Quip Slides Puts Salesforce on Collision Course

by Jim Lundy

It used to be that when you called Microsoft for support and you didn’t use Outlook, they examined your domain and determined that you use Google. Email is one thing, but when a firm starts to take on the mothership of Office (PowerPoint), it is war.

That is what Salesforce Quip just did with its Quip Slides announcement. This blog is about Salesforce Quip and its collision course with Google G Suite and Microsoft Office.

Quip Slides with Built-In Content Analytics

You can see where this is going. Salesforce Quip now has Docs, Spreadsheet, and Slides—all the editors necessary to get work done or share a proposal with a customer. Salesforce Quip is quick to point out that Slides may not be for the main stage, but that may come later.

Quip Slides, along with Docs, Spreadsheet, and Chat, make for a nice set of collaborative editors that offers an alternative to Microsoft or Google.

Quip Looks Like Google G Suite

Quip has a strong resemblance to the G Suite editors. If that seems like a stretch, the Quip team did work at Google. Salesforce Chief Product Officer Bret Taylor takes credit for helping develop Google Maps. His co-founder, Kevin Gibbs, also worked at Google. So, while we can debate where Quip came from, it is now a front-and-center Salesforce offering.

Salesforce to Challenge Microsoft

We have written about this before, but there is still a CRM war between Salesforce and Microsoft. After Microsoft’s purchase of LinkedIn in 2016, Salesforce was feeling the pressure. On top of that, when Microsoft GM Scott Guthrie proclaimed that the Dynamics win at HP was a “Salesforce takeout,” the race was on and Salesforce quickly bought Quip.

Last year at Dreamforce, Microsoft was not present but Google was front and center. We will see what Salesforce does this year relative to its cloud partnerships.

The Rise of Digital Work Hubs: Not a One-Size-Fits-All

Aragon’s take is that digital work hubs will vary moving forward because not everyone will need the same capabilities. We believe that Salesforce Quip has a chance and we expect to see Salesforce offer more bundles. While we don’t expect Quip to beat Office 365, Salesforce’s bundle outside of email is an alternative to Office 365.

The war between Salesforce and Microsoft is simmering. Quip is one of the weapons that Salesforce is using to “tweak” Microsoft. The good news for buyers is that there are now more options.