How to Create and Manage a Microsoft Teams Copilot Agent

Creating and managing a Teams Copilot Agent can significantly enhance your team's productivity and streamline various tasks. In this blog post, we'll walk you through the steps to set up and configure your agent, along with some useful tips to optimize its performance.

Pre-requisites

Before you start, ensure you have access to Copilot in Teams. You may need to be part of the ACL Group that manages access to the agent. Additionally, users in this group must have access to the SharePoint folder where the source data is located.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Navigate to Copilot in Teams

In Teams, go to the Copilot section under "Chats."

2. Create an Agent

Click on "Create an Agent" and then select "Configure."

3. Select a Template

You can choose a template that will auto-populate instructions and other fields. These instructions essentially define the persona your agent will assume.

Tip: Pick a template of the kind of agent you want, then place the instructions template in ChatGPT or Copilot or OCI Gen AI and ask it to create a persona based on a given context of your choosing.

4. Point the Agent at Source Data

In the "Knowledge" section, point the agent at the source data. Place the files that will serve as the content for the agent in SharePoint or Teams. You can add up to 20 sources in SharePoint.

Tip: Avoid versioning files; store the latest version of the document. Organize the content and folders the agent is pointing to for higher accuracy.

5. Configure Agent Capabilities

If you want to build an agent that generates images or writes code exclusively, check the respective boxes. For a general-purpose conversational agent, leave these boxes unchecked.

6. Set Starter Prompts

These are prompts users will see when they start a conversation with the agent. You can hardcode common prompts to get users started.

7. Create the Agent

Once all the information is filled out, hit "Create" (top right).

8. Set Access Controls

Enter the ACLs to expose the agent to specific users. Copy the link to the agent and share it with the people who will access it (they also need to have Copilot).

Tip: Individual users may not work depending on your company policies; only ACL groups.

Editing an Agent

To edit an agent, go back to "Create an Agent," click on "View all agents," and navigate to the one you want to edit. You can change the instructions or access settings as needed.

If you are using Microsoft Teams, you can create very useful Agents on top of your existing data and make research, discovery and troubleshooting more engaging, it is a great way to assist new employees or help enhance productivity in general!

Enhance Your Oracle HCM Cloud Redwood Timecard Experience!

Dear Oracle Cloud HCM Community,

The Redwood Timecard Experience is an elevated and modern user experience that provides a lot of value and content for users. That being said, there’s always room for improvement even for a great product!

We need your support to improve the Redwood timecard user experience! Below are some key enhancements that can make a significant difference in our daily workflows. Please take a moment to understand each enhancement and click on the links to vote for these ideas on Cloud Customer Connect if you agree!

1. Enhanced Time Card Copy and Template Management
   Unable to copy timecards beyond the most recent one. This feature is crucial for employees working different rotating shifts.
   https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/discussion/853878/enhanced-time-card-copy-and-template-management/p1?new=1
2. Favorite Timecard Feature for Redwood Experience
   Unable to favorite a timecard for future use. This option is essential for employees with varying shifts.
   https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/discussion/854448/favorite-timecard-feature-for-redwood-experience/p1?new=1
3. Reintroduce 'All Days' Option for Enhanced Timecard Flexibility
   No option to choose 'All Days' for State, County, and City coding, leading to more manual entries.
   https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/discussion/854449/reintroduce-all-days-option-for-enhanced-timecard-flexibility-in-redwood-experience/p1?new=1
4. Reintroduce Column Reordering or Hiding Option
   Managers, Timekeepers, and Employees cannot change their timecard layout relative to this requirement, making it less efficient.
   https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/discussion/854451/reintroduce-column-reordering-or-hiding-option-or-both-for-enhanced-timecard-experience-in-redwood/p1?new=1
5. Include Employee's Person Information on Redwood Timecard
   Unable to see essential employee information like Department, Location, and Manager on timecards.
   https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/discussion/798556/include-employees-person-information-on-redwood-timecard?utm_source=community-search&utm_medium=organic-search&utm_term=person+information
6. Reintroduce Job Information Links for Enhanced Timecard Functionality
   No links to view job information on timecards, which is needed for researching employee information.
   https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/discussion/854456/reintroduce-job-information-links-for-enhanced-timecard-functionality-in-redwood/p1?new=1
7. Redwood Multiple Row Delete Option in Timecard
   Unable to delete more than one row at a time on the timecard, which is helpful for Managers and Timekeepers.
   https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/discussion/782974/redwood-multiple-row-delete-option-in-timecard?utm_source=community-search&utm_medium=organic-search&utm_term=delete+row
8. Sort Redwood Timecard Search Results by Headers
   Unable to sort employees by Name or Person ID on the Team Timecards page, which is helpful for Timekeepers and Admins.
   https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/discussion/838275/sort-redwood-timecard-search-results-ascending-descending-by-headers?utm_source=community-search&utm_medium=organic-search&utm_term=sort
9. Reintroduce Excel Download Option for Enhanced Payroll Processing
   Unable to download the list of employee timecards into Excel from the Team Timecards page, which is critical for payroll processing.
   https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/discussion/854458/reintroduce-excel-download-option-for-enhanced-payroll-processing-in-redwood-team-timecard/p1?new=1
10. Enhance Redwood Team Timecard Search by Saving Columns Chosen
    Options chosen on the Team Timecards page do not stay the next time you log in, which is helpful when looking for employees.
    https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/discussion/745068/enhance-redwood-team-timecard-search-by-allow-to-save-the-saved-search-and-columns-chosen?utm_source=community-search&utm_medium=organic-search&utm_term=team+timecard
11. Persistent Column Freezing for Enhanced Timecard Management
    The bold gray line on the timecard does not stay in place for better scrolling the next time you log in.
    https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/discussion/854463/persistent-column-freezing-for-enhanced-timecard-management-in-redwood/p1?new=1
12. Pass Person Number and Timecard Start/End Date Parameters
    Should be able to pass Person number and Timecard Start/End date parameters for deep linking in Redwood.
    https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/discussion/842700
13. Redwood Team Timecards Missing Warning Message on Cancelling
    No warning message on cancelling the timecard page without saving, which prevents data loss and re-entry.
    https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/discussion/782141/redwood-team-time-cards-are-missing-warning-message-on-cancelling-the-timecard-page-without-saving#latest

Your vote can make a difference! Let's work together to enhance our Redwood timecard experience.

Thank you for your support!

Note: If you receive an error when navigating to the links, even though you have a CCC profile, it's probably because you are not following the Idea Lab for OTL. 

You can do so as seen below. Click on the image to see it in full size.

Enhancing Oracle HCM Recruiting and Oracle Projects with Personalized Notifications

Effective communication is key to successful recruitment and project management. Oracle HCM offers robust tools for personalized notifications, ensuring that the right messages reach the right people at the right time. In this blog post, we'll explore how to leverage the Content Library and Alerts Composer for personalized notifications in Oracle HCM Recruiting, as well as configurable workflow notifications in Oracle Projects.

Personalized Notifications in Oracle HCM Recruiting

Oracle HCM Recruiting provides two primary methods for sending emails and worklist notifications:

1. Content Library: This tool is primarily used for sending messages to candidates. Within the "send messages" feature, you can select templates that you've created in the Content Library. This allows for consistent and professional communication with candidates, enhancing their experience and engagement with your recruitment process.
2. Alerts Composer: This tool can be used for internal notifications, such as emails to hiring managers. The Alerts Composer allows you to modify delivered alerts or create custom alerts with your own content. This flexibility was utilized during our ORC implementation to tailor notifications to specific needs, ensuring that internal stakeholders are always informed and up to date.
3. Alerts composer can also be a powerful tool to send personalized emails in other situations and providing another alternative to those that rely heavily on BIP to send email alerts and acknowledgements. You can create custom alerts or modify out of the box alerts to change the email body’s and insert your own branding.

The below images show how to navigate to the candidate/recruiting content library and the templates created can then be selected when sending messages (second screenshot). The third screenshot shows the Alerts Composer, once you click on actions, you can see all you can do with the selected alert.

Click on the images for a full sized experience

In Summary, while the Content Library is specific to Oracle Recruiting, the Alerts Composer is a versatile tool within Oracle HCM. It enables you to modify standard alerts or create custom alerts for various scenarios, such as notifying employees when their driver's license is about to expire. For more details, you can refer to the Common Features for HCM documentation on the Alerts Composer.

Configurable Workflow Notifications in Oracle Projects

Oracle Projects also offers powerful tools for managing notifications. According to the documentation, the recommended approach is to modify the standard BIP (Business Intelligence Publisher) notification templates. This allows for a high degree of customization, ensuring that notifications are relevant and actionable.

Another option for ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is to use the ERP Business Event framework in conjunction with Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC). This setup allows you to listen to events and send personalized notifications. There is extensive support for various modules, including Payables and Projects. For example, you can use this framework to send acknowledgment emails by listening to FBDI (File-Based Data Import) business events. This is necessary because the Alerts Composer is an exclusive feature of Oracle HCM, and not of Oracle Projects.

Documentation:

Overview of Configurable Workflow Notifications in Project Management

Oracle ERP Cloud Adapter Capabilities

Conclusion

By leveraging the Content Library and Alerts Composer in Oracle HCM Recruiting, and the configurable workflow notifications in Oracle Projects, you can significantly enhance your communication strategy. These tools provide the flexibility and customization needed to ensure that your messages are timely, relevant, and effective. Whether you're communicating with candidates, hiring managers, or project stakeholders, Oracle HCM and Oracle Projects have the capabilities to support your needs.

Leveraging the Oracle Autonomous Database and AI for Effective Content Moderation in Online Communities

Today, managing online communities and forums can be a daunting task. From duplicate questions to unaccepted answers, and from unchanged idea statuses to duplicate ideas, the challenges are numerous. Even with active management, the manual effort required by product teams can be overwhelming. However, AI-driven content moderation offers a promising solution to these pain points. In this blog post, we'll explore how AI can be used to streamline content moderation and enhance the user experience in any online community.

Addressing Duplicate Content

One of the most common issues in online communities is the presence of duplicate ideas or questions. Here's a methodology to tackle this problem using the Oracle ADB and Gen AI Service in OCI:

1. Database Integration: Connect your community's database to an AI service. For instance, if your community is hosted on an autonomous database (ADB), you can set up a trust between the ADB and an AI service (like the OCI Gen AI Service) natively.
2. Creating Views: Develop views that represent the community categories, containing idea numbers, names, and descriptions, for example, as metadata for the AI Service to utilize.
3. AI-Powered Duplicate Detection: Create a stored procedure (API) that calls the AI service to identify similar ideas/questions already created. Based on a predefined accuracy/confidence level, the AI can flag potential duplicates.
4. Automated Comments: Develop an API to automatically comment on flagged ideas, informing users about the duplication and providing links to similar ideas or threads.
5. User Feedback and Model Training: Allow users to challenge the duplicate flag. These challenges can be used to train a custom model over time (you can start with Oracle's AutoML feature with very low effort), improving accuracy with minimal effort. This would be done at the client end.
6. Nightly Jobs: Schedule nightly jobs to run within the database to perform this true-up, using AI services and APIs to perform regular content moderation.

Enhancing Search Validation

To further strengthen content moderation, consider the following steps:

1. REST Enablement: REST enable the stored procedure API using a service like Oracle Rest Data Services (ORDS), which is native within the ADB.
2. Improved Search Validation: Integrate this API as a validation step when users create new ideas or questions in your website or app. This step can enhance the existing search validation by considering different languages, descriptions, and metadata, ensuring a more accurate detection of duplicates.

Flagging Existing Capabilities

Another opportunity for AI-driven content moderation is to flag ideas/questions/enhancements that suggest features already available in your product:

1. Repository Integration: Expose a repository of current capabilities to the AI service.
2. Automated Comments: Develop an API to automatically comment on flagged ideas, providing links to documentation and informing users about existing features.

Conclusion

AI-driven content moderation offers a powerful solution to the challenges faced by online communities, including for product teams that crowdsource content to improve their software solutions. By leveraging AI, communities can reduce manual effort, enhance user experience, and ensure more accurate and efficient content management. Whether it's detecting duplicate content, improving search validation, or flagging existing capabilities, the ADB and OCI Gen AI Service can transform the way online communities are managed, driving growth and success.

Unlocking the Power of RPA in Oracle Integration Cloud

We know that automation is key to staying competitive. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has emerged as a powerful tool to streamline operations, reduce manual effort, and enhance efficiency. Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC) has taken a significant step forward by integrating RPA capabilities, offering a seamless and unified experience for users. In this blog post, we'll explore the benefits of OIC's RPA feature and how it compares to non-native options such as Blue Prism.

Seamless Integration with Oracle Ecosystem

One of the standout features of RPA in Oracle Integration Cloud is its native integration within the Oracle ecosystem, particularly the Oracle Fusion applications like ERP Cloud. This integration allows for a unified, drag-and-drop experience to create intelligent business automations. By leveraging other Oracle services like Visual Builder Cloud Service (VBCS) and Process Cloud Service (PCS), OIC's RPA enables businesses to design automations that are part of the overall system architecture rather than "external solutions".

Enhanced Capabilities and Flexibility

OIC's RPA is designed to automate manual repetitive tasks without the need for APIs or data loads, making it a versatile tool for various use cases. Whether it's invoking APIs, manipulating files, or automating cascading changes in projects, OIC's RPA offers the flexibility to adapt to different business needs. This capability fosters collaboration between business and IT stakeholders, ensuring that automations are efficient and effective.

The RPA feature in OIC promotes collaboration between business and IT teams, enabling them to create automations that are integrated into the design process. This approach not only enhances efficiency but also ensures that automations are aligned with business objectives. By reducing the reliance on third-party tools outside of the Oracle ecosystem, OIC's RPA simplifies the automation process and provides a more cohesive strategy.

Comparing OIC's RPA with Blue Prism

While Blue Prism is a popular RPA tool, it requires additional integration efforts when used with Oracle Cloud.

Integration: OIC's RPA is natively integrated within the Oracle ecosystem, reducing the need for third-party tools and simplifying the automation process. In contrast, Blue Prism requires additional setup and may not offer the same level of seamless integration.

Unified Platform: OIC's RPA is part of a unified platform that includes other Oracle services, providing a more cohesive automation strategy. Blue Prism, on the other hand, may require additional integration efforts to achieve the same level of cohesion. Additionally, OIC adapters to ERP cloud, for example, are tested by Oracle in coordination with the ERP team, ensuring better backwards compatibility than when using external tools.

Scalability and Flexibility: OIC's RPA can be easily scaled and adapted to various business needs, offering flexibility in how automations are designed and implemented, where the RPA bots can be invoked in flows during an integration orchestration or user action from VBCS, as examples.

Conclusion

Oracle Integration Cloud's RPA feature offers a powerful and seamless solution for businesses looking to automate their processes. With its native integration within the Oracle ecosystem, enhanced capabilities, and unified platform, OIC's RPA stands out as a superior option compared to non-native tools like Blue Prism. By leveraging OIC's RPA, businesses can streamline operations, reduce manual effort, and enhance efficiency, ultimately driving growth and success.

You can find out more about OIC's RPA capability, which is now generally available, at What's New in Oracle Integration 25.02