Integrating Account Plans with Microsoft Teams

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Integrating Account Plans with Microsoft Teams

Key Account Managers (KAMs) and their account team members can streamline collaboration by creating and linking to dedicated Microsoft Teams channels directly from Account Plan records in Vault CRM. The integration simplifies managing channel membership by automatically adding or removing users in Microsoft Teams when the Account Team Member list is updated in Vault CRM, ensuring that the right people always have access.

Who can use this feature?

Business Admin Users — Browser
Creating a Collaboration Space
Creating a Microsoft Team
Reauthenticating a Microsoft Teams Connection
KAM Users — Browser
Creating a Microsoft Teams Channel from an Account Plan
Opening an Existing Microsoft Teams Channel from an Account Plan
Users do not require an additional license

Configuring Microsoft Teams Integration for Account Plans for

Business Admin Users

To configure this feature:

Ensure Configuring Account Plans is complete.
Ensure all Account Team members have a Microsoft Teams account.
Navigate to Admin > Users & Groups > Permission Sets.
Select the appropriate permission set.
Select the Objects tab.

Grant the following permissions:

Object	Object Permission	Object Types	Fields	Field Permission
collaboration_space_configuration__v	CRE	account_plan__v	All fields	Edit
collaboration_space_channel__v	CRE	team__v channel__v	All fields	Edit
collaboration_channel_member__v	CRE	None	All fields	Edit
account_plan__v	CRE	None	collaboration_channel__v microsoft_teams_channel_link__v	Edit

Grant Execute access to the create_team__v action on the collaboration_space_configuration__v object.
Grant Execute access to the microsoft_teams_channel__v action on the account_plan__v object.
Navigate to the Tabs tab on the permission set.
Grant access to the Collaboration Space Configuration tab.
Navigate to Admin > Configuration > Objects > account_plan__v.
Enable the microsoft_teams_channel__v action on the appropriate account_plan__v object types.

KAM Users

To configure this feature:

Ensure Configuring Account Plans is complete.
Ensure all Account Team members have a Microsoft Teams account.
Navigate to Admin > Users & Groups > Permission Sets.
Select the appropriate permission set.
Select the Objects tab.

Grant the following permissions:

Object	Object Permission	Object Types	Fields	Field Permission
collaboration_space_configuration__v	R	account_plan__v	All fields	Read
collaboration_space_channel__v	RE	team__v	All fields	Edit
collaboration_space_channel__v	CRE	channel__v	All fields	Edit
collaboration_channel_member__v	CRED	None	All fields	Edit
account_plan__v	RE	None	collaboration_channel__v microsoft_teams_channel_link__v	Edit

Navigate to the account_plan__v object.
Grant Execute access to the microsoft_teams_channel__v action on the account_plan__v object.

Using Microsoft Teams for Account Plans as

Business Admin Users

Creating a Collaboration Space

To create a Microsoft Team, Business Admin users must first create a Collaboration Space Configuration record. This record defines the top-level settings, including the Team name, country mapping, and Default Team designation if the configuration should be used as the default when no configuration record matching the user’s country is found. The Team must be created via the Create Team action on this record before any channels can be created on Account Plans.

Multiple collaboration spaces with the same object type and country are not supported.

To create a collaboration space configuration:

Navigate to Business Admin > Objects > collaboration_space_configuration__v.
Select Create.
Select the account_plan__v object type.
Enter a Name. This is the Vault CRM-only naming convention for the configuration record.
Enter a Teams Space Name. This is the display name of the Team in Microsoft Teams.
Select a Country. This defines the country the Team applies to. Collaboration Space Configuration records create Teams for specific countries. The target Team is selected by matching the user's country to a configuration record. If no match is found, the channel is created in the designated Default Team.
Select the Default checkbox to use the default configuration if no country-specific configuration is found.
Select Save.

Creating a Microsoft Team

Business Admin Users create and manage the Microsoft Teams spaces from within Vault CRM.

To create a Microsoft Teams space:

Navigate to the Collaboration Space Configurations tab.
Select the appropriate record.
Select the Create Team action from the All Actions menu.
Enter your Microsoft Teams username and password, if prompted.

The integration creates the new Microsoft Team, and a new collaboration_space_resource__v record with the team__v object type is created in Vault CRM to represent the new Team. A notification displays when creation of the Team is complete.

The integration creates Microsoft Teams as Public, allowing any member of the organization to discover and join them in the Teams instance.

Reauthenticating a Microsoft Teams Connection

If the connection to Microsoft Teams expires, the Connection Status field on the collaboration_space_configuration__v record changes to disconnected__v, and an email notification is sent to Vault Owners.

To re-authenticate a disconnected configuration:

Navigate to Business Admin > Objects > collaboration_space_configuration__v.
Select the disconnected collaboration_space_configuration__v record. A message displays in the header, prompting the user for updated credentials.
Select the Sign in with Microsoft 365 button.
Follow the prompts to authenticate with Microsoft Teams. Once authenticated, the Connection Status is updated to connected_state__v.

KAM Users

Creating a Microsoft Teams Channel from an Account Plan

The Teams channel is a single space for collaboration of cross-functional team members on the account plan. Users can create new Microsoft Teams channels directly from an account plan. When users create channels from account plans, all existing Account Team Members are automatically added and the channel launches in Microsoft Teams.

To create a Microsoft Teams channel from an account plan:

Navigate to an account plan record.
Select the Microsoft Teams Channel action from the All Actions menu.
Enter authentication information for Microsoft Teams, if prompted.

The appropriate team is assigned based on the user’s country or the default configuration, and a new channel is created with the same name as the account plan.

Microsoft Channel names must be unique and can only be a total of 50 characters and cannot contain special characters like the following: # % & * { } / \\ : < > ? + | ' "

When a new channel is created, the following automatic actions occur regarding membership and record updates:

Membership - All users on the Account Team are automatically added as members to the new channel. The user who created the channel is designated as the owner.
Record updates:
The collaboration_channel__v field on the account plan record is updated with the ID of the collaboration_space_resource__v record
The microsoft_teams_channel_link__v field on the account plan record is updated with a direct link to launch the channel

The channel opens in Microsoft Teams.

If the number of channels per team nears the Microsoft limit of 1,000, a new team is created using admin credentials and the appropriate collaboration space. Any new channels are created using the new team.

To add a Vault CRM user to the account plan’s channel, create an Account Team Member record associated with the plan. They are automatically added to the channel in Microsoft Teams.

To remove a Vault CRM user from the account plan’s channel, remove the Account Team Member record.

Account Plan Associations

The relationship between account plans and channels follows specific rules:

Account plans can only be associated with one channel
Channels can be associated with multiple account plans. For example, customers may have multiple account plans for the same account (separated by brands), or an account plan that is copied for the same account each year.

Customers can choose to reuse teams channels for these account plans by copying the teams relationship into the new account plan using Account Plan Deep Copy, or they can create a new channel for each plan.

To reuse teams channels by creating a new channel for each plan:

Populate the collaboration_space_resource__v field on account plans with the existing channel.
Enable the Do not copy attribute on the collaboration_space_resource__v field to prevent the field from being included in the Account Plan Deep Copy process. (This step is optional.)

Opening an Existing Microsoft Teams Channel from an Account Plan

To open an existing teams channel from an account plan:

Navigate to an account plan record. Select a record already associated with a Teams channel.
Select the Microsoft Teams Channel action from the All Actions menu.
Select Copy Link to share with other team members or Launch Channel to open the channel in Microsoft Teams.

When pasting the link into an application that supports HTML, such as an email editor, the link is formatted to display as the name of the account plan plus the name of the template.

Alternatively, select the link in the Microsoft Teams Channel Link field to open the channel in Microsoft Teams.

Considerations

Channels are created with specific privacy settings to ensure data security:

Channels are created as Shared (in contrast to the public team)
The user who created the channel from CRM is the owner of the channel
Only users who are explicitly channel members can view information shared within the channel. Vault CRM automatically adds Account Team Members when the channel is created. Users who are not Vault CRM users can be added to the channel directly in the Teams UI by the channel owner.