Following Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 10 event last week, which saw the company launch the new Surface Studio, a Surface Book upgrade and a creators update, the company is hosting another event today in New York City.

The highly anticipated Office-focused event will feature Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella and Kirk Koenigsbauer, Office corporate vice president, discussing “the changing nature of collaboration and how we can empower every team to achieve more,” according to the company.

How to watch

The live stream of the Microsoft event starts at 11 a.m. Eastern today. You can watch the live webcast of the Microsoft event on the company’s official event site.

What to expect

There are few rumors regarding what we can expect to see at today’s Microsoft event. The information the company told The Tech Portal was that “Microsoft will be sharing how we can empower today’s increasingly dynamic teams to achieve more.”

While we are likely to see improvements to the Office suite as well as the tighter integration of Office 365 and Windows 10, the star of the show is rumored to be Microsoft Teams, the company’s enterprise communication app.

Microsoft Teams

Today’s event is rumored to focus on Microsoft’s new team collaboration tool called Microsoft Teams, formerly known as Skype Teams.

The new Microsoft Teams will be in direct competition with Slack Technologies Inc., who has grown to 3 million users since launching in 2014, and the recently launched Workplace by Facebook.

Despite considering a possible acquisition of Slack in March for a reported $8 billion, Microsoft decided to focus on its own enterprise collaboration service.

Despite rumors in September that Microsoft was working on a Slack competitor, today’s event will likely be the official launch of Teams, together with the release of a beta version.

Even though Microsoft has yet to confirm that it’s actually working on a Slack competitor, leaked screenshots show Microsoft Teams will be very similar to the competition. Like Slack, you will be able to chat with co-workers either in a message channel or via direct message. You will also be able to share files, photos, GIFs, emojis and more. Microsoft Teams will differ from Slack in that it will have Office 365 integration and the ability to make Skype calls.

Microsoft Teams, which will form part of the Office suite of apps, will be integrated with various Microsoft services, including OneDrive, Skype, Word and Excel. It will also be a cross-platform app allowing users to access it from any Windows PC, Mac, Android smartphone, iPhone, Windows Phone and the web.

Microsoft employees have been testing the service over the last few months, which is accessible via teams.microsoft.com.

Image via Microsoft