Microsoft Power Automate is an advanced automation platform offering a range of features, including AI-powered automation, robotic process automation (RPA), business process automation (BPA), digital process automation (DPA), and process/task mining. The platform aims to empower organizations to securely automate their operations at scale by leveraging low-code and AI technologies.
BizTalk is well suited as middleware. Where you wish to translate an input file into an output file and send it to some endpoint. In our case, we used it to convert and send files to SAP. In many ways, it very flexible, and you can do almost anything you want with it. In many ways, it's a better solution than your SAP XI or PI as middleware, since it's much less expensive, and allows you do interface with non-SAP systems.
Microsoft Power Automate is the best tool to extend Microsoft services you already use. Hands down. Prototyping workflows is very easy in Microsoft Power Automate. It's also the best choice for sending custom cards through Teams and email. It's the easiest way to get data from Microsoft Graph.
It is very user friendly. Users can change rules during run time and change workflow.
Huge capacity for queueing messages. It supports all types of adapters like Oracle, Salesforce, SMTP, FTP, etc. Also users can built custom adaptors.
If users want to dynamically deploy their solution without any downtime, this is a perfect solution. BizTalk will be a good fit, especially for public-facing websites.
Well-proven in the market. I used it when developing a website for Virgin Trains, catering more than 800K user requests per day.
Power Automate has an intuitive interface that is easy for novices to use. It doesn't require programming knowledge, however having that experience will help troubleshoot potential issues if they do arise. There are advanced features that allow the use of "code-like" steps that will help power users get more advanced automations set up quickly.
BizTalk Server has been supported for more than 15 years. It is well proven in the market. Microsoft has provided excellent support with technical issues.
I really have had a need to contact Win Automation support, but when I do google how to do a task, Win Automation has an extensive message board with a broad number of topics and questions answered where I could see how other people were able to solve similar problems to the ones I have.
after reviewing the main features of Power Automate, the Microsoft trainer focused on some of our real life use cases implementation, from simple to more advanced.
although it was productive, it is more difficult to stay focused and in a 7 hours a day online training (including screen share issues and the fact that the trainer just can't precisely show the exact location of your mistake)
I had to migrate from Robocorp to Power Automate. The automation was using API and sharepoint. So it was better to use Power Automate instead of Robocorp so we did the migration. in some areas the migration was easy but creating flows and making it smaller codes was difficult. Debugging the code was tough so we took lots of time.
BizTalk was selected here mainly because it is easy to integrate to a .NET application (most of them are Web Service, WCF SOAP, WCF REST and Web API) and many backend databases are Microsoft SQL Server. Another benefit is that the monitoring job is easy to set up and centralize with other .NET application monitoring jobs.
Power Automate is a no-code/low-code solution tailored for workflow automation, data integration, and AI integration, making it an excellent choice for Microsoft-centric organizations. OutSystems, on the other hand, is a comprehensive application development platform, offering rapid app development with both low-code and traditional development options. This platform is well-suited for organizations seeking custom application development. Nintex specializes in workflow and process automation with a strong focus on SharePoint and Office 365 integration. It also includes advanced features like document generation and robotic process automation (RPA).The choice among these platforms should align with your organization's specific needs, considering factors like integration requirements and the desired level of technical expertise. In the bottomline, it's up to cost and licensing.
A positive impact has been the quicker turnaround time of a part request and that part showing up in SAP using Biztalk as middleware.
A somewhat negative impact has been the somewhat insufficient error logging/message capture settings that Biztalk provide. This has caused occasional delays when attempted to create parts for the business.
A somewhat negative impact has been the need to have a specialized developer who understands Biztalk to troubleshoot issues with the Biztalk and SAP interaction when creating parts, and when adding new fields to the parts.
