Use the Shifts connector wizard to connect Shifts to Blue Yonder Workforce Management

• Applies to:

  Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 for frontline workers

Overview

The Shifts connector wizard in the Microsoft 365 admin center enables you to integrate the Shifts app in Microsoft Teams with your workforce management (WFM) system. After you set up a connection, your frontline workers can seamlessly view and manage their schedules in your WFM system from within Shifts.

The wizard configures the Shifts connector, creates a connection to your WFM system, and applies the sync settings and team mappings that you choose. Sync settings determine the schedule information that's synced between your WFM system and Shifts. Team mappings define the sync relationship between your WFM instances and teams in Teams. You can map to existing teams and new teams.

You can set up multiple connections, each with different sync settings. For example, if your organization has multiple locations with different schedule requirements, create a connection with unique sync settings for each location. Keep in mind that a WFM instance can only be mapped to one team at any given time. If a WFM instance is already mapped to a team, it can't be mapped to another team.

With your WFM system as the system of record, your frontline workers can see and swap shifts, manage their availability, and request time off in Shifts on their devices. Frontline managers can continue to use your WFM system to set up schedules.

Integrate Shifts with Blue Yonder Workforce Management

Currently, the wizard supports the Microsoft Teams Shifts connector for Blue Yonder. This connector enables you to integrate Shifts with Blue Yonder Workforce Management (Blue Yonder WFM) to manage your schedules and keep them up to date. In this article, we walk you through how to run the wizard to set up a connection to Blue Yonder WFM through the connector.

Note

You can also use PowerShell to integrate Shifts with Blue Yonder WFM. To learn more, see Use PowerShell to connect Shifts to Blue Yonder Workforce Management.

Before you begin

You must be a Microsoft 365 global admin to run the wizard.

Prerequisites

Before you get started, make sure you have the following prerequisites:

• Blue Yonder WFM version 2020.3, 2021.1, or 2021.2.

  Note

  If you have Blue Yonder WFM 2020.3 or 2021.1, apply the 2020.3.0.4 or 2021.1.0.3 patch. This patch fixes an issue where users get a persistent error message in Shifts. It also fixes an issue that prevents users from updating their availability in Shifts.

• Your Blue Yonder WFM service account name and password and service URLs:

  • Federated authentication URL
  • Cookie authentication URL
  • Employee self-service URL
  • Retail web API URL
  • Site manager API URL
  • Administration API URL

  If you don’t have this information, contact Blue Yonder support. The account is created at the root enterprise level by a Blue Yonder enterprise administrator. It must have API Access, Client Admin, and Store Manager access. The account and password are required to create a connection.

• Federated SSO authentication is enabled in your Blue Yonder WFM environment. Contact Blue Yonder support to make sure federated SSO is enabled. They'll need the following information:

  • federatedSSOValidationService: https://wfmconnector.teams.microsoft.com/api/v1/fedauth/{tenantId}/6A51B888-FF44-4FEA-82E1-839401E9CD74/authorize where {tenantId} is your tenantId
  • proxyHeader: X-MS-AuthToken

• At least one team is set up in Teams.

• You added your Microsoft 365 system account as a team owner to all teams you want to map.
  Create this account in Microsoft 365 and assign it a Microsoft 365 license. Then, add the account as a team owner to all teams that you want to map. The Shifts connector uses this account when syncing Shifts changes from Blue Yonder WFM.

  We recommend that you create an account specifically for this purpose and not use your user account.

• The teams you want to map don't have any schedules. If a team has an existing schedule, remove the schedule from the team before you map a Blue Yonder WFM instance to it. Otherwise, you'll see duplicate shifts.

Remove schedules from teams you want to map

Note

Complete this step if you're mapping Blue Yonder WFM instances to existing teams that have schedules. If you're mapping to teams that don't have any schedules or if you're creating new teams to map to, you can skip this step.

Use PowerShell to remove schedules from teams.

1. First, you'll need to install the PowerShell modules and get set up. Follow the steps to set up your environment.

2. Run the following command:

   Remove-CsTeamsShiftsScheduleRecord -TeamId <Teams team ID> -DateRangeStartDate <start time> -DateRangeEndDate <end time> -ClearSchedulingGroup:$false -EntityType <the scenario entities that you want to remove, the format is @(scenario1, scenario2, ...)> -DesignatedActorId <Teams team owner ID>
   

   To get a list of scenarios for the EntityType parameter, run Get-CsTeamsShiftsConnectionConnector. Schedule data will be removed for the date and time range that you specify.

To learn more, see Remove-CsTeamsShiftsScheduleRecord.

Run the wizard

Get started

1. In the left navigation of the Microsoft 365 admin center, choose Setup, and then go to the Apps and email section.
2. Select Connect your workforce management system. Here, you can learn more about Shifts connectors and the frontline worker and manager experience when you connect Shifts to your WFM system.
3. When you're ready, select Get started.
4. Select Next to create a Blue Yonder WFM connection.

Enter connection details

1. On the Connection details page, give your connection a unique name. It can't be longer than 128 characters or have any special characters.
2. Enter your Blue Yonder WFM service account name and password and service URLs.
3. When you're done, select Next to test the connection with the settings you entered.

Choose sync settings

On the Sync settings page, you choose the information to sync from Blue Yonder WFM to Shifts, the sync frequency, and whether Shifts users can make changes to the data.

1. Enter your Microsoft 365 system account.

2. Under Email notification recipients, choose who receives email notifications about this connection. You can add individual users and groups. The email notifications contain information about connection setup status and any issues or errors that may occur after the connection is set up.

3. Choose your sync settings:

   1. Under Schedule and shifts, choose the Blue Yonder WFM data that Shifts users can see or change, and then set the sync frequency.
   2. Under Requests, choose the types of requests that Shifts users can see and create.

   Important

   If you chose any of the following options to disable open shifts, open shift requests, swap requests, or time off requests, there's another step you need to do to hide the capability in Shifts.

   • Open shifts: Shifts users will not see Blue Yonder WFM data
   • Swap requests: Feature is disabled for all users
   • Time off requests: Feature is disabled for all users

   After you run the wizard, make sure you follow the steps in the Disable open shifts, open shifts requests, swap requests, and time off requests section later in this article.

4. When you're done choosing your settings, select Create connection.

Map Blue Yonder Workforce Management instances to teams

Choose the Blue Yonder WFM instances that you want to connect to Shifts, and then map each instance to a team in Teams. You can map up to 100 instances. There's two ways that you can do this:

• Manually map instances to teams
• Prepare and upload a CSV file that defines your mappings

Manually map instances to teams

Select the instances that you want to map.

Then, map each instance to a team in Teams. You can map an instance to an existing team or you can create a new team.

To map an instance to an existing team

1. Select the instance name.
2. In the pane, search for the team, and then select it. Keep in mind that teams that are already mapped to an instance in this connection don't show up in the search.
3. Choose the time zone and closest city.
4. Select Save, and then select Next.

To map an instance to a new team

1. Select the instance name.
2. In the pane, choose Create a new team. You'll be taken to a new tab in your browser where you can create a new team in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
   1. Enter a name and an optional description for the team.
   2. Add one or more team owners. Make sure you add the Microsoft 365 system account as owner.
   3. Add team members.
   4. Add a team email address and choose a privacy setting.
   5. Review your settings, and then choose Add team. When your team is created, choose Close.
3. Go back to the wizard, search for, and then select the new team you created.
4. Choose the time zone and closest city.
5. Select Save, and then select Next.

Use a CSV file to map instances to teams

1. Select switch to bulk mode.

2. Select download a template file to download a mapping template that you can use to define your mappings.

   

3. Use the template to create your mapping file. It contains these columns, in the following order, starting with the first column. An asterisk (*) indicates a required column.

   Column name	Description
   Blue Yonder Instance ID*	The Blue Yonder WFM instance ID.
   Blue Yonder Instance Name	The Blue Yonder WFM instance name.
   Team ID*	The team ID.
   Team Name	The team name.
   Time zone*	The time zone in tz database format. For example, Europe/London.

   Note

   You only need to fill out the required columns (Blue Yonder Instance ID, Team ID, Time zone) to map instances to teams.

   Here's an example of what a mapping file looks like.

   Blue Yonder Instance ID	Blue Yonder Instance Name	Team ID	Team Name	Time zone
   2111	Contoso US Team	3a4d78a-2261	US Team	America/Los_Angeles
   3212	Contoso UK Team	2d1f6c2e-5272	UK Team	Europe/London
   4865		bfa6o89e-1328		America/Toronto

4. When you've created your mapping file, select Browse to upload it. The wizard validates your file. If it finds errors, you'll see a list of the errors, and a message requesting that you correct them. Otherwise, you'll see a message to continue to the next step.

5. Select Next.

Review and finish

Review your settings. If you need to make changes to any team mappings, choose Edit to do so. When you're ready, select Finish.

You’ll see a message to confirm that we received your request along with an operation ID. Make a note of the operation ID. You'll need it to check the setup status of your connection.

The wizard starts the process to set up the connection and map the instances to the teams you selected. This process may take some time to complete. The recipients you chose will receive email notifications about setup status.

Select Done to exit the wizard.

You’re on your way but you’re not done yet! Be sure to check your email. You'll receive a confirmation that we received your request along with a link to how you can check setup status.

Note

If an issue or error occurs in a connection after it's set up, you'll get notified in email. Follow the instructions in the email to troubleshoot the issue.

Disable open shifts, open shifts requests, swap requests, and time off requests

Important

Follow these steps only if you chose any of the following options to disable open shifts, open shift requests, swap requests, or time off requests in the wizard. Completing this step hides the capability in Shifts.

• Open shifts: Shifts users will not see Blue Yonder WFM data
• Swap requests: Feature is disabled for all users
• Time off requests: Feature is disabled for all users

Without this second step, users will still see the capability in Shifts, and will get an "unsupported operation" error message if they try to use it.

To hide open shifts, swap requests, and time off requests in Shifts, use the Graph API schedule resource type to set the following parameters to false for each team that you mapped to a Blue Yonder WFM instance:

• Open shifts: openShiftsEnabled
• Swap requests: swapShiftsRequestsEnabled
• Time off requests: timeOffRequestsEnabled

To hide open shifts requests in Shifts, go to Settings in Shifts, and then turn off the Open shifts setting.

If you need to make changes to a connection

After a connection is set up, you use PowerShell to make changes to it. For example, you can update sync settings, team mappings, and disable sync for a connection. For step-by-step guidance, see Use PowerShell to manage your Shifts connection to Blue Yonder Workforce Management.

Related articles

• Shifts connectors
• Use PowerShell to manage your Shifts connection to Blue Yonder Workforce Management
• Manage the Shifts app in Teams