Exactly two years ago, Microsoft announced Teams at an elaborate launch event in New York City. Hailed by many as a “Slack killer“, Teams was positioned by Microsoft as a group messaging platform. It was clear from the start that they took aim directly at Slack and its numerous competitors. Slack even acknowledged the encroachment of Microsoft in a full page ad in the New York Times.

The fierce competition existing in the market today is a result of the numerous choices available for customers. All they need is a click to switch brands. It’s that simple. Traditionally, product and price were the two elements that gave businesses a competitive edge. This is no longer the case. Increasingly, customers are valuing experience more than product and price. A recent study shows that customer experience is surpassing product and price in brand differentiation.

We’re excited to announce that Zendesk is now available as a pre-built content source, along with a host of others, as part of the Workplace Search application. With more than 130,000 customers in 30 countries, Zendesk has become one of the de facto customer service platforms in the world. Each day, millions of users interact with support agents via the cloud-based tool regardless of the support channel they choose.

Did you hear about chatbots and would like to get in on the benefits? Would you like to create an assistant that helps you increase your conversion rate? Are you new to the virtual assistant scene and not sure how to choose the best platform for building an intelligent chatbot that converts? You landed on the right page. While more and more businesses are becoming aware of the power and potential of chatbots, many hesitate with adoption struggling with concerns about the cost and complexity.

As Washington and the nation reel from the spread of COVID-19, public servants across the country are quickly adapting to the “new normal.” As described in OMB’s March 23rd memo to agency and department heads, harnessing technology to support mission continuity should be a priority.

In today’s digital economy, the pressure to develop and release new software has become paramount to deliver great customer experiences and create a competitive advantage. Unfortunately, the process by which to deliver this software is increasingly complex and highly fragmented across various tools and teams. While this complexity increases, there is also no easy way to centrally measure, monitor and secure the overall performance of the software delivery pipeline in real-time.

AppDynamics technical evangelist Quintessence Anx shares helpful advice for workers and managers new to the work-from-home lifestyle.

I'm not sure what your work from home set up looks like, but mine includes an ironing board behind me. There's a set of golf clubs in the corner, and a pile of old clothes on the floor. My late grandmother's bookshelf tries desperately to bring some order to the room, but even it is filled with a hodgepodge of stuff. The problem is, I never intended to work from home. My "home office" can be best described as a storage room mixed with a little bit of the chaos.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many companies to require employees to work from home. It’s a new normal for many, but at Grafana Labs our team has always recruited and operated with a remote-first culture in mind. To help everyone transition to a home office environment, we launched a new WFH series in which Grafana team members share their best advice for staying productive at home – yes, even if you have kids around.