Why Your Business Needs Power Automate

Microsoft Power Platform is a known leader in the low-code development space helping accelerate the development of business apps while reducing the reliance on professional developers. Power Platform is made up of up of five components: Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents and Power Pages. This article will take a look at the Power Automate component.

Previously known as Microsoft Flow, Power Automate is Microsoft’s RPA platform that allows end-users to easily create workflows by connecting to other data sources for example, Microsoft 365 or Dynamics 365. Users can automate tasks by setting up a workflow that is triggered by a specific event or events. There is a number of ways that having Power Automate workflows in place can benefit a business. According to Forrester's report on the Total Economic Impact of Power Automate, some of the key takeaways were a 27.4% reduction in errors due to increased automation and a 17.2% reduction in workflow development effort when Power Automate was introduced. Findings from this report revealed that when using Power Automate in three ways the composite organisations of 10,000 employees, saved an average of 26,000 worker hours.  Below we explore some of the top benefits in more detail.

Streamline Tasks

Power Automate can help automate a number of daily tasks for many employees, allowing users to focus on more value-add tasks meaning the business can get more out of its resources.

Boost Productivity

Building on the above point, when tasks are automated users can save time and therefore become more efficient. Working teams can work smarter and therefore can help improve overall organisational efficiency.

Automate Across Systems

Power Automate has the ability to connect to hundreds of apps not limited to the Microsoft eco-system. Some popular connectors include apps like Outlook, MS Teams, SharePoint, Planner and some external apps like DocuSign, Google Drive and many more.

User Friendly

There are a number of predefined templates available to give users a head start on creating time-saving workflows while those with more experience have the option to create workflows completely from scratch.

Increased Job Satisfaction

Having workflows in place can reduce repetitive tasks which allows employees to focus more on tasks that require more attention and allow them to feel like they are adding more value, which can lead to higher levels of job satisfaction.

Reduced Human Error

With Power Automate workflows automating tasks for employees, the risk of human error is reduced allowing organisations to feel confident that these tasks are being carried out correctly and to a high standard.

With numerous benefits to offer to organisations, below are some examples of how Power Automate can be applied in your company.

1. Keeping track of email attachments, easily create a workflow that automatically saves email attachments to your SharePoint or OneDrive when they arrive in your inbox ensuring you never lose track of them going forward.

2. Automate approval processes to respond to things like holiday requests or document approvals to help save time. Users can be notified through MS Teams when approval has been granted.

3. Set up a workflow to notify users via email when certain Power BI alerts have been triggered for example alerting sales managers when leads have not been updated in more than two weeks.

4. Create push notifications when employees receive emails from their boss to ensure important emails are not missed and they can respond in a timely manner.

5. Stay on top of social media by automatically publishing blogs on Twitter or Facebook. Also, receive notifications when certain keywords are mentioned in tweets for example brand or product mentions.

 If you would like to learn more about Power Automate and the rest of the Power Platform suite, get in touch today to speak to one of our specialists.

Brianna Bracken, Marketing Executive Mar 21, 2023