SuccessFactors Learning and Microsoft Teams VLS Integration FAQ
The SuccessFactors Learning community was buzzing with chatter when Microsoft Teams joined our list of Virtual Learning Service vendors. The SuccessFactors Learning integration with Microsoft Teams will enable learning administrators to create and schedule training sessions to be delivered in virtual meeting rooms directly from the LMS. Microsoft Teams is now available to integrate with the Learning module joining the already supported and well-known virtual meeting platforms such as WebEx and Adobe Connect.
A. The configuration template for the Teams VLS integration can be downloaded from the SAP Help Portal. Here’s a direct link to the help documentation where the template for Teams and all other supported virtual meeting platforms are available to download.
A. The admin needs to add and save the VLS configuration for Teams in System Administration > Configuration > VLS Configuration. Follow the steps outlined in our SuccessFactors-Teams integration blog to add your configuration here.
A. The LMS sends out confirmation notifications to all those defined at the class level (for example; users, managers, instructors, and/or contacts). Calendar invites are also sent based on the mail setting to ‘Send Vcalendar attachments as Calendar invite’ (System Administration > Configuration > Global Application Settings > Mail tab) and these are added to both the recipient’s Outlook as well as their Teams calendar.The URLs to the virtual meetings are included in the notifications/calendar invites sent out from the LMS. The instructor/user can click on these URLs to start/join the meetings.
A. Any time slot changes or cancellations are sent out to the registered users who then update their Outlook and Teams calendars. This also applies to the class instructor. Please ensure the setting ‘Automatically send Class Enrollment Update Email Notification on Time Slot deletion’ is enabled in System Administration > Configuration > Global Application Settings > Mail tab.
A. The user can join the virtual session via the Teams app or the browser. However, the user must have a registered MS Teams account in order to log in and join the session. Generally, the user account email address is the Teams ID.
A. Instructor resources are required to utilise the Teams VLS integration. They must also have an MS Teams account.
A. For an external instructor who does not exist in your MS Teams, a possible workaround would be to set up the class using a valid internal instructor who would also launch the session and the external instructor joins as a guest but can be made a presenter and lead the session.
A. The Instructor ‘My Classes’ functionality in LMS is not required but they must be set up as instructor resources in LMS. Instructors can always access and launch their virtual sessions via the URL in the registration notifications or calendar invites. They can also access their classes as an admin.
A. Existing instructor accounts can be updated with their appropriate Account IDs (email addresses) in the LMS in the VLS Settings tab on the instructor record.
A. Users and instructors could always join/launch the LMS virtual classroom via the URL in the registration notifications or calendar invites. It does not have to be via the LMS.
A. Any admin with access to the class in the LMS could launch the virtual session but that admin will be logged into their Teams account. If the admin is not the primary instructor set for the class then Teams will recognise the instructor hasn’t joined the session.
A. It is possible to set up a class with primary/secondary instructors but the meeting URLs are set up and linked to the primary instructor only.
A. Yes, it is possible to create break out rooms as long as the feature is enabled in the Teams settings.
A. A class can be automatically recorded as complete in the LMS based on the VLS Settings defined on the class record.
A. The VLS Settings are available on the Class Details page of each class record:
The ‘Process VLS Attendance’ APM (System Administration > Configuration > Automatic Processes) must also be scheduled to run to process the completions automatically.
A. The following API permissions are required:
A. The Directory.Read.All permission should be enough. In our testing, we only had success with the Directory.ReadWrite.All permission but the permissions may not have refreshed after updates were made which is why we have used the Directory.ReadWrite. All permission for our session.Please check with your Azure team.
A. SAP portal support channels would be the best place for the specific details on these permissions as we do not have all the information on what happens behind the scenes.
A. No, there is no certificate-based authentication that can be configured in the VLS config settings. It follows a very specific format and all of those values must be provided for the authentication to work properly. As this is a popular request with customers, an influence request has been posted for this request. You can access the influence request at https://influence.sap.com/sap/ino/#/idea/280383/?section=sectionDetails
A. Yes, you can connect to multiple MS servers. Something to note is that the VLS config files in the SuccessFactors LMS would be available to all admins with access to that page so each config file should be named correctly to avoid confusion on which one belongs to which server.
A. In our testing and demonstration, PowerShell was used to create the ‘CsApplicationAccessPolicy’ which allows the application to access online meetings on behalf of a user (the instructors).
A. No, the instructors should already exist in Teams. And the password field is irrelevant/not applicable.
“The user account could not be created on MS Teams VLS Server. Please try again later or note the error and contact your VLS administrator. VLS Error: Exception while fetching user from Teams”
A. This error can come up in the following scenarios:
A. No, there is no certificate-based authentication that can be configured in the VLS config settings. It follows a very specific format and all of those values must be provided for the authentication to work properly.
A. No separate configurations are needed, you can use the same details for both LMS environments.
A. No, just the Teams ID (email address) needs to be added to the instructor record. The password field is not required.
A. No, the instructors should already exist in Teams. And the password field is irrelevant/not applicable.
A. No steps in Azure Active Directory are required for the integration to work.
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