The Enterprise-Ready Microsoft Slack Connector…

If you’re looking for a Microsoft Slack connector, you’ve got a few options.

But some look…less than safe.

If you’re in any part of IT or security in an enterprise, you already know some of the workarounds and bit-part solutions aren’t going to make it as far as your procurement team.

Since 2016, Mio has been working with enterprise customers to create connectors for internal communications.

Through our experience working with clients, as well as partners like Microsoft, Slack, Cisco, and Zoom, we’ve created a Microsoft Slack connector that is designed for enterprise use and always has your privacy and security in mind.

About our Microsoft Slack connector

You can now link Teams to Slack using Mio’s Microsoft Slack connector for genuine message interoperability.

This means you enable cross-platform messaging from Teams to Slack (and vice versa).

When you sign up to Mio, you get access to what is effectively middleware that translates messages from Teams to Slack.

You, as the admin, do the syncing of channels and enabling of users in the background then let everyone know when they have access to send messages from one platform to another.

They get a one-time notification and action and you sleep better knowing your business no longer suffers from workplace silos or anywhere near as much context switching.

What makes Mio’s Microsoft Slack connector enterprise-ready?

There are two key elements that qualify Mio as enterprise-ready:

1. Security
2. Scalability

1 - Security

Mio keeps customer data secure and adheres to common global compliance standards, giving you peace of mind.

We never store any messages or files you send cross-platform.

We don’t need to.

Mio works by receiving an API call from one platform, translating the language into the other platform, and delivering the message cross-platform.

For example, Ian sends a Slack message…

Mio receives the message

↓

Recognizes the user or channel you’re sending to is on Teams

↓

Translates the message from Slack language to Teams language

↓

Mio sends the message to Teams

We classify and prioritize data in advance to ensure your sensitive data is securely handled throughout the transaction.

The biggest question we get asked is “Does Mio store our files and messages?”

We don’t persistently store user messages or files. Message metadata is retained by Mio for future reconciliation across platforms. But the underlying messages and files are not permanently retained.

Speaking of metadata, Mio only stores the following metadata: 

• Message identifier (ID)
• Time stamp
• Platform assigned user IDs 
• Channel IDs

These get stored for the duration of your service or until Mio is asked to destroy them via a hard delete.

Aside from this, we’re independently audited annually for SOC 2 and adhere to the frameworks outlined by GDPR and CCPS:

• Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Type II
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
• California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)

With regards to scopes, we never ask for more permissions than necessary. Just the bare minimum we need to enable cross-platform messages.

• See which Slack scopes we need
• See which Microsoft Teams scopes we need
• Download the Mio Security Whitepaper here

2 - Scalability

When you’re dealing with Slack and Teams accounts at scale, there are two key areas where Mio is unique from other workaround solutions…

1. Automatic failover and contingency plans during outages.
2. Automated provisioning and management tools.

Automatic failover and dealing with platform outages

If you look after IT for a large enterprise, you’re responsible for keeping the lights on. And you need your infrastructure and software to do exactly that.

Nobody wants to be held accountable if there's an outage and you weren’t prepared.

As such, Mio is hosted exclusively in AWS US data centers and uses multi-zone redundancy to maximize availability and uptime. So if AWS fails in one region, another zone is already in tandem.

When things outside our control happen, like if Slack or Microsoft Teams suffers an outage, we’ve implemented a number of flow controls to maximize message delivery reliability

All message events received by Mio are delivered to front-end servers distributed over multiple availability zones. 

For resilience, event payloads are immediately encrypted and placed into a fault-tolerant FIFO queue for processing by the Mio multi-zone, distributed back-end system. 

Should Slack or Teams be unavailable, Mio retains the encrypted event in a queue, and will automatically attempt redelivery based on a time-based replay strategy. 

Automated provisioning and management tools

Here are four features that simplify and automate the process of setting up and managing cross-platform chat: 

1 - Platforms tab

The Platforms tab is your landing pad to install the Mio app into Google Chat, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Webex, or Zoom Team Chat. Begin here to enable cross-platform messaging.

To connect your organization's chat platforms, you'll be taken through a simplified authorization process and takes the guesswork out of necessary scopes and permissions.

After ensuring that settings have been configured correctly, you’ll log into your organization’s platforms using your admin credentials. You must complete this step before importing channels and users for syncing.

Need a question answered? Don't hunt down guides and docs. Select Need more help? the bottom of the page or click on any of the included links for configuration troubleshooting and instructions.

2 - Channel Sync

The Channels tab is where you’ll select and import your desired channels for cross-platform chat for additional workspace customization.

Begin in the Import channels tab. Select and import your desired teams and channels into Mio’s interface.

Next, head over to the Sync channels tab. Choose the specific team and channel from each platform that you would like to sync for cross-platform messaging. You can create multiple syncs. 

Remove and re-import channels and easily filter by status to see which channels are imported.

3 - User Sync

Head over to the Users tab to import desired users for direct messaging. Import your teams and users in the Import users tab. Select which users require cross-platform DMs in Sync users.

A resource library in the right sidebar helps with immediate troubleshooting.

Filtering capabilities allow admins to view users by sync status and primary platform.

4 - Auto Sync

Auto Sync takes the work out of having to manually update every user who leaves or joins an organization.

By subscribing to your organization’s Active Directory groups, Mio will automatically keep your user list up to date.

Mio also offers the option to prompt all unsynced users. By initiating this option, Mio will remind all users who haven’t responded to the Mio bot’s sync prompt.

Sound like something you need?

Learn more about Mio.