得越來越開放。正如辦公室從封閉小隔間變為開放式空間一樣，Slack在虛擬領域引領著同樣的變革，打造協同工作環境，咨詢公司Ribbonfarm的文卡泰什·拉奧（Venkatesh Rao）說道。Slack的默認設置就是讓員工在公司內公開對話。
Third, software firms are trying to automate functions that used to be done by people in order to make employees more productive. Slack has made a big push into “bots”, algorithms that can automate menial tasks which used to be done by humans. Slack offers bots that compile lunch orders and projects' progress reports, or generate analytics on demand. In the future employees will be able to chat with software agents to get more done, working alongside bots as well as their peers.
第三，軟件公司正嘗試把以往需要人工處理的職能自動化，借此提高員工的工作效率。Slack已大量運用“機器人”， 這些算法可以自動完成以往需要人工處理的低級工作。Slack提供的機器人服務包括確定午餐訂單，編寫項目進度報告，以及按需生成分析等。未來，員工將可與“軟件員工”對話，與這些機器人和同事并肩工作，取得更多成果。
Mr Butterfield is not the typical leader of a striving startup. Called “Dharma” by his hippie parents, he spent his early years on a commune with no running water or electricity; he changed his name to Daniel Stewart when he was 12.
巴特菲爾德不是那種典型的拼搏型創業企業領袖。被嬉皮士父母稱為“達摩”的他，早年生活在一個沒有自來水或電力的公社中；12歲的時候他把自己的名字改為丹尼爾·斯圖爾特（Daniel Stewart）。
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