Microsoft Power Automate Reviews

We use Microsoft Power Automate for various personal initiatives of people to automate their own work.

It is used in a laboratory environment to connect the laboratory systems and to automate the connections between them.

The most valuable features are that it is low-code and simple.

For simple use cases, it is easy to use but as soon as it becomes complex then it doesn't fulfill the requirements.

It doesn't have any OCR capabilities. It doesn't really work with our ERP system, where we can log into the ERP system and have a robot updating it directly.

Microsoft is early on in this game and not really very far yet. They just need to mature their solutions.

In the next release, I would like to see a centrally-governed system, where you can access fully automated processes. This would include the ability to connect to other systems and log into them.

I would like to see it as a centrally managed solution.

I have been using Microsoft Power Automate for six months.

We are using a local partner of Microsoft in the Netherlands, and it's going quite well.

At the moment, we're using both Microsoft Power Automate and Microsoft Power Apps. We also use Kofax.

If you are using it as a user, I'm not aware of how complex it is for setting up central governance on it. But with proper RPA, you very much need the central-governance to ensure that things are conforming to standards. 

As soon as it starts being involved in business-critical use, then governance is very important.

I haven't seen that the central governing of it to be easy.

We use a local partner to help with the implementation and it's going quite well.

I am not aware of the pricing, but the problem is something we run into often. As soon as you want to use a data service, all of a sudden the license cost goes up. 

It's more fragmented licensing, where every little thing that you add, you get an extra license cost.

Microsoft is gradually becoming better, but for RPA, it's not fully there yet.

If you are looking for a low-code, simple to deal with email and extract a spreadsheet, then Microsoft is a good option. However, if you have a complex RPA use case where optical character recognition or PDF ingestion is needed then Kofax is a better choice.

I'm responsible for the center of excellence running Kofax as an RPA solution, and not for the Microsoft Power Apps.

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

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. 

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.

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

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. 

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. 

I did not have any need to contact them.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The primary use we have for this product is a solution we created for a client to download daily data from a big company's website. It is a website tool for helping the company monitor the channel for managing their associate or partner responsibilities. They needed to visit the website every day — or as often as possible — so they could get information from the parent company, or collect orders or complaints from there.  

The most valuable thing about the product is that it is simple. When you go into the UI — and probably because Softomotive has about a 20-year long history in the IT industry — there are small details in the features that simplify how you work with it. It has all the big features like competing products but the detail is the kind of thing that makes users feel more comfortable using the product than if the details were not there. So those kinds of ease-of-use details are good things for Softomotive. The design is a GUI interface which is really for non-programmers. There is only the graphic user interface so it is simple to use.  

I think the primary thing that needs improvement in this product is the stability. It looks like it is easy-to-use and that is very nice, but it is more important to have a stable product and not just one that is easy-to-use. If I am working to create a simple process, odd errors occur quite often and in the middle of creating the process.  

The additional features I might like to see in the next release would be adding in some capabilities that other products already have. For example, some RPA process management framework. UiPath has something like that, RE Framework (Robotic Enterprise Framework), which is something in Softomotive we have to develop by ourselves. They have some premade processes in WinAutomation, but in running a process they should have some kind of error handling. For example, if there are tasks that should be run like 100 times and maybe it will freeze up at the 50th cycle, then the process should start again from 50, not from number one.  

If they can come up with some kind of framework and error handling, that will enhance the stability of the running processes made out of their solution. Right now I cannot resolve these main issues on my own and they should be added to the product.  

I started testing it out three months ago and have been using it for about two months.  

The stability of the product is not always good even when working on simple projects. This is not a bad product — I still use it — but the stability is something that they need to improve.  

Scalability is just buying more licenses. I worked for RPA consulting company and a development company and then I worked as an RPA developer. Then I was dispatched to a company to develop a process for that company. That company at the time purchased ProcessRobot, and then recently WinAutomation — I think five copies. They tested it and they are now trying to expand usage.  

I have been in touch with the technical support for WinAutomation by Softomotive a lot, really. The support is good and they provide the information or answers I need.  

I have used other products in the past. For example, by comparison, UiPath might be a little bit more stable but it is also a little bit more complicated in the UI/UX (User Interface/User Experience) than Softomotive. UiPath has not got some of the fancy features — just the basic ones. You just collect your UI elements or web elements and use the basic features. But say you maybe run a process 1000 times in both tools. UiPath seems to me in our testing to have fewer errors than Softomotive. But the complexity of the project or the stability would make me choose one product over the other.  

The setup in WinAutomation is kind of straightforward. I did not experience any trouble in the installation. ProcessRobot is a bit different and then UiPath is a little bit more complicated in the installation, but I think it is manageable as well.  

To actually get the product to work from the point of installation to where I could start running some processes took maybe a month the first time. But this included learning the product. Development with a little experience using the tool usually takes 15 days or about two weeks.  

We did the deployment of this by ourselves.  

Because I am in this industry, I am gathering information about different tools all the time. I use mainly WinAutomation and ProcessRobot and maybe UiPath for only a month. It is sometimes just to collect information and other times to consider other products.  

I think the advice I can give someone considering this solution has to do with making a smart choice. If someone wants to do some RPA project without already knowing a product, then he or she needs to take quite a long time to learn about RPA. You can look at the subject to learn about it and then learn a little bit about programming. There is not just one place to find this kind of tutorial and educational material. A single vendor will only provide what you need to use their product. Each vendor has different educational materials from different perspectives and different methods of teaching.  

If they want us to use Softomotive as a solution, they may have to do less work in learning about RPA because it is easy to use. But they should probably also visit the UiPath website or maybe AutomationAnywhere to compare the products and features. In many ways, the products are the same with the ultimate goal being that of creating a working RPA process.  

But I think there is a difference in the availability of information and user communities. UiPath has a little bit more structured education system and their community is larger. Because Softomotive is not as widely used it is more difficult to ask other users questions. You may have to direct your questions to the software team. But with UiPath, they can ask questions through a web portal like forum.uipath.com. It is less stressful to ask a question and get an answer from other users.  

ProcessRobot users also have a smaller community but they cannot ask questions from support unless they have the license for the product. WinAutomation is different. It is kind of a semi-commercial product but it is not totally free like open-source. There is also a little restriction on which questions you can ask of support before you invest in the product. They are very responsive and also helpful and their company helps people directly. You go through a sort of process. Maybe Softmotive might not always find an answer or give you a particular solution. Then you can also be a little creative and look for how something is solved using other RPA tools like consulting UiPath Academy. This might give you some hints about what you are trying to accomplish.  

Sometimes I have found that I kind of I reached a dead end. I had no answer as to where to go. I was just confused and then I could not find any answer from the Softmotive website and there was nowhere to ask the question that I had. Other vendors also have wonderful features and then I tested those to see what they could do. It is kind of a long process to develop a stable process and you have to continue to learn.  

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate this product as a seven. Of course to rate this software higher, they would need to work on the stability issues, enhance the available resources for users, and fill in some of the features that are missing which other products already have. 

* Added on 2020-07-17 : Now that Softomotive is acquired and WinAutomation have become a part of PowerAutomate and the price has gone down almost to half of its original price, the future is quite promising for this product.

We use Power Automate for applicant tracking. We automated around 80 percent of the process. 

Power Automate's out-of-the-box integration is nice. 

Microsoft could offer more AI education and training.

I have used Power Automate for a few years.

I rate Power Automate seven out of 10 for stability. 

I rate Power Automate seven out of 10 for scalability.

I rate Power Automate eight out of 10 for ease of setup. We did it in-house.

I rate Microsoft Power Automate four out of 10 for affordability. It's a little more expensive than average.

I rate Microsoft Power Automate six out of 10 overall. It has a lot of integration capabilities out of the box, but it isn't always accurate. 

We primarily use the product for credit card operation customer complaints.

The solution is great for some of our backend processes, for example, accounting and financial processes, and also for IT batch processes. 

The solution is very easy to set up.

The initial setup isn't too difficult. 

I heard from my team that it's quite immature. If you compare it against Automation Anywhere and Blue Prism, it seems there is less experience in the product. The desktop version of the on-premise solution seems as if it's not as mature as Automation Anywhere.

We need a more powerful desktop option.

We started using the product this year. We've used it for about four months at this point. We're using it for three processes. 

We haven't used the solution for too long. We are at the beginning of automation. We are not ready to escalate just yet. However, we do plan to increase usage in the future. 

We've contacted local support in the past. At the time, it was just a simple question, as we have developed a simple process. We've just had small questions and issues.

Currently, we are also using Automation Anywhere. 

The product is easy to set up. Actually, we're a very large Microsoft customer. All of our solutions are mostly Microsoft. All of the security fields are already solved by Power Automate, which makes it easy to implement and to set up. It's not a problem at all.

Each process took us about two months to set up. Since we define them, it's quite easy. The operational processes are very easy to maintain and to operate. There are no issues with that. It's a simple three-step process, it's not a complex task.

We are looking for automation and are looking at options such as UiPath and Blue Prism.

We are looking for some solution for logistics.

We are a customer and an end-user. 

We are using the solution on our desktops, however, I don't know which exact version we are using. 

I'd advise other users that it is very simple to implement Power Automate, however, new users have to be careful with how they expand it and develop complex processes. That said, we don't have experience with processes more complex than a one or three-step process.

I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten.

I like that Power Automate gives us a connector to be able to connect different data sources or different software. 

It is very easy to connect, authenticate, and automate our daily routine tasks.

There are many things that need to improve, but not with the cloud side, it's desktop automation.

When you are doing desktop automation, they do not have a clear structure to create the code. This means that we have a poor chance of creating the project.

When creating sub-flows, there are no separate parameters. Instead, they are all combined together on the main page.

I would like to see improvements made to the Power Automate Desktop.

I have been exploring this product for one month.

Previously, I worked with Blue Prism and UiPath.

In my opinion, Blue Prism is far better than Power Automate, and UiPath is better than the desktop version.

Power Automate has the power to connect with different cloud sources, which is something that Blue Prism and UiPath do not have.

You can also create reusable code with Blue Prism and UiPath.

We are using the cloud version. There is nothing to install on our machine.

If you need to automate more on the cloud side, I would recommend Power Automate. If it's a third-party application they are trying to automate, I would try Blue Prism or UiPath.

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

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.  

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.  

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.  

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.  

We have been using this product for about a year.  

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.  

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.  

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.  

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.  

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.  

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.  

We use Microsoft Power Automate when we need to automate manual processes in our automation, or when we need to send a document for approval, or when we need to integrate some beams channels and messages.

It's quite simple to use. You can automate almost everything in your organization by simply dragging and dropping and selecting a few options, whether it's an Excel spreadsheet or other on-premise data.

Power Automate is integrating artificial intelligence into the product, allowing us to automate future aspects, such as in pharma companies, medical agencies, and even banks, which are now using these products to automate their manual processes. And because robotic process automation is already built into Power Automate, these features make this product fantastic and accessible to everyone.

These products are intended low-code, no-code solutions. As a result, even a strategic developer can create and automate your day-to-day tasks at their workplace, whether it's management work or a developer is dealing with day-to-day issues with APIs.

In terms of IT, everything can be automated, but other things can also be automated. We can automate the reporting process, as we can with the help of an AI builder. Using Power Automate and Power Apps, we can generate sales reports on the fly.

In terms of issues, I haven't had any until now because automation requires you to complete a task in less time. These products have some limitations, such as the need to build some custom controls in PCF or use the JSON format. There are some limitations, but it's a mature Microsoft product, and we can do almost everything.

Third-party systems can also be added. We can create a beautiful dashboard if another software provides open APIs. Even when discussing complete Power platforms, four components must be mentioned: Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents, and Power BI. When we use all four, we can create a complete solution, whether it's a visualization dashboard, automated chatbots, or the rest, which we can achieve using Power Apps. Power Apps is also divided into three types of apps: canvas apps, model-driven apps, and data-driven apps. Another option is to use open-source, which refers to open projects known as portals. So we can actually do the same thing. When someone is creating a website, we can do the same thing here in the portal. So the things we can do with Power Apps are the same as the things we can do with the Power platform.

I have been working with Microsoft Power Automate for almost two years.

There are some limitations with the calls and other things, but it is a stable product.

Typically, we raise technical support through the Azure portal. If we have a basic plan in place, we can submit a request to Microsoft. 

Microsoft also provides Twitter support. If you have any questions or encounter any technical difficulties while deploying your Power App or configuring your Power Apps or Power Automate environment, you can raise a ticket on the portal and Microsoft will respond directly to you.

I also work with Power Apps.

The initial setup is a very simple procedure. We can deploy in any organization depending on their needs,  we can look into licenses to see what kind of license will meet their requirements. 

As it is in the cloud, it's very simple to deploy. It's ready-to-use software as a service, and we can use various connectors. In addition, if something is outside the scope of Power Automate, we can create a custom connector. How it is deployed is entirely up to the organization. If for example, they have three environments: development, testing, and production, we can easily switch, and we can use Azure DevOps to create CI/CD pipelines, and we can deploy that solution in any environment in the organization.

It is not a costly solution. You can have two types of licenses, one is user-based, and the other is app-based in the Power Platform. 

I work as a senior consultant for Microsoft technology as a developer, mains power developer, but I would love to explore other options.

It's a genuine Microsoft product, which is the main reason I would recommend it to someone.

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