Field Service app (preview) for Teams

I’m sure many of you have caught wind of the exciting news around Field Service Copilot which was announced just a few weeks back. The wait is over, especially for those in the NA regions, as we got access to the preview feature on August 11th. In case you haven’t bumped into the buzz about Dynamics 365 Field Service Copilot, let me break it down for you. Imagine having another handy AI tool at your disposal, tucked right into your familiar pals like Outlook and Microsoft Teams. Plus, through the integration with Viva Connections, you can effortlessly access work order details through the Field Service copilot app for Microsoft Teams. Think of it as a helpful sidekick, just like Sales and Customer Service Copilot, all geared up to make processes smoother and productivity soar. Last week I wrote an article about Field Service Copilot in Outlook, where I created a work order from a customer’s email, checked work orders, and was able to open the schedule board, all without leaving Outlook! Oh, and hold onto your excitement, because there is also a Field Service app for Microsoft Teams. In this article, I’ll give you the lowdown on all the awesome features that are part of the Microsoft Teams app this preview!

Installing the Field Service Teams app (preview)

There are a few things that need to be done first from an administrator perspective. Below are the setups that are required. It’s possible some or all of these things have already been configured, but make sure you check before installing the Teams app.
The first thing you’ll need to do is create user groups for your frontline workers and front line managers. Follow these steps if you haven’t created any of these yet. Once the groups are setup, you’ll need to deploy the Field Service Teams app (preview). You can do this by opening Microsoft Teams, and navigating to ‘Apps’. on the sitemap on the left side of the screen. Search for the Field Service app and click on ‘Add’.

A new window will open up, showing an overview of the app, permissions the app will have and information on other apps. Click on the ‘Add button to add the app to Microsoft Teams. It only takes a short time for the app to appear on Teams, and once it does, it’ll open on the home page where you’ll see a page with the text: ‘View your work orders here’, with a button below that reads ‘Viva Connections’. This means that you’ll need to have installed and configured Viva Connections for your environment as well. NOTE: Viva Connections is included as part of your Microsoft Teams license. To connect with your Dynamics 365 Field Service instance, you’ll need to click the ‘Settings’ tab on the top, and select the right environment from the list. Once this is done, you can click on the button that reads: ‘Return to viva connections dashboard’.

Install and pin the Field Service app in Teams

For the next piece you’ll need to access the Microsoft Teams admin center and access policies. You can do this by opening the admin center and expanding the ‘Teams Apps’ area on the sitemap (left) and clicking on ‘Setup Policies’. I will edit the existing ‘Global’ policy by clicking on it. NOTE: You can also create a new policy and add the app here. Once the policy opens, click on ‘Add apps’ and search for the Field Service (preview) app and click on ‘Add’ once you’ve found it. Then click on ‘Add’ again to install the app. You should see the Field Service (preview) app under ‘Installed apps’.

Scroll down to the ‘Pinned apps’ section, and add the app here as well. You can move the order of the pinned apps by dragging them up or down. Don’t forget to hit ‘Save’ to save the setup. A pop-up will show that the changes you just made have an impact across the organization and that the changes will take time to take effect. Click ‘Confirm’ to save your changes.

Deploy and configure Field Service (preview) for Viva Connections

In order to make Field Service (preview) for Viva connections available in Teams, you’ll need to deploy the Field Service (preview) app for Viva Connections. You can do this by logging into Microsoft App source and searching for Dynamics 365 Field Service for viva connections. Click on the ‘Get it now’ button to initial the install. You’ll notice that Sharepoint will be launched. When the page opens, click on the ‘Add to apps site’ button. This will open another pop-up window where you’ll need to enable the app and add it to all sites. Keep in mind that you’ll need to approve API access in order for the setup to be completed, you can do this by clicking on ‘Go to API access page’ in the ‘Approve Access’ window that pops up. Once you landed on the API access page, expand the pending request for Dynamics 365 Field Service for Viva connections. NOTE: You can also access the API Access page by logging into the Sharepoint Admin Center, expanding the ‘Advanced’ section and selecting API Access.
The last step is to add the Field Service Cards to the Viva Connections Dashboard. You can do this by opening the Viva Connections app from within the Microsoft Teams app. Click ‘Edit’ on the right side of the dashboard. A new window will open. Click the ‘+ Add a card’ button and add any of the 3 available Field Service cards. You can also set a target audience for each individual card. If your organization is using Remote Assist, you can add that card as well. Remember to publish the changes to the dashboard by clicking the ‘Publish’ button on the top right of the screen.
Lastly, if needed you can configure security roles and field security profiles, and optionally sync azure AD groups and Dataverse security roles.

Using the Teams App: Frontline Managers

In order to access the Field Service app in Microsoft Teams, users can search for the Field Service (preview) app from within Teams and add it to Teams. Once the app is added, you can open the Field Service (preview) app in Teams. By clicking on the ‘Settings’ tab on the top, you can connect the app to your Dynamics 365 Field Service environment. Once the environment has been connected, you can click on the ‘Return to Viva Connections Dashboard’. You’ll see the Field Service cards that were added on the Dashboard. The ‘Work orders all in one place’ card seems to be designed for Frontline Managers. This card allows users to create a new work order from within Microsoft Teams.
When the ‘Create new work order’ button is clicked, the work order form opens up and the data can be entered in the form. Keep in mind at this point the work order form is not customizable, but I am hoping that will change at a later date. Once the data is entered in the (required) columns, the work order can be saved by clicking the ‘save’ button on the bottom of the form. Unfortunately, I noticed the work order type column is not automatically populated based on the Incident type, and the pricelist is also not set automatically (based on the pricelist on the account). Once the work order has been saved, the user will see a confirmation on the screen, confirming the work order has been created. You’ll also notice a link that allows users to open the schedule board with one click. If you scroll down, you’ll also notice the service address and the customer contact (this is the primary contact on the service account) is now visible as well. When opening the work order, I noticed the service territory from the service account was also not copied over to the newly created work order.

When navigating back to the Viva Connections Dashboard, you’ll also notice that we can view work orders from the ‘Work orders all in once place’ card. Clicking on the ‘See All’ button brings up a list of 50 (or less if you have less than 50 unscheduled work orders) unscheduled work orders. If you have more unscheduled work orders in your system and want to view all, you can click the ‘View all in Dynamics 365’ button. Users can search for a work order by ID (work order number) but keep in mind you’ll need to enter the full work order number. For example, if you’re looking for work order with ID WO00000707 and you enter 707 or *707, the system will not find it. When you enter WO00000707 in the search window, it will find it. To edit an existing work order, you can open one from the list (or from the search result). This will open the work order in the same form that is used to create a work order. After changes have been made, you can click ‘save’ on the bottom of the page.

Using the Teams App: Frontline Workers

The ‘Upcoming Work Orders’ and ‘Work Orders Assigned’ cards are mostly geared towards frontline workers. The ‘Upcoming Work Orders’ card, shows the next work order that has been scheduled for the logged in frontline worker. They will be able to see the account name and the estimated start and end time of the booking. When clicking on ‘Details’ from within the ‘Upcoming Work Orders’ card, frontline workers will see a simplified work order form with the following columns: incident type, start time, duration, estimated travel time, service address and customer contact. Below that they will see the description column, a list of tasks, products, booking status, actual arrival time and actual end time. The items listed below ‘tasks’ are the service tasks related to the work order, and I noticed that it shows the data entered in the ‘description’ column for each service task. Unfortunately we are unable to mark any of the tasks or products as completed or used from the Microsoft Teams app, but there is a link below the ‘products’ section on the form, that will allow users to open the tasks and products in Dynamics 365. When I tried this on my mobile device I noticed that this link opens the work order in Dynamics 365 (in a browser), and not the booking. I also would have preferred that the Field Service mobile app would launch vs a browser, so there is some room for improvement here as well. I do like the fact that the frontline worker can update the booking status from Teams, without having to open the field service app, but I didn’t like the fact that the actual arrival time is not automatically populated when changing the status to ‘In Progress’, this is something that is happening in the Field Service mobile app when changing the status to ‘In Progress’. The status of the booking can be updated when clicking the ‘Details’ button or the ‘Update status’ button in the card.
The ‘Work Orders Assigned’ shows the work orders for which the frontline worker has been ‘booked’. Clicking on the ‘See all’ button from within the card will show a list of all the assigned or work orders. When clicking on one of the work orders, the frontline worker will see the same simplified work order form again with details from the selected work order. If remote assist is part of your field service implementation, frontline workers will be able to launch remote assist directly from this form in Microsoft Teams. Keep in mind there is a LOT more functionality coming! This is just the first wave of a whole lot of other features that will be coming to public preview in September and beyond! I hope you enjoyed reading this article! Be sure to check in again next week or subscribe here to never miss another post!