Ask HN: New RevOps guy wants to switch us from M365 to GSuite+Slack
18 comments
Since he is the RevOps guy, my first question would be how much is this going to save.
Once you go to buy Google Workspace + Slack + Zoom + Jamf + all the other replacements. I doubt it is going to be any cheaper.
--Edit to add. He says you need Gemini so you can be a AI company. Doesn't the Microsoft subscriptions come with CoPilot?
Once you go to buy Google Workspace + Slack + Zoom + Jamf + all the other replacements. I doubt it is going to be any cheaper.
--Edit to add. He says you need Gemini so you can be a AI company. Doesn't the Microsoft subscriptions come with CoPilot?
Microsoft Copilot is for all intents and purposes thoroughly useless. It has a 8k char limit and the file upload feature is abysmal.
I personally prefer Gsuite + Slack. But I've been on that "stack" for 15 years (although I also still use excel). Hard to say if it's better, because someone coming from the 15 years in the Microsoft world may prefer that.
One anecdote -- I just recently left a large, public company (that acquired the startup I worked for) and they were in the process of evaluating a move to Microsoft (to the point that they migrated some teams over). They opted not to make the switch and there were a lot of complaints from the testing group.
For a 40 person startup, I think two ways about it:
First, I cannot imagine this is the biggest priority right now. Presumably you're trying to hit some growth target. Is this really the thing holding you back? If you're in survival mode, this feels a lot like moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic.
But Second, if you're gonna do it, it's going to be a heck of a lot easier to do it at 40 people than at 60, or 80, or 100.
Overall, I wouldn't recommend doing it unless the ROI looks really, really good. If I was an investor or advisor it would drive me up the wall to hear that this is what you're distracting yourself with right now. And it's one of those problems that when you hit $MILESTONE, you'll have the money/team in place to handle making the migration go smoothly.
One anecdote -- I just recently left a large, public company (that acquired the startup I worked for) and they were in the process of evaluating a move to Microsoft (to the point that they migrated some teams over). They opted not to make the switch and there were a lot of complaints from the testing group.
For a 40 person startup, I think two ways about it:
First, I cannot imagine this is the biggest priority right now. Presumably you're trying to hit some growth target. Is this really the thing holding you back? If you're in survival mode, this feels a lot like moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic.
But Second, if you're gonna do it, it's going to be a heck of a lot easier to do it at 40 people than at 60, or 80, or 100.
Overall, I wouldn't recommend doing it unless the ROI looks really, really good. If I was an investor or advisor it would drive me up the wall to hear that this is what you're distracting yourself with right now. And it's one of those problems that when you hit $MILESTONE, you'll have the money/team in place to handle making the migration go smoothly.
> that would be a great idea since everyone hates using Teams, nobody knows where to find files in Sharepoint
Summarizes my experience in my new company, which is a Microsoft shop.
Though RevOps side, I don't see how this would make much difference. If cost cutting got so far, he can also propose switching to Mattermost+Jitsi+Nextcloud, hosted on Hetzner.
Summarizes my experience in my new company, which is a Microsoft shop.
Though RevOps side, I don't see how this would make much difference. If cost cutting got so far, he can also propose switching to Mattermost+Jitsi+Nextcloud, hosted on Hetzner.
As he is Rev Ops, can you switch Sales to Google and slack first?
They can keep Teams alongside Slack to talk to others.
Then if revenue increases do the rest.
They can keep Teams alongside Slack to talk to others.
Then if revenue increases do the rest.
I'm much more concerned with a new hire, especially revOps, that shows up and their day 1 recommendation is to change productivity tooling for the whole company. Typically these big changes on day one kinda folks are tone def to the organization and culture, and don't always survive the backlash / fallout of their changes.
Encourage this person to start a little smaller, build a track record of impactful wins and use that track record to make bigger and bigger changes.
To answer your stack questions, people are successful with all sorts of tools - one stack isn't better or worse.
Encourage this person to start a little smaller, build a track record of impactful wins and use that track record to make bigger and bigger changes.
To answer your stack questions, people are successful with all sorts of tools - one stack isn't better or worse.
These matters often come down to personal preference. One of the most unplesant board meetings I ever experienced involved expletives over a M365/Google fight.
I suggest you keep to the facts as you understand them and also know you may have to bite the bullet if someone higher up the foodchain decides to run with the change.
I suggest you keep to the facts as you understand them and also know you may have to bite the bullet if someone higher up the foodchain decides to run with the change.
Sounds like a strategic platform selection, surely you have some sort of governance function, architect or corporate to take such a concern to. Also, this changes focus from core service delivery of your product to migration and new tool adoption.
Why would leadership sign up for that unless it was proven on paper to be a better bet?
Why would leadership sign up for that unless it was proven on paper to be a better bet?
I just want to say that people shouldn't use tools they hate for most of their day.
well, infrastructure cannot be switched if people hate it. The same could be said about new setup in the future. If people are not able to find what they need, then its a training issue.
M365 or GSuite are collaboration stack that facilitates teams to work together. While it's a part of RevOps engine, its mostly backend. RevOps should focus on frontend process which is the order to cash workflow - the marketing efforts, sales pitch and customer success and how are there teams working together. RevOps has its own systemic flow that can be facilitated through CRM systems that can be customized to follow a blue print.
M365 or GSuite are collaboration stack that facilitates teams to work together. While it's a part of RevOps engine, its mostly backend. RevOps should focus on frontend process which is the order to cash workflow - the marketing efforts, sales pitch and customer success and how are there teams working together. RevOps has its own systemic flow that can be facilitated through CRM systems that can be customized to follow a blue print.
well, infrastructure cannot be switched if people hate it. The same could be said about new setup in the future. If people are not able to find what they need, then its a training issue.
M365 or GSuite are collaboration stack that facilitates teams to work together. While it's a part of RevOps engine, its mostly backend. RevOps should focus on frontend process which is the order to cash workflow - the marketing efforts, sales pitch and customer success and how are there teams working together. RevOps has its own systemic flow that can be facilitated through CRM systems that can be customized to follow a blue print.
- Shanil
M365 or GSuite are collaboration stack that facilitates teams to work together. While it's a part of RevOps engine, its mostly backend. RevOps should focus on frontend process which is the order to cash workflow - the marketing efforts, sales pitch and customer success and how are there teams working together. RevOps has its own systemic flow that can be facilitated through CRM systems that can be customized to follow a blue print.
- Shanil
New tools aren't going to do anything that much better than the existing ones. Most professional suites do roughly the same things.
Slack is orders of magnitude better than Teams.
Google docs is better than Microsoft office, but only by a little.
Google drive is many many orders of magnitude better than Sharepoint.
Google docs is better than Microsoft office, but only by a little.
Google drive is many many orders of magnitude better than Sharepoint.
I prefer Google, but the Google Identity solution is weaker.
Other than that, you just deal with it. It’s not a big deal. I’ve moved places to and from each platform.
Other than that, you just deal with it. It’s not a big deal. I’ve moved places to and from each platform.
Ask him why pay for Slack when you already have Google Chat bundled with Google Workspace
Yes, yes, and yes. Teams is absolute trash. Slack + Google stuff + Zoom works way better ime. But you have to experience it yourself. It's meaningless to try and list everything that works poorly in Teams.
Recently, however, we hired a RevOps guy that set out to discover optimisation potential, apparently, and today I got a surprise meeting where he demonstrated his big idea of switching from Microsoft to Google Workspace and Slack. He suggested that would be a great idea since everyone hates using Teams, nobody knows where to find files in Sharepoint, many SaaS products only support Google SSO out of the box, and Gemini would be included and we need that to be an AI driven company. Also, new hires only knew Gmail and Drive, but had to be educated on Outlook and Excel, and having everything in the browser would be way superior anyway; Workspace apparently is way better integrated with other tools (although I’m not sure what this means).
Now… before going into engineering, I started in systems administration. I’m in tech since 14 years now. I managed to scale our infrastructure and product from day one, with no breaches, downtime, or major productivity issues. It has been clear for a while that we’ll need someone to take care of internal IT management and support, but this was the first time I even heard of major complaints. I’m usually fairly confident in my skills, but this time I started to doubt myself:
Either I’m not up to date anymore, and too deep into my niche knowledge that I’m sticking to stuff that isn’t relevant any longer—or this is just young people disliking something they aren’t used to and thus not comfortable with. I’m really open to improving things that cause friction, but I can’t help the feeling this is just a young sales team that prefers Slack over Teams and has poorly organised folders in Sharepoint.
From a migration perspective, this is going to be a nightmare; finding replacements, making sure we don’t loose anything, keeping emails and telephones running, third party tools available, and so on. But maybe it’s worth it, and Google Workspace and Slack are so much better that we’re gaining it all in efficiency? Has anyone made such a move, or an opinion on it? Has the tech world simply moved to Google, and I didn’t get the memo?