How To Migrate Slack To Microsoft Teams Using Spyglass MTG

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Dispatch by Mio

7 min readJun 9, 2021

How To Migrate Slack To Microsoft Teams Using Spyglass MTG

As Microsoft Teams now boasts 145 million daily active users, are you one of the businesses preparing to migrate from Slack to Microsoft Teams?

If so, in this post, we’ll cover:

Why migrate from Slack to Microsoft Teams?

There might be several reasons why you’re looking to migrate from Slack to Microsoft Teams.

These could include:

Your business relies on Microsoft 365 and uses SharePoint for document management
The majority of the business already uses Teams and you’re moving a small pocket of Slack users across
Teams became your primary video conferencing tool and you’re now using chat features too
Teams replaced your business phone system and you’re looking to streamline all communications into one platform
Your business is already using other applications that integrate with Microsoft Teams
You’re updating your tech stack and looking to build a custom integration with another tool where Microsoft 365 plays a key role
Microsoft Teams features that might not exist or are limited in Slack are used on a more regular basis

Whatever the reason, migrating your whole business to a new communication platform is not an easy task.

There are certain steps you need to take pre, during, and post-migration to make sure the transition is as seamless as possible.

How do I switch from Slack to Microsoft Teams using Spyglass MTG?

There are several ways to switch from Slack to Microsoft Teams on a permanent basis.

In this post, we’ll walk through the steps to migrate from Slack to Microsoft Teams using Spyglass MTG’s Slack to Microsoft Teams migration accelerator.

What is Spyglass MTG?

Spyglass MTG (Microsoft Technology Group) is a consultancy firm specializing in building, deploying, migrating, and managing Microsoft solutions. Spyglass MTG is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and has vast experience in deploying Microsoft 365 as well as implementing Azure, Microsoft Teams, and SharePoint sites.

Its Slack to Microsoft Teams migration solution allows businesses to map users across both platforms, migrate all their related content, and map other features like channels, conversations, and files.

It’s worth noting that those who have Slack Standard/Plus or Enterprise subscriptions can use the Microsoft Import API tool for up to ten times faster migration.

Here are the steps you need to follow when migrating from Slack to Microsoft Teams using Spyglass MTG:

1 — Take an inventory of your Slack environment

The first step in preparing for your Slack to Teams migration is to take a full inventory of your Slack environment and what data you want to migrate. Spyglass MTG offers this as part of its service and looks at any Slack customizations, integrations, and updates you’d like to migrate over to Microsoft Teams.

The whole assessment process takes about three weeks. At the end of which you’d be given a formal transition plan. This includes:

Categorization of your channels as delete, archive, or migrate;
Migration prioritization and sequencing;
Microsoft Teams’ rollout support plan;
Microsoft Teams’ developer education plan;

Here, it’s important to consider if you want to keep, remove, or change any of the workflows and business processes that rely on Slack. It’s a great opportunity to identify inefficiencies and implement changes that Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 can support.

2 — Communicate your migration strategy

Other than taking care of the technical aspect of your migration, think about how this migration impacts the day-to-day work of your employees. Technology adoption among staff is often low due to poor launch and communication strategies by senior leadership.

Avoid resistance by having a good communication strategy in place:

Give your staff plenty of notice of the changes ahead and how this migration impacts their work. Are any of them going to be reduced to guest users? Are there any specific applications they’ll no longer be able to use in Teams?
Make sure there are plenty of webinars and “how-to” videos for the most common day-to-day activities in Microsoft Teams. If there isn’t anything off-the-shelf, have your migration team record short tutorials to walk staff through different use cases.
If certain apps or features aren’t supported in Microsoft Teams, give employees alternatives. Identify similar apps they can use and show them how they can install them.

3 — Map your data

Data mapping is important to ensure that you have a clean working environment once you move over to Microsoft Teams. Some things to consider here:

How would your multiple Slack workspaces translate into Teams? Are you happy with the current setup or do you need to change how your teams collaborate before you migrate to Teams?
Are there any limits in the number of teams and users you can have in Teams that can cause issues with the migration?
Do all your existing Slack users need a full license or is being a guest user enough for some of your employees?
Are there any files, formats, or apps that aren’t supported across platforms (we’ll cover this below)?
How are you going to handle this during the migration?

Once you’ve done this, you need to create the necessary user accounts and teams in Microsoft Teams so that they can be mapped against your users, workspaces, and channels in Slack.

Migrate Slack to Microsoft Teams using Spyglass MTG

Spyglass MTG can support you in this process by reviewing all your business processes that depend on Slack and provide the same or equivalent solution in Microsoft Teams.

Can you export a Slack channel?

Spyglass MTG allows you to map all your Slack channels to existing teams and channels in Microsoft Teams.

Before you decide to migrate all channels, use slack.com/admin/stats#channels to analyze the activity levels for each channel and see if there are some you can get rid of.

Public Slack channels are migrated as public teams alongside all messages and files that live in that channel.

How do I export a Slack private channel?

Private Slack channels are imported as private teams alongside all the messages and files that live in that channel.

In order to access this data, you need to submit an application with Slack which proves that the use of this data is permitted under the applicable law.

To do this:

Go to your desktop app and click on your workspace name
Select Settings & administration from the menu and then click on Workspace settings
Click Import/Export Data in the top right corner of the screen
Select the Export tab
Then click on the Submit an application link

Multiparty chats in Slack can also be migrated as private teams in Microsoft Teams.

Import Slack messages to Microsoft Teams

Spyglass MTG supports the import of any channel conversations, groups, and direct messages to Microsoft Teams. During the mapping phase, you can select individual groups or direct messages you’d like to carry over and check the migration progress in real time.

To import direct messages, Spyglass MTG relies on the web application AVAMIGRATRON where individual user credentials are needed to map and migrate conversations. If users are unwilling to provide their credentials, Spyglass MTG can retrieve and migrate conversations using the Service Account.

In this context, a Service Account is a common account merging the client’s Slack Service Account and Teams Service Account details.

Direct messages as well as group chats are migrated as private teams. All files associated with any of these chats are also migrated.

Limitations when migrating from Slack to Microsoft Teams

Despite the many similar features between Slack and Microsoft Teams, there are limitations that come with migrating between the two platforms.

Available integrations:

One major limitation is the discrepancy between available third-party integrations in Slack and Microsoft Teams. While Microsoft Teams already has over 600 apps available, Slack leads the way here with over 2,000 apps in its app directory.

This doesn’t need to be a bottleneck as, with enough planning, you’re likely to find another app in Microsoft Teams that does the job.

You can also use Office 365 Connectors to make use of third-party apps within Outlook groups.

Finally, you can develop your own app using C# or develop custom integration with an existing app using Graph REST API.

Custom emojis and reactions can’t be migrated:

Things like custom emojis and reactions can’t be migrated into Microsoft Teams.

This doesn’t need to be a major issue, but if you have any emojis that are part of your team’s workflow you need to have a plan in place how this translates into Microsoft Teams.

How do I handle the period of transition?

Spyglass MTG offers a comprehensive solution for migrating from Slack to Microsoft Teams, from data mapping and inventory all the way to resolving key business processes and how they translate across the two platforms.

Regardless of how simple or complex your Slack structure is, it’s likely that you’ll have a transitory period where both platforms will be in use. This can be a great opportunity for your users to adjust to the changes, but it can also lead to missed messages, delays in communication, and a drop in overall productivity.

Mio is a cross-platform connector that allows users to communicate across Slack and Microsoft Teams without leaving their platform of choice.

It’s worth noting that while Spyglass MTG is a migration tool, Mio doesn’t import any historical data and simply supports real-time communication between the two platforms.

Even if your company switches to Teams, it’s likely that you’d have clients who choose to use Slack in their communication with you.

If you decide to keep Slack for internal or intercompany collaboration, Mio can bridge both platforms and allow seamless communication between Slack and Microsoft Teams for as long as you need.