Table of contents

• Introduction
• Admin consent
• Create your first template
  • Create a tag
  • Create a naming convention
  • Create your first template
  • Add your tag, naming convention, and privacy configuration to your template
• Invite users to create their team with your new template
• Welcome page
  • Favorite teams
  • Promoted teams
  • Search box & refiners
• Going further with Powell Teams
  • Activate your first report
  • Discover the power of automation
  • Check out our roadmap

New to Powell Teams? Click here for the full product overview. 

Introduction

Welcome to your Powell Teams! This page will guide you during your first steps on the app. We advise you to start using Powell Teams with our core features detailed step by step on this page.

Admin consent

To allow Powell Teams users to access their Microsoft Teams data in your Office 365 environment, You need to allow the connection to the Microsoft Graph API. An Office 365 global administrator must consent to the Azure AD app and its permissions. Without consent, the application will not work.

This application needs the following rights on the Graph API :

-Access the directory as you: Needed to list users' teams

-Read and write all groups: Needed to get information on teams and create new teams

-Read items in all site collections: Needed to get documents in users' teams 

-Read all users' full profiles: Needed to get information on users

-Read items in all site collections: to retrieve content associated with the connected user rights

-Read and write for OneNote: to manage OneNote content in a team template

Your Powell Teams application is ready to be used by everyone in the company!

After the admin consent, your Powell Teams application is ready to use and other users in the same Office 365 environment will have access to it without the need to configure it.

Create your first template

Now that Powell Teams is ready to use on your tenant, you can configure your very first template. You can consult the dedicated article to create it. But first, we advise your to start with a tag and a naming convention that you will use within this first template.

Create a tag

To access the administrator back office, click on the following button on the user dashboard:

Tags are used for the team classification. When Powell Teams Administrators create templates, they can add tags. Templates make it easy for users to find teams on the user dashboard.
To access "Tags," click "Menu," "Global administration," and then "Tags."

For a first tag, we advise your to create a "Location" tag. It will allow you to classify your teams according to their location.

Click "Create a new tag".

To create a new tag, give the tag a name, choose a tag type from the dropdown menu.

For your location tag, we will have to choose a "choice" tag.

You can use each tag as a refiner in the user Dashboard. Click the checkbox "Use this tag as a refiner in the user dashboard." Read the Welcome page for more information on how refiners appear on the user dashboard and search for teams using filters.

Click "SAVE" to save your tag and return to the Tag list.

New tags are added to the tag list and will appear in search as you tag teams or create tags for the naming convention in the template.

If you want more details about tags, consult this page. 

Create a naming convention

To complete your future template configuration, you can use a naming convention. It will allow you to force the team created with your template to be named in a certain way.
Powell Teams Administrators create naming conventions in the template creation form or in "Naming convention" in the administration section. In this section, you can modify them afterward. Click "Menu" - "Global administration" - "Naming convention" to open the list.
The list shows all existing naming conventions in one place and gives administrators all the necessary information.

Click on  "Add a new naming convention" to create one. Read about how naming conventions are created and assigned to a template in Team template settings.

To identify the naming convention, give your naming convention a title. Then you add the rules to define your naming.

You should select a tag in "Select a rule" to use your new "Location" tag in your naming convention. You will find it in the search bar.

Add also a Team name rule in this naming convention. A user enters a "Team name in the Team creation process." This rule adds this name to the naming convention. 

Your new naming convention will be composed of your location tag and a free text available for a user during the team creation made with it.

Here you can find all the information concerning the naming convention.

Create your first template

Before creating your template in Powell Teams, you need to create a team in Microsoft Teams with proper channels and tabs. You will then use your Microsoft team as a model for your template in the template creation form. It is crucial; Powell Teams templates are based on reference teams to prepopulate channels, tabs, additional configurations, or members.

Open the template list page :

Click on “Create Template” to open the template creation form.

The form does include three steps:

1. General Information
2. Select a team's template
3. Team's settings

Give your template a title and description on the "General Information" tab. The title and description of the template will be visible to users when they choose a template during the team creation process. The template information URL can guide users to use the template. It will be displayed during team creations.

Next step is to select an existing team from the list of teams available for you.

Select the team you want to use for your template. Use the search bar to find the required Microsoft Team team.

After your selection, click on Next.
In Team's settings, you choose which components of the existing Team you want to add to the Powell Teams template. Mark the checkboxes of Applications, Settings, Members, or Tabs to add them to your Template. Channels are always mandatory.

Click “Create Template” to create the template. 

Now that your template is created, you can edit it for the next part! Click "Show Template Details"

Add your tag, naming convention, and privacy configuration to your template.

Add your naming convention.

Click on the "Governance" toggle, Click on the radio button "Use an existing one," and choose the naming policy from the drop-down list. Every naming convention created is available in this list. You will select your new naming convention based on the location.

Add your tag 

You categorize teams by adding tags to the template. Users can use these tags as refiners on the user dashboard. You can now add the tag you just created to your team's template:

Users can choose tags from the dropdown list or keep the default values during the team's creation process. 

When you add a tag in your naming convention, it appears automatically. 

In "Categorize your teams with tags," you define default values. Users can change values during the team creation process. 

Mandatory: Click the Checkbox "Mandatory" to define any tag as mandatory. Every user choosing a mandatory tag is obliged to choose a value for this tag. Tags not set as mandatory are allowed to have empty values. 

Hidden for users: Administrators can hide some tags associated with a team template to use these tags only when needed. 

Privacy setting

Define the privacy setting for teams created based on this template

• To create private teams, only choose the option "Private."
• To create public teams, select the option "Public".
• To give users a choice during the team creation process, select "Let the user choose."

Congratulations! Your template is now ready to use and includes a tag, a naming convention, and has an appropriate privacy configuration.

Invite users to create their team with your new template

This is now the time to test your template with real users. Gather your Beta tester team and ask them to create teams with your template.

Team creation

Users can create a new team based on company templates via the "Create a new team" button on top of the Welcome page. As you click on this button, a team creation form appears. As an admin, you can also create teams from the back office page named "All Teams" with the same button. To successfully create a new team, you need to follow the steps. 

• To create a team, you need to choose a template on which your team will be based. When you click on the button "create a new team," the list of available templates appears. 

They can click on your new template. A small window will pop up that will give you short information about this template. 

Specifically, it will list the name and a short description of the template along with all the channels and tabs existing in that specific template. It means that if you choose this template for your new team, your team will duplicate the channels and tabs listed below.

Click “Use this template”. 

General information

The chosen template defines how the "General Information" page looks like, as tags and their default values are configured within the template. You are able to choose the tag values. An Asterix at the Tag name identifies a tag as mandatory. 

Then you will see your location tag and your future team name will be impacted by the naming convention added to the template.

 

Owners and members

• Then the 3rd step lets you invite users to your team. First, you need to choose your team's privacy if you want to let the user choose the privacy in the template configuration. In the example shown on the image below: the team privacy has already been defined as "private". This means a user does not have an option to choose. In this case, every time this template is applied to a team, the team privacy will be automatically set to "private."

 

After this step, you start adding people as team owners and team members. A warning message at the bottom of the page informs us if a minimum number of owners and users has been defined for this template. In this case, in order to continue, you need to add at least the required number. 

Powell Teams Administrators can define default owners and members within the template. You will still be able to add additional owners and members. Default members and owners chosen in this Template will be automatically added to your team. 

 

Review and validation

The last step is to review and validate your team.

You have a summary of your configurations. You should validate the team name,  team description, team privacy, team owners, members, and tags. 

If any information is not accurate, you can always return to the previous pages to make your modifications. Use the previous button or the form tabs at the top of the page.

 

Welcome page

The Welcome page (user dashboard) is your overview of what is happening in Microsoft Teams. 

On this page, you will find: 

• My favorites tab with your most-used/favorite teams
• My teams tab with the list of all your teams, including the recently modified documents within those teams and access to all channels & team shortcuts
• Promoted teams tab with important company teams
• Waiting for approvals tab
• The search-box and the refiner to easily find desired teams.
• The "Create a new team" button to create a new team.
• The settings icon to access the administration page.
• The feedback icon to quickly share your feedback with Powell Software and its product team
• The link to access Powell Teams help page.
• The sign out button

For this trial, we will focus on three subjects: favorite teams, promoted ones, and the use of filters.

 

Favorites teams

To quickly access the teams you use the most, add them to the "My favorites" tab. 

• To do that, you need to click on the three dots under the "My Teams" tab and tag a team as "favorite." The team will be immediately added to the "My favorites" tab.

 

 

Promoted Teams

As a Powell Teams administrator, you can promote & highlight important company teams to your employees. 

As a result, new or existing employees can quickly discover the important company teams to follow on the user dashboard under the " Promoted " tab. Check the Welcome page for more information. 

 

To promote teams to your employees, go to the menu > manage your teams > promoted teams.

 

You have the list of promoted teams displayed in alphabetical order on this page.

Only Microsoft Teams administrators can list all teams. If you are not a Microsoft Teams administrator, you will see the teams you are an owner or member of.

You can delete a team from the list of promoted teams with a delete button on the right.
You can click on the edit icon to modify the team and select a profile that will be assigned to this team.
To promote a new team, click on the "add a team button.", then choose a team you want to be promoted from the list. Here you can add one of your newly created teams.

Select a profile to assign to this team as you choose your team. If you check the option everyone, the team will be promoted for everyone. The second option lets you target specific people with a profile feature.

 

The search box and the refiners

The Dashboard allows you to quickly filter and see through all your teams and all the recent documents shared within your teams. 

Through the search box, you can directly look for different teams. To search, type the name of your team in the text box. The refiners on the left side of the page will allow you to filter through your teams. Since tags are applied to teams during creation or import (soon), the refiner will make it easier for you to find the desired team. 

For example, you can configure the refiners to reflect your company's requirements through different departments, locations, or project types. 

Here, you should see your "Location" tag displayed in the refiners.

Refiners are created and configured by Powell Teams Administrators. If this area of your dashboard is empty, it means Powell Teams administrators haven't created any filters yet. To configure the refiners, you need to be a Powell Teams Administrator. Then you can access the admin settings through the Manage tags page in the administration section.

 

When Powell Teams administrators have not set any refiners, a message will be displayed to invite them to do it.

 

Going further with Powell Teams

Activate your first report

The reports section can be accessed in the administration section through the menu and displays five pages to provide information on teams

• Activity logs
• Teams with external users
• Teams without enough owners
• Expired teams
• Teams with missing owners and members

 

The report can be generated manually the first time and then it is executed once a week on Saturday. Once you activated the first report, all of them will be generated each week.

 

As they are generated in the background, to have access to it, you need the advance or Enterprise authentication configured. See Manage Authentication

If you want to discover in detail all of our reports, check it right here.

 

Discover the power of automation

With the Automation service, Powell Teams authorizes users to add additional functions and logic to the team, created through a Powell Teams template. 

Powell Teams automation service supports 3 connector types:​

1. Azure Automation​
2. Azure functions​
3. Power Automate

You can associate those services to different types of triggers on Powell Teams. Your services can be triggered in 3 different cases:

      1. After approval workflow request sent

      2. After application of a template

      3. After report creation

 

Test automation in a template

Step 1: Link your Azure function or Azure automation in Powell Teams in the automation section.​

• Go to the Global administration in the Menu and click the page automation.

• Click on the button "create a new automation"

• Start filling in the form:
  • Name: put the name of the function
  • Description:  put the description of the function
  • Trigger:  select the trigger. 

The trigger will run after the application of the template, we can check the option "After application of a template"

• Automation: Choose which technology you want to use for the actual automation capability  

• Confirm

 

Step 2: Associate your Powell Teams automation to your Powell Teams template​

• Go to "Microsoft Team template" " in the  admin menu
• Choose the template from the list
• Go to the governance in the  template settings
• Go to the "Automation" section in the template settings
• Choose the automation you created from the dropdown list

 

You can now associate multiple automations in a Powell Teams template to trigger multiple events. Note: there is no order in the automation executions, all are launched at the same time.

 

• Save the changes
  
  

Step 3: Create a team based on this Powell Teams Template 

• Go to the page "All teams" in the menu
• Click on the button "create a new team"
• Apply the template on which you associated the Powell Teams automation
• Add additional information in the form and click create

 

Check out our roadmap

On this page, you will have information about future feature releases to help you stay on track. 

The Roadmap page can be accessed through the Product information section in the Menu. 

 

The table that you'll see in the image below will list all upcoming features. It gives you visibility about the features that are being developed.

 

Each feature listed in the table will display: 

• The status (whether it is in the backlog / in development / released)
• Targets - whether it will impact the administrators or the end-users
• Tags -  In which product category does each feature fall into
• The Targeted Date - Estimated delivery dates.

The roadmap will be always updated with new information or changes. 

 

If you click on the eye icon ("see") or anywhere else on the table, it will open the Feature details.