MS Teams Stages

Ivanti Neurons Bots integrates with Microsoft Teams. This allows Ivanti Neurons to message a user via MS Teams using Neurons Bots. The message can contain action buttons for the user to interact with, to trigger next stage actions, or to provide feedback. Interacting with an end user is a great way to unlock more powerful remediation. For example, getting a user's permission before performing disruptive maintenance, as well as helping the user choose the most contextually appropriate remediation based on their circumstances. It can also be used as an orchestration tool to collect user input and sentiment.

The following are MS Teams stages currently available in Neurons Bots:

  • MS Teams Interaction: Use this stage to message and receive feedback from a user via MS Teams using a Neurons bot.
  • MS Teams Message: Use this stage to send a message to a user via MS Teams using a Neurons bot.
  • MS Teams Rating: Use this stage to capture quantitative sentiment responses.

All MS Teams stages have an Update Card option in the Stage settings. You can use this option to replace one bot-generated Teams card with another one, further down the bot. For example, if you want to provide progress updates of a bot using Teams, instead of sending out multiple messages to users, you can send a single message and update it by following these steps:

  1. In a bot, add and connect another Teams stage.
  2. Open the Stage settings.
  3. In the Update Card drop-down, select the stage that creates the card you want to replace.
  4. In the Message field, enter the new message that you want to update the card with.
  5. Run the bot.

When the bot is run, the existing Teams card is updated with the new message, rather than a new card and message being sent.
If you do not want to replace any cards, leave Update Card set to None, which is the default.

Configuration requirements

The Neurons Bots MS Teams stages require additional configuration before a bot can communicate with MS Teams. Upload the bot manifest into the MS Teams admin center, and deploy to users.

Ivanti Neurons Bots will be available on the Microsoft marketplace in the future, but for now you need to upload the bot manifest. The manifest can be requested via the email address in the stage description.

The devices the bot is targeting must be registered to Entra ID, and the Entra ID connector run against the Ivanti Neurons tenant that will be using the MS Teams Stages.

The Ivanti Neurons Entra ID connector looks up the user/device from the Azure Graph API and Ivanti Neurons queries Data Services to determine the correct MS Teams address to send the message to. If using auto detection, the user that receives the teams message will be the user that was associated with the device the last time the Entra ID connector ran.

We use the UserGID from Data Services to send the Teams message.

Environment checklist

  • Microsoft Office 365 subscription.
  • Ivanti Neurons Entra ID connector, configured with device permissions in Entra ID perms assignment (per intune), and has been run, so it can pull in device/user information.

Setup Requirements

The following must be configured before using the MS Teams Stages:

  1. In https://admin.teams.microsoft.com, from the menu, select Teams apps > Setup policies.
  2. In the Add installed apps panel, locate the Ivanti Neurons Teams Bot, click Add.
  3. Once complete, click Save. The Ivanti Neurons Bot is now ready to deploy to users.
  • An endpoint can be on a local AD domain or a Workgroup.
  • Ivanti Neurons Entra ID connector required.
  • Supported on Windows 10.
  • At time of Microsoft Teams setup, the user must allow the organization to manage the device.
  1. Go to the Azure Portal.
  2. Follow the instructions at How to setup Active Directory AD Connector.
  3. On setup you must include the following device permissions so that the connector can populate the device view with the Teams user information:
    • DeviceManagementApps.Read.All: Read Microsoft Intune apps
    • DeviceManagementApps.ReadWrite.All: Read and write Microsoft Intune apps

    Remember to grant admin consent for the permissions to take effect.

  1. In the Ivanti Neurons platform; Add, Configure, Save, and Run the connector.

Testing Teams

Ivanti recommend having a test environment to test the MS Teams bot to a targeted group of user accounts and test devices.

  1. In the Ivanti Neurons platform go to Devices, add your test endpoint to a test public group.
  2. In the Ivanti Neurons platform go to Neurons Bots, build a simple bot including one of the MS Teams Stages.
  3. Assign the bot to a Target Group.
  4. Run the bot.