Microsoft Power Automate

Score8.2 out of 10

245 Reviews and Ratings

What is Microsoft Power Automate?

Microsoft Power Automate is an advanced automation platform offering a range of features, including AI-powered automation, robotic process automation (RPA), business process automation (BPA), digital process automation (DPA), and process/task mining. The platform aims to empower organizations to securely automate their operations at scale by leveraging low-code and AI technologies.

Categories & Use Cases

Media

Screenshot of Microsoft Power Automate (Interface Screenshot) - Work Queues, Initial page

Screenshot of Microsoft Power Automate (Interface Screenshot) - Signed-in web portal home page

Screenshot of Microsoft Power Automate (Interface Screenshot) - Signed-in web portal create page

Screenshot of Microsoft Power Automate (Interface Screenshot) - Desktop designer

Screenshot of Microsoft Power Automate (Interface Screenshot) - Hosted RPA

Screenshot of Microsoft Power Automate (Interface Screenshot) - Display of DLP violations (on Run)

Screenshot of Microsoft Power Automate (Interface Screenshot) - Cloud flow designer

Screenshot of Microsoft Power Automate (Interface Screenshot) - AI Builder homepage

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Screenshot of Microsoft Power Automate (Interface Screenshot) - Work Queues, Initial page

Hitesh Gautam View profile

Cloud engineer in Information Technology at Insight (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Mostly as the name suggests Power Automate helped me manage my clients tasks by automating them. One such scenario of i define would be automating a email and message trigger if a report takes longer than usual to refresh. Automate helped me creates those scenarios woth least coding and best results with all process working seamlessly automatically as programmed.

Pros

Automatic data collection and sends
Automated emails and texts sendings
Automated monitoring

Cons

Improved marketplace
Release desktop version
Cost

Most Important Features

Integrations with other services
Monitoring
Scheduling capabilities

Return on Investment

Time saving
Fast development
More accuracy

Alternatives Considered

Power Apps

Other Software Used

Power Apps, Azure SQL Database, Azure Blob Storage

Matt Aldridge View profile

L&D + Automation Lead in Human Resources at Ryman Healthcare (5001-10,000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Power Automate fills a vital gap where teams can develop various workflows between systems that our technology team hasn't integrated, and we need automation. This is most useful with HR and L&D processes such as onboarding, induction, and employee exit. It helps us automate repetitive tasks, like updating a database of employee records, sending data to webhooks based on a set trigger, moving data from one system to another, and automating enrolment actions in our LEARN365, our LMS platform. Power Automate stands out for its ability to integrate with multiple systems, close gaps in our existing technology configuration, and give more flexibility to people's data.

Pros

Connecting to many Microsoft and third party systems.
Flexible automation workflows with many triggers.
Little to no coding knowledge required to get started.
Lots of templates and online support resources available.

Cons

Steep learning curve.
It can be slow to develop simple solutions compared to other automation platforms such as Smarsheet.
Troubleshooting and developing can be frustrating without proper access to edit the code directly.
Only able to edit through the GUI and with expressions.
Many ways to do the same thing can be frustrating when you need to rework your flow.

Most Important Features

Automated triggers.
Connects to Smartsheet and LMS365.
Webhooks (premium feature).
Connects to all Microsoft apps.
Basic plan included with most O365 licenses.

Return on Investment

Reduce manual admin tasks, reduce administration hours.
Automated notifications for timely HR action.
Automating inductions prevented the need for third party platform.

Alternatives Considered

Smartsheet, IFTTT, Power Apps, Oracle Siebel CRM, Salesforce Sales Cloud and Azure Logic Apps

Other Software Used

Smartsheet, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft SharePoint, LMS365, Workleap Officevibe, MYOB PayGlobal, Articulate 360, Microsoft Planner

Dineshkumar Rajendran View profile

Applications Developer in Information Technology at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (5001-10,000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Power Automate solution to automate workflows for SharePoint online solutions. Few business problems that addressed using Power automate: 1. SharePoint Approvals flow 2. Capture audit version from the SharePoint items 3. Read email attachments and upload to SharePoint 4. Monitor the field status change in the SharePoint list and send email notifications to users for action

Pros

Automate SharePoint Approval flows
Integration with Outlook
Item updates in SharePoint list
File uploads to Document library
Integration with RPA tool like UiPath

Cons

No activity disable feature in the workflow, this would have saved lot of time
Allow turn off feature to not trigger any pending runs in the queue or add new feature to just run pending runs when the workflow is turned off
Allow easy copy and paste activities from UI

Most Important Features

Integration with Teams
Integration with Outlooks
SharePoint online integration to create/edit/delete list items
Trigger power automate using API calls
Files upload to SharePoint list/document library

Return on Investment

Quickly design workflows for SharePoint solutions
Connectors to different tools/systems like Outlook, teams, Database for different activities
Allow any non-technical persons to build automation workflows

Alternatives Considered

Nintex Automation Cloud and Nintex Automation On-Prem

Other Software Used

Nintex Automation Cloud, Nintex Automation On-Prem, Azure Logic Apps, UiPath Automation Platform

Usability

Sandro Silva

IT Consultant in Customer Service at dormakaba (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Microsoft Flow to automate internal processes such as material purchase approval flow, document file upload, customer data collection, technical teams communication when new documents are published in the file repository, and recently the integration between our chatbot to support technical and commercial teams, implementing in the bot the sending of emails with attachments and password validation by 2FA. All these automation have been integrated with Office365 products: Sharepoint, Microsoft Forms, Outlook 365, Office 365 Users, and Microsoft Teams. Activity flows utilize various integration components such as HTTP webhook, Egnyte, Office 365 user, and groups search. As a result, we reduced the time spent on internal processes, with email exchanges and billing between teams, improved the dissemination of important documents, and expanded the resources and services available to our internal users.

Pros

Easy to configure and implement the flows.
Large catalog of addons and integration components.
Ease of working collaboratively.
Allows creation of custom flow components.
Easy to share and distribute the flows.
Depending on your license type, access to different integration components

Cons

Documentation about some components, functions, and usage syntax needs to be improved.
A tool for creating custom connectors.
Poor visualization of complex flows with multiple steps and unfolding

Most Important Features

Native integration with office365 services.
Active Directory-integrated security and permissioning.
Automation of communication tasks, treatment and dissemination of information.

Return on Investment

Real-time alerts when new documentation material becomes available.
Tracking and visibility of steps in a purchasing process.
Insufficient documentation for lay users or beginners regarding formulas and connector configuration.
Has an engaged community with multiple forums covering all aspects and features of Flow.

Alternatives Considered

Zapier, IFTTT, Make (formerly Integromat) and Automate.io

Other Software Used

Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Power BI, IBM watsonx Assistant

Jeff Crowell View profile

Director of Service Delivery in Information Technology at Netrix LLC (501-1000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use Microsoft Power Automate to help clients automate their business processes, such as onboarding/offboarding, employee recognition and others. We typically use Microsoft Power Automate in conjunction with a forms tool - usually PowerApps or Microsoft Forms - and store data in SharePoint Online and/or Dataverse. Power Automate can be effective in automating any process which is repeated at your business as long as the rules for the process are well defined.

Pros

Workflow
Email notifications
Task management
Approvals
Connect to multiple data sources

Cons

Integration difficult with on premises apps (e.g. Active Directory)
Connectors to certain systems are not free
Limitations on how many flows can run based on subscription

Most Important Features

Process automation
Task assignment and tracking
Integration with multiple systems

Return on Investment

Generally, very positive - saving time on processes at low cost
Ease of development

Alternatives Considered

Nintex Process Platform

Other Software Used

Nintex Process Platform, PowerApps, Nintex Process Manager

Usability

Automation Anywhere

UiPath Automation Platform

SS&C Blue Prism

Microsoft Power Automate

What is Microsoft Power Automate?

Categories & Use Cases

Media

Reviews

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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Most Important Features

Return on Investment

Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

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Most Important Features

Return on Investment

Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Cons

Most Important Features

Return on Investment

Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Usability

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Cons

Most Important Features

Return on Investment

Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Cons

Most Important Features

Return on Investment

Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Usability

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