Training Manager at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Real User
It works perfectly and lets me do everything very quickly
Pros and Cons
  • "Its integration with SharePoint and Outlook is the most valuable. I found it very easy to use. I could do everything that I wanted very quickly, and I didn't have any complications at all. I never had a problem in using Microsoft Power Automate."
  • "If someone was just about to start using it, it would be better if it was a bit more user-friendly in terms of understanding function references. I come from a bit of development background. To me, it all makes quite a lot of sense, but someone using it for the first time would probably battle understanding how the functions work. This might be something they could improve on. It would be really useful if it could publish data to Power BI. We like to use Power BI for our reporting, but we can't directly integrate the data across. If there was a way to automate the collection of the data and push it straight into the Power BI platform, it would be quite useful."

What is our primary use case?

We use SharePoint to collect information from tests, exams, and similar things that we do in our office. When people complete the tests, we use Microsoft Power Automate to collect the results and email them to appropriate people. We are currently using the latest version of Microsoft Power Automate. 

What is most valuable?

Its integration with SharePoint and Outlook is the most valuable. 

I found it very easy to use. I could do everything that I wanted very quickly, and I didn't have any complications at all. I never had a problem in using Microsoft Power Automate.

What needs improvement?

If someone was just about to start using it, it would be better if it was a bit more user-friendly in terms of understanding function references. I come from a bit of development background. To me, it all makes quite a lot of sense, but someone using it for the first time would probably battle understanding how the functions work. This might be something they could improve on.

It would be really useful if it could publish data to Power BI. We like to use Power BI for our reporting, but we can't directly integrate the data across. If there was a way to automate the collection of the data and push it straight into the Power BI platform, it would be quite useful.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Power Automate for about three months.

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Power Automate
April 2024
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It seems to be very stable. It has been running now for about three months, and it regularly gets used, probably about 30 times per day. I haven't had a single missed event. I have received all the emails, and everything works great. Today, funnily enough, I have started building a new solution for something similar. So, I went back and actually checked the records for the last three weeks, and everything was perfect. I haven't had any issues with it at all. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I am sure that it is going to be perfectly fine for what we need. We are looking at about 30 people using it in one day over the last three months, which is not a very high volume. We are not going to do more than probably a maximum of 50 users a day. 

How are customer service and support?

I did not have any need to contact them.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previous to this, I used Microsoft Flow, and before that, I used the SharePoint workflow. We switched from Microsoft Flow because Microsoft actually changed their product and went from one to the next. It used to be Microsoft Flow, and then they revamped it and re-introduced it with a new name. I just carried on basically using the same platform. It is better than what they used to have. That's for sure, but I'm still effectively using the same product. They had advertised through emails and other mediums that they have switched to a new product, and it has been rebranded. I thought I'm going to try it, and I just found it very friendly and easy to use. So, I just stuck with it.

How was the initial setup?

It is integrated completely with our Office 365, so I didn't have to set up anything. Everything just works automatically. The security works from the first time. When I logged in, it straight away identified me. I could immediately get a list of all the people to whom I needed to send the stuff. It connected straight away to the SharePoint. I didn't have any problems at all.

What about the implementation team?

The original product was set up by the consultant firm that looks after our IT. We don't do it on our own. They set up everything and configure it. All I had to do was just log in and make sure everything works the way I wanted it to do.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't deal with the financial side. I know that we pay for a per-user license. It is probably less than $20 a user, but I am not sure about the exact figures.

What other advice do I have?

To use this solution, you need to maybe brush up a little bit on how to use the function references that are available in Microsoft Power Automate. The code that you use for the functions is a little bit different from what you would use if you were using Excel or anything like that. So, you just need to brush up on how the functions work. Once you understand them, it is pretty simple.

I would rate Microsoft Power Automate a ten out of ten. Everything has been perfectly fine. I am a happy user.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Co-Founder & Director - Technology at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Reseller
Execution of workflows could be improved; connectors are a good feature
Pros and Cons
  • "The connectors are a very good feature."
  • "Execution of workflows could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

This is one of the solutions we sell to our customers. I'm an automater and we are customers of Microsoft. 

What is most valuable?

The connectors are a very good feature in this solution because they allow you to connect to multiple applications within the Microsoft environment. The solution is readily integrated. 

What needs improvement?

I'd like to see an improvement in the execution of workflows, which is currently an area of concern. It takes a lot of time and when you integrate these workflows, you have to be very careful because even a tiny error can break the workflow. Microsoft needs to make it more resilient.

An additional feature should be interoperability. It's the idea that you should be able to leverage other Microsoft technologies, let's say .NET, C#, VB macros, so that they can be integrated. It will make the solution more powerful, and they could provide a facility where we could run scripts written in other languages through Power Automate seamlessly. That would make this a very powerful product. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for 18 months. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's not stable yet, because it's still in development. There are a lot of things happening right now. If they bring in a new feature, an old feature can change and that's why we're not able to deploy it fully on all our client premises.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scalable because almost everything which is available within the Microsoft environment can be connected. But when you go outside the Microsoft environment, with respect to legacy systems and with third-party applications, the scalability is a somewhat limited right now. You can't connect very easily to Oracle or SAP or even third-party standalone custom applications. We don't have plans to increase usage for the time being. 

How are customer service and technical support?

We haven't contacted technical support, mainly because we've been in a Microsoft related environment for the last 30 years. Most things that we solve ourselves, rather than talking to Microsoft.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have not yet fully switched to Microsoft Power Automate. We still consider it an option for clients who are purely in a Microsoft environment. It's definitely an option, but we also have seven other RPA tools we use including UiPath, Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, Kryon, Kofax. We also have an option for customers who don't want to go for any RPA tools that enables them to get custom automation.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is complex. You need to know what you are doing, because it connects to so many things on your system which could be different for different systems. It took us about half a day to understand what we needed to do, and then after that it took just an hour. We did it ourselves. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is affordable and supportable, but the licensing is complex because you're paying for multiple services. You pay a license for Automate and a license for Azure Cloud. There could be a situation where you're managing more licenses than the bots.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We have evaluated 22 options in this area. 

What other advice do I have?

Choosing a solution really depends on what the customer needs. If they're looking for something that's easy to maintain, we might go for UiPath or Automation Anywhere. And if we don't have the budget we tell them to look at Microsoft Power Automate. If you don't have a budget for that, then you look at a custom automation which doesn't need any RPA tool. It all depends on the customer's requirements and constraints.

This solution has the potential to go further, but for now I would rate it a five out of 10. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Power Automate
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Power Automate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
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Digital and E-Business Analyst at a construction company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Out-of-the-box connectors make it easy to use and it has good reporting
Pros and Cons
  • "This product is a really easy-to-use solution for quickly developing prototypes."
  • "If the product had onscreen help, it would be easier to learn and use."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use for this product is for the automation of manual tasks that may require some small integrations between systems. An example would be something like automatically sending an email from an action that is performed on our online system. Another might be writing data to our CRM database based on the input from an online form.  

How has it helped my organization?

The thing that this product has provided is a solution for quickly developing prototypes. We can create some new solutions really fast, test it to understand exactly which data is needed and then deploy the solution moving forward quickly through the process. That has been important for us. It is not necessarily that we all use Power Automate as a production-ready solution. It is more that we can use it to make prototypes that we can test with.  

What is most valuable?

I think the most valuable thing about this product for me is that it is really quick and easy to use. You do not need to have a lot of development skills to be able to create solutions. There is very little code involved, which is great, and it is very logical. It has also got great reporting. You can see the success and failure of each item that has been run through it. There are a lot of out-of-the-box connectors as well that make things easier.  

What needs improvement?

To improve the product, I think it would be great to see even more connectors available out-of-the-box and more maturity in that direction. I would also like to see some readiness for creating test and production environments so that you can differentiate which environment is you are working in.  

As far as additional features I am not sure what could really improve the product. It could maybe do with some more insights like triggered alerts.  

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this product for about a year.  

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

So far we find that the stability of the product is really good. There is also good reporting if it is down for any reason. We have not really experienced stability problems or had any complaints about that.  

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is really good. We have been able to use it for lots of different kinds of things. We do think that Power Automate is more for prototyping than for production-ready applications. You should probably upgrade to using Power Apps if you need something production-ready. You can build something quickly as a prototype in Power Automate and then upgrade to Power App to create a more refined application. Using those together means that what you develop is more production-ready. But in general, I think it is really scalable. There are lots of different use cases and lots of different solutions you can build and make available.  

There are not a lot of people currently using the product in the company — maybe like 10 or 12. We really want more and more people to use it, but it is not our job to roll it out to everybody. We just found it and thought it was interesting. We share it with people when they want to know how to try and automate something. But it is not something we had planned to really roll out company-wide as a solution initially.  

We will eventually roll it out to more people as we grow with it and discover more uses.  

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not really use a different solution before Microsoft Power Automate. We were using Flow originally, which is what the same product was called before it became Power Automate. The name change was just within the last two months.  

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is really straightforward. It is immediately available out-of-the-box when you have Microsoft Cloud. You just click on the button and it is there ready to use.  

Our deployment took maybe a week or so. Most of that was just to play around and get familiar with it and become ready to start doing actual projects. Because you are building your own little mini-applications inside of it and the framework is available already, it is just a matter of learning how to work with the tool. You need to learn how to use it to build what you want to build.  

There were only two people involved in the deployment process. It did not require a lot of effort. It was just a couple of minutes to be ready to start using it and a week to get to the point where we could be productive.  

The framework for the product is maintained by Microsoft. Any applications that we build inside of it is all we need to maintain ourselves. So we do not have to maintain the framework at all.  

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Power Automate is really cost-effective. You pay for use and if you want a premium connector then you just pay for a premium connector. But a lot of things are available for free. If you want to use an adapter that is not available for free, then you have to pay the provider for it. I do not know how much that costs.  

What other advice do I have?

My advice to people who are considering implementing Microsoft Power Automate is that I think it is a really great tool that allows you to get started quickly on prototyping and integrating solutions that will simplify some redundant tasks. The best idea would be to just get started with it and experience what it can do.  

The biggest lesson we have learned from using Microsoft Power Automate is that there is just so much that is possible to automate. Thinking about the potential scope of what the tool can do, we now look at a problem and think that maybe we can use Power Automate to resolve the issue.  

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate Microsoft Power Automate as a nine-out-of-ten at this point. To become a ten they would just need some more maturity with the test and production environments and making things more production-ready. Also, some additional guided help would valuable for new users to orient them and get started building their own applications. But other than that, it is perfect.  

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Robotic Process Automation developer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
A low-code platform that makes the automation of small tasks easy
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a low-code platform. It is easy to use and good for automating small tasks such as expense approvals, timesheet approvals, etc."
  • "I would like more integration with other tools. It integrates well with Microsoft products, but there should be more integration with other platforms and tools, such as chatbots."

What is our primary use case?

I use it for robotic process automation.

What is most valuable?

It is a low-code platform. It is easy to use and good for automating small tasks such as expense approvals, timesheet approvals, etc.

What needs improvement?

I would like more integration with other tools. It integrates well with Microsoft products, but there should be more integration with other platforms and tools, such as chatbots.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It depends on the use case. For my use cases, it is scalable.

We have over 10,000 people in my organization. In my branch, we have 100 people, and almost all of us in this branch have Microsoft Office, Microsoft Teams, and other solutions. We have approximately 20 users who use Microsoft Power Automate.

Any increase in its usage would depend on our clients. I work for a consultancy firm, so it depends on what our clients want. For our office work, we will keep using it.

How are customer service and support?

I have not had to ask for technical support because the tasks that I do are easy.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I also use UiPath.

How was the initial setup?

My company has a Microsoft package, and it was a part of the package. I didn't have to do any installation.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

They have the community edition that people can use for free, and they also have the enterprise edition. My company uses the enterprise edition, and I don't know how much they pay.

What other advice do I have?

It has been good so far. I would rate it an eight out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
CI and Automation Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Straightforward setup, good integration, and fine technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "It is Microsoft. So, you get the integration capability."
  • "The connectors and the integration capability can be improved. Microsoft RPA is a growing platform, and it is not yet particularly mature."

What is our primary use case?

We are using it for simple invoice management processing. We are using it for just storing documents with some workflows attached.

What is most valuable?

It is Microsoft. So, you get the integration capability.

What needs improvement?

The connectors and the integration capability can be improved. Microsoft RPA is a growing platform, and it is not yet particularly mature.

For how long have I used the solution?

We just started to use Microsoft Power Automate. It has been a couple of weeks.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We haven't used it on a major scale at this stage. We're at the start of the journey. We have around 100 users.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their technical support is okay.

How was the initial setup?

Its initial setup was straightforward. It is a Microsoft product, so it is as simple as it can get as long as you've got the right licenses and permissions.

What about the implementation team?

We use a third-party Microsoft partner. We have two developers for its deployment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We are just using the free products at the moment. We are using the ones that come with the license that we have got.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Automation Anywhere as RPA. We chose Microsoft Power Automate because Microsoft is part of our strategic solution. We've just implemented Dynamics, and that's why we started to investigate this solution.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution. We are just at the start of our journey, and we are trying to understand its true capabilities. We plan to keep using this solution. We'll look for use cases.

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

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Strategy Consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Consultant
Lacks sufficient AI capacity ;good for communication between users
Pros and Cons
  • "Good core applications."
  • "Inability to use a lot of connectors without having a premium license."

What is our primary use case?

I'm a strategy consultant and we are partners and resellers/integrators of Microsoft. 

What is most valuable?

I like the power automate side of the platform, which I'm using as well all the core applications to include a human loop in the process. I'm quite relieved now because they have the Power Automate desktop platform which is good.

What needs improvement?

One of the frustrating things is that you can't use a lot of connectors without having a premium license. I would like them to increase the AI capacity. Currently they are using AI Builder which is significantly reduced because it's based on models which are not similar and it's really narrow. Surface information, like going through Citrix, would also be good.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for four months. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a stable solution. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product is scalable, we have around 40 people using it in our company. 

How are customer service and technical support?

We are integrators so we generally don't use the technical support. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We still also work with UI Path and in the past we worked a lot with Blue Prism. We're losing business with Blue Prism because their entry ticket is quite high. With Blue Prism you can increase your capacity quite easily and then there are no entry costs. Most of our clients already have Dynamics or Office 365 licensing so it's quite easy for them to implement Microsoft Power Automate or alternatively the UI Path system. My conviction is that UI Path is the most complete platform, including the entire operating model and the COE, accelerators in opportunity identification, accelerators in maintenance and monitoring as well as the community services. So that why it's quite good. It's coming with extensions as well. It also comes with extensions. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I'm quite sure that they will increase their licensing in the next few months because the platform is getting better and better. The big advantage for them now is that a lot of organizations already have Office 365 licensing, so it's quite easy to sell.

What other advice do I have?

My advice on this product would be to focus on the human in the loop. That's because Power Automate is really great when you want to communicate with users in the middle of a crisis, or if you want some interaction with different people or want to orchestrate workflow between different departments. It has quite an impact when you implement user interactions.

For now, I would rate this solution a six out of 10, but I am sure it will improve in the next few months. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
PeerSpot user
Technical Lead & Consultant at Tech Mahindra Limited
Consultant
Simple interface that is easy to use, but integration with other applications should be easier
Pros and Cons
  • "It servers our purposes in bringing together all types of applications, being able to automate them with the right intelligent output from the data that we plugin."
  • "While using this solution, we found it to be basic."

What is our primary use case?

I was using this product to create a basic workflow and trying to integrate it with Outlook.

We use it along with Microsoft Power Apps to help identify and automate tasks. We have many tasks in Outlook, SharePoint, Calendar, and Teams, and we use Apps to manage the tasks.

We are also using a feature in Microsoft Power Apps, which is the productivity backup

What is most valuable?

It has some basic components that are able to communicate with different platforms within Microsoft.

The interface is simple and it's easy to use.

It servers our purposes in bringing together all types of applications, being able to automate them with the right intelligent output from the data that we plugin.

What needs improvement?

While using this solution, we found it to be basic.

The integration with other applications can be made simpler. That said, it has almost everything in it.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have only been using Microsoft Power Automate for a couple of weeks.

We were using an older version. A version from when it was first released, to help with the learning process.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This a stable solution

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Microsoft Power Automate is scalable. We have a very large organization with at least 70 people who are using this solution.

Recently we have engaged with Microsoft to conduct a four or six-week training period. During the training session, there were approximately 180 participants.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have not contacted technical support from Microsoft.

They do have support on their website and have documentation available for learning through the portals, which is very helpful.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have experience with UiPath for RPA. I am leading and heading a small team that is building automations, and we have been primarily working on UiPath for this.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was simple.

It only took a few minutes to deploy.

What about the implementation team?

I completed the installation on my system myself.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I am not aware of the recent pricing model, but during the time that I was using this solution is was reasonable.

They have certain options that are available at a minimal cost and I am sure that if you buy more components of the Power platform then there are certain pricing models that are catered to the needs of all kinds of companies.

What other advice do I have?

What happens in the Microsoft platform is that users cannot be self-sufficient with one product. You require Power Automate, PowerBI, Power Apps, and different components of the Power platform. If you have the entire set of applications then things become easy, and they can rate this tool highly. If, however, they don't have all of the tools, then the capability is reduced.

We have plans to continue using this solution in the future. We will continue by integrating all of the Microsoft components. This is very helpful, and we can also use different platforms for different clients.

This is definitely a product that I can recommend.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Manjula Mahesh - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Learning and Development at Acronotics
Real User
Cross-platform, stable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution helps automate manual tasks and interacts with multiple applications."
  • "The initial setup is complex and has room for improvement."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution to reduce costs by automating repeat processes.

How has it helped my organization?

The solution helps automate manual tasks and interacts with multiple applications.

What is most valuable?

Automation is the most valuable feature. We can do so if we want to automate the gateway process, such as tracking data from SharePoint, Outlook, or Excel.

What needs improvement?

The initial setup is complex and has room for improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is complex. I give the initial setup an eight out of ten.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

When accompanying customers, we discuss the license requirements. Based on these requirements, we suggest whether a per-user plan or multiple platforms per-user plan would be best.

What other advice do I have?

I give the solution a nine out of ten.

The solution is easy to maintain.

Microsoft Power Automate is a cross-platform solution and I recommend it to others.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Power Automate Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Power Automate Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.