Microsoft Power Automate Reviews

It's a pretty big learning curve with Microsoft Power Automate and I'm trying to do a couple of other things. But I really have made some progress. I've actually started creating some bots. I've run into some snags. I haven't found my way out of the snags as yet. That's kind of why I'm not quite ready to publish because I'm not an expert yet, but I am actively working on it.

Microsoft Power Automate is on-premises because I'm using the Power Automate Desktop. So it's a desktop piece that I'm actually using and that's definitely on-premise. What I'm actually doing is interacting with actual systems. I run a clubby cloud system for moving data back and forth.

There are some very long processes that are happening now, where we need to move data from one system to another and do some analysis, and all of that. We're trying to automate some of that process to link the systems together. So some of it is actually reading the webpage, taking information off of the webpage, and doing things with it.

Power Automate is very user-friendly, it is easy to use. I find it very easy to use, easy to follow what's going on, to navigate around and get things done. I really like it. 

One of the features I like is the elements. Let me describe it. With Power Automate Desktop you're interacting with other pieces of software. That's kind of the whole point. You're grabbing information from other software so that you can then pull it together and move it back and forth between systems and do other things with it. Power Automate Desktop allowed me to quickly visually identify parts of a screen and record it. So I can see that I know I'm going to have to click this button here, this field there, and this tab here, and I can literally go and quickly just record all of them and identify them and have them in a list that I can see and say - there's my list of things.

Now when I'm actually pulling the logic together, it's really, really simple to just grab it from my list of elements and just fix things together. So I'm able to move faster than I can with Help and with the other solution. I really, really like that about it. I like its integration with other apps

Well, not integration. Because the whole point of Power Automate desktop is to grab information from other apps. So it's not a side feature, that's what it's designed to do specifically. So, that makes it easier to visually capture information from other applications, and then reuse those fields from other applications. I think it's the reuse that's really useful. Because I can see that I've done it. Whereas with the other one, did they do it or not?  But I really like that it is easy to capture visual elements of other applications and reuse them. 

The other good thing was the trial period. There's a much more realistic trial period of 90 days. So it encourages you to dig in on your own, and try and figure it out, because if something doesn't go right, you don't have to figure it out in 30 days, like all the others. So it's a 90 day trial, which makes sense to me because if it works, trust me, you'll never give it up. You going to use it, going to be hooked anyway, so 90 days make sense.

The problem with Power Automate is what happened when I had it set up to read web pages and Excel workbooks. But that was my first test, and I was working on it for around three days and then took a break of about two days. When I went back to it, all of the Excel, and all the Excel functions, just disappeared. Completely vanished.

I had installed it on my laptop. I had the spreadsheet there and all the features, because you have to do things like tell it to open the spreadsheet, tell it to read the cells, that kind of thing. And then you tell it to go to this webpage, and when you get to the webpage, log in, put in a username and password and then click on a button. So you have to put all of these steps and sort of link them together. And then when I came back, the flow was there, but it said all the steps that had to do with Excel were invalid. Anything that has to do with the web, it just said invalid. The whole tree, all instructions are still there, but the components that talk to Excel and the web were just gone. Just totally vanished.

When I looked up the help, it said that sometimes that happens when you're not connected to the internet. So it was kind of straight forward but complex as well.

It was straight forward, and then it just crashed, essentially. It just went. And I couldn't figure out a way to get the modules back. What on earth? So I switched to HelpSystems Automate, which I had also installed on my machine about a year ago. But now that I'd started working with Power Automate, that gave me the confidence to launch into the other one. So I launched into that one and that's where my HelpSystems Automate review would start. But if I would just stop by Microsoft Power Automate Desktop, that's where I'm stuck. I literally have not gone back to it. I actually find its easier to use. I prefer to use it, but it's just not working. It just stopped working. I don't know how to get this part back.

That's why I told you  I don't want to give a full review as yet because I don't know if it's something I did. I don't think so. But it just stopped. I'm still trying to give it a little grace, trying to figure out, trying to make it work.

What was difficult though, the weirdest thing, was just simple things like manipulating strings.

In terms of what features should be included, what would really help would be more help navigating webpages. What would help would be the help itself - if there would be lots of official walk-throughs. If it would say, for these scenarios, this is how you should do it, with the screen screenshots and the step-by-step thing. With other products I've used, even as a programmer back in the day, nothing ramps up learning faster than walk-throughs. It's not really the product itself, but more walk-throughs to help people ramp up their learning much faster.

That would be really great. Especially around web automation and services automation. Hooking into the EPI's of other solutions would be great. Right now we're just relying on the community of YouTube videos. People just set them up and do YouTube videos, and that's how they're hoping it will get solved.

It's not the type of setup, but it's the training on using the product that I would like to see more of. Better training on using the product itself, walk-throughs in particular, as a training method.

So I tell people that with Power Automate, you you can record the interview, that we're doing here, and fill out the forms automatically. All you have to do is sit down and engage the client with the right questions, and the system would listen to the interview and fill out the screen for you. So you thought, that would be really cool. Now you've downloaded it, and you're trying to figure out how on earth you do it. A walk-through is where you would go and this thing would literally say, "Capture audio and video." They give you a scenario and then they would have a little video that you can watch that shows you how to actually set it up. And then, in addition to that, you'd have a detailed scenario. This is what you want to do. Then it would have all the steps that you would need to actually do it end-to-end. If you follow the steps at the end of the walkthrough, you would actually have a working solution by just following the steps. By doing that, you're learning the product. You're learning how to use it. You learn so many things by using walkthroughs. And it's just training. It's not the actual product itself, it's training that goes along with the product.

This is Microsoft technical support. I'll try them. I haven't called Microsoft technical support in years. It's usually not a very good experience, but I will try. I will reach out to them and see what happens. When you go to support they tend to lead you to communities where other users are having issues. It's sort of, "see what you can find in the community." I will get back to it because I have to desperately get this thing to work. No matter which tool I use, I have to get it to work.

The price is why I even considered it, because HelpSystems Automate was winning all of these awards and was supposedly the easier tool to use. That's what it says. But Power Automate's pricing model had a more gentle incline. That's why I went to the Microsoft Power Automate Desktop in the first place, because the pricing seemed to be more favorable. It the end, once you're using it for the whole organization, you end up paying the same thing for both products anyways. But to get started, Power Automate Desktop seemed better priced. But then it stopped working and I don't know how to get it back working yet.

I'm using the HelpSystems Automate now, and I'm stuck on another step. I mean, it's hard and that's good. If it's hard, it means you'll get paid. So the bit being hard is not the issue. I just have no idea how to get Power Automate to work again. So when I do, I guess I'll let you know.

The licensing was on a monthly basis. I liked it because it gave me a more reasonable per user cost. So I can set up one user like me, and then quickly set up all the workflows that I need, and it allows me to evaluate better and longer. I can onboard two or three other logins at a very reasonable price. Ultimately everybody wants to just dominate the entire organization anyway, and so the price is going to get ridiculous at some point. But by the time it gets there, the organization would be benefiting so much from it they don't mind. Whereas with the other solution, you have to bite the bullet a little sooner.

I think you have to have an office license. I'm not sure actually. Maybe you can just use it by itself, but I'm not sure.

Right now, on a scale of one to 10, I would give Microsoft Power Automate a six since I can't actually use it. I really can't go past six. Maybe once I actually start using it, I'll rank it much higher. I think it has great potential if I could just get it back working.

The most common use is for digitizing Excel forms or Excel spreadsheets. We use Power Automate to digitalize all Excel-based processes on a SharePoint page and link the libraries with the transactional data from the client.

It is cloud-based. It can be deployed on a public, private, or hybrid cloud. It depends on the client. It is linked with the Microsoft license that a client has. If the license is hybrid, then Automate is hybrid as well.

By digitizing Excel spreadsheets, we reduced the errors in information transactions. We also reduced the time for the internal processes and improved operational efficiency.

The cloud solution on Azure makes it easy for us to take care of the security, which is a big deal for us. We can use the same permissions that we already have in place in Azure Active Directory and just duplicate them for the forms in Power Automate and the SharePoint page, so managing security is very easy for us.

Workflow management is what clients select the most. It is very intuitive and pretty much drag-and-drop, so we can create escalation, decision flows, and if-else conditions pretty much by dragging and dropping boxes. Even someone who is not technical can develop a workflow for the business.

It is very easy to use. It doesn't need a technical resource to create and maintain forms. The UX/UI is very similar throughout the Microsoft platform, including SharePoint and Office 365. 

It integrates with all sorts of databases, such as SQL Server and Oracle Database, which is a plus. 

While working with non-structured data (like logs and user tracking information that usually fits the criteria of big data), all the data sources must pass by a data quality process via any ETL tool before linking and publishing any information to the automation workflows and forms. This process is important to standardize all the content and format types for the columns and fields in the tables that will be used to show data in the front end.

 The ability to read non-structured data and provide insights into how to sanitize and organize data automatically is something that I'd like to be covered in the next releases.

I have been using this solution for two and a half years.

We never had any downtime, so it is pretty good.

It is very scalable. We are working with hundreds of forms at the same time, and some of our clients have thousands of people working simultaneously on the same form, so it is very scalable.

Most of its users are function-based. They are process leads in their companies. We currently have more than 1,000 users.

It is being used a lot. It is currently our most important tool for team efficiency. We plan to increase its usage in the near future. We have lots of other internal applications and processes in the pipeline, especially for functional areas, which can be moved from paper and Excel to a SharePoint form by using Power Automate.

The response time depends on your license level. If you are a gold partner, the response time is in a couple of hours, which is pretty decent. If you are an individual user or a company that doesn't have any L1, L2, or L3 licenses, the response time is up to 48 hours. So, it all depends on your license level with Microsoft, but whatever they say in the contract, they do respect that, which is good.

We were already users of other Microsoft solutions such as SharePoint and Teams, so when Power Automate became decent for the market users, we just adopted it naturally. Our experience with their technical support was good. They were able to answer our questions and solve our issues within the response time in our contract.

I used Blue Prism a couple of years ago, and now I'm using Power Automate. Blue Prism is bigger and way more expensive, and they charge by the number of users. Microsoft was cheaper, and they charge by the number of forms. So, it was way cheaper for us to move to Power Automate from Blue Prism.

It was pretty straightforward. Microsoft had two solutions: Microsoft Flow and Power Apps. Microsoft combined these two solutions and called it Microsoft Power Automate. It is pretty seamless because if you're already using Microsoft licenses, everything integrates with Office 365, SharePoint, and Teams. So, it is very seamless.

It took some days to create the front end of all the forms. Creating a whole page takes a couple of hours for a SharePoint administrator or developer or even a functional person, and we have hundreds of those. It took a few weeks to create the entire front end, but the connections were done in minutes. They were very simple.

It was done in-house. In terms of maintenance, once the forms are created, we have just one full-time employee taking care of the maintenance of those 100 forms, and that's enough because it is pretty much adding or deleting fields. It is pretty simple to maintain.

I don't know the exact number. It depends and varies a lot according to the licensing terms.

There is no cost to maintain if we have less than 10 forms. Microsoft only charges if there are more than 10 forms. So, most of the companies can survive without paying anything extra. It is included in the Office 365 licensing.

I would advise others to first look at the process and then the technology. The biggest issue is that people think that whatever they have in the current system can be digitized and automated, but it is better to first do the roadmap, understand the process from A to B, and then design the flow on paper. After the flow on paper seems okay, then go to the tool and create the form.

I would rate Microsoft Power Automate a nine out of 10. Big data support is something that I'd like to be covered a lot. The other piece that my business needs is already taken care of by the solution. Big data support is the only piece that is missing currently.

We are using it for automating legacy systems as well as email verifications. I haven't touched on the APIs yet, but the use case is for user accessibility to and from data sources.

The solution is still in the development phase. It is not in the production run at the moment. Therefore, at the moment, there is not a significant visible improvement.

In terms of deployment, it is a mix of hybrid cloud and on-premises. Microsoft is the cloud provider. It is a single environment deployed over multiple branches in each province of the country. Currently, the version that we are using is the latest Microsoft release.

Its ease of use is most valuable. A lot of the bulk functionality is done either through standalone or custom connectors and standard API processes. 

There are two versions of the automation suite. You've got your cloud functionality, and you have got your on-premises functionality for legacy systems. There are a lot of functionalities between the two systems that don't cross-correlate with each other. A lot of the functionality in the cloud system is not there on the production side in the on-prem system. If they could implement some of the similar functionalities and streamline them for integration, it would be a lot easier. There should be seamless integration between the two systems.

I have been using this solution for three months.

It is highly stable with good performance.

It is extremely scalable. It integrates with a lot of existing systems, both Microsoft-related and non-Microsoft-related, and it is extremely extensible. The additional support validation and software integrations that are available are limitless.

Our experience of the technical support on the solution has been minimal because there have not been a lot of technical issues with the implementation. The turnaround time for any type of technical query is usually a day to two days, but before that time period is up, they either have a solution or a guaranteed workaround.

We previously used Automation Anywhere. We switched because of the ease of use. The functionality of Automation Anywhere is for a very specialized use case scenario. They focus on a lot of areas, but Power Automate has a lot of simpler solutions and easier approaches. For example, we have a solution in place that has three or four RPA scripts for a single process. With the Power Automate solution, we have a single script running for maybe five sub-processes. It is a lot more streamlined and consistent.

At the moment, it is still in development and is a matter of integration. It does require a bit more technical know-how, but it is mainly done from the environment perspective and from an administrative point of view. 

From a development point of view, the crossover is pretty much the same for going, for instance, from Blue Prism to UiPath, or UiPath to Automation Anywhere. There's a transition period level of difficulty. So, from a development point of view, it's fairly the same, but from a technical point of view, Microsoft does require a bit more technical know-how to get the environment set up.

With some of the integration conversions we've done from one platform to the other, from a development standpoint, it has taken us close to a month in the development environments, and this is interrupted. If we had an uninterrupted conversion, I would estimate a maximum of a week. We just need to get it converted and implemented.

We've been doing everything in-house with direct help from a Microsoft representative. We have a single person to take care of it. It doesn't require a massive deployment team.

So far, based on the development calculators that we've been running, it's running far smoother and far more efficiently and faster. So, the estimated return on investment over the past three months that we've been calculating has been looking far higher than the Automation Anywhere solution.

At the moment, from our experience with the two, Power Automate is a lot more expensive solution than Automation Anywhere, but it is also a far more reliable solution. 

With the price increases and with the current pandemic situation going on worldwide, a lot of the prices have fluctuated, but the packages and the all-encompassing features you get with the Microsoft package far outweigh the benefits from the Automation Anywhere side. Each package on the Automation Anywhere side is cheaper, but we need to continuously purchase subsequent packages to continue with our automation to the extent that we require. So, the Power Automate solution is a bit more pricey, but it does offer us a far better range of capabilities.

There are different development plans that you can use. Additional licenses might be required for additional features, such as your Azure Logic or your Dataverse capacity. There is a limited capacity package that you can purchase, and then you have to have an additional license for added capacity.

I would advise paying critical attention to the environment that you're setting up. User access roles, either through Active Directory or through the database control method, should be the key focus. After that, you need to assign roles and licenses as necessary. From there on, you need to integrate the system. 

The Microsoft documentation portal for both cloud and on-premises is going to be the easiest to follow. All the solutions are there. For technical assistance from the Microsoft side, contact details are available on the documentation portal for any type of query.

I would rate it a solid eight out of ten. For me to give it a ten, there should be seamless integration between both the cloud and the on-premises solutions. There should be the exact same or similar functionality between the two to make the entire automation process a bit more streamlined.

We have been using Power Automate specifically for the COVID situation. The use case is mainly to automatically fire an e-mail every Monday morning requesting the employees of our firm to provide a response regarding their well-being. After the data is captured by using an MS form, the subsequent workflows get triggered through Power Automate. If somebody has mentioned that they have a fever or shortness of breath, we send this person's entry to our health and safety officer and our plan manager. All this is automated.

We also have another use case related to procurement where an automated flow was required for invoice processing for an external vendor.

We have been able to automate the form filling, form dispatch, and data collection activities, specifically for the COVID situation, across all offices within our firm. It is a global process covering all zones such as Europe, India, and Australia. We have also been able to define workflows for particular use cases, such as when there is a high volume of cases in a specific zone, such as India. We have created workflows so that our emergency team is directly able to connect with the R3 team that directly connects with the employee to provide the required support.

We have also gone a bit far with respect to the access part. The Power Automate flow also connects with the physical gates of our offices. Last year, we were able to control our physical gates with the data generated by the Power Automated workflow. We were prohibiting or allowing the entry of the people based on their responses that they had put in the Monday morning form. It was quite a complex use case, but we were able to roll it out globally, and it has helped a lot with the COVID situation.

The best part is the automated workflow, which is quite good and easy. It is just drag-and-drop. We are able to create workflows quite quickly. 

We are able to directly integrate the data that it generates with Power BI dashboards. Its integration is quite good with other Microsoft tools, such as Power BI. The visualization of the data has become helpful for us.

Microsoft shouldn't charge extra for the database license if you want to store the data in the database during the trial. We wanted to have a historical trend of the data, and we started with the trial version of the tool. The database license is not included with the trial version, and you have to purchase it separately. Because we had a budget constraint, we had to pull all the information manually from the system, massage it, and push it to the dashboard. About two months ago, we have upgraded to the full-fledged version in which the database is integrated. The database license should be there in the trial version, but they have totally decoupled it. They should have provided a bundle, at least for the trial version, so that once a person or a firm gets a sense of it, they can start building. It might be because they wanted to sell additional licenses or premium licenses, and that's why they have added it in the premium version.

It should have more cognitive features. Automation Anywhere and UiPath are different because they have cognitive functionality plus intelligent automation. The cognitive functionality is currently not there in Microsoft Power Automate. It is just for workflow automation and basic bot-level tasks. It should have more cognitive features, which probably will be launched in a couple of years.

I have been using this solution for the past one and a half years.

It is quite a stable product.

It is scalable. There is no doubt about Microsoft products in terms of scalability. Because of its scalability, we are able to have use cases that require a higher load.

From the build perspective, only our team builds it. We have around 10 to 12 developers who create and support Power Automate solutions. In terms of its usage, we are currently using it only for two use cases. We also have other tools, but we are using Power Automate for the use cases with less budget. Its license cost is comparatively less as compared to Automation Anywhere.

We have annual support, and there is also a community. My team connected with the community forums, and most of the things got resolved there. They connected with the support once for an issue, which got resolved. Their support is good.

We are also using Automation Anywhere, but we needed a tool that is cheaper than Automation Anywhere. Power Automate fits there well.

Its deployment was quite easy. We already have Microsoft suite across our company. Our complete ecosystem is Microsoft-based, so it was not a challenge. It took one or two days to get things in place. For complete documentation and implementation, it hardly took two weeks.

As per our current agreement, Microsoft is supposed to provide support. So, we had an external consultant who helped us out.

Its licensing cost is comparatively less as compared to Automation Anywhere. We have bought a two-year license agreement.

I would recommend this solution to others. It is one of the powerful tools. The best part is that it fits very well with the Microsoft ecosystem. It is not at the same level as Automation Anywhere and UiPath, but being a Microsoft product, I see a bright future for this. In one and a half years, it will be one of the key players in the RPA industry.

I would rate Microsoft Power Automate an eight out of ten.

We've primarily used it to update some legacy systems for our client, as well as government compliance systems and web-based reporting systems that don't have APIs.

With the desktop version, we can automate many things. The ability to do a lot of things is one of the most valuable features.  

For our clients with web-based reporting systems that don't have APIs. There was no other way to get the data into the systems than to manually enter it. We were able to automate that process entirely. We now collect information on a front-end power app, store it in a cloud database, and then push it into these external systems. 

The fact that we can do that for them is probably the most powerful piece for the people. 

We have removed an entire repetitive business process that didn't add any real value to the business but was required for compliance reasons.

There is a lot that could be done to improve the product. With debugging, sometimes things don't work because of timing, and just learning how to do that.

We were able to use a lot of JavaScript in that product using the desktop version, which was a huge help in terms of speed. 

The debugging tools require improvement as well as the monitoring which goes along with it. 

When things don't work as they should, it's usually because you're dealing with third-party websites. The importance of timing cannot be overstated. These are the areas that need to be improved.

One of the issues was that there wasn't a lot of documentation when we first started because Microsoft had purchased the product and began integrating it.

We started when Microsoft's product still used Selenium, and then they bought this product and switched over to it, which is a much better product. However, it is a third-party product. It has not yet been fully integrated.

We are using the most up-to-date version of Microsoft Power Automate.

We use Microsoft Power Automate both on the cloud and the desktop. We have done a lot more with the desktop than with the cloud.

Stability, it's fairly stable. They released a large number of fixes.

Scalability is the biggest challenge from my perspective because it is literally designed as a single-user product, at least the RPA piece of it is.

When you are trying to do what we are doing and running flows on behalf of people, trying to make it enterprise-ready and hardened is probably the most difficult challenge right now. 

Instead of running it on the client's desktop, we are running it on virtual gateway machines on their behalf, and they have support for that. We're doing it now for some other clients, and so far, we have done some pure RPA power automation.

Getting it enterprise-ready, and running it in the background on behalf of the users is probably the most difficult challenge.

I haven't used technical support at all.  have used mostly the web or we have figured it out ourselves.

I don't have a direct support contract with Microsoft. I've been doing the majority of this.

It's been a couple of years or so since it was set up, but I would say that it was pretty straightforward. It didn't take much to get it set up and running.

We believe it is a solid product that will continue to improve, and it is well integrated. It is integrated with the cloud, the database data verse, and power apps, with which we have a lot of experience and really like using power apps for doing things quickly. 

It's the first RBA product that I've really used. I've looked at it for a long time. We have done a lot of RPA work over the years, probably for the last six or seven years, just doing pure JavaScript, literally just writing JavaScript to automate these types of things. From our perspective, this is a huge step forward because we took a lot of pretty complex JavaScript code and logic and were able to put it in a format that we believe may make the code more maintainable and not just sort of stuck in the heads of one or two programmers.

We have completed a few projects, and just finished another one in which we were able to fill out 10,000 forms for a client who needed to do it as quickly as possible when a system went down. We reduced a process that would have taken weeks to four hours. We believe that the product has a lot of merits when used in the right places,  and I suppose we are still figuring out when it's the right tool.

I haven't used the UI path or some of the "higher-end" components. I believe one of the advantages of this device is its low cost. It's now built into Windows 11, it's a part of it.

When they say low code, no code, I would say the downside is that, while this is partially true, you still need to think like a programmer when trying to debug it or set up an enterprise-wide system.

I think it's functional, but I think it's got a way to go and it's hard for me to wait because I really haven't used those other products, We've been doing it mostly by hand for quite some time. I would rate Microsoft Power Automate a seven out of ten.

We use it for processing a stream of incoming invoices.

It is a cloud solution, but you install the client on your computer, so it is a hybrid deployment.

I can compare it with the same process on Blue Prism. With Power Automate, we've been able to double the speed. It is more user-friendly. It is faster. It is ten times cheaper. There are quite a few things about it.

Overall, it is a great service at the given price. It is very modern, and it integrates in a great way with pretty much anything. It is also fast. 

They can provide a deeper level of feedback about running processes. When I compare it to Blue Prism, the control room has slightly less information about the running processes and possible errors. I'm not a pro, so I am not entirely sure if this is a core feature of the product or if it is because of the way our partners have developed it or set it up. 

The stability of the UI section in terms of being able to read the visual elements is either at the same level as Blue Prism or better than Blue Prism. 

I don't have experience with scalability, but I don't see any roadblocks for scalability.

We've got plans to increase its usage, but it is about the decision-makers in our company having a good resource strategy. I'm not the main decision-maker, so I don't really know about the plans, but we would definitely want to increase the utilization. It is just a question of how to do it correctly.

We are in touch with a local partner who was a former partner of the Soft MultiTech company that originally developed the tool, which was acquired by Microsoft. They are very responsive. They help us quickly and efficiently with anything we need. We are quite happy with them.

It depends on your technical background. People who've got coding experience don't need to do anything. They can take it and work with it straight away. They don't need any partner or anyone else. They can just develop, but that's not the case for business users. 

Business users apparently need time to adapt and build the knowledge, which is probably the case with any platform, because the background rules need to be followed. In terms of its user-friendliness, it is drag-and-drop from predefined actions. If you know what to do and follow the rules and if you are able to build a strong process, then the product will probably give you everything you need to do that quickly and efficiently.

Its speed of adoption seems faster as compared to Blue Prism. The development and testing take the same amount of time on any platform, but it seems faster in terms of adoption than Blue Prism.

The number of people required for its maintenance depends on the process. It depends on the processes that you automate.

It is quite fresh, but its return on investment would be much better than Blue Prism. The Blue Prism license was somewhere around $10,000 a year, and we're now on $40 a month, which is incomparable, but we're getting the same service.

It is in fact a better product. So, even if you've got some other costs, such as you need some external coding at the beginning, you will get an ROI. We were positive about our return on investment with Blue Prism, and we would be doing much better than that with Power Automate, but I can't give exact numbers. I don't have them.

We've got a subscription package. We are on a monthly package of $40. We've got some discount because we're a big corporate client of Microsoft 365 and other solutions, but the standard price of the package that we use is $40.

For the product, you don't have to pay anything extra. If you're using a partner, you need to pay for their coding, advice, and services, which is a separate cost. The majority of the features are available for free for anyone who is on Microsoft 365.

I would suggest others to go for it. It is definitely a great solution, specifically at the given price. It is really hard for companies that are starting with RPA to justify the costs of some of the competing products, which could be 20, 30, or more times more expensive than Power Automate.

Even at a corporate level, it would be tough to get to a stage where you would find the product having some inefficiencies or some gaps as compared to its competitors. I don't have an experience where we are utilizing the orchestrator, have unattended bots, or are coordinating 20 or more bots, but according to our partners, it is working in such environments. It is about how you actually utilize the product, how well organized you are, how good are your processes, how you are able to build them in the product, rather than the super hard limitations within the product.

I don't really have a full experience with it, but from what I see and what I've learned, I would rate it a nine out of 10.

The primary use cases we are focusing on are applying automation to processes and integrating systems with API uploads. We have developed a module to handle private information related to the applications and API uploads to ensure the process is feasible without any challenges.

I believe document reading has been beneficial when dealing with Microsoft. 

There have been some challenges. We have struggled to take advantage of the power of the program due to the complexity of the reports we want to send to Microsoft. This includes client complaints, large discrepancies, and delays from data centers to solve the issues. As a result, we have faced both advantages and disadvantages. After some time, I believe Microsoft may have made changes to the backend that we are not aware of. This could cause issues, and the client has experienced instability in the current process. To address this, we need to make sure that any changes to the backend are documented and communicated clearly to avoid any potential issues.

The technical support has room for improvement.

I have been using the solution for six years.

I give the scalability of the solution a seven out of ten. The licensing is not bad but scaling requires additional work on the solution.

The solution is intended more for small and medium-sized organizations, not for large more complex companies.

We have 5,000 people using the solution.

The technical support attempts to address any queries, but their knowledge is limited. They try to come up with solutions for new problems and document them if they yield results so that if someone else has the same issue, they can get the same solution. However, they are technically struggling. To resolve the issues, Microsoft created a system where their internal technical team works with a mediator who understands the problem but may not understand the technical details. This mediator then takes the ticket up to the technical team analyzes the issue and provides a resolution. This system has saved them time in responding to and resolving the issue.

The initial setup is great. We're currently building with the connectors. However, automating the process may require additional hardware, which can take time to implement. We have to apply the policy and see how their applications access information. To accommodate the additional hardware, our plan has to be adjusted, but if we don't involve any alternatives, we can deploy more easily. 

The automation portion if required is a different department but for the basic setup, we only require two to four people.

The license is 20 million rupees per month. The cost is okay but we are paying per month. Microsoft is providing a license that is automatic which is very helpful. But we know that of the solution, we don't have any annual subscriptions. We pay monthly, otherwise, we choose another solution.

Microsoft is providing an automatic license with a cost of $20 million per month, which is reasonable. However, we don't have any annual subscription options, so we must pay monthly or choose another solution.

I give the solution a seven out of ten.

Microsoft is predicting that improvements will come in the future which will be better than what's currently available in the market. Even if they can build simple and medium processes, they still need to add certain elements and acquire certain licenses in order to run the machine from one place to another. We need to let go of the keys, such as a community rotation which we are automating. I don't believe updates should be pushed for those who are happy with the version they are using because that version is capable and we have fixes for any issues that may come up. Microsoft is now focused on automating development processes. It is important that Microsoft give the community rotation back to users, as we are all users. Regardless of size, we need to be aware of the upgrades that are being made.

We don't believe additional personnel is required for maintenance. We currently have adequate processes in place and automation. In total, there are fifty processes running, two for every system. Therefore, we do not anticipate needing to increase personnel for maintenance purposes.

The other departments have implemented the AP60 and are currently working on it. In my department, we are using Power Automate which is working but I need to check what progress the other departments have made and if they are facing any challenges to determine if it is easier to build with AP60 or with Power Automate.

There are many alternative solutions to Power Automate that also are cloud-based that I believe offer an annual subscription but I am not sure.

I would suggest starting with simple or medium processes, rather than complex ones. Begin with a pilot project to determine if it is profitable or not. We should also try to find a way to automate the process, as it could otherwise become stuck. Additionally, it is important to consider any issues that could arise with the elements that are currently working; the same elements may fail tomorrow. Ultimately, if we can handle these issues in the development phase, the solution will function great.

I am a solution provider and I implement RPA products and automate processes for my clients.

With this product, you create your workflows on the cloud. We've used this product for integrating with Microsoft solutions. For example, one of them is a document approval solution, where documents are sent to SharePoint and then pushed to different users within Active Directory for approval. This is done according to rules set by the client.

There is also a COVID application that was built around Power Automate and the Power Platform, where users within the organization can raise a request for a test and this would be pushed to managers for approval.

We are also looking at financial processes around bank reconciliations and interbank transfers.

The most valuable feature is that it easily integrates with other Microsoft products, so it has multiple connectors. You can create solutions that connect to Teams, Outlook, SharePoint, and OneDrive.

There are templates available for you to create your own flow, and it is easy to start creating a flow and automating a solution.

There are some bugs or intermittent behavior in the Excel activities that require using workarounds. For example, there is an Excel activity called Collect that fails once in a while. When you want to choose or select a particular cell, once in a while, it fails to do so. It doesn't happen all of the time and I don't know if it's a bug, but it's something that they can look into.

I have been working with Microsoft Power Automate for approximately one year.

This is a very stable product.

The scalability is amazing. This is a cloud-based resource, and there is no limitation in terms of scale or size. You can easily increase the scope of processes being handled.

The COVID use case is available for all of the employees, which is approximately 2,500. The documentation approval use case is used by managers and people making requests, which is approximately 2,000 people. The use case involving financial reconciliation is only for a small team that consists of about five people.

The technical support is good. They are available and you can just call them. We have Microsoft Office online support, as well. This means that you can call them, or instead go to the forum and search for activities and resources. They have a lot of resources available online.

There are good tooltips available within the product itself. You can look at something and the tooltip will explain how it works and what you should do.

Overall, the support resources are good and I would rate the technical support a nine out of ten.

I also work with UiPath and WorkFusion.

The initial setup is straightforward. Power Automate is a cloud-based tool, although I downloaded the Studio to my local machine.

The deployment takes one day. You just switch environments from UAT to production. You can easily export your solution and import it into the production environment.

We were working with another company to implement the solution but we completed the implementation and deployment ourselves.

The licensing model is flexible in that you can pay per automation or per user. My client receives a discount because of the large number of users and pays approximately $15 for each one.

There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees unless other resources are being used. For example, Office resources are available on Azure, but that is a different product. It is related to Azure, rather than Power Automate.

Our client chose this solution. They already had Microsoft enterprise licenses, and they felt it was better to use a Microsoft product for their automation solution.

Overall, this is a good solution and I like it. It's very scalable and easy to do so. Also, there are many connectors and they are quite useful. This is a product that I recommend.

My advice for anybody who is implementing Power Automate is to be cautious about how they distribute their flows, just to manage the licensing cost. Because it is cloud-based, it is an easy-to-use tool for both small and enterprise-wide solutions. There are no complications when integrating with Active Directory or the cloud platform, and this is good, in particular, because everybody is moving to the cloud. This product makes it easy to integrate things that people are already working with, such as Teams and Outlook.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.