Indonesian startup challenges Slack with new team collaboration app

It’s quite common nowadays to see companies made up largely of remote workers (Tech in Asia does it!). When that happens, you better have a really good communication tool to make sure everybody can work seamlessly in a centralized online workspace. That’s why many work-related messaging apps are popping up these days, such as Flowdock, Hall, HipChat, Convo, and Slack.

Now there’s a new one from Indonesia called Qiscus. It’s created by a Yogyakarta startup and looks quite similar to its rivals, allowing you to chat and work with your colleagues in multiple rooms.

Qiscus’ basic package lets unlimited numbers of people use it for free, while the premium package offers more features like video calling and email integration. It’s all aimed at a global audience, with the premium level priced at S$8 (USD 6.4) per month.

However, you still get the feeling that the service pales in comparison to the bigger boys like Slack, which has a load of integration options with other important work apps such as Dropbox, IFTTT, and Mailchimp. Another thing missing in Qiscus is its lack of direct one-on-one chatting or any notification settings.

When asked about how the startup plans to convince people to use this app rather than one of numerous rivals, co-founder Evan Purnama says that they believe Qiscus’ flexibility to easily invite and communicate with other users in different chat rooms is be a good selling point. Although other platforms offer similar flexibility, Qiscus indeed involves fewer clicks to create new chatrooms and invite other users to enter.

One of the things in the development pipeline for Qiscus is a more air-tight security system so the platform can be used in high security sectors such as banks and major corporations. The team is also developing a gamification engine that will give employers the ability to reward or punish its employees without looking too naggy or demanding, according to co-founder Amin Nordin.

Pivoting from education

Qiscus is created by four co-founders who are based in Yogyakarta and Singapore: Nordin as CEO, Purnama as CTO of products, Delta Purna Widyangga as CTO of enterprise, and Muhammad Md Rahim as CFO. Qiscus was originally a feature in the team’s previous product called Phi Decks. It was an app to organize learning systems, which won an award at the IdeasInc Business Plan Competition back in 2012. The app was looking at the possibilities of replacing whiteboards, smartboards, visualizers, and textbooks in schools.

See: Ruangguru wants to overhaul online-to-offline education in Indonesia, gets funding from East Ventures

Unfortunately, due to the fact that most teachers and students in Indonesian schools don’t have access to smartphones, the project was shelved. But the team saw the potential in the discussion and messaging aspects in Phi Decks.

“There was one function that all teachers and students find most useful, which was the discussion function. So we took the feature out and tried to build something for ourselves instead,” says Nordin. This would later lead to a prototype of Qiscus in 2013, “We had people asking if they could use it as well. It was quite scrappy but it was doing something that other systems are not able to,” he continues.

Qiscus is now used by 78 companies across the world – one of which is NTU Ideas, the same organization that gave an award to the team a couple of years ago.

This article is also available in Indonesian language.