External Communication and Collaboration
A better way to connect with people outside your company
Slack Connect transforms the way you work alongside your partners, vendors or customers by moving conversations out of siloed email threads and into the same place.
Get more done in Slack Connect
Whether you're working with vendors or sealing deals with a client, Slack Connect is here to help.
4x
faster deal cycles for a sales team
64%
decrease in backlog tickets for a customer support team
2x
faster close in company acquisition for a business development team
Claims and figures based on specific teams using Slack Connect at their companies. Results may vary at your organisation.
Connect faster with your partners
- Bring communication out of inboxes and into channels, where you can work quickly and collaboratively with outside organisations
- Strengthen client relationships in channels to provide top-tier enterprise support and drastically decrease response times
- Send messages and share files in real time to build collective insights along the way
Connect securely with outside organisations
- Keep your work secure with Slack’s enterprise-grade security features and compliance standards
- Gain secure access to communicate and collaborate confidently with partner organisations
- Reduce your team’s exposure to the email phishing and spam attacks that come with email
Connect tools and automate workflows
- Easily book meetings, share documents and simplify various other routine tasks with apps
- Streamline processes and speed up collaboration by building and connecting new workflows across organisations
How to get started
1. Create the channel
Click the + button next to Channels in your sidebar. Name the channel, and click Create.
2. Send the invite
Invite your partner right from Slack. If you're on the Business+ or Enterprise Grid subscription, you can also copy and share the link provided.
3. Wait for your partner
After they click on the link, they’ll be taken back to Slack to accept and set up the channel on their end.
4. Get admin approval
Depending on your settings, the invitation may be sent to an admin on each team for approval.
Built for roles of all types
Slack Connect allows you to build deeper relationships with all the people that you work with, no matter the profession.
Join the 350,000+ organisations working in Slack Connect
Frequently asked questions
All of Slack’s subscriptions include the ability to send a one-to-one message to someone outside your organisation via Slack Connect. However, to share channels across orgs, you’ll need to be on one of Slack’s paid subscriptions.
If you are on the Enterprise Grid subscription, external partners on a free subscription can join Slack Connect channels without having to upgrade or start a free trial. If you are on a different paid subscription, that’s not a problem! Once you’ve invited your partners to collaborate with Slack Connect, if they’re eligible, they’ll get a 90-day free trial of Slack’s Pro subscription.
You can invite someone outside your company to share a channel in Slack. Or, skip the channels for now and send an invitation to start exchanging direct messages – just like you would with other DMs!
It really only takes a few clicks to start working closely with vendors, customers and more. Our sales team would be happy to help you get started.
Great question! Channels in Slack transform the way that you work with your colleagues. Similarly, Slack Connect makes it possible to work in channels with people from outside your company, as well. With Slack Connect, you don’t need to give people access to your whole Slack workspace – just the channels that you need to collaborate in.
With Slack Connect, admins can maintain control over their organisation’s data and monitor external access. And unlike collaborating via email – which leaves users open to the risk of spam and phishing – working in channels only allows teams to receive messages and files from verified members. Learn more about the enterprise-grade security built into Slack Connect here.
Slack Connect makes working with people from other companies as fast and simple as working with your teammates on Slack. That makes it ideal for collaborating with external partners, vendors and customers. The fast, efficient communication in Slack channels and direct messages can help teams across companies to:
• Build stronger customer relationships
• Decrease response times
• Speed up sales cycles
• Seize new opportunities
• Connect workflows across organisations
Plus, it’s all backed by Slack’s enterprise-grade security. Get more ideas from our article on communicating better with external partners