Microsoft Power Automate Reviews

The primary use we have for this product is a solution we created for a client to download daily data from a big company's website. It is a website tool for helping the company monitor the channel for managing their associate or partner responsibilities. They needed to visit the website every day — or as often as possible — so they could get information from the parent company, or collect orders or complaints from there.  

The most valuable thing about the product is that it is simple. When you go into the UI — and probably because Softomotive has about a 20-year long history in the IT industry — there are small details in the features that simplify how you work with it. It has all the big features like competing products but the detail is the kind of thing that makes users feel more comfortable using the product than if the details were not there. So those kinds of ease-of-use details are good things for Softomotive. The design is a GUI interface which is really for non-programmers. There is only the graphic user interface so it is simple to use.  

I think the primary thing that needs improvement in this product is the stability. It looks like it is easy-to-use and that is very nice, but it is more important to have a stable product and not just one that is easy-to-use. If I am working to create a simple process, odd errors occur quite often and in the middle of creating the process.  

The additional features I might like to see in the next release would be adding in some capabilities that other products already have. For example, some RPA process management framework. UiPath has something like that, RE Framework (Robotic Enterprise Framework), which is something in Softomotive we have to develop by ourselves. They have some premade processes in WinAutomation, but in running a process they should have some kind of error handling. For example, if there are tasks that should be run like 100 times and maybe it will freeze up at the 50th cycle, then the process should start again from 50, not from number one.  

If they can come up with some kind of framework and error handling, that will enhance the stability of the running processes made out of their solution. Right now I cannot resolve these main issues on my own and they should be added to the product.  

I started testing it out three months ago and have been using it for about two months.  

The stability of the product is not always good even when working on simple projects. This is not a bad product — I still use it — but the stability is something that they need to improve.  

Scalability is just buying more licenses. I worked for RPA consulting company and a development company and then I worked as an RPA developer. Then I was dispatched to a company to develop a process for that company. That company at the time purchased ProcessRobot, and then recently WinAutomation — I think five copies. They tested it and they are now trying to expand usage.  

I have been in touch with the technical support for WinAutomation by Softomotive a lot, really. The support is good and they provide the information or answers I need.  

I have used other products in the past. For example, by comparison, UiPath might be a little bit more stable but it is also a little bit more complicated in the UI/UX (User Interface/User Experience) than Softomotive. UiPath has not got some of the fancy features — just the basic ones. You just collect your UI elements or web elements and use the basic features. But say you maybe run a process 1000 times in both tools. UiPath seems to me in our testing to have fewer errors than Softomotive. But the complexity of the project or the stability would make me choose one product over the other.  

The setup in WinAutomation is kind of straightforward. I did not experience any trouble in the installation. ProcessRobot is a bit different and then UiPath is a little bit more complicated in the installation, but I think it is manageable as well.  

To actually get the product to work from the point of installation to where I could start running some processes took maybe a month the first time. But this included learning the product. Development with a little experience using the tool usually takes 15 days or about two weeks.  

We did the deployment of this by ourselves.  

Because I am in this industry, I am gathering information about different tools all the time. I use mainly WinAutomation and ProcessRobot and maybe UiPath for only a month. It is sometimes just to collect information and other times to consider other products.  

I think the advice I can give someone considering this solution has to do with making a smart choice. If someone wants to do some RPA project without already knowing a product, then he or she needs to take quite a long time to learn about RPA. You can look at the subject to learn about it and then learn a little bit about programming. There is not just one place to find this kind of tutorial and educational material. A single vendor will only provide what you need to use their product. Each vendor has different educational materials from different perspectives and different methods of teaching.  

If they want us to use Softomotive as a solution, they may have to do less work in learning about RPA because it is easy to use. But they should probably also visit the UiPath website or maybe AutomationAnywhere to compare the products and features. In many ways, the products are the same with the ultimate goal being that of creating a working RPA process.  

But I think there is a difference in the availability of information and user communities. UiPath has a little bit more structured education system and their community is larger. Because Softomotive is not as widely used it is more difficult to ask other users questions. You may have to direct your questions to the software team. But with UiPath, they can ask questions through a web portal like forum.uipath.com. It is less stressful to ask a question and get an answer from other users.  

ProcessRobot users also have a smaller community but they cannot ask questions from support unless they have the license for the product. WinAutomation is different. It is kind of a semi-commercial product but it is not totally free like open-source. There is also a little restriction on which questions you can ask of support before you invest in the product. They are very responsive and also helpful and their company helps people directly. You go through a sort of process. Maybe Softmotive might not always find an answer or give you a particular solution. Then you can also be a little creative and look for how something is solved using other RPA tools like consulting UiPath Academy. This might give you some hints about what you are trying to accomplish.  

Sometimes I have found that I kind of I reached a dead end. I had no answer as to where to go. I was just confused and then I could not find any answer from the Softmotive website and there was nowhere to ask the question that I had. Other vendors also have wonderful features and then I tested those to see what they could do. It is kind of a long process to develop a stable process and you have to continue to learn.  

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate this product as a seven. Of course to rate this software higher, they would need to work on the stability issues, enhance the available resources for users, and fill in some of the features that are missing which other products already have. 

* Added on 2020-07-17 : Now that Softomotive is acquired and WinAutomation have become a part of PowerAutomate and the price has gone down almost to half of its original price, the future is quite promising for this product.

I use the product for automation. 

Microsoft Power Automate's basic activities are not strong. 

I have been working with the solution for a year. 

I rate Microsoft Power Automate's stability a nine out of ten. 

I rate the tool's scalability an eight out of ten. 

Microsoft Power Automate responds quickly. 

The tool's deployment is easy. 

The product is for small and mid-sized companies. I rate it a nine out of ten. 

We have the latest version installed. 

I like the scalability option and the simplicity, the way we can really use the interface to easily scale up. 

There should be more transparency when it comes to which features accompany the pricing, as there appear to be hidden features of which I am not aware. 

There are factors we must consider when scaling up, such as whether we are using full or partial features. Were I to buy an additional premium, another license, I would lack clarity what I could expect to get in exchange or whether the features would help me to scale up. This is why better transparency is important. 

Scalability can be improved and this is why it is key to know how the features can be integrated into the scalable solution.

I've been using Microsoft Power Automate for the past six months or so.

The ability to know how the various features can be integrated into the solution would improve scalability. 

I have not had occasion to contact technical support, so I am not in a position to comment on it. 

Installation was pretty easy, as we handled it through our office, making use of our office license.

There should be increased transparency about which features attend the pricing. 

We are customers of Microsoft.

There are more than 100 users making use of the solution in our company. 

I would definitely recommend this product to others for its ease-of-use. 

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

I am new to RPA systems and I have recently received access to Azure where I am testing out the ProcessRobot solution.

I have found the scheduling and email notifications features to very good compared to other RPA tools I have used.

In an upcoming release, the exception handling mechanism could improve. The issue that we are facing is whenever there is a failure in any of the middle execution and if you wanted to navigate it to the end of the last line of execution, we do not have this feature available. If we had this feature it would make it even more stable.

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

The solution is stable.

I have found the solution to be scalable. 

We have three people working with this solution in my organization.

The technical support has been good.

I have used previously Winautomation. When comparing the two solutions both are equally good.

The initial setup was in the middle range of difficulty. 

The price of the solution is reasonable.

My advice to others that want to implement this solution is that it has very good features and I have not had any issues.

I rate ProcessRobot by Softomotive an eight out of ten.

Our primary use case for WinAutomation is financial. This solution can be used for desktop or front office automation; even the back office operations automations this solution can provide are good.

I find WinAutomation's linear approach to the code and function calling valuable. I also appreciate the effort they put toward the experience for the user; learning is good and automation is very simple.

WinAutomation's OCR integrator should be improved. 

I have been using this solution for four years.

We haven't had are issues with stability.

WinAutomation is scalable to a certain extent. I would rate it seven for the scalability, which could be better. Softomotive is better scalable than WinAutomation in this regard.

I've found that they have a limited support team. Issues take longer to be resolved and there usually have to be a couple of followups with their tech support.

Before switching to WinAutomation, we used other products, including WorkFusion and Jacada. Some were better and some worse than WinAutomation for us. However, WinAutomation's license is cheaper, which is why we ultimately switched. Also, WinAutomation is easier to understand.

The initial setup was very straightforward.

I implemented WinAutomation myself.

As far as pricing goes, WinAutomation's earlier model was good. They were cheap. However, they changed the model. It's per work station now, which is okay.

I use the solution to not only automate processes but also to be an intermediary or a glue among the applications of Azure in the Microsoft universe.

The Outlook on the SQL server has been extremely valuable for us.

The solution is scalable.

The product is very stable.

For the most part, the initial setup is quick.

I would like to see more integration with the desktop application, and on-premise server as well as the SQL database. That would be really nice.

It would be great if you could integrate outside of Microsoft environments.

The initial setup can be a bit tricky if it is a complex environment.

The product needs a clear integration between the UI recorder and the steps that you do and the codes and the qualification that you do on the RPA there.

I've used the solution for about three years. I used it even before it was called Power Automate. It's been a while at this point.

I have very high regard for the stability of this product. There are no surprises. It doesn't crash or freeze. There aren't bugs or glitches. It's reliable in terms of performance.

The scalability is good. Basically, I deploy it on one desktop, on a system that consists of only one single desktop computer, and then deploy it on a server. That handles a lot of systems and processes at the same time, without any problem, and without having to invest in any additional resource or any additional time.

Typically our clients are medium to large organizations.

We don't really deal with technical support. We mostly provide documentation to the client and they can deal with technical support if they need to.

However, we barely have any problems as the solution is very intuitive.

I didn't find the initial setup exactly complex. It was more of a common characteristic of Microsoft products. It is easy to learn. As you learn the complexity of the requirements, there seems to be a little bit uphill to climb. 

The length of time it takes to deploy the solution varies. It mostly depends on the complexity of the requirements. If you have a simple implementation that's a matter of no more than one or two days. On the other hand, if you have a complex implementation, you have to invest about two weeks to two and a half weeks to have everything on production.

In terms of the number of people you need for the process, that varies too. For just a simple solution, you could have one solo person that is in charge of the consulting and the implementation of the solution. If you have a complex problem, you have to have a person that is the consultant, a person that is building the solution, and then a person that is making the implementation, and a person who is providing maintenance. You can have a team of about four people if there is a complex deployment.

We are an implementor and consultant. We assist clients in setting up the solution in their organizations.

We did not first evaluate any other options before choosing Microsoft's product.

The main competitors would be UiPath or Automation ANywhere, for the most part. The main difference is likely the pricing. There are other differences as well.

If you want to Automation Anywhere, there's not exactly a good availability for a medium-sized business. For example, Automation Anywhere has something called Community Edition, but it is a bit too small. It's better for smaller organizations. Then, from that, they make a big quantum jump to the Enterprise Edition. That is a little bit expensive. There's no middle ground.

The same thing happened for example, with Blue Prism. It's a little bit expensive. 

UiPath is a little bit more spacious than Power Automate. I still trust that Power Automate is going to close the gap. It works with WinAutomation and as soon as they get all the features and all these technical aspects of the hardware, it is going to create a stronger Power Automate. Soon Power Automate will be able to reach all business segments, and, at that point, it will be very powerful.

I'm not sure of which version of the solution it is. It's in the cloud and therefore constantly updated.

I'm a consultant.

I would advise, in general, around any tool, just be clear with the requirements. No matter what sophisticated tool you were using, if you're not clear about data, then the software is not going to work.

I have customers where we have to make a data governance program or project first before we implement it. You have to be clear with all your data, with all the possible information that's part of your data path. Be clear about how efficient your processes are before you enter into an RPA or process automation project. This is the main thing. 

As for the product itself, it is easy to use. You're not going to have any surprises.

I would rate the solution at a nine out of ten. We've been happy with the product overall.

The most valuable feature is that it is integrated into the browser, which means that you don't need a development environment.

Power Automate is intuitive and easy to use.

There is a broad community so you can find a lot of information on the web about how it works. It is also well-documented.

The licensing model is difficult to understand and is something that should be improved.

When you are implementing a project, it's quite difficult to comment on what it is that you are doing. For a simple project it is fast, but to have a better overview then it gets complicated.

I would like to see more integration with other products.

We have been using Power Automate for about two years.

The stability is good.

Power Automate is a scalable solution. We have between five and ten developers who are using it.

The technical support from Microsoft is good.

We primarily use UiPath for our automation.

The initial setup is straightforward and it took us about two hours to deploy.

There are many different ways to license it.

This is a good product and one that I recommend. For anybody who is considering it, my advice is to do a proof of concept at each phase.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for automation purposes. It can offer an alternative desktop option, and therefore it can automate a lot of stuff. It's part of the application. It also can connect us to a number of data sources and that helps us a lot. However, it's difficult to get into specifics due to client privacy.

It's a very stable product. We find it to be quite reliable.

The solution is very easy to use. There's a bit of familiarity with the product due to the interface they have. We use other Microsoft Office products, for example, and it has a similar look and feel that's recognizable if you are familiar with the Microsoft Suite. 

The look and feel and user interface make training new users a fairly easy process.

The solution offers a variety of very good features.

There is an exhaustive amount of templates that users have access to.

You do need to either get a bit of IT support or do a bit of coding in order to implement the solution successfully.

Something lacking is Microsoft Office plugin, however, it's my understanding that their Office plugin is out now or coming soon. We're just trying to understand the use case. 

If they can make it integrated into Microsoft's Office Suite, that would be great. It would be better than lining it up with the Office plugin application. I'm sure it exists in some form, however, maybe not for the mainstream things.

The solution is still maturing very quickly and it's going to take no time for this to be Enterprise RPA.

I've used the solution for the last year and a half or so. 

The solution is stable. There aren't really any bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's good.

The solution is very scalable. As a cloud product, it makes it very easy for users to expand if they need to. When a company needs to scale, they can do so, no problem.

We do plan to continue to use this solution, and we'll continue to use other Microsoft solutions as well.

We end up using a lot of community resources. Microsoft has a huge community, and it's really helpful in terms of finding answers and asking questions.

I've used the previous generation of this technology, such as Logic Apps and other products of that nature.

We didn't use any other products really. We had some in-house and also some VBA Macros, PowerShell scripts and others which we had created. However, this was the first proper solution we've invested in.

The initial setup is pretty straight forward. It's not overly complex. You do need a bit of IT support, however, you could put it in and save it and other people can use it and probably tweak it quite easily.

While there is a bit of coding needed, once you have everything set up, there are lots of templates that make the implementation of different processes very easy.

The deployment is quick. There's just a bit of needed configuration with the cloud. We didn't activate all of the features; we only activated what was required. I can't recall the exact amount of time it took to do this.

It is fast to implement, does not depend on the changes to existing systems to implement. It save hours that a team spend on performing the process manually. Mostly importantly it is easy to training business users since users are very much familiar microsoft and windows interface (UI).

The licensing set up depends on your organization. If it's an enterprise, it's based on their user department and how do you want the solution to be distributed.

Many companies already have Microsoft Office licenses, for example, and this is part of that. 

It's not too expensive as a license. At least, that's my understanding. 

In comparison, an RPA tool with Outreach costs $5,000. You can use it, however, it's expensive.

I'm using the latest version of the solution.

We are a consulting organization, and we do help clients.

We've helped large organizations. We don't have just one use case for this product. We have many.

You can't build an application with this solution. This is more for automating within a department or in an area, for example, a finance area, where they have all sources lined up and it takes almost three or four days for an accountant to go through the data to create templates and updating templates, etc. Those kinds of things. This solution makes the processes happen faster.

I'd recommend the solution to other organizations.

I would rate the product at an eight out of ten. There's a bit more maturity that needs to happen, however, all of the elements are there to make for a great product.