Affordable and easy way to set up automations in a Microsoft environment.
Updated October 10, 2023

Affordable and easy way to set up automations in a Microsoft environment.

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Other

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Power Automate

We needed a solution for our payables department to receive invoices from email attachments, going into a one drive folder. Microsoft Power Automate gave me the tools needed to design a product that achieves our end goal in simplifying payables document management. We linked it from our Exchange Online mailbox to our Microsoft OneDrive account.
  • Allows you to create automation and scripts that speed up productivity in the workplace.
  • Shows an overview of the workflow and job history.
  • Has lots of plug-ins with other Microsoft and third party vendors' product's.
  • Would like to see deeper integration with Exchange online, specifically the plugin realizing that an email is being sent via an alias address, not the primary SMTP address. We had to do a workaround that involved creating multiple single-member distribution groups to get power to automate to differentiate different email addresses going to the same mailbox.
  • The interface is slow to load at times.
  • Microsoft Exchange Online integration.
  • Microsoft OneDrive integration.
  • File handling ability.
  • We've seen productivity increase 20% for our payables department, they no longer have to download email attachments and put them into folders.
There are some quirks to how email aliases are processed in power automate. But once those were figured out, it worked flawlessly, and we haven't had any major issues with the implementation of our Power Automate routine.

My knowledge of creating automations is limited to GUI macro software like Jitbit macro recorder, and scripting in PHP and Powershell. The GUI is much easier to use for a beginner than writing a script
We have not used any AI tools in our power automate jobs.
We were previously using on-prem Sharepoint and Exchange 2016. After migrating to 365 we realized it was hard to replicate this functionality without using power automate. We didn't look elsewhere because the license was included with our 365 subscriptions.

Do you think Microsoft Power Automate delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Microsoft Power Automate's feature set?

Yes

Did Microsoft Power Automate live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Microsoft Power Automate go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Microsoft Power Automate again?

Yes

The integrations for Microsoft products seem robust and reliable. It's well suited for workflows staying inside 365 products, but not as much when it comes to third-party integrations. Microsoft Power Automate also is not suited for IoT due to a lack of integration with those services.

Using Microsoft Power Automate

5 - Only I directly use power automate. But the results of power automate's scripts are used by 5 people in our org. Mainly accounting and finance.
  • Email organization
  • Attachment filing
  • Invoice organization
  • Email attachment filing and organization into Sharepoint
  • Creating workflows for people in our manufacturing production shop
It's included free with our Microsoft license, we've had no problems with it, and it serves us well.

Evaluating Microsoft Power Automate and Competitors

Yes - Power Automate replaced on-prem sharepoint email workflows with an on-prem Exchange server. We used to send invoices to email addresses created by sharepoint, and it would file them into folders on our old server. We moved to the cloud a few years ago, and it wasn't economical to keep old sharepoint running.
  • Cloud Solutions
  • Integration with Other Systems
It works with Office 365 and Sharepoint Online. It replaces what we've previously implemented on premise.
Power Automate was simply a product that "fell into my lap" and fit the bill. We didn't specifically search out competitors.

Microsoft Power Automate Implementation

Change management was minimal - I had to show the team how to use sharepoint online, its URLs vs our old system. But other than that, it was transparent to our users.
  • It took a while to get our flow implemented because I wanted to use a single mailbox with multiple aliases. Initially Power Automate couldn't tell between what alias I was sending an attachment to. I had to tweak and test the script to have it figure that out.

Microsoft Power Automate Support

Our support for 365 comes from our value added reseller, so my rating is based on that. Not Microsoft directly.
ProsCons
Kept well informed
Quick Initial Response
Slow Resolution
Poor followup
Less knowledgeable
Problems left unsolved
Escalation required
Difficult to get immediate help
Need to explain problems multiple times
We did not purchase premium support. We are not aware of that as an option.
I can not. I have not contacted Microsoft directly for support.

Using Microsoft Power Automate

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.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
None
  • The use of logic is presented in an orderly way which is easy to understand
  • The integrations with microsoft and third party apps is well organized being grouped by product
  • The advanced features like JSON and HTML parsing allows more advanced controls in flows, without having to write code.
  • There are sometimes too many options when trying to perform an action. For example Microsoft Outlook, there are v2, v3, v4 without a clear indication on why you would want to use each.