Microsoft Power Automate Reviews

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

We can automate cloud flows using the product. We can use desktop flows in the product as an RPA tool. If we are working on any enterprise application like SAP, we can automate it using the tool. Power Automate Desktop is a relatively newer solution compared to UiPath.

The solution helps us save money and time. We automate the rule-based and repeated tasks that we do on a daily basis.

Every organization uses Microsoft products. Daily tasks and other basic Excel-based tasks can be easily done using the tool. AI Builder is a good add-on. We can very easily do some AI automation using it.

The tool must be more stable. It should also provide more integration with other applications.

I have been using the solution for one year. I am using both the on-premises and the cloud version of the solution.

Power Automate is not that well-established and stable.

UiPath is more scalable than Power Automate. We have a good team developing flows on Power Automate. The product is available for everyone in our organization. More than 2000 or 3000 people might be using the tool in our organization.

It is relatively easy to deploy the solution when it is part of the license we buy for the organization.

The product’s maintenance is handled by a separate support team in our company. Maintenance is needed only when an application does not work or if there is any movement in the cloud.

The product is cost-effective if we utilize the complete Microsoft package. Power Automate is comparatively less costly than UiPath.

UiPath is more stable than Power Automate. UiPath has Orchestrator from where all the processes are monitored, triggered, or scheduled. This feature in UiPath is far better than Power Automate. Power Automate does not have a very good orchestrator or control room to see all the processes which are running. If an organization needs a long-term solution, it might choose UiPath.

Power Automate is improving, and it can be a good solution in the future. Power Automate is a good tool. An organization should definitely leverage the tool if they use Microsoft’s environment. It is a good add-on. We are using many Microsoft products like Power BI. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

We use Power Automate for applicant tracking. We automated around 80 percent of the process. 

Power Automate's out-of-the-box integration is nice. 

Microsoft could offer more AI education and training.

I have used Power Automate for a few years.

I rate Power Automate seven out of 10 for stability. 

I rate Power Automate seven out of 10 for scalability.

I rate Power Automate eight out of 10 for ease of setup. We did it in-house.

I rate Microsoft Power Automate four out of 10 for affordability. It's a little more expensive than average.

I rate Microsoft Power Automate six out of 10 overall. It has a lot of integration capabilities out of the box, but it isn't always accurate. 

The most common use is for digitizing Excel forms or Excel spreadsheets. We use Power Automate to digitalize all Excel-based processes on a SharePoint page and link the libraries with the transactional data from the client.

It is cloud-based. It can be deployed on a public, private, or hybrid cloud. It depends on the client. It is linked with the Microsoft license that a client has. If the license is hybrid, then Automate is hybrid as well.

By digitizing Excel spreadsheets, we reduced the errors in information transactions. We also reduced the time for the internal processes and improved operational efficiency.

The cloud solution on Azure makes it easy for us to take care of the security, which is a big deal for us. We can use the same permissions that we already have in place in Azure Active Directory and just duplicate them for the forms in Power Automate and the SharePoint page, so managing security is very easy for us.

Workflow management is what clients select the most. It is very intuitive and pretty much drag-and-drop, so we can create escalation, decision flows, and if-else conditions pretty much by dragging and dropping boxes. Even someone who is not technical can develop a workflow for the business.

It is very easy to use. It doesn't need a technical resource to create and maintain forms. The UX/UI is very similar throughout the Microsoft platform, including SharePoint and Office 365. 

It integrates with all sorts of databases, such as SQL Server and Oracle Database, which is a plus. 

While working with non-structured data (like logs and user tracking information that usually fits the criteria of big data), all the data sources must pass by a data quality process via any ETL tool before linking and publishing any information to the automation workflows and forms. This process is important to standardize all the content and format types for the columns and fields in the tables that will be used to show data in the front end.

 The ability to read non-structured data and provide insights into how to sanitize and organize data automatically is something that I'd like to be covered in the next releases.

I have been using this solution for two and a half years.

We never had any downtime, so it is pretty good.

It is very scalable. We are working with hundreds of forms at the same time, and some of our clients have thousands of people working simultaneously on the same form, so it is very scalable.

Most of its users are function-based. They are process leads in their companies. We currently have more than 1,000 users.

It is being used a lot. It is currently our most important tool for team efficiency. We plan to increase its usage in the near future. We have lots of other internal applications and processes in the pipeline, especially for functional areas, which can be moved from paper and Excel to a SharePoint form by using Power Automate.

The response time depends on your license level. If you are a gold partner, the response time is in a couple of hours, which is pretty decent. If you are an individual user or a company that doesn't have any L1, L2, or L3 licenses, the response time is up to 48 hours. So, it all depends on your license level with Microsoft, but whatever they say in the contract, they do respect that, which is good.

We were already users of other Microsoft solutions such as SharePoint and Teams, so when Power Automate became decent for the market users, we just adopted it naturally. Our experience with their technical support was good. They were able to answer our questions and solve our issues within the response time in our contract.

I used Blue Prism a couple of years ago, and now I'm using Power Automate. Blue Prism is bigger and way more expensive, and they charge by the number of users. Microsoft was cheaper, and they charge by the number of forms. So, it was way cheaper for us to move to Power Automate from Blue Prism.

It was pretty straightforward. Microsoft had two solutions: Microsoft Flow and Power Apps. Microsoft combined these two solutions and called it Microsoft Power Automate. It is pretty seamless because if you're already using Microsoft licenses, everything integrates with Office 365, SharePoint, and Teams. So, it is very seamless.

It took some days to create the front end of all the forms. Creating a whole page takes a couple of hours for a SharePoint administrator or developer or even a functional person, and we have hundreds of those. It took a few weeks to create the entire front end, but the connections were done in minutes. They were very simple.

It was done in-house. In terms of maintenance, once the forms are created, we have just one full-time employee taking care of the maintenance of those 100 forms, and that's enough because it is pretty much adding or deleting fields. It is pretty simple to maintain.

I don't know the exact number. It depends and varies a lot according to the licensing terms.

There is no cost to maintain if we have less than 10 forms. Microsoft only charges if there are more than 10 forms. So, most of the companies can survive without paying anything extra. It is included in the Office 365 licensing.

I would advise others to first look at the process and then the technology. The biggest issue is that people think that whatever they have in the current system can be digitized and automated, but it is better to first do the roadmap, understand the process from A to B, and then design the flow on paper. After the flow on paper seems okay, then go to the tool and create the form.

I would rate Microsoft Power Automate a nine out of 10. Big data support is something that I'd like to be covered a lot. The other piece that my business needs is already taken care of by the solution. Big data support is the only piece that is missing currently.

We have been using Power Automate specifically for the COVID situation. The use case is mainly to automatically fire an e-mail every Monday morning requesting the employees of our firm to provide a response regarding their well-being. After the data is captured by using an MS form, the subsequent workflows get triggered through Power Automate. If somebody has mentioned that they have a fever or shortness of breath, we send this person's entry to our health and safety officer and our plan manager. All this is automated.

We also have another use case related to procurement where an automated flow was required for invoice processing for an external vendor.

We have been able to automate the form filling, form dispatch, and data collection activities, specifically for the COVID situation, across all offices within our firm. It is a global process covering all zones such as Europe, India, and Australia. We have also been able to define workflows for particular use cases, such as when there is a high volume of cases in a specific zone, such as India. We have created workflows so that our emergency team is directly able to connect with the R3 team that directly connects with the employee to provide the required support.

We have also gone a bit far with respect to the access part. The Power Automate flow also connects with the physical gates of our offices. Last year, we were able to control our physical gates with the data generated by the Power Automated workflow. We were prohibiting or allowing the entry of the people based on their responses that they had put in the Monday morning form. It was quite a complex use case, but we were able to roll it out globally, and it has helped a lot with the COVID situation.

The best part is the automated workflow, which is quite good and easy. It is just drag-and-drop. We are able to create workflows quite quickly. 

We are able to directly integrate the data that it generates with Power BI dashboards. Its integration is quite good with other Microsoft tools, such as Power BI. The visualization of the data has become helpful for us.

Microsoft shouldn't charge extra for the database license if you want to store the data in the database during the trial. We wanted to have a historical trend of the data, and we started with the trial version of the tool. The database license is not included with the trial version, and you have to purchase it separately. Because we had a budget constraint, we had to pull all the information manually from the system, massage it, and push it to the dashboard. About two months ago, we have upgraded to the full-fledged version in which the database is integrated. The database license should be there in the trial version, but they have totally decoupled it. They should have provided a bundle, at least for the trial version, so that once a person or a firm gets a sense of it, they can start building. It might be because they wanted to sell additional licenses or premium licenses, and that's why they have added it in the premium version.

It should have more cognitive features. Automation Anywhere and UiPath are different because they have cognitive functionality plus intelligent automation. The cognitive functionality is currently not there in Microsoft Power Automate. It is just for workflow automation and basic bot-level tasks. It should have more cognitive features, which probably will be launched in a couple of years.

I have been using this solution for the past one and a half years.

It is quite a stable product.

It is scalable. There is no doubt about Microsoft products in terms of scalability. Because of its scalability, we are able to have use cases that require a higher load.

From the build perspective, only our team builds it. We have around 10 to 12 developers who create and support Power Automate solutions. In terms of its usage, we are currently using it only for two use cases. We also have other tools, but we are using Power Automate for the use cases with less budget. Its license cost is comparatively less as compared to Automation Anywhere.

We have annual support, and there is also a community. My team connected with the community forums, and most of the things got resolved there. They connected with the support once for an issue, which got resolved. Their support is good.

We are also using Automation Anywhere, but we needed a tool that is cheaper than Automation Anywhere. Power Automate fits there well.

Its deployment was quite easy. We already have Microsoft suite across our company. Our complete ecosystem is Microsoft-based, so it was not a challenge. It took one or two days to get things in place. For complete documentation and implementation, it hardly took two weeks.

As per our current agreement, Microsoft is supposed to provide support. So, we had an external consultant who helped us out.

Its licensing cost is comparatively less as compared to Automation Anywhere. We have bought a two-year license agreement.

I would recommend this solution to others. It is one of the powerful tools. The best part is that it fits very well with the Microsoft ecosystem. It is not at the same level as Automation Anywhere and UiPath, but being a Microsoft product, I see a bright future for this. In one and a half years, it will be one of the key players in the RPA industry.

I would rate Microsoft Power Automate an eight out of ten.

We use the solution to automate internal processes like leave applications.

The solution is relatively easy to use and cost-effective. It is also easy to learn and understand. It is part of Microsoft 365, so it's free. Additionally, it is easy to integrate Microsoft Teams with the solution.

The UI of the solution is not so good. Power BI's reporting functionality should be improved. 

The next release should include more functionalities and better reporting.

I have been using the solution for three years.

I rate the stability an eight or nine out of ten.

I rate the scalability a seven or eight out of ten. Around 50 people in the organization use the solution, including five to seven administrators, 30 to 40 engineers, and nine to ten sales and marketing staff.

Previously we used Google Suite in collaboration with many other solutions. We needed it for process automation and for creating electronic signatures. It required us to subscribe to multiple solutions. However, we wanted only one or two platforms. So, we switched to Microsoft.

The solution is not so difficult to deploy. The deployment takes up to two hours. I could deploy the solution myself. One engineer is enough for the maintenance of the solution.

The solution is free with Microsoft 365.

I would recommend Microsoft Power Automate to those who use Microsoft 365. We search the instruction manual, FAQs, and other online documents when we face issues with the solution. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

We help clients integrate Power Automate into their processes. 

The solution is great for attended or unattended bots. It makes work easier. 

Most clients that use Office 365 find it very easy to use this solution. There are lots of great integration points. It can connect with various Mircosoft products, like Microsoft Dynamics ERP.

It allows clients to existing in one main environment, which is quite useful. 

The setup is very easy.

We use the connector to the cloud, and we have noted that sometimes there are delays. We've seen some scenarios hang. Sometimes there are issues with security policies within the company. Some parts get blacked. There are some drawbacks when we use it connected to the cloud. We need to convince clients to open some parts. This is often an issue that originates from the company itself, not Power Automate. 

Sometimes when we work with Microsoft Excel, the process is not much faster. The automation doesn't speed up as much as we would hope as they go through cells one by one. If it is a time-sensitive activity, that might be an issue and should be improved. 

I've been using the solution for two years. 

It is a stable solution. I'd rate the stability seven out of ten. The issue is that there are some security policies from the company side, or sometimes some updates that happen that can slow things down or stop the process altogether. 

The solution can scale well. I'd rate it seven out of ten. If a product is on a particular machine, if we want to scale up, we need to use another machine or account. 

The product can work for any type of company, from small to large. 

We've contacted technical support in the past, and it has been very good. We haven't had any issues with support and are happy with the level of service. 

I also use UiPath as well. We use either or, depending on the client or the requirement.

The main difference is the price. Microsoft is cheaper than UiPath.

The AI capabilities for Microsoft are very good. With UiPath, sometimes you even have to use modules from Microsoft. 

The initial setup is very simple. It is simple. It's similar to other tools.

We can help implement the solution for clients. 

The pricing is reasonable. I'd rate the affordability eight out of ten.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. We've been pretty happy with its capabilities. 

The primary use case for this solution includes automating process work with optical character recognition. Companies can also automate document processing with Microsoft Power Automate.

From my personal experience of using Microsoft Power Automate, I think that the automatic document processing feature is helpful for many organizations in streamlining administrative processes. It is a very good feature. It has helped many enterprises to process documents without spending much time on them.

I would recommend removing the AI Builder feature from the automatic document processing functionality. The tool can serve even better with free automatic document processing features, it shouldn’t only be available in the trial version.

I have been using this solution for a couple of months now.

I have found Microsoft Power Automate to be a stable solution.

It is a scalable solution but I also think that the scalability of this solution depends on the type of organizations that are using it. For instance, public enterprises like government organizations can make very good use of this solution. I plan to propose the tool to my organization. It’s still in the loading phase and I have not got any feedback on it.

I have not felt the need to contact the customer service and support team since most of my doubts were resolved through the tutorials and tech instructions available on the website, which are very helpful.

I have previously used Power BI. I came across Power Automate while looking for other Power platforms. I saw the different features that Power Automate offers and so I chose it.

It was easy to set up. Once you have access to the portal, navigate to the automatic document processing feature where you can see many examples. There are a total of just two or three steps that you need to follow for completing the entire setup process.

The setup took a couple of months. It requires much concentration like when you are training your model to analyze the documents. For example, when you are setting up the automatic process document, the tool will ask you to try with five documents. Also, we will have to look into the different fields from which we are going to extract the information from the documents.

Once the document upload is done and the training is finished, you will need to locate the locations where other documents are located. It’s recommended to use either the OneDrive or Sharepoint locations. Power Automate will locate the schema of the document, connect with it and the document upload will be done. When the upload is done, the AI Builder will apply the OCR. After the completion of the OCR, the information will be extracted and put on other documents like Excel. 

I am not sure about the setup cost, pricing or licensing since I use the trial version.

I would rate this tool a nine out of ten.