How the Microsoft Teams Integration for SAP CX helps to improve collaboration within sales processes
The world has changed dramatically since the advent of COVID-19. During these difficult times, it has become increasingly important to stay at home to ensure the continuous safety of the community. Emphasis has been placed on being able to continue doing work activities from home. This has led to software bridging the gap and ensuring deep communication. One example of these solutions is Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams is a business communication tool. Users can video call each other, organize meetings and communicate via text chat. According to The Verge, Microsoft Teams has increased in usage by 70% up to 75 million users since the COVID-19 pandemic [1]. It has been responsible for connecting businesses during a time of staying at home. Another example of software that has dramatically shaped how we do work is SAP Customer Experience. SAP CX is Customer Relationship Management software that enables sales teams to spend more time with customers, empowered with intelligent recommendations to help win deals. SAP CX has proven itself in a tough market to provide insightful recommendations to its users. We believe that this power can be leveraged in conjunction with the communication power of Microsoft Teams to create a product that plays to both products’ strengths.
Microsoft Teams Integration for SAP CX
Microsoft Teams and third-party extensions go hand in hand. Microsoft Teams features a built-in app store with a variety of useful third-party apps. Big businesses have shown signs that they are actively using these third-party applications as well. Telekom and Unilever both came out saying that their Microsoft Teams integrated workflows have provided amazing results for their businesses [2][3]. We decided, therefore, that we needed to be the first ones to bring the power of SAP CX into Teams. Our solution implements a variety of SAP CX features into the Microsoft Teams client. Firstly, we wanted to let users quickly and easily access their SAP Sales Cloud data from within Teams. Therefore, we have automated the creation of Microsoft Teams Channels and Teams automatically on a per-customer basis. This means that whenever a new customer is becoming of greater importance to the business, a Microsoft Teams Channel will be automatically created and populated with tabs relevant to the customer. One of these tabs is an SAP Sales Cloud customer page, which will display all the information for that customer, right from within Teams. We believe this will be a huge workflow improvement as whenever you would like to discuss a specific customer in a meeting or whilst chatting to a colleague, you have quick and easy access to a complete and holistic view of the respective customer. 
We believe that the best way to keep any workflow productive is to ensure a transition is as seamless as possible. Another ground-breaking new feature of this solution is the ability to access your personal SAP Sales Cloud dashboard right from within Teams. That way you can access all your personal tasks, metrics and goals, right from within the Teams application with no fuss. Furthermore, connection has shown to be a vital motivator for anyone working in a Teams environment. Therefore, we have automated messages being sent to Teams groups via Interactive Cards. These will allow for important information to be sent to users in real-time, as well as provide some basic interaction. At Camelot ITLab we are fully dedicated to supporting this software long into the future. We have planned out a long timeline worth of updates for this product. Some of the key features to look forward include:
- Adjustable permissions for viewing information. This allows for a user to simply invite potential customers to Channels from within Teams
- Public Microsoft Teams store listings
- Chatbots with rich AI to perform some basic tasks for your SAP CX system
- Customizable notifications and alerts sent via Teams
What can this do for me?
The Microsoft Teams Integration for SAP Customer Experience will provide you with a rich and interactive SAP Sales Cloud experience delivered right from Microsoft Teams. This can lead to increased productivity by not having to constantly switch back to the full Sales Cloud experience to change small things or access a small piece of information. Furthermore, we want to foster a community of shared experiences and collaborative working. This is especially important at the moment as we aren’t currently traveling into offices. As such, we want to ensure that your employees stay connected via the chat channels in MS Teams. We achieve this through automated messages into Teams Channels, which can then be used to start a further discussion on a specific topic. In conclusion, during these trying times, one of the most demanding challenges for any business at the moment is to ensure the connection between employee and customer. Software such as Microsoft Teams is highlighting and enabling the ability for employees and customers to stay connected during this difficult period. Furthermore, we want to ensure that sales targets are hit, employees are staying healthy and efficient, and business is functioning well. SAP Customer Experience is a perfect way to ensure that methodology is being followed. We believe that the future lies in a strong connection between these two applications. If you would like to receive a demonstration of this solution in action, or you would like to get some more information, please contact one our experts at Camelot ITLab. References [1] https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/29/21241972/microsoft-teams-75-million-daily-active-users-stats [2] https://customers.microsoft.com/en-sg/story/822373-deutsche-telekom-telecommunications-office-365-teams [3] https://retailworldmagazine.com.au/unilever-to-transform-company-with-microsoft-tools/
We would like to thank Jacob Pyke for his valuable contribution to this article.
