Extend SAP Process to MS Teams: Leveraging Looply’s Advanced Notification system

Practical Insights on Enhancing Notifications and Actions with Looply in Microsoft Teams

Executive Summary

Modern enterprises demand efficiency and agility, especially when managing the multitude of notifications and alerts generated by SAP systems. Current practices often require users to navigate through various portals to access this crucial information, leading to fragmented workflows and decreased productivity. Looply is a sophisticated Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that revolutionizes how organizations handle notifications and approvals within their SAP environments. By seamlessly integrating with Microsoft Teams, Looply transforms traditional, static notifications into dynamic, actionable insights accessible directly from the hub where users already collaborate and communicate.

Introduction

In the fast-paced environment of enterprise applications, the traditional SAP notification system can be a significant bottleneck. Alerts and notifications are the lifeblood of numerous processes, from HR process updates to inventory management . Looply strategically aligns with these workflows by integrating notifications within Microsoft Teams, a hub where the workforce already collaborates and communicates.

By bringing SAP notifications into the flow of daily activities within Microsoft Teams, Looply eliminates the need for users to toggle between applications, thereby reducing response times and improving process efficiency. As we delve deeper into the capabilities and benefits of Looply, this whitepaper will explore how the platform not only addresses but also anticipates the needs of modern enterprises, setting a new standard for workflow integration and efficiency in the digital age.

Looply Introduction video

The Challenge with traditional SAP Notifications

The core problem that Looply addresses in the SAP notification landscape is the inefficiency in the notification and approval process. In a typical SAP environment, procurement workflows, such as purchase requisitions and purchase orders, are critical yet often hampered by slow response times and lack of real-time engagement. Notifications related to these workflows are usually delivered through traditional channels like email, which can lead to delays in approvals, lack of visibility into the status of requests, and overall slower decision-making processes.

Looply’s primary goal in the context of SAP integration is to streamline and expedite the notification and approval processes by providing actionable, real-time notifications within Microsoft Teams. By doing so, it aims to:

• Reduce Response Times: Bring down the time taken to approve purchase requisitions and orders by notifying the relevant parties instantly within their existing Teams workflow.
• Increase Visibility and Accountability: Offer transparency in the approval process with a clear trail of when notifications are received and actioned, helping to identify and address bottlenecks.
• Enhance Decision-Making: Provide approvers with all the necessary information within the notification itself, enabling informed decisions without the need to switch between applications.
• Facilitate Real-time Collaboration: Allow stakeholders to collaborate on SAP-related workflows directly within Teams, fostering a more agile response to business processes.

In essence, Looply’s integration with SAP and Microsoft Teams transforms the notification system from a passive, one-way channel of information into an interactive, collaborative process that significantly improves the speed and quality of procurement decisions.

Key challenges in designing enterprise notifications

Looply aims to solve several key challenges for enterprises looking to integrate their systems, particularly SAP, with Microsoft Teams. These challenges include the complexity of navigating between multiple systems to access data and perform tasks, delays in decision-making due to information silos, and the inefficiency of traditional communication methods within an enterprise. Looply addresses these challenges by:

• Seamless Integration: Looply integrates enterprise systems with Microsoft Teams, bringing data and workflows directly into the communication platform where employees already spend much of their time. This reduces the need to switch between different applications, thereby saving time and reducing friction.

Looply adaptive card notifications delivered straight to MS Teams

• Instant Notifications and Approvals: By bringing SAP notifications and approvals into Teams, Looply ensures that users receive updates in real-time and can make quick decisions without leaving the Teams environment. This speeds up business processes and enhances responsiveness.
• Adaptive Cards for Dynamic Content: Looply leverages Adaptive Cards to present SAP actions and notifications within Teams. These cards can be customized and dynamically updated, offering a flexible and interactive way to display information and collect user inputs directly within Teams.

Types of Adaptive card notifications

• Workflow Automation: Through its Workflow Studio, Looply enables the design and automation of business processes with a drag-and-drop interface. This allows for complex workflows to be automated effortlessly, ensuring smooth and efficient operations.
• Low-code/No-code Development: The embedded no-code/low-code Template Designer empowers developers and non-developers alike to create adaptive cards and automate workflows without extensive coding, making the system accessible to a broader audience within the organization.
• Actionable Insights: Notifications are not just alerts but actionable messages within Teams. Users can approve, query, or reject directly from the notification prompt, reducing the time between notification and action.
• Dynamic Data Binding: Looply notifications are dynamically bound to the data schema within SAP, ensuring that information is up-to-date and reflective of the current state of the workflow.
• Centralized Notification Hub: By consolidating notifications within Teams, Looply creates a centralized hub for all SAP-related alerts, streamlining the process and minimizing the risk of missed notifications.

Looply Notification centre

• Analytics and Tracking: Looply provides analytics to track notification engagement, offering insights into response times and bottlenecks, which help in continually refining the notification process.
• Accountability and Traceability Looply’s notification tracking provides an extra layer of accountability. When a notification is delivered to Teams, Looply can monitor and record when it was read, forming an audit trail that includes timestamps.

Purchase requistion approval on teams

Looply’s developer-centric toolkit

Built explicitly for developers, Looply offers unmatched control and flexibility, enabling developers to design and transmit interactive, dynamic, smart notifications to Microsoft Teams for any workflow process. Its event-driven robust Workflow Builder changes the way complex workflows are visualized and implemented. This, combined with ChatGPT-powered adaptive card designer, impeccable error handling and monitoring and analytics tools.

Looply’s Technical Architecture

Looply’s architecture is designed to facilitate seamless integration and communication within Microsoft Teams, leveraging a sophisticated mix of serverless infrastructure, and a powerful developer toolset to design and deploy a robust notifications engine in any enterprise.

Looply X S/4 HANA Integration via BTP

• Serverless Infrastructure: Built on AWS’s serverless components, Looply’s infrastructure ensures scalability and reliability. Looply core engine running on serverless tech stack orchestrates communications between Looply, Microsoft Teams, SAP systems, and other integrated platforms, managing API calls and data flow seamlessly.
• Workflow Automation Engine: At Looply’s core lies a no-code workflow automation engine, enabling users to model complex business processes effortlessly.

Looply workflow designer

• Adaptive Card Template designer: The adaptive card template designer complements this by allowing the creation of dynamic, interactive notifications, ensuring that communications within Teams are both engaging and actionable. This no-code/low-code card designer empowers developers to craft either simple or complex notifications. The designer has built-in ChatGPT support to assist developers to generate cards with just a prompt.

ChatGPT powered Adaptive card designer

• Ready-made Bot Service Integration: The bot service, serves as a conduit for real-time interactions between users and Looply. Bot service is deeply integrated into Looply’s communication engine to facilitate seamless and secure communication flow between Teams users and enterprise systems.
• User Authentication with Azure Active Directory: A cornerstone of Looply’s security framework is its integration with Azure Active Directory (AD) for user authentication, leveraging existing organizational security policies to simplify and secure user access. This integration enables Single Sign-On (SSO), allowing users to interact with Looply’s notification within Teams without additional login steps. By utilizing Azure AD’s robust security protocols, including multi-factor authentication (MFA), Looply ensures that access is both seamless and secure, aligning with corporate authentication policies and streamlining the user experience.
• Security and Compliance: Looply’s commitment to security extends to its journey towards SOC2 and ISO 27001 compliance, underscoring the platform’s dedication to safeguarding data integrity and user privacy. Encryption, authentication, and authorization protocols are meticulously implemented, with Azure AD integration playing a pivotal role in managing user identity and permissions.

Looply X SAP Integration

Looply’s integration with SAP systems is executed with precision and purpose. By utilizing a secure, API-driven connection, Looply taps into the heart of SAP workflows. Notifications generated by SAP are intercepted and routed directly to Microsoft Teams. This process ensures that the right information reaches the right people at the right time, all within an application that users interact with daily. Looply becomes a natural extension of the SAP system, fostering a more dynamic and responsive environment.

Looply’s approach to integrating with SAP systems is centered on creating a secure, reliable, and seamless connection that simplifies the notification and approval process for SAP workflows. Here’s how Looply achieves this:

Secure and Reliable Integration Methods:

• API-driven Integration: Looply utilizes APIs to establish a direct communication link with SAP systems. These APIs act as conduits for real-time data exchange, ensuring that notifications sent to Microsoft Teams are current and accurate.
• OAuth and SAML Authentication: To maintain security, Looply adopts standard authentication protocols such as OAuth for API access and SAML for Single Sign-On (SSO). These protocols ensure that only authorized users can access and take action on SAP notifications within Teams.
• Real time synchronization: For event-driven notifications, Looply can use webhooks that trigger an immediate update of notifications in Teams when specific events occur in the SAP system, such as a PR reaching an approval threshold. This ensures notications are always up to date.

Beyond Approvals

While approvals are a significant component of SAP notifications, Looply’s utility extends far beyond. It is equally effective for informational notifications that require no action, such as system updates, report availability, or status changes. These notifications, although passive, are critical for maintaining situational awareness and fostering an informed workforce.

Looply — Course reminder notification

Case Study: Streamlining Approval Workflows in Public Infrastructure and Local Government

Overview

This case study explores how a public infrastructure provider and a county council leveraged Looply, integrated with Microsoft Teams, to significantly improve their approval processes. Despite operating in distinct sectors, both entities faced challenges with inefficiencies in their workflow approvals that impacted operational speed and transparency. Looply’s solution offered a transformative approach to addressing these issues.

Time related payments process flow

Challenges

• The public infrastructure provider struggled with delays in task order approvals, affecting service delivery and project timelines.
• The county council encountered inefficiencies in HR-related approvals, including leave requests and expense claims, leading to prolonged administrative processes.

Looply’s Integrated Solution

Implementing Looply within Microsoft Teams, both organizations automated their approval notifications and actions, capitalizing on the familiar platform to enhance user engagement and streamline processes.

Process Transformation

• Automated Notifications: Looply enabled the automatic generation of actionable notifications within Microsoft Teams for pending approvals, simplifying access to necessary information and actions.
• Direct Actions within Teams: Approvals could be conducted instantaneously from within the Teams interface, streamlining the decision-making process with options to approve, reject, or request additional information directly from the notification.
• Analytics for Continuous Improvement: Looply provided detailed analytics on approval times and identified bottlenecks, enabling targeted process improvements and policy adjustments for both entities.

Impact and Metrics

• Efficiency Gains: Post-implementation, both the utilities company and the county council reported marked reductions in approval times, significantly enhancing operational responsiveness and agility.
• Enhanced Transparency and Accountability: The introduction of analytics brought unprecedented visibility into the approval workflows, fostering a culture of accountability and facilitating informed management decisions.
• Improved Stakeholder Engagement: Migrating approvals to a familiar platform like Microsoft Teams increased engagement levels among approvers, leading to quicker responses and a more interactive approval process.

Conclusion

The integration of Looply with Microsoft Teams presented a robust solution for the utilities company and the county council to modernize and streamline their approval processes. The case studies underscore the versatility and effectiveness of Looply in improving operational efficiency, transparency, and engagement across diverse organizational contexts. By leveraging automation, actionable insights, and a platform familiar to all stakeholders, Looply significantly transformed the approval workflows, demonstrating its value as a pivotal tool for organizations aiming to enhance their operational processes.

Looply X Stelo Expense approval

Future Roadmap

• Advanced Analytics and AI: Looply aims to integrate more sophisticated analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) features. These advancements will provide deeper insights into workflow efficiencies, predictive analytics for identifying potential bottlenecks before they occur, and AI-driven suggestions for workflow optimizations.
• Expanded Integration Ecosystem: Recognizing the diverse digital tools organizations use, Looply plans to broaden its integration capabilities with additional enterprise systems beyond Microsoft Teams and SAP. This expansion will facilitate smoother data flow across platforms, enabling more comprehensive automation of business processes.
• Enhanced Customization Options: Looply is set to offer more extensive customization capabilities for its users. This includes richer adaptive card templatelibrary, more granular control over notification triggers, and tailored workflow templates, allowing organizations to personalize Looply’s features to their specific needs more effectively.
• Improved Security and Compliance: As part of its commitment to security, Looply will continue to enhance its security framework, aiming for certifications beyond SOC2 and ISO 27001. Upcoming security features include advanced encryption options, more robust data privacy controls, and enhanced compliance monitoring tools.
• End-to-End Encryption: To further secure communications and data, Looply will offer end-to-end encryption across all transmitted information. This means that data sent from SAP systems through Looply to Microsoft Teams is encrypted at the source, transmitted securely, and only decrypted by the intended recipient. This layer of encryption ensures that sensitive information remains confidential, safeguarding against potential breaches and unauthorized access, and making Looply a trusted partner in enterprise communication and workflow automation.
• Community-Driven Feature Development: Looply intends to foster a more community-driven approach to its feature development, actively seeking feedback and suggestions from its user base. This approach will ensure that future enhancements are closely aligned with the needs and desires of the Looply community.

Technical Support and Community

Looply is committed to ensuring that its users experience seamless integration and continuous, efficient operation within their SAP and Microsoft Teams environments. To this end, Looply offers a robust support infrastructure designed to meet the diverse needs of its user base, from enterprise clients to individual developers:

• Dedicated Account Management: Enterprise clients benefit from personalized support through dedicated account managers. These managers assist with everything from onboarding and integration to ongoing optimization, ensuring clients maximize their use of Looply.
• Custom Implementation Support: Our technical team stands ready to assist with integrating Looply into your existing systems and workflows, ensuring a seamless adoption process.
• Tailored Onboarding: We offer detailed onboarding sessions for your teams, covering everything from basic functionalities to advanced features, ensuring everyone is equipped to make the most out of Looply.
• Comprehensive Knowledge Base: A resource-rich online repository offers tutorials, FAQs, and best practices, empowering users to quickly find solutions to common issues and to fully leverage Looply’s extensive features.
• Developer Documentation: Developers have access to detailed API documentation, SDKs, and code samples, all regularly updated to reflect the latest developments, supporting the creation of custom solutions and extensions.
• Training Webinars and Workshops: Through regular training sessions, Looply educates users on both basic functionalities and advanced features, catering to a wide range of proficiency levels.

Discover Looply Through a Tailored Demo and a free trial

• Personalized Demonstrations: Start with a personalized demo that showcases Looply’s capabilities within the context of your specific business needs. Witness firsthand how Looply integrates with Microsoft Teams, simplifying and enhancing notifications and workflows.
• Engage with Experts: Our product specialists will walk you through the features, functionalities, and potential use cases relevant to your organization, answering any questions and illustrating the tangible benefits Looply can bring to your team.
• Hands-On Experience: Following the demo, gain direct access to Looply with a free trial period. This hands-on experience allows you to explore the intuitive interface, test out integration capabilities, and witness the ease of creating actionable notifications.
• Feedback and Support: Throughout the trial, our team will be available to provide support, gather feedback, and help you optimize Looply’s setup to best fit your operational workflows.

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