We are system integrators so we provide this solution and deal with the automation for our clients. Power Automate is mainly suitable for small and medium size companies.
Technology Lead at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Lacking some features and not suitable for enterprise use; automation is good
Pros and Cons
- "Automation is the best feature of the product."
- "Not suitable for connecting other applications like browsers and third party applications."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
Power Automate is good for automation. For example, if a client requires a format for invoices, we set up the module - invoice number, container, quantity, product details. After that, whenever we load bulk invoices, it automatically identifies the invoice format and accepts the data. This is one of the best features of the product.
What needs improvement?
Power Automate is not suitable for connecting other applications like browsers and third party applications and there are a few features not available on this solution. They are working on improving that. Power Automate cannot handle high end projects and, from a developer's perspective, it's a little difficult for enterprise size companies.
For how long have I used the solution?
We are partners with Microsoft and I'm a technology lead.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a reasonably stable product but because it's a new tool they need to keep working on it. If you're a small setup, and you need it for Excel or Word or some desktop kind of access, it will be stable. But if you're looking for web automation it's not currently suitable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a scalable solution.
How are customer service and support?
We have tried to contact technical support many times, but there is no way to contact or reach out to the Microsoft team. We recently had many questions on Power Automate so I tried the Winautomation but there are many activities that are missing and there are bugs in it. We also had an issue with the ongoing live projects. We developed the project in Winautomation and they were later converted into Power Automate. Winautomation isn't working so we need to migrate all the projects which is a complicated process and requires reworking. We can't get any help from them and that's a problem.
How was the initial setup?
It's very easy to set up because it only requires downloading one xFi file from Power Automate. It then automatically connects with an email account and the solution is automatically synced with that email account. From the customer's perspective, there is no maintenance. As the service provider, whenever new features are included, we update it for our clients.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Compared to other automation tools, Power Automate is very cheap although the price has increased recently.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We also integrate UiPath for our clients. This solution offers regular updates and is more mature than Power Automate. Each month they release a new module. Initially, they were only accessing desktop and web applications, Word and Outlook, those kind of things. Nowadays, UiPath has all the features connected to the cloud, whether it's Azure or Google. They are trying to automate everything and they're working on all this because of AI. When choosing a product for our clients, we take numerous variables into account. If you're offering all the features in your tool and the cost is reasonable, we're likely to choose it.
What other advice do I have?
I'm not sure I would recommend this product now, perhaps in a year or two when the solution is more stable. We struggled with a project recently and that was difficult.
I rate the solution a five out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
Solutions Architect at Alfapeople A/S
Stable, Scalable, easy to install and deploy, and good support
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of this solution are the automation interface and the RPA automation."
- "The BPM component needs improvement."
What is our primary use case?
We are resellers and sometimes we implement solutions.
It's a component of Microsoft 365.
We use this solution to match some documents or spreadsheets, to match data from one spreadsheet with another, and to download and load invoices.
We also use it for an approval flow.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of this solution are the automation interface and the RPA automation.
What needs improvement?
The BPM component needs improvement.
Microsoft doesn't have certification training for Microsoft Power Automate, like other solutions such as UiPath, Kofax, and Automation Anywhere. All of these products have certification training available.
Power Automate is part of a suite called Power Platform.
Power Automate can integrate into a business intelligence component like Power BI, a flow component like Flow, and a bot component like Virtual Agents.
Power Automate can make that cross to these components for better results of all the data that the client wants to see, and wants to automate.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with this solution for almost two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable, it doesn't have any crashes.
The only issue is when we don't have an internet connection, it crashed because it's a cloud solution and not on-premises.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It has many connectors to other vendors or other components or other programs that make the solution scalable.
It is very easy to deploy with other vendors like Power Automate versus SAP. You can connect SAP with Power Automate very easily and extract information from the SAP environment.
It's a scalable solution.
Our clients are medium-sized companies. We have anywhere from 16 to 100 users.
How are customer service and technical support?
Microsoft has the team to analyze every incident. In my experience, they have teams that can process incidents for my clients.
I am satisfied with technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was easy and it took a week or two weeks to deploy.
We have a team of two or three people to deploy and maintain this solution.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Our clients also evaluated UiPath and Automation Anywhere.
UiPath and Automation Anywhere are leaders in Gartner Magic Quadrant. Microsoft is the challenger.
Our clients are aware of these evaluations.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others, but first, they should evaluate it. Do a PoC of the tool and evaluate the business purpose. Review the results before making the purchase.
In the beginning, Power Automate was called Flow, and it was very basic to easy to manage. During the last year, there have been many improvements from Microsoft that have taken it to the next level and can compete with UiPath and Automation Anywhere.
I would rate Microsoft Power Automate an eight 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: Partner
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January 2025
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Safety, occupational health and environment at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
User-friendly with good stability and good online documentation
Pros and Cons
- "The tool is very good at implementing automation within processes. It's saved us from doing a lot of manual processes."
- "I've had issues with reordering columns. When I tried to do it, it seemed to take a long time, and then, later, it gave me some kind of error."
What is our primary use case?
We're currently exploring the solution. We're doing some planning and testing. We're looking at data transformation and flows.
How has it helped my organization?
There's the potential to save a lot of time by reducing the time it takes to do processes. It may even save us costs.
We're looking to monitor more projects in the future, however, right now, we're mostly in the testing phase.
What is most valuable?
The tool is very good at implementing automation within processes. It's saved us from doing a lot of manual processes.
The tool is very effective.
The features on offer are very good.
The product gives us a lot of very useful metrics that we can use.
The entire solution is extremely user-friendly.
There's good documentation online and I find the solution offers pretty good overall communications.
What needs improvement?
There are some gaps and a few areas of the solution that are still a bit complicated and confusing.
I've had issues with reordering columns. When I tried to do it, it seemed to take a long time, and then, later, it gave me some kind of error.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've only been using the solution for the last two months or so.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is quite stable. We haven't had any issues in that sense. It's reliable. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's not buggy. It's been good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I'd say the solution can scale. We haven't had any issues in that sense. If a company needs to expand it, it can do so.
In our case, right now the users are minimal. We have maybe five users in total. Some are in IT and a few are in other departments.
How are customer service and technical support?
We likely need support at this time. Mostly we've been dealing with online assistance and documentation. We're testing the product. To get it up and running, we'll likely need some help and may need to reach out to technical support to get asssitance.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup isn't as straightforward as we hoped it would be. We had some issues specifically with the initial configuration. It was a bit difficult.
Deployment times vary. For us, it might have taken about four weeks or so.
What about the implementation team?
We handled the implementation ourselves. We did a bit of research and tried to tackle it internally. It was just to get started. When we do a bit more of a complicated setup, we will get some consultants to help us with the process.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not sure of the cost of this solution. Licensing and billing are not aspects of the product I deal with at this time.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
While we know there are other tools on the market, currently, we're just playing with this particular tool to see what we can do.
We have looked at UiPath, however, we haven't tried implementing it yet. We just know it is an option.
What other advice do I have?
We have a partnership with Azure.
I'm using the platform from the desktop version coming with Microsoft 365. I assume it's the latest version of the solution.
Based on our preliminary usage, I do recommend the solution. It is easy to start with and to try out. It's pretty user-friendly and, and there's so much documentation on how to use it. There is other information about use cases as well and some pretty good videos on how to do certain things. The community seems to be pretty strong, which is helpful for when you are starting out.
In general, I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Consultant at Data Intelligenz
A low-priced solution with office connector and high stability
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the Office connector, which connects to Excel and Exchange."
- "There could be more communication with third-party cloud tools."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution in insurance and pharma.
How has it helped my organization?
I use SQL Server connectors to connect SQL Servers for data integration.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the Office connector, which connects to Excel and Exchange.
What needs improvement?
There could be more communication with third-party cloud tools. Also, if they can use libraries, I can recycle functions without having to rewrite them in any Power Automate system.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Power Automate since its inception.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution's stability is good. Everything works fine.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
When the first versions were released, some issues needed to be addressed. However, after those were resolved, everything started to run smoothly.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
Deployment takes around three or four days, and one specialist is required.
I rate the initial setup as seven out of ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is a low-priced solution and costs around 15$.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I rate the solution an eight-point five 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: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Aug 1, 2024
Flag as inappropriateSolutions Expert at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Very easy to set up and configure, but the OCR part is missing
Pros and Cons
- "It has a gamut of things. Power Automate is easy to configure. It is more for a citizen developer. It is low code/no code. It is one of the easiest tools when it comes to configuration. By default, we have a lot of Microsoft products on our laptops or desktops. So, it is very easy to configure the remaining products."
- "The OCR part or scanning of documents is missing."
What is our primary use case?
The use cases include Power Apps and Power Automate. We have had use cases for scheduling meetings. We have also used it for HR onboarding solutions where document verification was done by using Power Apps and Power Automate.
I have sold both cloud-based and on-premises solutions.
What is most valuable?
It has a gamut of things. Power Automate is easy to configure. It is more for a citizen developer. It is low code/no code. It is one of the easiest tools when it comes to configuration. By default, we have a lot of Microsoft products on our laptops or desktops. So, it is very easy to configure the remaining products.
What needs improvement?
The OCR part or scanning of documents is missing.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been selling it for the past one and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable.
How are customer service and support?
I am definitely satisfied with their support.
How was the initial setup?
Its initial setup is straightforward. It is very easy to set up.
The number of people required depends on the size of the project. It depends on how big a project is and what is the use case. It could be just a two-member team, and it could also be a ten-member team. It depends on the number of use cases that have to be automated.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its licensing is flexible.
What other advice do I have?
Power Automate is doing really well. It is a good solution. I would recommend it, but it also depends on a client's requirement.
I would rate it a seven out of 10.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
Chief Information Technology Officer at BMC Solutions
A multi-purpose solution which is scalable, stable and comes with good tech support
Pros and Cons
- "The best feature of the tool is that it is generic, so it allows one to do as he wishes."
- "The solution could have more integration with different platforms."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution as a business process automation tool. It allows one to automate an application in his organization.
What is most valuable?
The solution is not only meant for SharePoint, but for everything. It has millions of connectors. The best feature of the tool is that it is generic, so it allows one to do as he wishes. He can obtain data from Twitter and put it on his SQL Server. He can obtain data from WordPress and connect it with IBM.
What needs improvement?
The solution could have more integration with different platforms.
The licensing price is too high.
For how long have I used the solution?
Microsoft Power Automate has only been released recently, so I have been using it for the past three or four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is certainly stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is definitely scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is very nice. It's fast.
How was the initial setup?
As the solution is cloud-based, it does not require installation.
What about the implementation team?
The solution does not require deployment, but a team is needed for development and this will vary with the scope of the project. Every site would require around eight to ten people.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing price should be more cost-effective.
As we are talking about a Microsoft product, the licensing can be purchased on a monthly or yearly basis.
What other advice do I have?
The solution is both cloud-based and on-premises.
We are consultants of Power Automate. We do not use the solution ourselves.
So far, we have handled 14 or 15 projects and are working on one at present.
I would recommend the solution to others.
I rate Microsoft Power Automate as an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Process Specialist - Operational Excellence at a government with 51-200 employees
An agile, low-code environment that allows linking multiple connectors in the same workflow
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the ability and ease of linking multiple connectors within the same flow."
- "I would like to have chatbot assistance available, where you can open it and receive help on the spot."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case is the automation of tasks.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the ability and ease of linking multiple connectors within the same flow. For example, you can have the same flow connections with Outlook, SharePoint, and DLLs.
It is a low-code environment, which means that it is more agile in terms of automation. You are able to start with one automation and then easily modify it for other uses.
The interface is user-friendly. It took me perhaps a month or two to understand what the dynamic is and how it works, and then how it can be linked to the sprint. I would say that it takes two or three weeks to learn the basics, but then it becomes easy to work with. The more you learn, the more you can evolve the flow, and you can implement additional scenarios.
What needs improvement?
I would like to have chatbot assistance available, where you can open it and receive help on the spot. For example, if you are struggling in the middle of implementing a flow, you can easily communicate with the chatbot, perhaps providing the error message, and it will search for a resolution. In my case, I posted my error message on Google and saw that other people had similar problems. I was able to check the community platforms and I found the solution in one of the posts.
The documentation can be improved because although they do have a manual of about 500 pages, it does not cover all of the possible scenarios. It would be good to have one that covers different scenarios or different commands, provides basic knowledge about the commands, and even basics about JSON. Also, the user manual and learning guides that they have can be made more user-friendly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Power Automate for about six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have had some issues with stability where I received a surprising error message and still don't know why it happened. While it has been primarily stable, so far, we are not yet in production so I am not fully certain how it will perform. If the performance is good and there are no glitches or automation errors, then I will feel confident in the stability.
My impressions at this point, from what I have experienced, is that the stability is high.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
With respect to scalability, because we haven't implemented the solution yet, I am not sure if it will scale or not. My feeling is that it will scale because it already has multiple connectors for what most organizations frequently use.
It is fully designed but until it is implemented and I see the results, I will not feel comfortable commenting on whether it will scale well. My feeling at this point is that it is of medium scalability.
At this point, as the solution architect, I am the only one who is using it. In the future, we will have other people in my team using it.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have not posted to the community, so I don't know how reactive they are. From what I have seen, as I searched the forums, it seems that people are responsive. My feeling is that community support should not be an issue.
At the same time, I still think that they should have more friendly documentation and chatbot assistance.
I would rate the support a three out of five.
How was the initial setup?
I would say that the initial setup is easy and user-friendly, but you should still have basic knowledge in advance to do it properly.
Power Automate is included with Office 365.
What was our ROI?
In terms of resources and in terms of cost, this solution is efficient.
What other advice do I have?
I see Power Automate as a quick-win solution for many enhancements that can be used in any organization. Rather than a task that involves heavy coding on a third-party application, such as a CRM or with Salesforce, Power Automate can be leveraged for good results. Overall, I would say that my experience using this product has been good.
My advice for anybody who is considering this product is to create a prototype or a proof of concept, first. At the end of the day, management needs to buy into the solution. They should see, however, that it brings value to the business. It is a product that I recommend, although they do need to fix the small glitches that I experienced in the flow.
I would rate this 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: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Software Engineer at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Easy to automate processes with a short development time, but better Excel automation is needed
Pros and Cons
- "The development time for ProcessRobot is very good compared to other solutions."
- "Better support is needed for building custom components on top of ProcessRobot."
What is our primary use case?
We are implementation service providers and this is one of the products that we provide to our clients.
There are several use cases for this solution including automating tender processes, compliance-related processes, and in finance, we have automated some invoicing processes.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the ease of automation.
The development time for ProcessRobot is very good compared to other solutions.
What needs improvement?
There are some limitations when it comes to automation with Excel.
Better support is needed for building custom components on top of ProcessRobot.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been working with ProcessRobot for about one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is okay. We haven't had any major issues, although there have been some hiccups here and there.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is good.
We have clients of all sizes, although ProcessRobot is best suited for small and medium-sized business, and not for enterprise-level customers.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support for ProcessRobot is good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We are working with UiPath and Blue Prism as well. We began with ProcessRobot at the end of last year, but the other two solutions we started with about two years back.
Generally, the development time is less when compared to UiPath and Blue Prism, although Excel automation is better in those solutions.
We have also worked with Automation Anywhere.
ProcessRobot does not support custom components, which is really bad because all of the other solutions do.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy.
What other advice do I have?
My advice is that this solution is good for small and medium-sized businesses that want to automate processes that do not require much coding. If there is a requirement for building custom components or custom modules then I do not recommend this solution. For an enterprise-level client, this capability needs to be there.
I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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