Item: Flowdock
Rating: 3
Author: Kyle Golembiewski

Overall Satisfaction with CA Flowdock

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It's being used across the whole organization. It's how we communicate in real-time as each department/individual within the company is handling their day-to-day responsibilities. Flowdock is a useful tool for keeping up to speed with people within your team as well as across the entire organization. While there are other competitors in the space, our company chose Flowdock and have been quite happy with the result.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Mobile app experience
Software integrations
Notifications

Cons

Overall UX - compared with Slack
Additional software integrations (as goes for all communicators moving forward)
Lack of Spotify integration

Return on Investment

Our company uses it by default.
I enjoy the ability to communicate outside of text messages...keeps the conversation on in it's own bucket.

Alternatives Considered

Slack

Slack is a better product. They're taking the spirit of the startup and moving quickly towards IPO. In my own experience, Slack provides enough software integrations with hope for future releases that continue to improve the product. The early days of Flowdock were very exciting but the product has turned into more of a corporate tool than a toolbox (a la Slack).

Other Software Used

AdWords, Bing Ads, AdRoll

Likelihood to Recommend

The fact is, Slack is in place to be better product. They're the big dog in town and are moving toward a public offering. I think CA Flowdock has a nice mobile experience and generally works the way it's supposed to but major competitors like Slack are pushing the envelope on API integrations and bot builds that automate a lot of great features. I think Flowdock approaches things from a more corporate stand point while Slack is casting their net toward smaller companies looking for cool features.

Flowdock Feature Ratings

Using CA Flowdock

Users and Roles

24 - Consistent communication channel between teams, within teams, and all of the above. Our development team integrates some of their process management tools to keep up to speed. From a marketing perspective (my perspective) it serves as real-time communication between myself and my director. A tool like this is necessary in any organization and this is the one our team uses.

Support Headcount Required

2 - I don't think there's any skill to using Flowdock. Certainly there are more advanced features like plugging in APIs and such but it's a pretty team forward team communicator. As with any tool, there's a learning curve but this isn't the type of app that non-technical people will be confused using.

Business Processes Supported

Real-time communication
Communication archiving
Channel conversations

Innovative Uses

Stand ups
IT QA
Marketing conversations

Likelihood to Renew

I go with the flow because I'm a newer employee and Flowdock works as advertised. If it were my decision to choose a team communciator for the organization, I'd recommend we go with Slack for its robust features and ever-changing/evolving software integrations. Slack is the outright innovator in the space and will continue to hold that role for some time.

Evaluating CA Flowdock and Competitors

Products Replaced

Yes - I've used Slack with previous companies and it worked quite well. In fact, it works better than Flowdock in many ways. The ability to integrate 99% of our software workflow into Slack is extremely helpful. I could go on but it would be quite exhaustive as to why Slack is better than Flowdock. Lets say Slack is the disruptor in comparison.

Key Differentiators

Existing Relationship with the Vendor

I came on board to a team using Flowdock. This is the sole reason I'm using Flowdock on a day-to-day basis. I think Slack would be in my repertoire otherwise!

Evaluation Lessons Learned

I wouldn't change anything. When you join a team with an established workflow, it's best to adhere to the way they do things. My experience with Slack doesn't hinder my ability to use Flowdock.

Comments

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Flowdock is losing to Slack