Microsoft Power Automate Reviews

We use it for office automation.

It is quick, so I'm quite happy with it. It is also easy to use.

It lacks a lot of functionality that other tools have. There should be queue management, and there should also be the capability to deal with a little bit more complex automation. If it had queue support and if it was capable of doing more complex automation, it would be a much better tool.

In terms of performance, it is a little bit slower with calculations than a typical Excel Macro, for example.

I have been using this solution for about six months.

It is a very stable product.

It is already implemented company-wide, so we don't have to scale it too much. It already has lots of functionality built-in.

I haven't used their support.

I also work with UiPath, Blue Prism, and Automation Anywhere. Functionality-wise, Blue Prism and Power Automate are two completely different tools, but they share the common RPA target.

It was easy. It was already in the company when I joined.

We are using the free version of Power Automate.

I would rate it a six out of ten.

I use both the on-premise version and web versions because they both have different tools. I use them both for different use cases and different scenarios.

I use Microsoft Power Automate to make reports and web scraping. I automate the reports with the desktop version because it works well. I use Microsoft Windows, to do some commands in the CMD, also known as the line assistant. When it comes to the web version, I mostly do reminders, scraping, extracting data from emails, and creating ticket systems. I take that data and put it in a list or create a table in Excel to extract information and automate that part. 

Microsoft Power Automate has helped our organization by making processes faster. I do some consulting on the side about Microsoft Power Automate. We realize we don't need as many people to work on something because you can automate it or at least semi-automate the tasks.

The most valuable feature of Microsoft Power Automate in the desktop version is web scraping because you can do a lot with it. I work in retail and you can study prices changes, which can give you a lot of information. The solution is no code which is a large advantage.

In the web version, the most valuable features are creating tickets, taking email information, and creating a ticket with it, similar to an IT ticket.

Microsoft Power Automate is a tool that is easy to learn. There is some basic logic that you will have to understand but overall it is not complicated.

I think the language Microsoft Power Automate uses when you do expressions could be better. What they use is not a popular programming language. It would be better for Microsoft to find a more popular programming language, such as Python. It would take away the whole no-code aspect of the solution but you don't need to write that many lines of code to improve something in a process. Instead of no-code, they could be a low-code environment.

I have been using Microsoft Power Automate for approximately seven months.

The stability of Microsoft Power Automate is good, I have not had a problem with the performance.

Microsoft Power Automate is scalable.

We have approximately 10 people using this solution in my organization. The solution is moderately being used. The more you use it, the more ideas come to you of what you can automate or what can you create. In the future, it's going to be used more.

I have not contacted the support from Microsoft.

The implementation of Microsoft Power Automate was straightforward. It took only hours to do the full implementation.

I did the implementation of Microsoft Power Automate in my company. Additionally, I do the maintenance and patching of the solution when needed.

The cost to use Microsoft Power Automate is approximately $15 per user per month, for the basic plan. However, the solution comes free with the Microsoft 365 Suite.

You have to pay extra for the scheduling of the automation tasks.

Microsoft Power Automate is a newer solution to the market. UiPath is a lot more popular and has more features than Microsoft Power Automate. There's a lot of potential in that Microsoft Power Automate because it connects well with other Microsoft programs inside the Suite which makes it even more powerful. UiPath connects with other applications, but the fact that if you use Microsoft in your organization, it's more seamless. It works better. 

I learned Microsoft Power Automate faster because I know how to use Microsoft Excel, and that teaches you how to think more logically when it comes to computers. If you have an Excel or programming background, it's going to be easier because the logic creates the flows. If you won't want your learning curve to be that steep, I would recommend learning Microsoft Excel and then going Microsoft Power Automate. You will have more ideas of what you can do with the tool.

I rate Microsoft Power Automate a nine out of ten because you have to pay to receive the schedule functionality of the automation, which is important.

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.

It is currently being used by our customer service department. They're using it for tracking overtime, and they're also using it for reporting and automating their various service quality reports. So, automation of service quality reports and overtime management are basically two major use cases.

The ease of use and the integration with some of the existing products that we have would be its main takeouts.

From an improvement perspective, Microsoft just needs to make sure that they have a real enterprise RPA tool. PowerApps and Power Automate are still not at the level of UiPath and Automation Anywhere. It could be because Automation Anywhere and UiPath have been in the market for quite some time. It's just about Microsoft increasing their focus in terms of product reviews and development and making them competitive products that one can consider at an enterprise level. Right now, their use cases are limited as compared to what one would consider doing with UiPath and Automation Anywhere.

It is a stable solution.

It is scalable, but it is limited in terms of the processes that you can automate. If you have complex processes that you want to automate, it doesn't have that capability yet. So, it is scalable but to a certain extent.

Our organization is working with it actively. Its number of users could be between 100 and 200.

Technical support is given by Microsoft through the support model that they offer for customers. If you have an issue, you can log the issue in with Microsoft, and they would always attend to it. I would rate them a three out of five.

It was straightforward. There was nothing complex.

You don't need much staff for deployment and maintenance of it. You need a very limited number of people.

We used a partner.

Its license is a part of our enterprise agreement. It is a three-year contract, but we pay yearly. So, it is a yearly license. There are no additional costs.

I would rate it a six out of 10.

I am a solution provider and I implement RPA products and automate processes for my clients.

With this product, you create your workflows on the cloud. We've used this product for integrating with Microsoft solutions. For example, one of them is a document approval solution, where documents are sent to SharePoint and then pushed to different users within Active Directory for approval. This is done according to rules set by the client.

There is also a COVID application that was built around Power Automate and the Power Platform, where users within the organization can raise a request for a test and this would be pushed to managers for approval.

We are also looking at financial processes around bank reconciliations and interbank transfers.

The most valuable feature is that it easily integrates with other Microsoft products, so it has multiple connectors. You can create solutions that connect to Teams, Outlook, SharePoint, and OneDrive.

There are templates available for you to create your own flow, and it is easy to start creating a flow and automating a solution.

There are some bugs or intermittent behavior in the Excel activities that require using workarounds. For example, there is an Excel activity called Collect that fails once in a while. When you want to choose or select a particular cell, once in a while, it fails to do so. It doesn't happen all of the time and I don't know if it's a bug, but it's something that they can look into.

I have been working with Microsoft Power Automate for approximately one year.

This is a very stable product.

The scalability is amazing. This is a cloud-based resource, and there is no limitation in terms of scale or size. You can easily increase the scope of processes being handled.

The COVID use case is available for all of the employees, which is approximately 2,500. The documentation approval use case is used by managers and people making requests, which is approximately 2,000 people. The use case involving financial reconciliation is only for a small team that consists of about five people.

The technical support is good. They are available and you can just call them. We have Microsoft Office online support, as well. This means that you can call them, or instead go to the forum and search for activities and resources. They have a lot of resources available online.

There are good tooltips available within the product itself. You can look at something and the tooltip will explain how it works and what you should do.

Overall, the support resources are good and I would rate the technical support a nine out of ten.

I also work with UiPath and WorkFusion.

The initial setup is straightforward. Power Automate is a cloud-based tool, although I downloaded the Studio to my local machine.

The deployment takes one day. You just switch environments from UAT to production. You can easily export your solution and import it into the production environment.

We were working with another company to implement the solution but we completed the implementation and deployment ourselves.

The licensing model is flexible in that you can pay per automation or per user. My client receives a discount because of the large number of users and pays approximately $15 for each one.

There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees unless other resources are being used. For example, Office resources are available on Azure, but that is a different product. It is related to Azure, rather than Power Automate.

Our client chose this solution. They already had Microsoft enterprise licenses, and they felt it was better to use a Microsoft product for their automation solution.

Overall, this is a good solution and I like it. It's very scalable and easy to do so. Also, there are many connectors and they are quite useful. This is a product that I recommend.

My advice for anybody who is implementing Power Automate is to be cautious about how they distribute their flows, just to manage the licensing cost. Because it is cloud-based, it is an easy-to-use tool for both small and enterprise-wide solutions. There are no complications when integrating with Active Directory or the cloud platform, and this is good, in particular, because everybody is moving to the cloud. This product makes it easy to integrate things that people are already working with, such as Teams and Outlook.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

We held a hiring event specifically for veterans. All the people who were registering were external to our organization, so we had them fill out a Microsoft form, which then triggered an email, took all their information, and stored it into a SharePoint list. This list fed a Power App, and we were able to:

• Check members in whenever they arrived.
• Capture extra details about them.
• Pass the information onto hiring managers whenever a hiring manager was interested in an individual applicant or somebody who showed up.

In another use case, we used it to track the vaccination status of all employees. There were about 90,000 employees. If they scheduled it, it would trigger reminders whenever an employee's vaccination was coming up.

We set up a process to monitor Twitter so that whenever specific hashtags that we cared about were used, the whole record of what was tweeted out was captured and stored into a SharePoint list because it was free and easy to analyze as well. That has helped. Event triggers, several different connections, and what you can do with the information once you have it have been very helpful.

We also used it as a one-time solution in a scenario where records were captured in a Power App, and oftentimes, those records, which were almost like medical records, would need to go to another team one at a time. We used Power Automate to capture all the information that was stored in Oracle. From the record, it would put the information into a Word document, convert the Word document to a PDF, and then email the PDF off to the team. All that was done behind the scenes with the user clicking one button. It was great.

Different trigger events were most valuable. You could schedule a process on a recurring basis, at a certain time of day or week, or when something happens, which is huge. 

Their connector to Oracle or premium data sets that aren't Microsoft would often fail for me. The information given back about why it failed wasn't always robust to understand how to fix it and why it happened.

Sometimes, Power Automate's flow would turn off when it got fired incorrectly or misfired, but we didn't always get a notification of when it was turned off, and that was a problem.

I have been working with this solution since October of 2019.

It can scale. We used it to track vaccinations for 90,000 employees.

I did deal with their tech support, and they were phenomenal. Their support person taught us the whole process of how to take a record, put it into a Word document template that you can customize, turn it into a PDF, and then send that email off. He was phenomenal.

It was straightforward for the most part. Once you do it a couple of times, it becomes more intuitive. There are so many different YouTube videos or resources on Google to be able to figure out how to do something, what are you doing wrong, or how you can work around an issue.

In terms of maintenance, everything that I did was more of a one-off solution. It was me and one other person who would maintain an individual Power Automate statement.

There are so many different capabilities with it. I would advise mapping out your capability, usage, or whatever it is that you want it to do. After that, start to create and go from there.

I would rate it an eight out of 10.

I use it for robotic process automation.

It is a low-code platform. It is easy to use and good for automating small tasks such as expense approvals, timesheet approvals, etc.

I would like more integration with other tools. It integrates well with Microsoft products, but there should be more integration with other platforms and tools, such as chatbots.

I have been using this solution for two years.

It is stable.

It depends on the use case. For my use cases, it is scalable.

We have over 10,000 people in my organization. In my branch, we have 100 people, and almost all of us in this branch have Microsoft Office, Microsoft Teams, and other solutions. We have approximately 20 users who use Microsoft Power Automate.

Any increase in its usage would depend on our clients. I work for a consultancy firm, so it depends on what our clients want. For our office work, we will keep using it.

I have not had to ask for technical support because the tasks that I do are easy.

I also use UiPath.

My company has a Microsoft package, and it was a part of the package. I didn't have to do any installation.

They have the community edition that people can use for free, and they also have the enterprise edition. My company uses the enterprise edition, and I don't know how much they pay.

It has been good so far. I would rate it an eight out of 10.

In our organization, the solution is popular where there is a need for attended automation or user. That "human in the loop," as we call it. There it is more popular than the other tools.

The most valuable feature we have found with the solution is the AI Builder. And they have a big range of connectors that we are finding useful.

One area of improvement needed for the solution is regarding the cloud source versus desktop flows. The desktop flows are not as absent, and there are other limits in features when it comes to comparison between the two solutions that Power Automate provides. So perhaps the desktop could also start including features like Connectors and Builder because these are the more frequently used. But both of the tools have their own utility. 

It's evolving well. I have seen Power Automate eight months ago and have seen it now. So there is definitely a big step ahead. It's improved and it's rather helpful.

There is one feature I'd like to see added in the next release. Their OCR capabilities are not as evolved as the other tools. They do allow some AI Builder methods to achieve that. But in the desktop tool, the OCR functionality is not very useful. Everything has to be done on our text-based outcome. I'm sure they're already working on it.

Power Automate is relatively new. I've been working with the solution for eight to nine months.

The solutions that we have built are going well. They are used, and we've not heard of any breakages there. I would say they are stable.

The scalability of the solution is something we are still working on. Currently, we have a use case where we are trying to make it more scalable and there are means of doing it. Sharing up the flows and all of those things do add to the scalability. It's relatively new compared to UiPath, but I don't think they'll take very long to come up to speed.

When it comes to technical support, I'd like to draw a comparison between UiPath that's more popularly used. UiPath has a very good forum and we get most answers on the forum itself. However, the technical support itself is not that strong. 

Whereas in Power Automate, it is just the other way around. The forum is bad; we don't get anything there. But technical support, they're pretty responsive. And any queries you write to them, they usually do come back quite promptly. I'm happy with the technical support.

The initial setup of the solution is pretty straightforward.

Due to the pricing model, the solution is more convenient than any other tool. That is one plus that Power Automate has over the others.

It's very easy to use. Like we say, it's a "no-code solution." So even though all solutions do claim that, there is a little level of skill that is required when it comes to learning the other tools. But Power Automate is relatively the easiest to pick up.

UI Automation is something that they have made very easy, but editing both selectors is a challenge in Power Automate. There is not that much of a need to edit the selectors. But in case there is, then it is a challenge to edit them.

This solution is capable of doing pretty much everything that the other tools are capable of, and they have extremely competitive pricing. It is definitely an advantage. Their approval systems and interactions with the other tool. We have even tried some inter-vendor solutions, integrating UiPath along with Power Automate, for example. Those things work pretty well with Power Automate. It's convenient, not just for the end-user, for the business user, and it is also convenient for the developer. It's very simple and approachable to use as a solution.

I would rate the overall solution a seven out of ten.