Slides of my talk in the Modern Workplace Conference Paris 2022 about the Approvals Applicaton in Microsoft Teams to model common approval scenarios.delivered at the Modern Workplace Conference Paris 2022.

1. MWCP22
January 26th, 2022
Digitalize your approval
processes with Approvals in
Teams
50 min session
Online, in English
Juan Carlos
González Martín

2. #MWCP22 Modern Workplace Conference Paris 2022 24,25, 26 Jan 2022
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4. + 18 years of experience in diverse Microsoft products and technologies with a
strong background in the SharePoint platform but focused for the last 7 years
on working in the Microsoft 365 Platform and its core workloads. I have spoken
at several community conferences & events since 2008. Co-author of more than
17 books about SharePoint & Office 365 platforms, including the always
updated Office 365 for IT Pros
Juan Carlos González
Office Apps & Services MVP | Microsoft 365
SME & Delivery Manager @RICOH Spain
About Me:

5. Agenda
• Why Approvals in Teams?
• Typical Approvals scenarios and use cases
• Getting started with Approvals in Teams
• Approvals App main features
• Electronic Signatures support with Approvals in Teams
• Extensibility options for Approvals in Teams
• Approvals in Teams FAQs & Roadmap
• Conclusions & Recap

6. Why
Approvals in
Teams?

7. Why Approvals in Teams?
• Take productivity to the next level by automating repetitive business
processes
• Approvals are one of the most basic processes present in any Team
or organization
• Provide tracking information of an Approval process
• Native integration with day-to-day tools (Outlook, Windows 10-11)

8. Why Approvals in Teams?
• Every organization has several approval systems in place (e-mail,
ServiceNow, SAP, etc)
• Meet the need for unstructured approvals:
• Examples of unstructured approvals are requests that happen in chat, email, face to
face
• Slow turn around time to respond to a request:
• Approvals typically take a long time to get resolution due to being lost somewhere in
an inbox
• Lack of clarity on the status of an Approval and ability to request
delegation:
• State of approval is unclear + users don’t know how to ask and when to follow up

9. Why Approvals in Teams?

10. Approvals App in Microsoft Teams – The Big
Picture
Share
Create
Manage
Act
Approvals Hub

11. Approvals
Scenarios &
Use cases

12. Typical Approvals scenarios and use cases
Standard Approvals
E-Signature Approvals
File/Document
Approvals
Approval Templates
Workflow driven
Approvals
3P / Custom LOB
Connected Approvals
Adobe Sign DocuSign
Today!

13. Typical Approvals scenarios and use cases

14. Getting
started with
Approvals in
Teams

15. What do I need to start using the Approvals
App in Teams?
• Deploy the Approvals App requires:
• Permissions to create a Database in the Microsoft Dataverse
• Admin role in the target Power Apps environment (It can be a specific Team)
• License for Power Automate, Office 365 or Dynamics 365
• License for Microsoft Forms is required for users to set up new Approval
templates
• To use the Approvals App:
• A Power Automate license assigned (free one is enough) so the user using the
App get the Approvals User role

16. Managing the Approvals App
• The Approvals App is managed from the
Teams Admin Center. It’s enabled by
default for all the users in the tenant
• We can make some granular adjustments
to the App such us disabling the use of
eSignature providers
• By means of Setup Policies we can
configure who can use the App + pin it in
the Teams Apps Bar

17. Some limits in the Approvals App
• Approvals created and their data are stored in the Microsoft
Dataverse default environment  There is not backup support
provided
• Data gathered in Approval forms (Approval templates) are stored
forever in Forms or at least until Teams/Template owners remove
them
• A Team can contain up to 400 Approval templates and can store up to
50.000 requests (this is a Forms limit)

18. Demo #1: Approvals
App administration
in the Teams Admin
Center

19. Approvals
App Main
Features

20. Approvals App Main Features
• Approvals hub: Manage and view all the
received and sent Approval requests
• Approvals from chat: Send an approval
right from your Teams conversations in
private chats o Teams channels
• Approvals card: It gives a real-time
summary of the approval's status. See
who's responded, and who still needs a
little more time
• Basic approval: A basic approval is what
you'll typically use when you start from
the hub or a chat
• Workflow approval: When you create an
approval through Power Automate, it'll
appear in your list of approvals in the app

21. Demo #2: A first look
to the Approvals App
in Teams

22. Approvals App Main Features
• Approvals built right into Teams:
Approvals App + Approvals Contextual
Actions in private chats and Teams
channels conversations
• Easily to trigger from the Approvals
App or any conversation in Teams
• All the Approvals, no matter where they
started, can be managed through the
Approvals App in Teams
• 3 Approval types: Basic | Approvals
Templates | Approvals with eSignatures

23. Approvals App Main Features
• Basic Approvals: They don’t include
custom fields to gather information
• Advanced Approvals: Based on out of
the box Approval Templates / custom
templates
• Approvals with eSignature support:
Approval processes can be enriched with
the possibility to sign documents included
in the processes
• Team Approvals: They can be basic or
advanced Approvals that are created in
the context of a Team

24. Approvals App Main Features
• Approvals notifications settings:
Configurable per user
• Add files to provide more context and
information about the Approval
• Require all the Approvers to take par of
the Approval vs. with a single approval is
enough to finish the process
• Customization of the Approval responses
• Approval templates

25. Approvals Apps Main Features: A Closer Look
Security
Only the requestor, approver, and the Global Tenant Admin can access the data.
Storage
All Approvals are stored in Dataverse where the admins have full access, and can
configure policies and manage Approval's storage, rollover, and policy in Dataverse
Retention
Approvals last forever or whatever policy the Admin has set.
Connectors
Within Power Automate you can create a new approval flow via a trigger from a system
driven event from one of the hundreds of connectors available or add your own LOB
connector

26. Demo #3: Basic
Approvals with
Approvals in Teams

27. Approvals Templates
• An Approval Template is made up of an
Approval Flow and an Approval form
(Based on Forms)
• There are 22 templates available to
model common approval scenarios
• Approval templates can be used in three
different levels: Globally | In a specific
Team | By a specific group of people
• We can create new templates using
existing ones or from scratch
• Data gathered in the Approval forms can
be stored forever

28. Approvals Templates

29. Demo #4: Approval
Templates

30. Electronic
Signatures
support with
Approvals in
Teams

31. Approval Processes with electronic signatures
• To be able to use electronic signatures in
the Approvals App, the signatures
providers must be enabled for the
Approvals App
• There are 2 signatures providers
supported now: Adobe Sign, DocuSign
• To start an Approval Process with
electronic signature, we need an account
/ user in the signature provider

32. Demo #5: Electronic
Signatures in
Approvals Process with
the Approvals App

33. Extensibility
Options for
Approvals in
Teams

34. Extensibility options for Approvals in Teams
• Approvals App in Teams is not very
customizable Today
• We can customize the responses for
Approval requests so we can reflect
custom approval statuses
• We can create custom templates for
Approvals based on requesting specific
data for the Approval process
• We can model custom Approvals in
Power Automate and the Approvals
themselves can be managed in the
Approvals App

35. Extensibility options for Approvals in Teams

36. FAQs &
Roadmap

37. FAQs & Roadmap
• Basic data for an Approval (Title, Details, Template used) is stored in
Microsoft Teams Dataverse
• If the form of an Approval template is accidentally removed, the
template will be broken and cannot be used
• Approval templates forms cannot be customized with Microsoft
Forms
• Documents attached in Approvals are stored in OneDrive For Business
(in a specific folder)
• Guests users are supported in Approval processes modeled in the
Approvals App

38. FAQs & Roadmap

39. FAQs & Roadmap

40. Conclusions &
Recap

41. Conclusions & Recap
• With Approvals in Teams we can digitalize simple Approval processes,
scenario-based Approvals + introduce electronic signatures
• Approvals in Teams is integrated natively in Microsoft Teams as an App +
Contextual actions that simplify the process to start an Approval request no
matter where you are in Teams
• The 22 Approval templates available represent common Approvals use
cases and scenarios. We can create custom Approval templates based on
the 22 ones provided or from scratch
• Electronic signatures in an Approval can be managed from the
infrastructure of the electronic provider used
• We can customize Approvals in 2 levels: custom responses to an Approval
request + custom Approval templates

42. Bonus: Quick references
• Approvals App overview
 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/teams/native-
approvals-in-teams
• Managing the Approvals App:
 Approvals application availability in Teams - Microsoft Teams |
Microsoft Docs
• Approvals training resources:
 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/what-is-approvals-a9a01c95-
e0bf-4d20-9ada-f7be3fc283d3

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