Microsoft Teams

Overview

The Microsoft Teams integration connects IFS Loops to your Teams environment so a Digital Worker can access and act on Teams messages. Setup has three parts: installing the IFS TheLoops bot at the organization level in the Microsoft Teams Admin Center, creating a dedicated channel for a Digital Worker's human in the loop review, and configuring the connector in IFS Loops so it can ingest and analyze channel messages. The connector supports two capabilities: Helpdesk and Collaboration, and uses OAuth-based authentication with automatic token persistence to keep the connection active.

Prerequisites

• Admin access to the Microsoft Teams Admin Center, to install or update the IFS TheLoops bot.
• The latest IFS TheLoops Bot ZIP package, provided by the IFS Loops team.
• A Microsoft Teams/Microsoft 365 account with permission to create teams and channels, and to grant consent during authentication.
• Access to the IFS Loops platform with Admin role privileges.
• A dedicated Teams channel for the Digital Worker's human in the loop review, created before configuring the connector (see Create the digital worker channel below).
• Know in advance which capability you'll configure, Helpdesk and/or Collaboration, and which channel (Helpdesk) or Team and channel (Collaboration, if using Sandbox) you'll select during configuration.

Best Practices

• Regional app name: The bot appears in the Teams app directory with a regional suffix: IFS TheLoops US or IFS TheLoops EU. Confirm which applies to your organization, since it's referenced throughout the setup steps below.

IFS Loops Microsoft Teams Connector – Microsoft Graph Permissions

The following table lists the Delegated Microsoft Graph API permissions used by the IFS Loops Microsoft Teams Connector for collaboration capability.

User.Read

Allows IFS Loops to read the profile information of the user who authorized the Teams connector. This is used to identify the user who initially authenticated/configured the connector.

User.Read.All

In a Teams channel, different users can interact with the IFS Loops bot. IFS Loops uses this permission to retrieve the basic profile information of the user interacting with the bot, so that it can identify who is interacting with the bot and associate the interaction with the correct user.

Channel.ReadBasic.All

Allows IFS Loops to retrieve basic information about Teams channels, such as the channel name, channel ID, and channel type. This information is required when configuring a Teams channel for Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) scenarios. For example, when you want a Digital Worker to send notifications to a specific Teams channel, that channel needs to be configured in IFS Loops. It is also used when configuring a Teams channel from which users can invoke a Digital Worker using bot commands.

Team.ReadBasic.All

Allows IFS Loops to retrieve basic information about Teams, such as the team name and team ID. This is used to identify the Teams team in which the IFS Loops bot is installed and to determine which Teams team is being used with the connector.

offline_access

Allows IFS Loops to maintain the user's authorization when the access token expires by obtaining a refresh token. This prevents the user from having to authenticate again frequently and allows the connector to continue operating.

Setup instructions

Remove the existing bot

If a previous version of the bot is installed, remove it first to avoid conflicts. Skip this section on a first-time install.

1

Log in to the Microsoft Teams Admin Center.

2

Navigate to Teams apps → Manage apps.

3

Search for the existing bot: IFS TheLoops US (US region) or IFS TheLoops EU (EU region).

4

Click the app to open its detail page.

5

Click Actions, then select Delete.

6

Confirm the deletion if prompted.

Refresh the Manage apps page

1

Refresh the Manage apps page.

2

Confirm the previous bot version is no longer listed.

Create the digital worker channel

For a Digital Worker to support human in the loop review, a dedicated Teams channel is required.

1

Go to Teams and channels, then click See all your teams.

2

Click Create team.

• This will be the dedicated team for the Digital Worker.
• Use an appropriate team name (for example, IFS Loops Digital Worker).
• Under Team type, choose Private.
• Under First channel name, choose an appropriate channel name (for example, Customer Order Manager Digital Worker human in the loop).
• Going forward, ensure that any user who needs to interact with the Digital Worker is added to this team.

3

Go to the channel, click the three dots in the top right, select Manage channel, then click Edit.

• Set Layout to Threads.

4

Add the IFS TheLoops bot to this channel (see Add the bot to a specific channel above).

5

If applicable, to invite an external guest to the channel:

1. Click Manage team
2. Go to the Members tab
3. Click Add member
4. Enter the guest's email address.

Upload the new bot package

1

In Manage apps, click Actions, then Upload new app.

2

Select the Bot ZIP file provided by the IFS Loops team.

3

Wait for the upload to complete.

4

Search for IFS TheLoops US or IFS TheLoops EU to confirm the new version is visible and available.

Add the bot to a team

This is typically a one-time, organization-level step to make the bot available in Teams. To add it to a specific channel, such as the digital worker channel created below, use Add the bot to a specific channel instead.

1

Open Microsoft Teams.

2

Navigate to Apps in the left sidebar.

3

Search for IFS TheLoops (select IFS TheLoops US or IFS TheLoops EU depending on your region).

4

Select the bot from the search results, then click Add.

5

When prompted, choose the Team or Channel where the bot should be installed and complete the setup.

6

Log out and back into Teams.

Add the bot to a specific channel

1

Navigate to the channel where you want to add the bot.

2

Click the + (Add a tab) icon in the top header.

3

Select Apps.

4

Search for IFS TheLoops, then select it from the results.

5

Click Save.

Note: if a team has multiple channels that each need the bot, repeat this step for each channel individually.

Verify the bot installation

1

Navigate to the Team or Channel where the bot was installed.

2

Confirm the bot is visible and active.

3

Perform a test interaction to confirm the bot is functioning.

4

Verify the Agent Homepage tab is visible at the top of the page.

Initiate Integration

1

Log in to the IFS Loops platform using your credentials.

2

Navigate to the Connectors section from the sidebar.

3

Click Add Integration.

4

Choose Teams from the list.

Microsoft Teams integration

1

Go to the Integration Configuration page.

2

User Email (Optional):

• Enter the email address of the Teams account used for authentication.
• This is optional and is used only for identification.

3

Select Capability Configuration:

• For Collaboration capability: select the environment (Production or Sandbox).
• If Sandbox is selected: choose the Team that contains the channel you want to use.
• For Helpdesk capability: select the channel from which you want to pull messages.

4

Click Update.

Data ingestion job

1

Navigate to the Jobs / Data Ingestion tab.

2

Select Ingress Type as Full Ingress for Helpdesk capability.

3

Select Collaboration Channel Ingress for Collaboration capability.

4

Click Start Ingress.

5

After a few minutes, verify the job status is successful.

Regenerate token

1

Go to the Microsoft Teams integration and click Edit.

2

Navigate to the Authentication tab.

3

A login window will appear.

4

Log in using your credentials and grant permissions.

5

On success, you will see the message: “Integration updated successfully.”