Using Microsoft Teams as an Ecosystem 

Integrating apps, automation, and analytics within Teams to fit your specific company needs 

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Using Microsoft Teams as an Ecosystem 
Unified CommunicationsInsights

Published: July 5, 2022

Linoy Doron

Microsoft Teams may have started out as a mere business collaboration platform, but it’s long past the point of becoming much more than that. 

Teams has an immense potential of becoming an all-in-one productivity system for companies, functioning as a single pane of glass where a significant portion of the business’s various operations and processes can be accessed and managed. 

The key ways to unlock this invaluable potential Teams possesses is through integrating apps, automation and analytics within the platform.  

So, how does one do that, exactly? 

Harkirat Degun, Product Director at Resonate is here to shed light on the subject. 

Integrating Apps, Automation and Analytics within Teams

“Teams being an open environment means that companies are able to integrate their own apps, automation, and analytics within the platform itself to complement existing Teams capabilities,” Degun explains. 

There are two ways to do this: 

  1. Integrating 3rd party Apps and Solutions available on Microsoft AppSource 
  2. Integrating “homegrown” Solutions built using the Microsoft Power Platform a no-code/low-code development platform, providing simple-to-use tools for creating applications, robotic process automation and reporting. 

Solutions created with the Power Platform or installed from the Microsoft AppSource can be embedded into Tabs within Teams and made available either to be consumed by all members of the relevant team or as a personal app.   

“This effectively means that from now on, your company’s Teams environment can be adapted to the organizations specific needs,” Degun notes. 

But where do you begin? 

What Apps to Integrate?

“The very first thing a company should do before integrating apps or solutions into Teams is consider all the various things Teams can actually do, as well as potential workflows that it would be useful to have access to via Teams,” Degun says. 

There may already be apps that are used in the organization that are available on Microsoft AppSource or have been created internally to meet an existing requirement, or there may be a requirement to create something entirely new. 

Examples of such things can range from approval queues and new user set ups to holiday or budget requests, time shift management and access to important company information.   

“The range of possibilities is truly immense and diverse, and I’d recommend each company to prioritize its most pressing needs and start from those,” Degun says. 

Working with Teams, with the Right Teams

There are usually two critical teams within the organization to drive the integration into Teams forward: the team responsible for Power Platform; and the team responsible for IT, and Teams-related issues in particular. In smaller organizations this may be a single team.   

The Power Platform Team will assist in understanding what requirements have already been met and delivered, and what requirements are in the backlog and the current priorities that are set for them.  

“If a requirement isn’t already being addressed, you can work with the Power Platform team to define what need or issue it is exactly you need to address,” Degun explains. 

“Then, the team should be able to advise you on whether it’s something you can build yourself using the Power Platform, or whether it requires the assistance of a professional developer.” 

If an organization supports Citizen or Pro-Developer roles within Power Platform, this will allow for an integrated experience where they can build and edit apps and workflows within Teams, not having to constantly toggle between different tabs and switch between separate platforms and solutions. 

Once your app or solution has gone through the governance process and is built and published, you can then work with the IT Team to integrate what’s been built into Teams.  

“They should ask you whether its specific to you, your team or the whole organization, which will determine whether it’s deployed onto the Teams Sidebar or as a Tab in channel,” Degun explains.  

Not sure where to start?

Resonate has trained development specialists who are available to help organizations with their Power Platform strategy across their organization, and specifically integrating apps, automation and analytics into the Teams ecosystem.   

For more information on the Power Platform and how it can be used, have a look at the Resonate e-book. 

 

 

Microsoft Teams

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