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　　A survey of users, admittedly conducted by the firmitself, suggests that team productivity increases byaround a third when they start using the software,primarily by reducing internal e-mail and meetings.Slack has decided to open itself up to other apps,becoming a platform by which employees can loginto and use other software tools. Today it has 2.7mdaily active users, up from 1m last June. Around800,000 of them are paying subscribers; their firms pay around $80 or more a year for eachemployee using the service. The firm has $75m in annual recurring revenue and is breakingeven, says Mr Butterfield.

　　Slack自己做的用户调查显示，在使用该软件后，团队效率提升近三分之一，主要是由于内部邮件及会议的减少。Slack已决定向其他应用开放，成为企业员工可以登陆并使用其他软件工具的平台。去年六月时，该软件的日活跃用户为100万，目前已上升至270万，其中约有80万是付费用户，公司为每位使用服务的员工支付至少80美元的年费。巴特菲尔德表示，Slack的年度经常性收入为7500万美元，公司正逐渐实现收支平衡。

　　Slack's rise points to three important changes in the workplace. First, people are completingwork across different devices from wherever they are, so they need software that can workseamlessly on mobile devices. Messaging naturally lends itself to this format. Second,communication is becoming more open. Just as offices went from closed, hived-off rooms toopen-plan, Slack is the virtual equivalent, fostering a collaborative work environment, saysVenkatesh Rao of Ribbonfarm, a consultancy. Slack's default setting is to make conversationspublic within a firm.

　　Slack的崛起昭示着职场的三个重要变化。首先，人们现在会在不同地点，通过各种设备来完成工作，所以他们需要能在移动设备上无缝运作的软件。发送消息天生适合这种形式。第二，通讯正变得越来越开放。正如办公室从封闭小隔间变为开放式空间一样，Slack在虚拟领域引领着同样的变革，打造协同工作环境，咨询公司Ribbonfarm的文卡泰什·拉奥(Venkatesh Rao)说道。Slack的默认设置就是让员工在公司内公开对话。

　　Third, software firms are trying to automate functions that used to be done by people in orderto make employees more productive. Slack has made a big push into “bots”, algorithms thatcan automate menial tasks which used to be done by humans. Slack offers bots that compilelunch orders and projects' progress reports, or generate analytics on demand. In the futureemployees will be able to chat with software agents to get more done, working alongside botsas well as their peers.

　　第三，软件公司正尝试把以往需要人工处理的职能自动化，借此提高员工的工作效率。Slack已大量运用“机器人”， 这些算法可以自动完成以往需要人工处理的低级工作。Slack提供的机器人服务包括确定午餐订单，编写项目进度报告，以及按需生成分析等。未来，员工将可与“软件员工”对话，与这些机器人和同事并肩工作，取得更多成果。

　　Mr Butterfield is not the typical leader of a striving startup. Called “Dharma” by his hippieparents, he spent his early years on a commune with no running water or electricity; hechanged his name to Daniel Stewart when he was 12.

　　巴特菲尔德不是那种典型的拼搏型创业企业领袖。被嬉皮士父母称为“达摩”的他，早年生活在一个没有自来水或电力的公社中;12岁的时候他把自己的名字改为丹尼尔·斯图尔特(Daniel Stewart)。