Slack

What is Slack?

• Slack is a messaging platform for businesses/teams that helps connect them to the information they need. By unifying them, it transforms the way they communicate.

Key functions

• Slack makes access to your colleagues easier: you can message anyone inside or outside your organization and communicate with them just like you would in person
• We work in spaces called channels, which brings together the right people and information
• Slack supports asynchronous work: When work is organized in channels, no matter the time zone, location, or function, you can access the info you need on your own time, ask questions and get caught up, and share updates without having to coordinate schedules
• In slack everyone in an organization has access to the same shared and searchable information. When teams work together in channels, info can be shared with everyone at once, which helps them stay aligned and make decisions more quickly

Getting Started

1. Fill out your profile
   1. From your desktop, click the default profile picture in the top right. Click profile from the menu, then click edit profile. Let people know what you do and add a profile photo, and then click save changes.
2. Configure your notifications
   1. Select preferences from the menu to choose the activity you’d like to get notified about, then configure any additional notification preferences you’d like
3. Learn how to send messages
   1. If you need to communicate with a group of people, send a message in a channel. To message someone one-on-one, send them a direct message.
4. Learn about other slack features
   1. Visit How to use Slack: your quick start guide for an overview of the basics.

At the Poole IT service desk we communicate through different channels in the NCSU Poole slack group.  

• Service desk channel: discuss different tickets, get clarifications on anything like loaner equipment, how to handle an IT issue.; this is also used to get approvals for ticket responses
• Student-consultants channel: we discuss other things like shift times, which meeting times work best for everyone, if you can’t make it to your shift, etc(used more informally).
• Kudos: to appreciate a colleague for their work
• poole-it-help:
• shift-swap-request: to swap shifts or notify your team members if you can’t make it to your shift
• IT-purchases: we use this in collaboration with work streams to track all the purchases made for professors, staff members, etc that work in PCOM

Different apps that we use on Slack are:

• Workstreams: This is a workflow productivity solution and task management app for slack. It provides Kanban workflows for any channel. It assists in tasks like task templates, custom fields, a workflow library to kickstart your processes, and agile analytics.
• MatterBot: used for employee recognition and rewards; team members can give kudos and coins to redeem for gift cards and company rewards
• Simple Poll:  allows team members to create polls/surveys regarding meeting times, preferences, etc
• Chatlio: allows team members to chat directly with users from the IT website from Slack
• ChatGPT: gives quick, precise details to generic questions.

Our new Slack Grid:

• Allows us to collaborate across our organization in Slack with the most security, flexibility, and control.
• Some features include:

• Organize work across unlimited dedicated workspaces 
• Collaborate with any department or division with shared channels across workspaces 
• Search across workspaces with granular filters to find relevant messages or files fast 
• Send a direct message to anyone in the organization 
• Announce companywide news in channels with limited posting permissions