Associate Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Easily integrates with other tools, but its licensing model is very complex
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of the solution is that it easily integrates with Azure DevOps."
  • "The solution's licensing model is very complex and not straightforward."

What is our primary use case?

Microsoft Power Automate has helped one of my clients to update a SharePoint list automatically. There was no need to open the SharePoint list every time and update it. Instead, a flow that runs and updates it.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of the solution is that it easily integrates with Azure DevOps.

What needs improvement?

We need to buy a premium license for Microsoft Power Automate because some features are only available for premium licenses. It would be really helpful if Microsoft offered some premium features in the standard version. Instead of bringing everything to the standard version, it would be really helpful if Microsoft classified one or two important things as standard, which are regularly worked upon.

The solution's licensing model is very complex and not straightforward. The licensing model needs to be reviewed and changed. Sometimes, Microsoft Power Automate's portal becomes a little bit slow.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Power Automate for one year.

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May 2024
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the solution a six out of ten for stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the solution a six out of ten for scalability.

How are customer service and support?

The solution's technical support responds generically, but we would need some issue-specific responses.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

On a scale from one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the solution's initial setup a five out of ten.

What about the implementation team?

The solution's implementation takes only a few minutes.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing two to three out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

We have benefits with Microsoft Power Automate, like automatically updating records when they pop up. I would recommend Microsoft Power Automate to other users because it easily integrates with other Microsoft products, which is one of the big benefits to us. Microsoft Power Automate is easily acquirable.

The solution's licensing model is very complex. Compared to other RPA tools, Microsoft Power Automate is easy to work with. Other RPA tools are bought at a higher price, but Microsoft Power Automate is not very expensive.

Overall, I rate Microsoft Power Automate a six out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer
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CEO at RnT.ai
Real User
Easier to use and integrate than other products
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution integrates more easily and with more tools than Automation Anywhere."
  • "There are frequent version updates and that impacts different algorithms so we have to adjust our code."

What is our primary use case?

Our company uses the solution to process insurance claims and related activity. We have around 80 developers and three administrators. Depending on clients' needs, we might scale in the future. 

What is most valuable?

The solution is really easy to use compared to other tools. 

The western license is fantastic.

The solution integrates more easily and with more tools than Automation Anywhere. 

What needs improvement?

There are frequent version updates and that impacts different algorithms so we have to adjust our code. 

The solution should include connectors and DevOps capabilities with its standard package. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for three years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good so is rated a nine out of ten. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good with no doubts. 

We have been developing on Microsoft's data products from beta release onwards. They bought and merged an automation company into their product so we know the different methods. We diagnose things and that feedback ends up inserted within very big containers. 

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is good but their response times are slow. 

How was the initial setup?

The setup is straightforward. 

What about the implementation team?

We implement the solution in-house. 

Our typical use cases can be handled by two or three developers and take about six to eight weeks to implement. 

First, we create the DDS. Then, we create software flows, standards, and login processes. We add efforts, exceptions, vendors, record reviews, and testing. Finally, we perform UAT and production. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing is reasonable and the western license is fantastic. 

They have a premium service that includes connectors and the SQL server sanitizer team. If they change this service to be standard, then pricing will be even better. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We also use Automation Anywhere but there is some maintenance involved. 

The solution integrates with other tools better than Automation Anywhere. 

What other advice do I have?

The solution is a good product. It integrates well with apps, virtual agents, and other tools. It has all the capabilities of Microsoft and Windows. 

I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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General Manager at Consilio
Real User
Top 20
Intuitive, integrates well with other products, and doesn't require hard coding
Pros and Cons
  • "To me, what's most useful in WinAutomation by Softomotive is that it's quite intuitive, especially because most of the capabilities of the older WinAutomation remain. You also don't need to do or know hard coding, and this is another useful feature of the solution. I also like that WinAutomation by Softomotive integrates very well with Microsoft products, especially Microsoft Office, and this is great news because most companies use Microsoft Office. Having a very good integration with the Microsoft Office suite covers a lot of bases, and is one of the advantages of WinAutomation by Softomotive."
  • "What needs improvement in WinAutomation by Softomotive is its stability. Stability is quite important to me. Another area for improvement in the solution is robot scheduling because it's not 100% accurate, in particular, it's 90% accurate. The monitoring of the robot could also be improved because it's not very straightforward, and you have to look in a few places or at least two places which means that monitoring is not a one-glance process."

What is most valuable?

To me, what's most useful in WinAutomation by Softomotive is that it's quite intuitive, especially because most of the capabilities of the older WinAutomation remain. You also don't need to do or know hard coding, and this is another useful feature of the solution.

I also like that WinAutomation by Softomotive integrates very well with Microsoft products, especially Microsoft Office, and this is great news because most companies use Microsoft Office. Having a very good integration with the Microsoft Office suite covers a lot of bases, and is one of the advantages of WinAutomation by Softomotive.

What needs improvement?

What needs improvement in WinAutomation by Softomotive is its stability. Stability is quite important to me. Another area for improvement in the solution is robot scheduling because it's not 100% accurate, in particular, it's 90% accurate. The monitoring of the robot could also be improved because it's not very straightforward, and you have to look in a few places or at least two places which means that monitoring is not a one-glance process.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using WinAutomation by Softomotive for one and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

WinAutomation by Softomotive is not a very stable product. It used to be a desktop application and was installed locally. It's a desktop application, but it's a cloud application at the same time, so the main problem is the integration with cloud services, the updates, and the refresh rate, plus its compatibility with other Microsoft applications. This means that WinAutomation by Softomotive requires frequent updates, and this is not bad. It's okay, but the point is that it's not very stable in the short run. The WinAutomation by Softomotive team usually addresses this issue, so if my company has a problem today, for example, within a few days, that issue will be solved, but in the short run, the solution is not very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

WinAutomation by Softomotive is a scalable product.

How are customer service and support?

I didn't use the technical support for WinAutomation by Softomotive much. At the very beginning, I used it because of the licensing requirement when I transferred my account from WinAutomation by Softomotive to Power Automate. Currently, the documentation is pretty good, so I didn't use the technical support even through chat, phone, or email correspondence, so I'm unable to evaluate support for the solution.

How was the initial setup?

In terms of the installation of WinAutomation by Softomotive, it wasn't as straightforward, specifically for the license administration because you have to be enrolled on the portal. I'm referring to the new version of WinAutomation which is now Power Automate, but the original WinAutomation by Softomotive only took ten minutes to install. The Power Automate version, on the other hand, wasn't impossible to install, but it wasn't straightforward.

What was our ROI?

I could say that my organization has ROI from WinAutomation by Softomotive.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

My company switched to a monthly payment for the WinAutomation by Softomotive license. I don't have the exact figure, but it roughly amounts to 500 Euros a year which isn't bad.

What other advice do I have?

I use WinAutomation by Softomotive, but the solution was bought by Microsoft, so it's now a part of Power Automate.

In my company, about twenty people use WinAutomation by Softomotive daily. I belong to a small company.

My advice to people looking into implementing WinAutomation by Softomotive is that it's a good solution, and I would recommend it for small-scale operations, for example, to automate back office operations. I would not recommend it for large-scale or for critical operations because it returns quite a lot of errors, not only automation errors, but also errors when liaising with other applications, so in some cases, those applications may not run properly, resulting in errors. From my point of view, I will not recommend WinAutomation by Softomotive for critical operations, unless it's stabilized in the future, and at the moment, the "transformation" of WinAutomation into Power Automate is still ongoing.

My rating for WinAutomation by Softomotive is nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Senior Product Manager Data Science at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Comes with many capabilities and phenomenal support, and allows us to trigger a workflow at a certain time or when an event happens
Pros and Cons
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

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.

How has it helped my organization?

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.

What is most valuable?

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. 

What needs improvement?

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.

For how long have I used the solution?

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

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

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

How are customer service and support?

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.

How was the initial setup?

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.

What other advice do I have?

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.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Head of business transformation and digitalization at Apple
MSP
Very reliable, very easy to use, and can be integrated with different platforms
Pros and Cons
  • "The product is very reliable and very easy to use."
  • "The product should improve its RPA capabilities."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for dashboard reporting, RPA, and account management.

How has it helped my organization?

The product has helped us with support generation. We supported a client who required 42 hours of manual work every month. The solution enabled us to automate the process and save time.

What is most valuable?

The solution is integrated with Microsoft. It can be integrated with different platforms. The product is very reliable and very easy to use. Anyone can learn to use it.

What needs improvement?

The product should improve its RPA capabilities.

The product should add AI capabilities.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for four to five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the solution’s stability a nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy. I rate the ease of setup a nine out of ten.

What about the implementation team?

The time taken for deployment depends on the project. A small project would take a week to deploy. RPA, on the other hand, takes two months.

What other advice do I have?

I use the latest version of the solution. We use the solution daily. People using the solution should maximize their usability to get a good return on investment. Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Nilesh Gosavi - PeerSpot reviewer
Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Developer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Straightforward setup, stable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "Microsoft Power Automate offers over 200 connectors that enhance the user experience."
  • "Microsoft Power Automate is limited if we want to create a complex flow because we have to split the log into two flows."

What is our primary use case?

Microsoft Power Automate is used to automate tasks and schedule workflows.

How has it helped my organization?

Microsoft Power Automate has helped us automate tasks that have reduced human error and increased efficiency.

What is most valuable?

Microsoft Power Automate offers over 200 connectors that enhance the user experience.

What needs improvement?

Microsoft Power Automate is limited if we want to create a complex flow because we have to split the log into two flows.

The licensing cost is high and has room for improvement.

In a future release of Microsoft Power Automate, I would like to request the addition of a synchronous action, which would allow us to choose whether we want the solution to immediately synchronize any changes we make, for example, in an Excel document through SharePoint.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Power Automate for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I give the stability of Microsoft Power Automate an eight out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I give the scalability of Microsoft Power Automate an eight out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support was able to resolve my issue but their response was delayed.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I previously used UiPath before switching to Microsoft Power Automate.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward and I give it a nine out of ten. We are working on a solution where each environment can have multiple solutions. Within each solution, we are creating a batch that includes Microsoft Power Automate, which can be easily deployed to higher environments. This allows for automated quality control of the pipeline, but data flow can also be manually imported and exported if necessary. There are several deployment possibilities, including importing it via pipeline or solution. One person is enough for the deployment.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was completed in-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The licensing cost is expensive. I give the cost a three out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

I give Microsoft Power Automate an eight out of ten.

We have six developers that use the solution in our organization.

I recommend Microsoft Power Automate as an excellent automation tool. Our organization has successfully utilized this solution in various applications for automation, and it has proven to be highly effective.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Advisory Council Member at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
A great solution for simple automation activities, but quite complex to use for advanced workflows or automation
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a great solution for simple automation activities or simple automation of simple tasks. It is also integrated with Office 365. Integration is an absolute breeze with any RPA software."
  • "We expect Microsoft Power Automate to work like any other RPA software, but at present, it is fairly lax, especially in the RPA space. We have a very limited set of use cases today for Microsoft Power Automate. Microsoft should make it a full-featured RPA product like other solutions that we use, such as Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, and UiPath. This is predominantly the area that they need to improve on. Microsoft Power Automate is quite complex to use as well, especially if you want to do advanced workflows or advanced automation. The regular simple workflows are quite easy and straightforward, but the moment you want to do something complex, it is almost impossible for one of our employees to work on it."

What is our primary use case?

Microsoft Power Automate is a part of the Office 365 environment. Currently, 5% to 7% of our 19,000 employees use Microsoft Power Automate. It has already been connected to all the applications that our employees use, such as Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive, and the ecosystem of applications that come with Microsoft Office. This is one of the primary reasons for using this solution. We are also using it for workflow approval and automated signature use cases to deploy a digital signature solution for some documents. It is all automated, from the client all the way to signing and storing the documents. 

What is most valuable?

It is a great solution for simple automation activities or simple automation of simple tasks.

It is also integrated with Office 365. Integration is an absolute breeze with any RPA software.

What needs improvement?

We expect Microsoft Power Automate to work like any other RPA software, but at present, it is fairly lax, especially in the RPA space. We have a very limited set of use cases today for Microsoft Power Automate. Microsoft should make it a full-featured RPA product like other solutions that we use, such as Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, and UiPath. This is predominantly the area that they need to improve on. 

Microsoft Power Automate is quite complex to use as well, especially if you want to do advanced workflows or advanced automation. The regular simple workflows are quite easy and straightforward, but the moment you want to do something complex, it is almost impossible for one of our employees to work on it.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Microsoft Power Automate for about a year or so now. We are using the latest version.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is absolutely stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is definitely not scalable because we don't see this kind of use case. Scaling comes with the flexibility to use it everywhere, but we don't see that flexibility today. Therefore, scalability is definitely a question. We hope to see the product improve so that we can scale it, but today, we really can't do so. 

How are customer service and technical support?

We don't usually call Microsoft for anything. There is absolutely no need for technical support. It is relatively easy. 

How was the initial setup?

There is no installation because it is a part of our size offering purchase from Microsoft Office, so it was relatively straightforward to install. 

What about the implementation team?

Microsoft deployed it for us, and they had a fairly large team. It took a long time, but I don't think it generally takes a long time. We had a very large deployment for around 19,000 employees. When I say deploy, I specifically speak of Office 365, which is the installation of Microsoft Office on these 19,000 end-user computing devices at the same time by using a new Active Directory. If you are specifically talking about deploying in Office 365 or Power Automate alone, it can be done in a matter of hours. You would need only one person to deploy it.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There is zero licensing cost. It comes with our Microsoft Office subscription.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We use both Automation Anywhere and Microsoft Power Automate.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution for simple automation. We plan to continue using this solution if it gets better in terms of use cases, features, and scalability. It needs a full check-up in terms of functionality to be a fully functional RPA. 

I would rate Microsoft Power Automate a six out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
WilliamBowers - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at Vertical Symmetry
Real User
Well integrated, functional and low cost, but it is intended for a single-user
Pros and Cons
  • "With the desktop version, we can automate many things. The ability to do a lot of things is one of the most valuable features."
  • "The debugging tools require improvement as well as the monitoring which goes along with it."

What is our primary use case?

We've primarily used it to update some legacy systems for our client, as well as government compliance systems and web-based reporting systems that don't have APIs.

What is most valuable?

With the desktop version, we can automate many things. The ability to do a lot of things is one of the most valuable features.  

For our clients with web-based reporting systems that don't have APIs. There was no other way to get the data into the systems than to manually enter it. We were able to automate that process entirely. We now collect information on a front-end power app, store it in a cloud database, and then push it into these external systems. 

The fact that we can do that for them is probably the most powerful piece for the people. 

We have removed an entire repetitive business process that didn't add any real value to the business but was required for compliance reasons.

What needs improvement?

There is a lot that could be done to improve the product. With debugging, sometimes things don't work because of timing, and just learning how to do that.

We were able to use a lot of JavaScript in that product using the desktop version, which was a huge help in terms of speed. 

The debugging tools require improvement as well as the monitoring which goes along with it. 

When things don't work as they should, it's usually because you're dealing with third-party websites. The importance of timing cannot be overstated. These are the areas that need to be improved.

One of the issues was that there wasn't a lot of documentation when we first started because Microsoft had purchased the product and began integrating it.

We started when Microsoft's product still used Selenium, and then they bought this product and switched over to it, which is a much better product. However, it is a third-party product. It has not yet been fully integrated.

For how long have I used the solution?

We are using the most up-to-date version of Microsoft Power Automate.

We use Microsoft Power Automate both on the cloud and the desktop. We have done a lot more with the desktop than with the cloud.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability, it's fairly stable. They released a large number of fixes.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is the biggest challenge from my perspective because it is literally designed as a single-user product, at least the RPA piece of it is.

When you are trying to do what we are doing and running flows on behalf of people, trying to make it enterprise-ready and hardened is probably the most difficult challenge right now. 

Instead of running it on the client's desktop, we are running it on virtual gateway machines on their behalf, and they have support for that. We're doing it now for some other clients, and so far, we have done some pure RPA power automation.

Getting it enterprise-ready, and running it in the background on behalf of the users is probably the most difficult challenge.

How are customer service and support?

I haven't used technical support at all.  have used mostly the web or we have figured it out ourselves.

I don't have a direct support contract with Microsoft. I've been doing the majority of this.

How was the initial setup?

It's been a couple of years or so since it was set up, but I would say that it was pretty straightforward. It didn't take much to get it set up and running.

What other advice do I have?

We believe it is a solid product that will continue to improve, and it is well integrated. It is integrated with the cloud, the database data verse, and power apps, with which we have a lot of experience and really like using power apps for doing things quickly. 

It's the first RBA product that I've really used. I've looked at it for a long time. We have done a lot of RPA work over the years, probably for the last six or seven years, just doing pure JavaScript, literally just writing JavaScript to automate these types of things. From our perspective, this is a huge step forward because we took a lot of pretty complex JavaScript code and logic and were able to put it in a format that we believe may make the code more maintainable and not just sort of stuck in the heads of one or two programmers.

We have completed a few projects, and just finished another one in which we were able to fill out 10,000 forms for a client who needed to do it as quickly as possible when a system went down. We reduced a process that would have taken weeks to four hours. We believe that the product has a lot of merits when used in the right places,  and I suppose we are still figuring out when it's the right tool.

I haven't used the UI path or some of the "higher-end" components. I believe one of the advantages of this device is its low cost. It's now built into Windows 11, it's a part of it.

When they say low code, no code, I would say the downside is that, while this is partially true, you still need to think like a programmer when trying to debug it or set up an enterprise-wide system.

I think it's functional, but I think it's got a way to go and it's hard for me to wait because I really haven't used those other products, We've been doing it mostly by hand for quite some time. I would rate Microsoft Power Automate a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Power Automate Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Power Automate Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.