MS Teams Integration: User Setup

Introduction

Knowi's Microsoft Teams integration combines our powerful search-based analytics capabilities with Teams' intuitive messaging user interface. This enables users to ask questions of their data, receive answers, and visualize those answers within Teams.

For documentation on Installing Knowi's App package into teams, click here.


Sections

  • Manage Queries and Notifications
    • Dashboards and Widgets
    • Dashboard & Widgets Results
  • Create Your Own Question
    • Question Results
    • Favorite Queries
  • Example Questions


Manage Queries and Notifications

Once the Knowi App package has been installed within Teams, start a chat with the Knowi Bot and enter @knowi in the compose message area. This brings up the Manage Queries and Notifications menu.


"What Can I do?" Commands

By placing your cursor in the compose message area, the "What Can I do" prompt will populate a list of commands. Selecting a command from the list will insert the command string into the compose message box. Click send to execute the command.


Dashboards and Widgets

From Teams, you can interact directly with dashboards and widgets in your connected Knowi account. Select the dashboard or widget from the dropdown to Get, Ask, or Explore it.

Get

Retrieves a PDF report of the dashboard/widget sent directly to the Teams conversation.


Ask

Ask allows you to filter the results of the dashboard/widget report based on a value(s) you enter. For example, if you have a dashboard/widget with data for several employees and you want to filter for just one, simply enter the employee name when prompted:

When the PDF report is returned, it will only show data for "Justina Burdi":


Explore

Selecting Explore will return an Explore link. Clicking the link will automatically redirect you to the dashboard/widget in the Knowi web app. Note: It will prompt you to enter login credentials if you are not already logged into the account the dashboard/widget resides.


Dashboard & Widgets Results

Once results are returned from a Get or Ask operation on a dashboard/widget, you have the option to Share, Rerun, Ask, or Explore the results.


Share

Share the dashboard/widget report to another channel or conversation within Teams with an optional message.


Rerun

To re-run the Get or Ask operation on a dashboard/widget.

Ask 

Similar to the Ask operation here, you can also use Ask to further filter the dashboard/widget report returned. 

Explore

Similar to the Explore operation above, you can also use Explore to be redirected to the dashboard/widget from the report returned.


Create Your Own Question

To create your own question:

  1. Click the compose message area to bring up the "What can I do?" command list and select Ask 
  2. Enter your question in the compose message area after "ask", then press enter/send: 
    • ask <your_question>
  3. In a few moments, your answer will be returned in the form of a visualization


Select a Dataset 

This allows you to select the dataset you want to query by adding "-d" at the end:

  1. Click the compose message area to bring up the "What can I do?" command list and select Ask 
  2. Enter your question in the compose message area after "ask", then press enter/send:
    • ask <your_question> -d
  3. Select the dataset to query from the pop-up window In a few moments, your answer will be returned in the form of a visualization


You can also specify the dataset name in your question: 

  1. Click the compose message area to bring up the "What can I do?" command list and select Ask 
  2. Enter your question in the compose message area after "ask", then press enter/send:
    • ask <your_question> -d <dataset_name>
  3. The dataset you specified will be pre-populated in the pop-up window, then select the dataset
  4. In a few moments, your answer will be returned in the form of a visualization


Question Results

Once the results of your question is returned, you have the option to Download, Explore/Validate, save as Favorite, or Schedule the results.

Download Data

Select to Download Data to export your results to CSV.

Explore/Validate

Selecting Explore/Validate will automatically redirect you to the Visualization settings of your results where you can edit the visualization type and settings.

In the Data tab, you can validate and edit the results, ask a new question in the search-based analytics bar, or download and reset the results.


Schedule

Allows you to schedule your question/query to run at a chosen interval. Once you click on "Schedule", you?ll see the following settings:

  • Query String - The query syntax of your question (this can edited)
  • Alert Frequency - Enter how frequently you want the alert to run
  • Alert Frequency Type - Select the alert interval (minutes, hours, days, month)
  • Schedule report to a Conversation - Select the Teams channel the query results will be sent to
  • Starting At (optional) - Select the start date for the alert


Favorite Queries

Adding a question/query to Favorite allows you to save and reuse your questions and organize them in categories. Very useful for commonly asked questions.

To set up Favorite Queries:

  1. Enter your question
  2. Once the results are returned, click Favorite
  3. Click Create new category and give it a name
  4. Click Save
  5. Category you created and the query you saved will now appear as a drop down option under Favorite Queries in the Manage Queries & Notifications window
  6. Under Favorite Queries, you can run the pre-configured query, modify, or delete it


Example Questions

Below are some commonly used question/query formats to get you started. Note that your actual question will vary based on your dataset and use case.


**"All Details" Command**

A handy query for getting detailed results for a string value (i.e. customer, product, sales associate,  etc.) in your dataset. This will return all records in the dataset that match the value. 

Format:

ask <"all details for"> <string value> -d

Example:

ask all details for Justina Burdi  -d


**Rolling Date Range**

Format:

ask <field value> <string value> since <time frame> 

Example:

ask total closed for Justina Burdi since last year  


**"Where" Statement**

Format:

/knowi <field value> <string value 1> where <column name> is <string value 2>

Example:

/knowi total closed for Justina Burdi where leadsource is inbound