Evolving Together: A Journey from Slack to Teams

Eight years ago, the university faced a moment of change. As Skype reached the end of its lifecycle, teams in UITS needed a new way to communicate. What followed was months of evaluation, testing, and discussion, ultimately leading to the decision to adopt Slack at a time when Microsoft Teams was still emerging and not yet fully mature.

Slack became the right solution for that moment, meeting the division’s needs and quickly becoming part of daily work at UITS and for several other teams across campus.

Today, we find ourselves at another point of transition.

Over the last six months, UITS has been executing a planned transition from Slack to Microsoft Teams for internal communication. A primary reason for this shift is to unify internal departmental communication on a single, consistent platform. Before deciding to move to Teams, about 80% of staff already used Microsoft Teams, while roughly 20% still relied on Slack for general communication. Running both platforms simultaneously caused fragmentation in how teams connect, share information, and support each other.

Over the past six months, a project team made up of diverse IT staff has started changing conversations, recreating key channels, and exploring how their daily work translates into a new environment. This included identifying popular Slack channels, providing guidance on how to recreate them in Teams, and offering open office hours and support resources to help users manage the transition. Creating Knowledge Base articles specifically for moving from Slack to Microsoft Teams was especially helpful. Although the original scope of the project was to document ways for individuals to archive needed conversations, the team ultimately was able to archive Slack for everyone without individual effort. 

Slack has been used for more than just communication. The project team found that in many areas, it supports established workflows and integrations embedded in daily operations. Project Lead, Julie Suess, explains, “Transitioning these functions requires extra planning and time, and will continue as a phased effort beyond the initial change in communication platforms on April 30. This balanced approach allows the university to move forward with greater alignment while thoughtfully supporting the workflows teams depend on.”

Like any change that affects daily routines, the transition has brought a mix of adjustment and adaptation. Habits formed over years don’t change overnight. Small differences – such as how messages appear, how conversations are organized, how notifications behave – can seem significant during a workday.

Meanwhile, many have discovered new capabilities that were not immediately obvious. Persistent chat, integrated meetings, and stronger connections to the tools people already use are beginning to reshape how work gets done. What may start as a platform change gradually evolves into a change in user experience.

Recognizing this, the approach to the transition to Teams has focused not only on the technology itself, but also how people navigate through the change. “Communication, guidance, and opportunities to explore the platform have been central to the project, helping individuals and teams adapt while maintaining continuity in their work,” says Julie.

Now, as the first phase of the project reaches its final stages on April 30, the project team’s focus turns to continuing to support teams as they evaluate and migrate more complex workflows to Microsoft Teams.

In a sense, this moment echoes the one from seven years ago. The tools may change, but the goal remains the same: enabling people to connect, collaborate, and do their best work, wherever that work takes them.