Executive Summary

Organizations face mounting pressure to work faster, and lack of visibility, constant handoffs and fragmented multitool workflows delay progress in achieving this. They can make work that requires cross-functional coordination (e.g., engineering, support, operations) more difficult and slower than it needs to be. Solutions must accommodate flexible working styles, incorporate multiple systems of record, and help bridge silos.

By centralizing communication and work execution in Slack as a work operating system, enterprises can reduce coordination latency and help accelerate sales cycles and feature launches while improving incident response and alignment across functions and time zones. Slack as a work operating system can provide organizations with a real-time operating layer that connects people, systems, workflows, and data.

Slack commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying Slack as a work operating system.1 The purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of Slack on their organizations.

312%

Return on investment (ROI)

 

$38.6M

Net present value (NPV)

 

To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed six decision-makers and surveyed 670 respondents with experience using Slack as a work operating system (i.e., using the platform as a central system for coordinating, conducting, and automating work). For the purposes of this study, Forrester aggregated the experiences of the interviewees and survey respondents and combined the results into a single composite organization, which is a global enterprise with 25,000 employees and revenue of $10 billion per year.

Interviewees said that prior to using Slack as a work operating system, their organizations relied on fragmented communication channels and collaboration tools, including email, ad‑hoc messaging apps, spreadsheets, siloed project systems, and inconsistent integrations. Disparate tools created delays, duplication of effort, and difficulty coordinating work across functions and time zones.

Prior attempts to streamline collaboration through legacy tools or partial adoption of platform features yielded limited success, leaving their organizations with slow response times, manual knowledge-sharing processes, difficulty accessing or sharing context, and a lack of unified visibility into projects, customers, incidents, and/or sales cycles. These limitations led to inefficiencies across operations, services, technology and development, and go-to-market teams.

Interviewees reported that after the investment in Slack as a work operating system, their organizations gained a centralized, real‑time operating environment that connected people, systems, workflows, and data. They also said the Slack Connect feature and native integrations accelerated communication both internally and with customers and partners, while Slack AI, huddles, workflows, and unified search reduced time spent switching tools and gathering information.

End User Collaboration And Agility

[CHART DIV CONTAINER]
Improved collaboration within my team
Increased my ability to react quickly to changing business needs
Enabled time savings through the use of AI in Slack
Improved integration and interoperability with other apps
Improved collaboration across company teams
Improved collaboration with external partners
Improved my overall employee experience
Strongly agree
Agree

Base: 336 cross-industry global Slack end users
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Slack, February 2025

Key Findings

Quantified benefits. Three-year, risk-adjusted present value (PV) quantified benefits for the composite organization include:

  • Improved collaboration and efficiency across departments. The composite organization centralizes work in Slack channels, huddles, AI-assisted search tools, and automations integrated with Salesforce, project management, and workflow systems. Its teams reduce tool-switching, shorten decision cycles, and replace meetings with real-time or asynchronous coordination across services, operations, technology, and sales. This is worth $50 million to the composite over three years.

  • Increased profit due to sales acceleration. The composite organization’s sales teams accelerate revenue by using Slack as a collaboration layer on top of Salesforce, where real-time pipeline data and deal updates are surfaced directly with partners, customers, and prospects. As a result, the composite shortens sales cycles, improves lift conversion, and launches product features at a higher velocity using Slack, due to real-time alignment and candid conversations with customers. This is worth $685,000 to the composite over three years.

  • Reduced costs due to consolidated tech stack savings. The composite organization replaces overlapping collaboration tools and adjacent point solutions by adopting Slack’s enterprise features and native integrations—retiring redundant platforms, cutting recurring licenses, and avoiding new purchases where Slack as a work operating system provides required functionality. This is worth $392,000 to the composite over three years.

Unquantified benefits. Benefits that provide value for the composite organization but are not quantified for this study include:

  • More fluid, higher velocity communication with customers and external partners. Slack Connect enables the composite organization to have continuous, conversational exchanges that replace ticketing and email threads, resulting in faster replies, stronger rapport, and more productive customer interactions.

  • Stronger cross-functional coordination. Using shared channels brings the composite organization’s cross-functional teams together in real time, reducing confusion around ownership, improving alignment, and eliminating delays caused by siloed tools or email bottlenecks.

  • Greater visibility into work, updates, and system activity. Automated notifications from integrated platforms surface key information directly in Slack, allowing teams to monitor changes, status, and KPIs without toggling between systems.

  • Faster problem-solving and incident collaboration. Real-time threads and shared context enable the composite organization to troubleshoot incidents across teams and external partners, removing friction and improving response times for technical or operational issues.

Costs. Three-year, risk-adjusted PV costs for the composite organization include:

  • Licenses subscription. The composite organization incurs annual subscription costs based on the number of active users. With between 11,000 and 11,444 users between Years 1 and 3, it pays a total of $12.3 million.

  • Ongoing maintenance and integration management costs. The composite organization requires internal IT effort to maintain Slack configurations, manage integrations, and support incremental feature adoption. This costs the organization $95,000 over three years.

The financial analysis that is based on the interviews and survey found that a composite organization experiences benefits of $51 million over three years versus costs of $12.4 million, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $38.6 million and an ROI of 312%.

Key Statistics

312%

Return on investment (ROI) 

$51M

Benefits PV 

$12.4M

Net present value (NPV) 

<6 months

Payback 

Benefits (Three-Year)

[CHART DIV CONTAINER]
Collaboration and efficiencies Increased profit Consolidated tech stack savings

The Slack As A Work Operating System Customer Journey

Drivers leading to the investment in Slack as a work operating system

Interviews

Role Industry Geography Employees Annual Revenue
Head of growth acquisition and digital marketing SaaS Global 8,000+ $2.5B+
VP and global head, merchant services Fintech Global 24,000+ $31B+
IT director, collaboration and productivity Media and entertainment North America 5,000+ $8B+
Group director of paid media Technology Global 166,000+ $415B+
Cofounder Transportation North America 25,000+ $4M+
Senior director of product marketing, cybersecurity, data protection, and workflow automation SaaS North America 3,000+ $200M+

Key Challenges

Interviewees noted that prior to adopting Slack as a work operating system, their organizations struggled with common challenges, including:

•         Fragmented communication systems. Interviewees said their organizations relied on email and other messaging and meeting tools in parallel. Different departments used different tools, making cross‑functional work slow and inconsistent. Context was frequently lost when conversations jumped between tools or inboxes. Employees missed decisions, duplicated work, or had to ask the same questions repeatedly via different channels. Work itself was disconnected from collaboration tools, requiring users to use another system to take action.

•         Slow coordination and decision-making. Email-heavy workflows created latency, and interviewees said approvals, incident response, and project updates took too long. Conversations that required real-time alignment were stuck in inboxes. Escalations (e.g., for sales issues, production incidents, urgent fixes) lacked a fast, shared space. Sales teams reported delays in closing deals, launching projects, or resolving issues.

•         Tool sprawl and swivel-chair work. Employees had to check multiple platforms and switch between systems (e.g., email, project management, CRM, ticketing, HR tools, analytics, file storage solutions) throughout the day. They needed to manually notify others when there was a change and reconcile information across tools. This created cognitive overhead and wasted time.

“We were commenting inside separate communication tools, emailing back and forth, and talking about multiple deals per channel. There was no single place to understand what was happening or who was doing what.”

Cofounder, technology

Solution Requirements/Investment Objectives

The interviewees and survey respondents searched for a solution that could:

  • Increase operating speed across the business.

  • Centralize work and communication into a single operating layer.

  • Improve cross-functional visibility and alignment.

  • Reduce manual effort through automation and integrations.

  • Support scale with structure, speed, and clarity.

  • Enable distributed and asynchronous work.

  • Allow their organization to consolidate tools and avoid unnecessary spend.

Composite Organization

Based on the interviews and survey, Forrester constructed a TEI framework, a composite company, and an ROI analysis that illustrates the areas financially affected. The composite organization is representative of the interviewees’ organizations, and it is used to present the aggregate financial analysis in the next section. The composite organization has the following characteristics:

Description of composite. The global services enterprise is a 25,000 employee organization with annual revenue of $10 billion.

 KEY ASSUMPTIONS

  • Global enterprise

  • 25,000 employees

  • $10B annual revenue

Analysis Of Benefits

Quantified benefit data as applied to the composite

Total Benefits

Ref. Benefit Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Total Present Value
Atr Collaboration and efficiencies $13,370,500 $20,456,865 $27,821,336 $61,648,701 $49,964,082
Btr Increased profit $275,400 $275,400 $275,400 $826,200 $684,879
Ctr Consolidated tech stack savings $120,000 $160,000 $200,000 $480,000 $391,585
  Total benefits (risk-adjusted) $13,765,900 $20,892,265 $28,296,736 $62,954,901 $51,040,546

Collaboration And Efficiencies

Evidence and data. Interviewees said they experienced improvements in collaboration and efficiency with Slack as their organization’s work operating system and that there were measurable differences across services, operations, technology, and sales teams. These gains emerged as Slack consolidated communication, eliminated tool switching, and enabled real-time alignment internally and externally. Interviewees across departments and roles reported fewer meetings and faster decision cycles, replacing many scheduled touchpoints with quick discussions in channels, threads, or huddles. Using Slack enabled teams to resolve issues asynchronously while maintaining shared understanding.

Services

  • Interviewees experienced faster issue resolution and clearer collaboration across teams as support, engineering, and product teams worked together in shared Slack threads rather than through escalations or ticketing alone. This made troubleshooting more efficient and prevented information loss across handoffs.

  • Interviewees said using Slack as a work operating system increased customer responsiveness, with customers replying faster within Slack channels than via email. This accelerated troubleshooting, increased transparency in service workflows, and improved customer alignment without adding headcount.

Operations

  • Interviewees experienced more efficient cross functional coordination, especially across finance, legal, marketing, engineering, and supply chain operations. Using Slack channels brought all stakeholders into a single shared workspace, reducing bottlenecks and improving the speed and clarity of complex workflows.

  • Interviewees stated they missed fewer tasks due to more reliable processes, as automated reminders, renewal alerts, and system-triggered notifications helped operations teams maintain cadence and avoid last‑minute “emergency” tasks.

  • Interviewees also reported that Slack provided centralized visibility into progress and reduced time spent in status meetings.

Technology And Development

  • Interviewees said using Slack as a work operating system led to more efficient problem-solving because developers, project managers, and support teams quickly “swarmed” incidents in Slack channels. Automated alerts from tools like Jira, GitHub, and ServiceNow provided real-time visibility, helping teams coordinate without toggling between systems.

  • Interviewees reported Slack’s persistent channel history gave new engineers access to past decisions, context, and technical discussions, which led to faster onboarding and better knowledge retention. This reduced reliance on senior developers and improved the overall efficiency of engineering teams.

Sales

Interviewees said sales teams more efficiently collaborated externally with prospects because Slack enabled real-time communication that replaced email chains.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

  • In Year 1, 44% of the composite organization’s 25,000 employees (11,000) adopt Slack as a work operating system. This number increases to 11,220 in Year 2 and 11,444 in Year 3.

  • The fully burdened hourly rate for an employee is $55.

Risks. Collaboration and efficiency gains from using Slack as a work operating system may vary based on:

  • The level of Slack adoption across teams and the cultural shift to move department operations into Slack.

  • The level of AI feature adoption.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $50 million.

“Any project might span 10 to 12 time zones. … We wouldn’t even be able to do half of what we do without Slack. … Our key project operations go through Slack.”

Head of growth acquisition and digital marketing, SaaS

“Slack is now is a core part of our business and our operations backbone. It’s where real-time work happens. It connects all of our systems, workflows, and cross-functional team members in a way that reduces friction and accelerates execution.”

Senior director of product marketing, cybersecurity, data protection, and workflow automation, SaaS

Time Savings With Slack AI Features

[CHART DIV CONTAINER]
Less than $50,000 $50,000 to $100,000 $100,001 to $250,000 $250,001 to $500,000 $500,001 to $750,000 $750,001 to $1,000,000

Base: 440 cross-industry global Slack decision-makers and end users
Note: Individual percentage values may not total 100 because of rounding.

Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Slack, February 2025

Collaboration And Efficiencies

Ref. Metric Source Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
A1 Employees who use Slack as a work operating system Survey 11,000 11,220 11,444
A2 Weekly time saved using Slack as a work operating system (hours) Survey 1.0 1.5 2.0
A3 Fully burdened blended hourly rate for an employee Composite $55 $55 $55
A4 Productivity recapture rate TEI methodology 50% 50% 50%
At Collaboration and efficiencies (rounded) A1*A2*A3*A4*52 weeks $15,730,000 $24,066,900 $32,730,984
  Risk adjustment ↓15%      
Atr Collaboration and efficiencies (risk-adjusted)   $13,370,500 $20,456,865 $27,821,336
Three-year total: $61,648,701 Three-year present value: $49,964,082

Increased Profit

Evidence and data. Interviewees said using Slack helped accelerate revenue-generating work and strengthen customer relationships, increasing sales team profits. When used as an operating system, Slack enabled faster deal cycles, improved customer retention, and reduced operational drag — all of which contributed to stronger financial performance.

  • Interviewees experienced faster collaboration on active deals, with sales teams coordinating in real-time with solutions engineers, customer success, and leadership through dedicated deal channels. This eliminated delays caused by email and improved cross-functional visibility into deal blockers and next steps. Sales teams noted that Slack dramatically sped up deal cycles by centralizing context and enabling rapid decision-making.

  • When integrated with Salesforce, AI‑powered agents within Slack summarized call transcripts, identified win/loss themes, and surfaced next‑best action recommendations in the context of Salesforce workflows.

  • Interviewees’ said using Slack enabled real-time communication that replaced email chains, making collaboration with prospects more efficient. Sales leaders shared that prospects responded more quickly and more openly in Slack than email, which improved momentum and reduced friction across the buying process.

  • Interviewees stated that deals moved more quickly and were more likely to close when customers joined Slack channels. One interviewee reported that deals conducted via Slack have an 84% close rate.

  • Additionally, interviewees said Slack directly supported sales-driving innovation by enabling rapid release of new features. One interviewee explained that using Slack as a work operating system allows their company to launch up to 100 features per year due to Slack’s ability to coordinate stakeholders, accelerate decisions, and streamline launch workflows across global teams.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

  • The composite organization closes 60 deals per calendar year.

  • The composite organization’s average order value of a deal is $300,000.

  • Prior to using Slack as a work operating system, the composite organization had an average win rate of 30%.

Risks. Increased profit may vary based on:

  • Sales team adoption and use of Slack channels

  • Partner and customer adoption and use of Slack channels.

  • CRM integration and visibility.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $685,000.

“We were twice as likely to close a deal if we did two things: one, if we had an internal Slack chat about the deal; and two, if the partner was within our Slack environment.”

Cofounder, transportation

“We have vendor Slack channels, and they have a direct impact on our bottom line. Slack is central to launching new features and capturing more green space in the market. … Revenue from new feature launches is in the millions.”

Head of growth acquisition and digital marketing, SaaS

Increased Profit

Ref. Metric Source Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
B1 Deals Composite 60 60 60
B2 Average order value of a deal Interviews $300,000 $300,000 $300,000
B3 Baseline win rate before Slack as a work operating system Composite 30% 30% 30%
B4 Win rate with Slack as a work operating system Interviews 45% 45% 45%
B5 Incremental win-rate uplift B4-B3 15% 15% 15%
B6 Operating margin Composite 12% 12% 12%
Bt Increased profit B1*B2*B5*B6 $324,000 $324,000 $324,000
  Risk adjustment ↓15%      
Btr Increased profit (risk-adjusted)   $275,400 $275,400 $275,400
Three-year total: $826,200 Three-year present value: $684,879

 Interview Spotlight

 Greenbox

Sales Team Spotlight: Accelerating Deal Execution With Salesforce-Connected AI Agents In Slack

One interviewee described how their organization’s sales team uses Slack deal channels integrated with Salesforce to centralize deal context and collaborate in real time. They said AI‑powered agents within Slack surface prior deal summaries, call transcript insights, and win‑loss themes directly in the flow of work, reducing the need for manual CRM navigation or follow‑up with sales operations.

The interviewee explained that by bringing intelligence, approvals, and cross‑functional input together in a single workspace, the sales team improved alignment across sales, marketing, and leadership, enabling faster decision‑making and more consistent next‑best‑action guidance during active opportunities. As a result, the sales team focuses more time on customer engagement while deals progress with fewer delays and escalations.

Consolidated Tech Stack Savings

Evidence and data. Interviewees and survey respondents said their organizations reduced overlapping software, avoided new purchases, and lowered administrative effort by consolidating functions into Slack and its native integrations.

  • Among surveyed decision-makers who said their organization reduced technology spend from retiring other collaboration tools, 61% indicated cost reductions of between more than $100,000 to $1 million.

  • Interviewees reported actively challenging technology contract renewals when Slack AI and Salesforce integration covered core sales needs.

  • One interviewee reported their organization spends $300,000 per year on an external win/loss vendor and stated that it could replace this solution with Slack AI and native integrations that summarize transcripts and produce win/loss themes, with savings realized at contract renewal.

  • Interviewees reported their organizations avoid new technology purchases or unnecessary spend by using Slack’s native capabilities, particularly Slack Enterprise features, native integrations, search, automations, org chart functionality, and translation tools. These avoided costs stemmed from not needing to buy additional third-party tools or services because Slack already fulfilled the required use case.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the composite organization retires one collaboration solution annually.

Risks. Consolidated tech stack savings may vary based on:

  • Success of user migration from tools replaced by Slack.

  • Timing of technology vendor contract renewals.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $392,000.

Annual Reduction In Technology Spend

[CHART DIV CONTAINER]
Less than $50,000 $50,000 to $100,000 $100,001 to $250,000 $250,001 to $500,000 $500,001 to $750,000 $750,001 to $1,000,000

Base: 395 cross-industry global Slack decision-makers and end-users
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Slack, February 2025

Consolidated Tech Stack Savings

Ref. Metric Source Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
C1 Avoided legacy tool cost Survey $150,000 $200,000 $250,000
Ct Consolidated tech stack savings C1 $150,000 $200,000 $250,000
  Risk adjustment ↓20%      
Ctr Consolidated tech stack savings (risk-adjusted)   $120,000 $160,000 $200,000
Three-year total: $480,000 Three-year present value: $391,585

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:

    • More relationship-driven customer communication and responsiveness. Slack Connect feature enables continuous, informal conversations with customers that can replace ticketing workflows, which helps foster trust and build partnerships. Interviewees also said customers reply more frequently and more promptly in Slack channels than in email, improving service quality and speed.

    • Real-time alignment across distributed teams and improved situational awareness. Slack creates a shared workspace where all organizational stakeholders (e.g. finance, sourcing, legal, product, sales, engineering) can coordinate, it reduces delays caused by email bottlenecks or tool switching. Interviewees said their organizations experience fewer surprises and miss fewer notifications because workflows, reminders, and automated notifications help bring visibility to contract renewals, approvals, and status updates. They also said automated updates from systems like Salesforce, Jira, ServiceNow, Google Drive, Workday, and Looker centralize critical information in Slack channels, allowing teams to monitor progress, staffing, and operational KPIs without logging into multiple systems.

    • Better real-time insight into technical changes and faster collaborative troubleshooting. Developers and project managers rely on automated alerts about deployments, code changes, bugs, and platform events flowing into Slack channels, increasing shared awareness of system activity. Interviewees also said Slack threads enable engineers, project managers, customer success specialists, and external partners to resolve issues together in real-time, which removes friction and speeds up incident collaboration.

    “Slack is a mission-critical part of our business. … I think it might be the most important tool we have.”

    IT director, collaboration and productivity, media and entertainment

    Flexibility

    The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Slack as a work operating system and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

    • Expanding automation and workflow orchestration. Interviewees said their organizations use Slack to automate increasingly complex workflows across standups, reminders, approvals, contract renewals, system notifications, and cross-team processes. They explained that as adoption of AI in Slack increases for generating workflows and summarizing information, they expect their organizations to continue extending automation into new operational domains.

    • Scaling integrations to reduce system fragmentation. Interviewees reported that Slack’s integration ecosystem enables their organizations to connect systems including ServiceNow, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Workday, Looker, Amplitude, HubSpot, Asana, and others. This reduces tool-switching, centralizes work activity, and supports long-term tool consolidation as the organizations move more into Slack as a work operating system.

    • Creating cross-functional, operational hubs. Interviewees explained their organizations create new Slack channels as operational hubs for engineering updates, product launches, incident response, vendor collaboration, deal rooms, and leadership visibility. They noted that as business needs evolve, Slack’s flexibility enables their organizations to stand up new spaces in real time without deploying new tools or training users.

    • Supporting organizational scale. Interviewees said Slack scales as their organizations grow, change, or shift to hybrid and global models. New hires onboard by searching channel history, and teams adapt Slack to new channels and structures without additional training programs.

    • Enabling future opportunities for cost avoidance. Interviewees said using Slack as a work operating system allows their organizations to avoid purchasing additional point solutions and continue to consolidate their technology stacks. They believe this will increase opportunities for consolidation as their organizations leverage AI in Slack as an enterprise intelligence layer and as Slack continues to add new features.

    • Enhanced analytics, insights, and intelligence. Interviewees said that as Slack continues to expand its AI and agent capabilities, they expect their organizations will move toward more agentic orchestration and gain additional flexibility to automate analytics, surface insights across systems, and embed intelligence directly into existing Salesforce‑centric workflows. Over time, these capabilities could enable the organizations to further streamline decision‑making, reduce reliance on specialized point tools, and adapt sales and operational processes without redesigning core systems.

    Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Total Economic Impact Approach).

    “Slack opens up doors to external vendors and customers that we didn’t have the opportunity to do business with before.”

    VP and global head, merchant services, fintech

    Analysis Of Costs

    Quantified cost data as applied to the composite

    Total Costs

    Ref. Cost Initial Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Total Present Value
    Dtr Enterprise license subscription costs $0 $4,857,600 $4,954,752 $5,053,847 $14,866,199 $12,307,866
    Etr Maintenance and integration costs $27,370 $27,370 $27,370 $27,370 $109,480 $95,435
      Total costs (risk-adjusted) $27,370 $4,884,970 $4,982,122 $5,081,217 $14,975,679 $12,403,301

    Enterprise License Subscription Costs

    Evidence and data. Interviewees reported their organizations pay subscription fees for Slack as a work operating system. Pricing may vary. Contact Slack for additional details.

    Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes that in Year 1, 44% of the composite organization’s 25,000 employees (11,000) adopt Slack as a work operating system. This number increases to 11,220 in Year 2 and 11,444 in Year 3.

    Risks. Enterprise license subscription costs may vary based on:

    • The size of the organization.

    • The number of users.

    Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $12.3 million.

    Enterprise License Subscription Costs

    Ref. Metric Source Initial Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
    D1 Enterprise license cost Composite $0 $384 $384 $384
    D2 Licenses Composite 0 11,000 11,220 11,444
    Dt Enterprise license subscription costs D1*D2 $0 $4,224,000 $4,308,480 $4,394,496
      Risk adjustment ↑15%        
    Dtr Enterprise license subscription costs (risk-adjusted)   $0 $4,857,600 $4,954,752 $5,053,670
    Three-year total: $14,866,022 Three-year present value: $12,307,866

    Maintenance And Integration Costs

    Evidence and data. Surveyed decision-makers reported that their organizations’ IT resources spend an average of 28 hours per month on Slack maintenance and integration and that integrations consume most of the effort.

    Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the composite organization adopts additional features and builds integrations over time.

    Risks. Maintenance and integration costs may vary based on the level and complexity of the adoption of Slack as a work operating system.

    Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $95,000.

    Maintenance And Integration Costs

    Ref. Metric Source Initial Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
    E1 Time spent on maintenance and integration (hours) Survey 340 340 340 340
    E2 Fully burdened hourly rate for an engineer Composite $70 $70 $70 $70
    Et Maintenance and integration costs E1*E2 $23,800 $23,800 $23,800 $23,800
      Risk adjustment ↑15%        
    Etr Maintenance and integration costs (risk-adjusted)   $27,370 $27,370 $27,370 $27,370
    Three-year total: $109,480 Three-year present value: $95,435

    Financial Summary

    Consolidated Three-Year, Risk-Adjusted Metrics

    Cash Flow Chart (Risk-Adjusted)

    [CHART DIV CONTAINER]
    Total costs Total benefits Cumulative net benefits Initial Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

    Cash Flow Analysis (Risk-Adjusted)

      Initial Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Total Present Value
    Total costs ($27,370) ($4,884,970) ($4,982,122) ($5,081,217) ($14,975,679) ($12,403,301)
    Total benefits $0 $13,765,900 $20,892,265 $28,296,736 $62,954,901 $51,040,546
    Net benefits ($27,370) $8,880,930 $15,910,143 $23,215,519 $47,979,222 $38,637,245
    ROI           312%
    Payback           <6 months

     Please Note

    The financial results calculated in the Benefits and Costs sections can be used to determine the ROI, NPV, and payback period for the composite organization’s investment. Forrester assumes a yearly discount rate of 10% for this analysis.

    These risk-adjusted ROI, NPV, and payback period values are determined by applying risk-adjustment factors to the unadjusted results in each Benefit and Cost section.

    The initial investment column contains costs incurred at “time 0” or at the beginning of Year 1 that are not discounted. All other cash flows are discounted using the discount rate at the end of the year. PV calculations are calculated for each total cost and benefit estimate. NPV calculations in the summary tables are the sum of the initial investment and the discounted cash flows in each year. Sums and present value calculations of the Total Benefits, Total Costs, and Cash Flow tables may not exactly add up, as some rounding may occur.

    From the information provided in the interviews, Forrester constructed a Total Economic Impact™ framework for those organizations considering an investment in Slack as a work operating system.

    The objective of the framework is to identify the cost, benefit, flexibility, and risk factors that affect the investment decision. Forrester took a multistep approach to evaluate the impact that Slack as a work operating system can have on an organization.

    Due Diligence

    Interviewed Slack stakeholders and Forrester analysts to gather data relative to Slack as a work operating system.

    Interviews and Survey

    Interviewed six decision-makers and surveyed 670 respondents at organizations using Slack as a work operating system to obtain data about costs, benefits, and risks.

    Composite Organization

    Designed a composite organization based on characteristics of the interviewees’ organizations.

    Financial Model Framework

    Constructed a financial model representative of the interviews using the TEI methodology and risk-adjusted the financial model based on issues and concerns of the interviewees.

    Case Study

    Employed four fundamental elements of TEI in modeling the investment impact: benefits, costs, flexibility, and risks. Given the increasing sophistication of ROI analyses related to IT investments, Forrester’s TEI methodology provides a complete picture of the total economic impact of purchase decisions. Please see Appendix A for additional information on the TEI methodology.

    Total Economic Impact Approach

    Benefits

    Benefits represent the value the solution delivers to the business. The TEI methodology places equal weight on the measure of benefits and costs, allowing for a full examination of the solution’s effect on the entire organization.

    Costs

    Costs comprise all expenses necessary to deliver the proposed value, or benefits, of the solution. The methodology captures implementation and ongoing costs associated with the solution.

    Flexibility

    Flexibility represents the strategic value that can be obtained for some future additional investment building on top of the initial investment already made. The ability to capture that benefit has a PV that can be estimated.

    Risks

    Risks measure the uncertainty of benefit and cost estimates given: 1) the likelihood that estimates will meet original projections and 2) the likelihood that estimates will be tracked over time. TEI risk factors are based on “triangular distribution.”

    Financial Terminology

    Present value (PV)

    The present or current value of (discounted) cost and benefit estimates given at an interest rate (the discount rate). The PVs of costs and benefits feed into the total NPV of cash flows.

    Net present value (NPV)

    The present or current value of (discounted) future net cash flows given an interest rate (the discount rate). A positive project NPV normally indicates that the investment should be made unless other projects have higher NPVs.

    Return on investment (ROI)

    A project’s expected return in percentage terms. ROI is calculated by dividing net benefits (benefits less costs) by costs.

    Discount rate

    The interest rate used in cash flow analysis to take into account the time value of money. Organizations typically use discount rates between 8% and 16%.

    Payback

    The breakeven point for an investment. This is the point in time at which net benefits (benefits minus costs) equal initial investment or cost.

    Appendix A

    Total Economic Impact

    Total Economic Impact is a methodology developed by Forrester Research that enhances a company’s technology decision-making processes and assists solution providers in communicating their value proposition to clients. The TEI methodology helps companies demonstrate, justify, and realize the tangible value of business and technology initiatives to both senior management and other key stakeholders.

    Appendix B

    Survey Demographics

    [CONTENT]

     ROLE  
    Manager 33%
    Director 21%
    Project manager 19%
    Full-time practitioner 15%
    Vice president 12%

    [CONTENT]

     INDUSTRY  
    Retail 11%
    Manufacturing and materials 10%
    Healthcare and life sciences 8%
    Technology and/or technology services 8%
    Transportation and logistics 7%
    Financial services and/or insurance 7%
    Business or professional services 6%
    Energy, utilities, and/or waste management 6%
     
    Travel and hospitality 6%
    Media and/or leisure 6%
    Advertising and/or marketing 6%
    Consumer product goods and/or manufacturing 6%
    Consumer services 5%
    Telecommunications services 5%
    Legal services 5%

    [CONTENT]

    GEOGRAPHY  
    North America 33%
    EMEA 29%
    APAC 25%
    LATAM 13%

    [CONTENT]

    SIZE  
    2 to 499 employees 31%
    500 to 4,999 employees 35%
    5,000 or more employees 33%

    [CONTENT]

    ANNUAL REVENUE  
    Less than $299M 32%
    $300M to $999M 36%
    $1B or more 32%

    Note: Percentages may not total 100 because of rounding.

    Disclosures

    Readers should be aware of the following:

    This study is commissioned by Slack and delivered by Forrester Consulting. It is not meant to be used as a competitive analysis.

    Forrester makes no assumptions as to the potential ROI that other organizations will receive. Forrester strongly advises that readers use their own estimates within the framework provided in the study to determine the appropriateness of an investment in Slack as a work operating system. For any interactive functionality, the intent is for the questions to solicit inputs specific to a prospect's business. Forrester believes that this analysis is representative of what companies may achieve with Slack as a work operating system based on the inputs provided and any assumptions made. Forrester does not endorse Slack or its offerings. Although great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy and completeness of this model, Slack and Forrester Research are unable to accept any legal responsibility for any actions taken on the basis of the information contained herein. The interactive tool is provided ‘AS IS,’ and Forrester and Slack make no warranties of any kind.

    Slack reviewed and provided feedback to Forrester, but Forrester maintains editorial control over the study and its findings and does not accept changes to the study that contradict Forrester’s findings or obscure the meaning of the study.

    Forrester fielded the double-blind survey using a third-party survey partner.

    Consulting Team:

    Nina Lund

    Published

    June 2026