Microsoft Power Automate Reviews

The primary use of the product is for automating business processes.

The templates on offer are very good. It's quite helpful to have them.

The initial setup is fast as there really isn't anything to implement if you use the cloud.

Overall, it's been a positive user experience.

I've had some issues with the stability.

I've only been using the solution for a few weeks. I don't have a lot of experience with the solution just yet. It's still quite new to me.

The stability is not very reliable. I've had some issues. 

I can't speak to the scalability of the product. I haven't used it for that long just yet and have not attempted to scale it. Therefore I can't really speak very well to its potential capabilities. 

I've never been in touch with technical support. I cannot speak to how responsive or knowledgeable they are as I have not had an opportunity to communicate directly with them just yet.

I did previously use another solution. I've used UiPath in the past.

Only the desktop version has an installation process. You do not need to install anything if you use the cloud version. It's quite straightforward. 

I'm a student and an end-user. I don't have a business relationship with Microsoft.

I'm writing my thesis about RPA, but I don't have much developing experience.

I'm using the latest version of the solution. I am unsure of the exact version number.

I'm using the trial version of the product.

I have not decided if I will keep using the solution going forward. 

Although the solution is still new to me, from what I have experienced, I would recommend the solution to other organizations.

I would rate it at a seven on a scale from one to ten.

Our primary use case for WinAutomation is financial. This solution can be used for desktop or front office automation; even the back office operations automations this solution can provide are good.

I find WinAutomation's linear approach to the code and function calling valuable. I also appreciate the effort they put toward the experience for the user; learning is good and automation is very simple.

WinAutomation's OCR integrator should be improved. 

I have been using this solution for four years.

We haven't had are issues with stability.

WinAutomation is scalable to a certain extent. I would rate it seven for the scalability, which could be better. Softomotive is better scalable than WinAutomation in this regard.

I've found that they have a limited support team. Issues take longer to be resolved and there usually have to be a couple of followups with their tech support.

Before switching to WinAutomation, we used other products, including WorkFusion and Jacada. Some were better and some worse than WinAutomation for us. However, WinAutomation's license is cheaper, which is why we ultimately switched. Also, WinAutomation is easier to understand.

The initial setup was very straightforward.

I implemented WinAutomation myself.

As far as pricing goes, WinAutomation's earlier model was good. They were cheap. However, they changed the model. It's per work station now, which is okay.

It is very easy to learn and use. It is quite useful for any sort of back-office work. Any kind of work with low and medium complexity is very doable in ProcessRobot. For higher complexity, some refinement is required, but it is doable.

It should be more stable, and their technical support should be faster.

It should also have more integration with tools from other vendors, such as SAP and Oracle, and technology partners, such as Salesforce.

I have been using this solution for two years.

It is not very stable. They're working on the refinements. I would rate it a six or seven in terms of stability.

It is scalable but not to an optimum level. It is more scalable than WinAutomation, but it is not as scalable as UiPath or Automation Anywhere where you can scale to 50 bots at a time.

We have 20 to 30 users of this solution. In terms of increasing its usage, it depends on the customers. Customers who already have this solution will keep using it. 

Their technical support should be faster.

We also use WinAutomation. ProcessRobot is any day better than WinAutomation. It is newer and has more capabilities than WinAutomation. ProcessRobot is also better than WinAutomation in terms of scalability.

Its initial setup is easy.

Licensing is on an annual basis.

I would recommend this solution for small to medium deployments but not for very large-scale deployments.

I would rate ProcessRobot a seven out of ten.

We use it for automating our business processes. We are using it for sending reminders and these sorts of things. Every Excel update also happens through Power Automate.

It is still under the review stage. We are not using it in production. Currently, we are waiting until the product is completely stabilized. We are expecting it to happen by September 2021. We are using its latest version. It can be deployed on the cloud and on-premises.

Currently, we are mostly using the desktop part of it for data. We are basically extracting the data and then putting it in.

When comparing with Automation Anywhere, there are a couple of things that this product doesn't have. One of the major things is the key management system. It would be great if they improve this. Its documentation can also be improved.

I have been using this solution for two years.

It is not yet stable. It is a new solution, and it is not completely stable. Microsoft is still doing some work on it.

It is scalable. We have 30 to 40 users of this solution.

Their technical support is good.

We are using Automation Anywhere. Power Automate is integrated with Office 365, so we wanted to see if this can be utilized or not.

It was straightforward. It didn't take more than 20 minutes.

I did it myself.

Currently, we are using the free license for testing. After everything is done, we'll buy the license.

I would definitely recommend this solution. I would rate Microsoft Power Automate an eight out of ten.

I use the solution to not only automate processes but also to be an intermediary or a glue among the applications of Azure in the Microsoft universe.

The Outlook on the SQL server has been extremely valuable for us.

The solution is scalable.

The product is very stable.

For the most part, the initial setup is quick.

I would like to see more integration with the desktop application, and on-premise server as well as the SQL database. That would be really nice.

It would be great if you could integrate outside of Microsoft environments.

The initial setup can be a bit tricky if it is a complex environment.

The product needs a clear integration between the UI recorder and the steps that you do and the codes and the qualification that you do on the RPA there.

I've used the solution for about three years. I used it even before it was called Power Automate. It's been a while at this point.

I have very high regard for the stability of this product. There are no surprises. It doesn't crash or freeze. There aren't bugs or glitches. It's reliable in terms of performance.

The scalability is good. Basically, I deploy it on one desktop, on a system that consists of only one single desktop computer, and then deploy it on a server. That handles a lot of systems and processes at the same time, without any problem, and without having to invest in any additional resource or any additional time.

Typically our clients are medium to large organizations.

We don't really deal with technical support. We mostly provide documentation to the client and they can deal with technical support if they need to.

However, we barely have any problems as the solution is very intuitive.

I didn't find the initial setup exactly complex. It was more of a common characteristic of Microsoft products. It is easy to learn. As you learn the complexity of the requirements, there seems to be a little bit uphill to climb. 

The length of time it takes to deploy the solution varies. It mostly depends on the complexity of the requirements. If you have a simple implementation that's a matter of no more than one or two days. On the other hand, if you have a complex implementation, you have to invest about two weeks to two and a half weeks to have everything on production.

In terms of the number of people you need for the process, that varies too. For just a simple solution, you could have one solo person that is in charge of the consulting and the implementation of the solution. If you have a complex problem, you have to have a person that is the consultant, a person that is building the solution, and then a person that is making the implementation, and a person who is providing maintenance. You can have a team of about four people if there is a complex deployment.

We are an implementor and consultant. We assist clients in setting up the solution in their organizations.

We did not first evaluate any other options before choosing Microsoft's product.

The main competitors would be UiPath or Automation ANywhere, for the most part. The main difference is likely the pricing. There are other differences as well.

If you want to Automation Anywhere, there's not exactly a good availability for a medium-sized business. For example, Automation Anywhere has something called Community Edition, but it is a bit too small. It's better for smaller organizations. Then, from that, they make a big quantum jump to the Enterprise Edition. That is a little bit expensive. There's no middle ground.

The same thing happened for example, with Blue Prism. It's a little bit expensive. 

UiPath is a little bit more spacious than Power Automate. I still trust that Power Automate is going to close the gap. It works with WinAutomation and as soon as they get all the features and all these technical aspects of the hardware, it is going to create a stronger Power Automate. Soon Power Automate will be able to reach all business segments, and, at that point, it will be very powerful.

I'm not sure of which version of the solution it is. It's in the cloud and therefore constantly updated.

I'm a consultant.

I would advise, in general, around any tool, just be clear with the requirements. No matter what sophisticated tool you were using, if you're not clear about data, then the software is not going to work.

I have customers where we have to make a data governance program or project first before we implement it. You have to be clear with all your data, with all the possible information that's part of your data path. Be clear about how efficient your processes are before you enter into an RPA or process automation project. This is the main thing. 

As for the product itself, it is easy to use. You're not going to have any surprises.

I would rate the solution at a nine out of ten. We've been happy with the product overall.

The best feature is that it doesn't require any other connectivity. As a standalone solution, it works well.

It should work better for Angular websites, as it has a lot of problems. It is not able to read the data from them as expected. In general, it should work better with modern websites.

Scalability needs to be improved so that it can support multiple bots.

There used to be a Process Watch feature, but it is now gone and should be put back.

I have been using WinAutomation by Softomotive for six months.

This is a stable product.

This is not a scalable product. The option is not there for adding multiple bots is not there. Because of this, we are moving to Power Automate. It is not advisable to have one bot that handles 10 missions.

The initial setup is easy.

We are transiting to Microsoft Power Automate because of the scalability.

If WinAutomation had Process Watch capabilities then it would be better than Power Automate, but without it, this solution has become very weak.

Due to the issues with scalability, I do not recommend this product.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

The solution is easy to understand and to develop connectors. You can always extend your own connectors. The ability to go outside and develop your own APIs is a real benefit. Microsoft is heavily investing and developing new features. It is well integrated into the CRM, SharePoint, and other Microsoft platforms.

I had some experience in the past with the solution having some difficulties with large loads, it is already better but it could still be improved.

Another area that needs to be improved is when calculating the quotes of your API calls and flow steps, they are currently not available on the dashboards where you can follow. The API limits will be enforced at some point, at this point you should buy all the add-ons to extend them. This was promised by the end of last year, but it is still not added. Every community is waiting for when this is going to be inforced. It is important because it will contextually be a big step to understand the economics behind your flows and steps, etc., and how to do it more efficiently to save your API calls and steps. The question is, what is the real end cost of how much add-ons you will need to purchase.

In an upcoming release, it would be nice to see bigger integration of cloud and desktop flows.

I have been using the solution for approximately two years.

I have been dealing with Microsoft support for like 10 years or more now. Their support is similar to Office. It is Microsoft of course, I had experience with the premier support. The first level support agents will try and help but sometimes on the first levels, the knowledge shift is a bit lacking. You will sometime have to strain yourself explaining what you exactly want and then you will need to be transferred over to the higher level product team. When it comes to Power Automate, they have a dedicated team, which more or less understands the product.

When making good architectural decisions it is best to understand what kind of scenarios you are solving, especially when it comes to the loads. Try to calculate what is the overall load that will be used, and all flows per day, per minutes, per hour, etc. It is important to do some testing.

Keep in mind the enforcement of API quotas, etc. It is important to start thinking about this and start calculating your flows, to get to the real cost for usage, excluding the initial license. It is critical to know how fast you consume your assigned API calls and when you have to buy extra. This is all in a way stored in the licensing documents, but it is not physically enforced, this is something to keep in mind.

I fully recommend this solution.

I rate Microsoft Power Automate an eight out of ten.

We used it internally to automate certain workflows for our daily business and validate our commercial proposal. We used its latest version.

Its complete integration with Microsoft tools and the inclusion of the CRM are the most valuable features.

It is embedded directly in the Office package, so clients have direct access to it. It has a lot more functionality than other standalone solutions, such as UiPath or Blue Prism.

It is mostly integrated with the Microsoft environment. Unlike UiPath, we cannot really use external tools with Microsoft Power Automate. There should be a possibility to integrate it with external tools or systems.

I had some experience with it two or three years ago, and I used it again about two months ago.

It is absolutely stable.

We have not scaled it.

It is straightforward. The deployment duration depends on the complexity. For our use case, it took a couple of weeks.

It is free for us. It is embedded directly in the Office package.

Our clients prefer using UiPath because it is easier to use and has more functionalities than some of the other solutions. It is also more economical. In the Tunisian and West African markets, UiPath is used more popular, and the customers prefer a solution that is implemented in their market.

At the moment, Microsoft Power Automate is suitable for automating a few processes on each desktop. It is a small solution, but Microsoft has a clear roadmap for this solution, and it would be an interesting one in a few months or years.

I would rate Microsoft Power Automate a five out of ten.