Item: Microsoft Power Automate
Rating: 9
Author: Jeff Crowell

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Power Automate

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use Microsoft Power Automate to help clients automate their business processes, such as onboarding/offboarding, employee recognition and others. We typically use Microsoft Power Automate in conjunction with a forms tool - usually PowerApps or Microsoft Forms - and store data in SharePoint Online and/or Dataverse. Power Automate can be effective in automating any process which is repeated at your business as long as the rules for the process are well defined.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Workflow
Email notifications
Task management
Approvals
Connect to multiple data sources

Cons

Integration difficult with on premises apps (e.g. Active Directory)
Connectors to certain systems are not free
Limitations on how many flows can run based on subscription

Most Important Features

Process automation
Task assignment and tracking
Integration with multiple systems

Return on Investment

Generally, very positive - saving time on processes at low cost
Ease of development

Implementation Rating

We have implemented Power Automate both internally as well as for a large number of our clients. We have migrated clients from oldter technology (e.g. InfoPath and SharePoint Designer workflows) successfully and that process is relatively straight forward. Usually with these migration projects clients are able to take advantage of the migration to update and enhance their process as well. Implementation is straight forward as well (once appropriate licensing is figured out) and business users can easily be trained on building simple Flows.

Alternatives Considered

Nintex Process Platform

Nintex is a more powerful workflow tool, but Microsoft is closing the gap with Power Automate. Microsoft Power Automate can do simple tasks very well, and they both can connect to multiple other systems very easily.

Key Insights

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

Other Software Used

Nintex Process Platform, PowerApps, Nintex Process Manager

Likelihood to Recommend

Business process automation is quite straightforward in Microsoft Power Automate. We have automated processes for HR (onboarding/offboarding), Communications (anonymous suggestion box, employee recognition), Finance (expense reimbursement), etc. You can automate simple and complex processes with Microsoft Power Automate, including notification emails and assigning tasks that the flow can track for completion by users.

Using Microsoft Power Automate

Users and Roles

20 - Information technology. We are a consulting company who works with clients to improve their business processes and we use Power Automate at a large number of clients.

Support Headcount Required

20 - Our consultants are skilled in business process analysis as well as development. While you don't need to be a developer to use Power Automate it does help to have the basic understanding of computer science principals.

Business Processes Supported

Onboarding and offboarding employees
Invoice processing
Expense processing
Time off requests

Innovative Uses

None

Future Planned Uses

Integration with third party applications

Likelihood to Renew

Power Automate is the best process automation tool on the market today.

Evaluating Microsoft Power Automate and Competitors

Products Replaced

Yes - We essentially replaced Nintex workflow with Power Automate. Power Automate is included with some Microsoft licenses so it was a more cost effective option and now the features and functionality are comparable to Nintex.

Key Differentiators

Integration with Other Systems
Ease of Use

It is a relatively easy solution to use. If you can understand processes and analyze how they flow then you can use Power Automate.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

I don't think we would change anything about our evaluation.

Microsoft Power Automate Implementation

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Implemented in-house

Implementation Phases

Change Management Lessons

Change management was minimal - Change management isn't an issue with implementation of Power Automate. However, when you do automate a process with Power Automate there will be some change management required as users are converting from a manual (or otherwise automated process) to a new process.