TimeZest's Microsoft Teams (Messaging) Integration allows TimeZest to send customizable messages to channels and users in Microsoft Teams. This article describes the steps to install it, and have it functioning properly.
To complete these steps you will need to be a Global Administrator for your Microsoft 365 instance. The installation is rather complex, as the way Microsoft has built Teams requires two applications to be installed and authenticated - a Microsoft 365 application which allows TimeZest to speak to Microsoft 365, and a Teams bot which actually can send messages on behalf of TimeZest in Microsoft Teams.
Follow these instructions carefully, and if you need assistance, please don't hesitate to reach out to TimeZest Support at [email protected].
Installing the Integration into Microsoft 365
First, let's install the application into Microsoft 365. In TimeZest, go to Integrations, then click the Microsoft Teams (Messaging) Integration.
Now click the Authenticate with Microsoft 365 button. You'll be taken to Microsoft 365 and asked to authorize the TimeZest application:
The permissions that TimeZest requires are the following:
Sign in and read user profile - required to retrieve information about users for matching their Microsoft 365 account to a TimeZest account
Read all users' full profiles - required to retrieve information about users for matching their Microsoft 365 account to a TimeZest account
Read the names and descriptions of all channels - required so TimeZest can display a list of all channels which can be selected to post messages to.
Get a list of all teams - required so that TimeZest can retrieve a list of Teams, which channels belong to.
Manage Teams apps for all users - allows TimeZest administrators to activate the TimeZest app for individual users via the TimeZest UI; otherwise, a complicated process is required to manually install the TimeZest Teams app for each individual user.
Read all app catalogs - allows TimeZest to determine where the TimeZest Teams app has been installed so that we only send messages to Teams / Users with the app installed, as required by Microsoft's Terms of Use.
Click Accept to grant TimeZest permission to access your Microsoft 365 tenant. You will be redirected back to TimeZest.
In the background, TimeZest is matching your TimeZest user accounts to Microsoft 365 user accounts (via their email address). We do not need to wait for it to finish.
Installing the TimeZest Teams App
The second part of the Microsoft Teams (Messaging) Integration is a Teams app, or "bot", which needs to be installed in Microsoft Teams, and which actually posts messages to channels and users as instructed by TimeZest.
Click the Install TimeZest Teams app button.
Download the .zip file that contains the "manifest" which describes the TimeZest Teams bot from the provided link.
In Microsoft Teams, click Apps in the leftmost menu bar, then Manage your apps at the very bottom of the Apps menu. In the screen that loads, click Upload an app in the menu bar.
In the dialog box that opens, click Upload an app to your org's app catalog, and upload the .zip file you downloaded above.
Finally, install the app into a Team. You'll be asked to initially select a default channel as well as a Team, but this channel has no effect, and TimeZest will only post to the channel configured in the workflows.
If you use multiple teams, you can install the app for multiple teams.
Click Add then Add to a Team:
You will then be asked to select a team and default channel. Only the team selection is important, as the channel selection is simply a default which will be ignored when you select the actual team to post to in the workflow actions in TimeZest.
When you've selected the team and default channel, click Set up a bot, and you're done in Teams. Back in TimeZest, click I've completed these Steps at the bottom of the screen.
The integration screen will now look like the following. At this stage, TimeZest is able to post to Teams channels, but not individual users. To allow TimeZest to post messages to individual users, click the Enable Messaging button next to their name.
In building this feature, we decided not to automatically make large-scale changes to your Teams instance by installing the TimeZest application for every user. We would be interested in hearing your feedback as to whether this would be a useful enhancement.
That's it! You'll now have access to two new workflow actions, Action: Send a Message to a Microsoft Teams Channel and Action: Post a Microsoft Teams chat message to scheduled users which you can include in your appointment type workflows.