With the help of Microsoft Teams automations, you can replace repetitive, tedious tasks with effective, repeatable automated processes that only require a single setup. We outline the top automations available in Microsoft Teams right now in this article.
Some examples of Microsoft Teams automations included in this post are:
- Approvals
- Flow Bot
- Zapier
- Slack
- Webex
- Teamwork Analytics
- Automate.io
- AVA
- Whobot
- Connectors
How do you automate tasks in Microsoft Team?
Adding your most-used apps to Teams is the best way to automate routine chores in Microsoft Teams (in both channels and chats).
Over 600 known third-party app integrations and native integrations with other Microsoft 365 applications like Word, PowerPoint, Forms, etc. are available in the Teams app store. To set off specific activities based on specific behaviours, you can also design your own automations. This is easy to manage, thanks to tools like Zapier.
We’ve compiled the top Microsoft Teams automations so you can choose the best option.
Microsoft Teams automation no.1 – Approvals
Use the Approvals workflow from Microsoft Teams rather than waiting for team members to return to the workplace or checking the status of pending work.
In January 2021, approvals became widely accessible and can be accessed through channels and chats. Now you don’t need to open another app to make, approve, or reject a request. The Approvals app can instantly route your approval to other applications like ServiceNow and Azure DevOps.
Regular approvers can pin the Approvals app to the left by adding it as a link to their Teams menu. Regular approvers can also pin the Approvals app to the left by adding it as a link to their Teams menu. In addition to this, there is also a standalone version of the Approvals program.
Microsoft Teams automation no.2 – Flow bot
You can reach the Flow bot when you add Microsoft Flow to any channel in Teams. When something occurs in Teams, Flow Bot enables you to generate a literal flow of information. Every time someone mentions you in a particular channel, you will receive an email.
The email is the action, and the @ mention is the trigger. This is a much better option than receiving all @ mention alerts automatically. You can create as many custom processes as you like. They can be as straightforward as this illustration or as complex as you need.
To install Flow assistant in Microsoft Teams, go to the Add a tab and enter Flow into the search field to add Flow.
If your team members are already using Flow, recommended tabs will appear in the top row. After selecting Flow and saving, Flow will appear as an option in Teams.
Microsoft Teams automation no.3 – Zapier
For Microsoft Teams, there are over 3,000 “Zaps” on the integration site Zapier. Zapier operates on a trigger and action premise, just like Flow bot. For instance, you can get a message in a particular Teams channel when someone registers for your event on Eventbrit
The action is the channel communication in Teams, and the trigger is the Eventbrite signup. Some of the popular apps you can connect Teams to using Zapier include:
Microsoft Teams automation no.4 – Slack
Knowing your company utilises communication tools besides Microsoft Teams is one thing. Another is taking action to maximise effectiveness. It might be tempting to try and switch everyone in your company over to Teams if a small group of users favour Slack. But what happens if they continue to use Slack despite having a Teams account? Shadow IT is what will happen.
You can use the Mio app to automate communications between Teams and Slack instead of upsetting your Slack users, and making them learn a new messaging app.
With Mio, everyone continues to chat as if they were using the same app when someone transmits a message from Teams to a Slack user. This is because Mio translates the message cross-platform. Both channels and conversations allow message sending. Emojis, reactions, GIFs, edits, and deletions – all messaging features – are also allowed.
Microsoft Teams automation no.5 – Webex
If your company also uses Webex and Teams, you can automate cross-platform communications with the Mio app, like the Slack example above. You can type a message in Teams and have it received in Webex whenever you need to message a user who prefers Webex and doesn’t check Teams frequently.
Once again, changes to or deletions of messages will be displayed on both platforms. Emojis, GIFs, and message threads are all allowed as well. You can also make channels or chats with all three platforms included if you have Teams users as well as users of Webex and Slack.
Microsoft Teams automation no.6 – Teamwork Analytics
Teamwork Analytics was developed by Nasstar to counter threats and spot opportunities throughout your Teams environment effectively. Teamwork Analytics offers automated actionable insights to promote organization-wide adoption while assuring Teams governance, security, and control, from call quality issues to adoption misfires.
When you sign up for Teamwork Analytics, you can access usage, performance, and governance data on the back end. However, you also receive automated alerts to promote the use of video, collaboration, or personal activity reports.
Teamwork Analytics uses Power BI reports to identify trends based on user counts, guest access, etc. and tells you of your compliance with performance standards and rules.
Microsoft Teams automation no.7 – automate.io
A Zapier substitute, automate.io, links Teams with more than 200 distinct apps in its library. Although Wrike and FreshBooks are among the apps that are listed as “coming soon,” automate.io already works with the following programs:
- Trello
- PayPal
- Xero
- Asana
- HubSpot CRM
- Salesforce
- Todoist
- Stripe
- Google Tasks
Getting notifications from Teams when a new Jira issue is created and generating new Trello cards from messages in particular Teams channels are two standard automations on automate.io. You can eliminate the need to switch between apps while working by utilising these automations.
Microsoft Teams automation no.8 – AVA
If there were ever a task in Teams that required automation, it would be finding deleted or missing files. The introduction of AVA (AvePoint Virtual Assistant) in 2018 allowed for recovering any deleted files from the Microsoft 365 environment.
To restore the requested item, the virtual assistant will automatically perform a search based on the user’s permissions in Exchange, Outlook, and OneDrive’s recycle bin. But remember, you must first download AVA from the Teams app store to chat with the virtual assistant.
Microsoft Teams automation no.9 – WhoBot
It’s time to make finding individuals in Teams easier once you’ve automated finding deleted files. Asking queries like “Who is aware of the most recent HR policy” is possible once WhoBot has been installed from the Teams App Store.
WhoBot searches through public papers to identify the pertinent individuals who most recently worked on the HR policy and suggests you contact them. To install Whobot, click on More Apps from the list that shows when you click on the three dots next to your Teams menu.
Microsoft Teams automation no.10 – Connectors
Connectors that can be used to send bulletin-style changes to particular channels are already included in Microsoft Teams. What distinguishes posting a standard message to everyone in a channel from using a connector?
Connectors enables automated status update retrieval from applications outside the Microsoft ecosystem. For instance, you can receive an update in Teams whenever a Trello card is edited. Alternatively, they can immediately show up in the channel of your choice if you want to see your most recent GitHub updates without leaving Teams and looking for them.
Adding a connector to a channel is simple:
- Click the … icon on the channel you wish to connect an external app to
- Choose Connectors from the drop-down list
- Select the connectors you desire from the pre-populated selection of approved apps
- Add a name for your connector
- The address your connector must take from (like twitter.com/Nasstar)
- Select how frequently you’d like to receive updates
- Click Save
You can connect to many different applications using connectors, including Jira, Bing News, Yammer, RSS, and Twitter. These are just a few instances of applications that publish “updates.”
Your news and status updates are automatically entered into Teams when you are online.
Conclusion
With automations on Microsoft Teams, you can now collaborate seamlessly and effectively with your team members without downloading multiple applications. Just select one or two applications of your choice and learn to utilise them for an easy and snag-free working collaboration experience.
