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how to send automated messages on teams, with unique message and delay time stored in excel

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Posted on by mrrosenthal85

we have a list of 30 users, that i want to message every 12-18 hours with various simple messages. In the excel we have their email, name, and Id like to add the message to send and the date/time or delay amount.

Is it possible and easy(hehe) to get PA to send messages from the data in excel to microsoft teams individual users? Or are we better off just make a bunch of messages in PA and do it inside PA

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Rhiassuring 8,690 Moderator on at

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I mean, I'd opt for a SharePoint list over an Excel list, but, you can achieve this.

Since I don't know your level of familiarity with PA, let me know if this is too vague:

1) Create a flow that uses the scheduled trigger, for every .. 16h? I guess?

2) Use the "Get rows from a table" action for Excel

3) Create a "Create a Chat" -- use the dynamic content for "name" in the "To". It'll turn into an Apply to Each, that's what you want.

4) Use "Post a message in a chat", pointing at the Conversation Id of the previous one. Add the message from Excel into the message.

I think that'll do it?

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mrrosenthal85 53 on at

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A list is also a great option, can you share how to do this using microsoft list

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Rhiassuring 8,690 Moderator on at

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Sure, all you need to do is go to the site you'd like the list to be in, click on the New dropdown, choose List, and then use the "Excel" option. You can import the Excel from where ever you have it currently stored in M365.

This is just a bit easier if dates happen to come into the picture 😛

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andrewisaac 29 on at

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Thank you for the suggestion! What if we want the message sent every 16 hours to be different from each other? So, for example, the first message is like "how are you doing", the second may be "how's the progress", and the third might be "any updates", etc. How should I implement this into the flow? Should they be different fields in the list? Can you give some suggestion on that?

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Rhiassuring 8,690 Moderator on at

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How many messages might there be in total? Like, a total of potentially 5 messages, or 50 messages to that same person every 16h, over time?

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andrewisaac 29 on at

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About 5-8 messages per person.

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mrrosenthal85 53 on at

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its around 30 people, and around 5-10 messages a week

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Rhiassuring 8,690 Moderator on at

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I feel like you're trying to automate a manager hahahah

The amount of people, not a big deal.

If it's a certain number of messages, and they all go out the same time (ie, Message1 goes out on the first run for all 30 users, even if Message1 is different), then you can just create an index in the sheet / list (just like "Count" column, number), and increment it by 1 each time the flow runs, then use that new # to identify which message column you want to draw the message from.

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mrrosenthal85 53 on at

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exactly, a virtual manager lol. and can you specify the method to set the delay ? is that done inside the list as well with what type of column. Thank you Rhia

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Rhiassuring 8,690 Moderator on at

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The delay would be completely from the schedule.

So let's say you have these columns in your list:

Count | Employee Name | Message 1 | Message 2 | Message 3 | Message 4

Your flow would be scheduled, and would look a bit like this:

Get items, followed by...

I haven't tested this as I don't have time at the moment, but it should get you started

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