Process automation with Power Automate

Answering emails, reviewing data, copying and pasting information or checking for updates. Every day, almost without realizing it, we perform a multitude of repetitive tasks. Tasks that, although they may seem relatively simple and brief, as a whole end up being a huge investment of hours, affecting our productivity and that of our business. The key to simplifying all these processes and thus increasing our business efficiency lies in Power Automate.

From moving data between different systems, triggering alerts and sending task reminders to optimizing the compatibility of data obtained from any API, classifying notifications or just automating simple tasks from a local device, automating processes will save time and money.

Automation within everyone’s reach

To facilitate its implementation, Power Automate has a series of ready-to-use templates, as well as recommendations on the type of applications to connect so that you can automate any process in just a few clicks, with little or no coding required.

This easy access, with a simple and intuitive interface, makes it an ideal tool for all types of users, even without technical or programming knowledges. A simple way to save time in our daily tasks or simplify complex business processes that we would normally do manually.

Let Artificial Intelligence work for you

As we have seen, one of the main advantages offered by Power Automate is its RPA (Robotic Process Automation) capacity, automating repetitive and low-valued tasks and processes for your company that can be performed by bots, with consequent cost savings.

In addition, the power of Artificial Intelligence can be used to automate tasks that involve selection criteria (such as finding a particular phone number on a data screen) without having to do it manually.

Using connectors in Power Automate

Power Automate automated workflows can be generated for both Office 365 and third-party applications, with a list of more than 400 different applications or connectors to choose from for companies in any industry or activity, such as SharePoint, SQL Server , Outlook, Slack, Excel, Mailchimp, WordPress…

An ever-growing list of connectors that also includes the possibility of creating our own custom connectors to link Power Automate with the source of the data we need through an API.

To configure these workflows, it is important to be clear about three fundamental elements: the trigger, the actions that we want to perform and the connections between the different applications that we want to connect.

The trigger is the triggering event that activates the flow. It can be the entry of a new email, changes saved in a document, the appearance of a new tweet that mentions our brand, the creation of an item in a SharePoint list or any other event. Each connector must have at least one associated trigger for the workflow to be activated.

Once the process is activated, it is necessary to have well defined the different actions that we want to be carried out each time a triggering event is launched, always bearing in mind that each flow can have one or more associated actions. The variety of possibilities offered by Power Automate is total, send an email to a specific user, publish a message in a Teams group, upload a file to OneDrive …

Finally, it is essential to know the credentials of each application that we want to connect through Power Automate. These credentials are encrypted by Microsoft for your security and can be easily edited or deleted.

Flow types

If none of the default templates we have available suits our specific need, we can always define our own fully customized workflows.

In this case, the type of trigger we choose will define one of four existing flow types: automated, instant, scheduled, and business process.

In instant flows the trigger is activated manually each time it is needed. Normally this type of flow is used to carry out very repetitive tasks in such a way that executing them does not require constant attention

The scheduled flow allows us to trigger flows that start on a predetermined date, after a certain time, or that are regularly repeated in time. Thus, we can determine when and with what periodicity it is activated.

The fourth and last of the flow types are business process flows that guide users through their work through multistep processes. This type of flow is used when establishing complex flows that require business rules and processes defined by the company.

Main benefits of using Power Automate

Among all the advantages offered by Microsoft Power Automate, the most obvious one is undoubtedly the increase in productivity in your business. By creating automated workflows you save time and free up skilled personnel to develop new value initiatives instead of performing repetitive tasks.

Its ease of use and the fact that it requires almost no programming knowledge opens up a world of possibilities, democratizing the automation of the tasks of any employee within your organization.

An automation that enables the option to enable as many users as you consider to create faster and more secure workflows thanks to a guided activation process without the need for code that facilitates the automation of RPA processes.

With adaptable and scalable workflows, Power Automate is much more cost-effective than building solutions from scratch than custom software, and in the event that you need to create more complex and complete applications, you always have access to Azure Cognitive Services and Bot Framework, with which you can create solutions tailored to your specific needs and fully customized.

In short, with Microsoft Power Automate you will improve the efficiency and productivity of your business, saving time, money and resources. The best tool to simplify repetitive tasks and paperless processes so you can focus your attention on what is really necessary.