# Getting started with Workbot for MS Teams by Workato
# What is Workato?
If you're familiar with Workato, or want to quickly get started with Workbot, skip to Setup Workbot.
Workato helps you automate business workflows across cloud apps, on-premise apps and employees, for example, New case in Salesforce will create issue in Jira & incident in ServiceNow, and more.
Workato combines enterprise-grade workflow automation with the ease-of-use expected from consumer apps, allowing business users and IT to quickly build workflow automations.
# Workbot for MS Teams, powered by Workato
If you're familiar with Workbot, skip to Setup Workbot.
Workbot is a bot platform built on top of Workato. It helps you run these business workflows directly from Teams.
These business workflows can be initiated from Teams by using Workbot commands. When the command is sent to Workbot (via direct messages or channels), it will look for the corresponding workflow in Workato and execute the workflow steps.
Sending a 'view_opportunities' command. The retrieves the open opportunities in Salesforce, then sends a reply
These workflows — combined with Workbot — allow you to retrieve, create, and update data across all your apps - directly within Teams.
In Workato, these powerful workflows are known as Recipes.
# Recipes
Recipes are automated workflows built by users that can span multiple apps.
Each recipe comprises of a Trigger and one or more Actions that are carried out when a trigger event occurs.
# Workbot commands
Commands allow you to run recipes from Teams. These recipes can then perform actions in your apps (for example, creating new ServiceNow tickets, listing Salesforce opportunities).
A recipe configured with a 'newissue' Workbot command
For more info, go to Workbot commands.
# Setup Workbot
# Requirements
To use Workbot for Teams, a Microsoft work or school account (opens new window) is required. These accounts are created by your organization’s administrator to enable a member of your organization access to all Microsoft cloud services such as Microsoft Azure, Office 365, Microsoft Teams, and more.
Microsoft accounts (typically created for personal use) are not supported.
# Microsoft Graph permissions
To perform optimally, Workbot for Teams requires the following Microsoft Graph permissions (opens new window). Admin consent is NOT required for any of these permissions.
| Permission | Type | Why Workbot needs it |
|---|---|---|
| User.Read | delegated | Retrieves the authenticating user's user ID and user name to keep track of who installed the bot. |
| User.ReadBasic.All | delegated | Retrieves information about users. |
| Channel.ReadBasic.All | delegated | Lists channels in the Post message / Post simple message actions. |
| Team.ReadBasic.All | delegated | Retrieves organization ID and name to keep track of where bot is installed. |
| offline_access | delegated | Allows us to refresh tokens. |
| AppCatalog.Read.All | delegated | Required for retrieving installed App ID for user from Microsoft Teams app catalog. |
| TeamsAppInstallation.ReadWriteSelfForUser | delegated | Required for installing Workbot in personal scope. Allows for the sending of proactive messages to users. |
# Install requirements
To install Workbot into your Microsoft organization, you must have one of the following roles assigned:
- Application administrator
- Cloud application administrator
- Global administrator
- Privileged role administrator
An unlikely user with several administrator Assigned Roles
Note that installing as a global administrator optionally allows you to Consent on behalf of the organization during installation. This is particularly useful as it allows users to reconnect Workbot (in Workato) without requiring an admin user during authentication.
Extra checkbox to consent on behalf of organization when installing as global admin
# Setup
Follow the steps below to connect Workbot for MS Teams to Workato.
| No. | Step | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Enter into a direct message conversation with Workbot | In MS Teams, go to the top search bar and search for Workbot. Alternatively, you can go to Apps from the bottom of the left navigation bar. Search for Workbot and select Add for me.  |
| 2 | Start a conversation with Workbot | Type help and hit Send. You should see a welcome message with some setup instructions. |
| 3 | Login to your Workato account | From the welcome message, select Login. If you don't have a Workato account yet, select create a new one instead. |
| 4 | Creating a new Workbot for MS Teams connection | In Workato, go to App Connection from the top navigation bar. Select create a new connection and search for Workbot for Microsoft Teams. |
| 5 | Authenticate and authorize Workbot | Click Connect and login using your Microsoft credentials. When prompted to allow Workato to access your info, click Yes. If you are a Global administrator, you can optionally Consent on behalf of your organization. This allows users to perform reconnection in Workato without requiring an administrator during reauthorization. |
| 6 | Done | Once successfully connected, you can now begin using this connection to build bot recipes. Check out some of our community recipes. |
# Your first Workbot recipe
These recipes (opens new window) have been built by the Workato community.
For this guide, we will be choosing the View open opportunities in Salesforce recipe:
Select Use this recipe to continue.
# Connecting your apps
To connect to Workbot for Microsoft Teams, select Link your account:
Log in using your Microsoft credentials.
If successful, you should see this screen:
To connect to Salesforce, select Link your account:
Log into your Salesforce:
If successful, you should see this screen:
Your apps are connected! Click Next to test the recipe.
# Starting your recipe
After a few seconds, your recipe should be ready for use:
Close the pop-up, and select Start recipe.
Go to Teams and send Workbot the view_opportunities command, or type help and choose View opportunities.
Example of a post reply listing open opportunities from Salesforce
# The help command
Bot commands can be displayed using 'help' when your Workato account meets all the following conditions:
- has a connected Workbot for Teams connection,
- has a recipe with the Workbot for Teams
New commandtrigger and - the recipe has been started
# Adding Workbot to a team
Workbot can also be added to your teams. This way, anyone from the team can run Workbot commands by mentioning the bot, for example, @workbot help.
# How to add Workbot to a team
In MS Teams, select Apps from the left navigation bar and search for Workbot. Select Workbot.
Searching for Workbot in App catalog
Select the arrow and select Add to a team.
Select your team from the dropdown menu. Once selected, select Set up.
Once Workbot has been added to your team, you, and your team members can run Workbot commands by mentioning the bot, for example, @workbot help.
# Additional info
Head over to our documentation for more information on how Workbot works!
Last updated: 6/29/2023, 2:56:27 PM