Today, Sebastian Zolg talks to Sophie about the possibilities of chatbots in Microsoft Teams for process automation. In this podcast episode, you can find out what experiences he has already had, what the future might look like and who LUIS is.

About Sebastian Zolg

Sebastian Zolg works at Swisscom and is responsible for chatbots in connection with Microsoft Teams. He is also one of the Microsoft MVPs in Switzerland with a focus on the Business Apps platform.

Teams – An applications platform for business customers

Typically, people associate Microsoft Teams with limitless collaboration with each other. However, Microsoft has quietly and secretly created an applications platform for business customers with Teams, in which chatbots play a central, if not the central role, says Sebastian. In addition to the exchange between employees, chatbots offer essential added value for users in teams. The use of chatbots begins where employees can store their documents in teams.

For example, individual business processes such as vacation requests, expense reports or approval workflows can be mapped in teams, with the chatbot acting as a useful assistant in the background. This means that the bot is sometimes not even in one-to-one communication with employees, but instead pushes individual approvals back and forth in the background, updates users or proactively reminds them if a process remains unprocessed for too long. For example, a reminder function for an approval process is particularly charming, where the bot takes over the boss’s reminder so that the employee does not have to constantly chase and “nag”. In addition, the request for approval is forwarded to the bot and not directly to the boss, as this is also done by the chatbot.

I want that too – and now?

Within the Microsoft universe, there are many ways to achieve your goal – whether fast or very challenging, there is something for everyone. The journey at Microsoft always starts with the so-called Power Virtual Agents. The technology makes it possible to graphically compile a dialog and thus create an initial chatbot. This approach is particularly suitable if you want to implement the project in the company without professional software developers or largely using your own IT.

Would you like something a little more elaborate? Then the Microsoft Bot Framework is suitable. There are an unimaginable number of possibilities here. However, as the name suggests, this is only a framework, so professional software developers are indispensable.

What you need for a complete approval process

The bot should be able to do more than just greet and say goodbye to users? A connection to other systems is then often necessary. If, for example, an entire approval process is to be mapped in Microsoft Teams, you can use Power Automate from Microsoft in addition to the Power Virtual Agents. This allows you to independently model entire workflows and then connect them to the chatbot, even without professional software developers.

There are so many different communication channels and platforms that employees can use to communicate with each other these days. Having additional windows open at this point to handle individual processes doesn’t make it any easier – so why not map a large number of processes in Teams? By using chatbots in teams, the interaction with the business applications that are connected by the chatbot actually shifts to where the collaboration takes place. Not only does this reduce the number of windows, but it also naturally increases the efficiency of the individual when everything takes place in one place, so to speak, and you don’t have to interact with a huge variety of products, Sebastian is pleased to say.

When everyone can curate knowledge

Another use case beyond approval processes, which is also very frequently requested by customers, is a knowledge database. People often associate it with a database from which employees in the company can retrieve information on specific processes. We think one step ahead, says Sebastian Zolg. For example, if a user discovers incorrect information or if there is no entry for their question, it would be great if they could correct the entry directly via the chatbot.

In the event that there is no entry at all, the employee could ask the chatbot to identify an expert on the topic in the company, who would then write an article on the topic. How does that work? For example, the chatbot automatically checks who has recently been very active on a certain topic. It stands to reason that this person can also help with a similar topic or forward the chatbot to the right person.

LUIS who?

If customers have a very complex problem in connection with natural language, then LUIS from Microsoft is the potential solution. LUIS stands for Language Understanding and is used to make natural language processable for the chatbot. It can be used to read intentions and entities from a sentence, which in turn enables a very natural interaction with the chatbot and goes far beyond simple question-answer pairs in communication.

For whom it is worthwhile and what it costs

Just want to plan your week with a chatbot or get support with your next daily stand-up? Of course, this also works in very small teams of 4-5 employees or more. However, if a company wants a fully-fledged digital assistant, it usually needs its own software developers and consequently its own IT department. This requires a company of the right size, Sebastian explains.

Prices also depend in part on the size of the company. Especially with low-code products, the price depends on whether you are a large company and may have special contracts with Microsoft or rather a small company that simply wants access to the technology. With more complex solutions such as the Microsoft Bot Framework, however, the costs are easier to quantify. Here you can operate your own chatbot for as little as 50 to 100 francs a month. However, Sebastian points out once again that in-house software developers are also required for implementation.

Learnings

1) Microsoft Teams offers far more than limitless collaboration with each other. An applications platform for business customers was created with Teams.

2. many different communication channels can be replaced by teams. This also increases the efficiency of the individual if a lot can take place in a single location.

3. a chatbot in Teams is worthwhile for small use cases such as planning your own week or support with the next daily standup for 4-5 employees or more.

4 With the Microsoft Bot Framework, you can operate your own chatbot for as little as 50 to 100 francs a month. However, this solution requires in-house software developers,

It’s best to listen to the podcast episode with Sophie Hundertmark and Sebastian Zolg for yourself. Have fun!

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