Microsoft Power Automate Reviews

The reason why we are using this product is that we like to use it where we have automation projects specifically for Microsoft products. We can automate to improve productivity and for those applications and simple tasks, it is easy to use.  

For example, suppose I get my email with Outlook. There are certain times I will get specific Excel files from a pre-determined output which I have to always place into a particular SharePoint folder. From there, some other automation gets triggered and the file is processed in a certain way. Those are the sort of things we can automate with Power Automate. It is very good at working with those simple Microsoft-product-related processes.  

We use it wherever we have workflow processes in which Microsoft products are interacting. Before using this solution, people would get those emails and the recipient had to download the file and then manually put it into SharePoint. Now, as soon as it comes into the inbox, Power Automate gets triggered and it automatically copies the file to the correct SharePoint. There is no reason that a repetitive task of this sort needs to be done manually.  

It offers a different option than using UiPath which is much more complicated and more expensive for simple tasks that Power Automate can do more easily.  

It is very hard to say what the most valuable features are in Power Automate because we are still exploring the product and utility. I like the simplicity of how we can create those automated activities quickly. For now, the most valuable feature is that it is very easy to use.  

There is definitely a lot of enhancement that Microsoft can incorporate into Power Automate. For example, we have quite a lot of .NET applications that we created. These are custom applications that we created using something like VB.NET or C#.NET. These are obviously applications that are not published by Microsoft. I would like it if Microsoft could enhance the capabilities of Power Automate to allow users to connect to other tools and applications in some way. That will help us create better processes without making them more complicated or having to use another automation tool. Right now, we have to use UiPath to help us make processes such as the one described. I have not seen any way that Power Automate can do that type of integration. So if we could get better integration with non-Microsoft solutions as a feature for Power Automate, that will be very useful.  

We have been using Microsoft Power Automate (formerly Flows) for the last three months.  

We have not created anything complex, so we have not faced any issues in the form of glitches or any bugs to this point. When we start doing more sophisticated workflows, that may end up being a different story.  

I have not really had much of an opportunity to test the scalability of the solution yet. If we find a particular workflow that requires a change or something, it is easy to drop that version and recreate something new from scratch. It does not take much time. Scaling the number of processes up or down at this point does not seem to be an issue.  

The number of users in our company right now remains pretty small. I think there are only around 15 to 20 of us are actually exploring the capabilities. Eventually, that group should be much larger.  

We have not had any reason to work with the technical support team at this point. One of my colleagues did drop them a note asking if there is a way we can use Power Automate to connect to any of the custom tools that we created. I do not believe that we have got an answer to that question yet, so it is taking some time.  

The initial setup was quite good and went smoothly. It was not complex at all. It is good that it was relatively easy because we understood that it would mostly be used for easy processes to do some small tasks. We went that way and are using the tool only for working with simple automation processes. We did spend some time trying to automate more complex processes, but as the processes became more complex the tool became more complex to use. It is much easier to use it to do non-complex things. The setup for the processes themselves is fairly easy to do.   

This solution can save money when used for simple tasks specifically using only Microsoft products.  

We are currently working on evaluations of various products. The thing is, we have just started to embark on our journey into RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and we have brought in UiPath to act in that capacity. We are very much, at a nascent stage of the discovery of what we can do and what the product is capable of. We are identifying processes that can be automated and we are planning to work mostly with UiPath on those solutions. We have already engaged in a contract with UiPath for use of their product at this point in time.  

Most of our work is going towards UiPath currently but we also have this Microsoft Enterprise licensing. There seems to be no reason we should not use that as well if there are ways it can provide an advantage. We are also exploring if the enhancements we would need to tie in other applications and processes to Power Automate are something that we could do internally. At this time we are working with a combination of solutions that falls somewhere between our existing processes and new capabilities with automation tools.  

I have a few comments and advice for people considering the addition of RPA in their workflows. I would suggest that they do as much streamlining of their processes as possible. If they can get smaller things up and running by creating the process with a simple tool it may help their efficiency as well as their bottom line. When you go for big tools like UiPath and all the other robust RPA solutions, the cost of creating those smaller processes will be higher than they need to be. If people have a Microsoft Enterprise license, they could actually use the Power Automate tool to make their processes much more lean and efficient. Doing the same thing by employing any of the RPA-related solutions and tools might be a lot more effort.  

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate Power Automate, overall as a product as a six-of-ten at this point. It has got a lot of room for improvement.  

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 have various use cases because it is used at an enterprise scale. It is mainly used for document workflow management. It is used for validating and publishing documents. It is also used for validating the SharePoint page publishing, financial approvals, and investments approvals. It is a SaaS solution, so we have its latest version.

Its integration with the Office 365 ecosystem is most valuable. We use a lot of ready-to-use templates.

Its licensing model should be improved. The pricing should be more visible and transparent. When you consume services, there are too many criteria to figure out how much it is going to cost you to use the product to its full extent.

It should also support visual process editing, which is a standard feature for BPMN 2.0 compliance. They should improve the visual designer.

I have been using this solution for three years.

It is globally stable.

We haven't scaled it up. We have between 1,000 to 2,000 users. On paper, it is easy to scale, but it is under the condition of license purchase. It scales within the limits of what has been imposed by the licensing model.

I have been more in touch with their pre-sales people than technical support. We are a large enterprise, so we have direct access to their premium support team with SLAs. Their support is very responsive and efficient.

It is simple. It is a ready-to-use product, and there is no setup. It also doesn't require maintenance from our side.

It costs us nothing because we use it on the built-in cost that is a part of our existing license for 365. To use it more extensively, there are different pricing models.

Its licensing is complex. It is complex to evaluate the cost in advance. As a result, people don't use it because they don't know what overall cost they are going to incur. There are too many criteria to figure out how much it is going to cost you to use the product to its full extent. Its licensing model should be improved, and the pricing should be more visible and transparent. 

I would recommend this solution to others. I would rate Microsoft Power Automate a seven out of ten.

Our primary use case for Microsoft Power Automate is in the direction of citizen developers, mainly small automations built by business people themselves. We also use it for automations in finance departments with Power Apps.

Hyperautomation strategies are built around UiPath and Microsoft Power Platform, improving service delivery. It is easy to learn for business users, facilitating quick setup of automations.

Microsoft Power Automate is a no-code platform which is very easy to learn, allowing businesses to build their own small automations. Templated flows enhance automation capabilities, and document understanding is also highly valuable. The integration with AI in process automation is anticipated.

The licensing model could be improved to make it easier to understand and follow, as it is difficult to determine if the embedded license provides all functionalities or if additional licenses are needed.

I have been working with Microsoft Power Automate since 2020, about four years.

Once you know how to build automations and bypass limitations, they are stable and work correctly.

Microsoft Power Automate is best suited for citizen developers. Managing it at the enterprise level with more complex business processes can be more challenging.

I am satisfied with Microsoft's customer support as we are a partner and receive fast responses.

Positive

The setup requires time for configuration and may require an administrator. It is time-consuming.

Our customers have seen return on investment with Microsoft Power Automate. However, it's important to consider licensing limitations to avoid high costs.

Costs depend on the automation complexity. Licensing can be based on per user or per flow, with the potential for high costs if not carefully managed. The cost for licensing can increase due to licensing fees.

When evaluating, it depends on needs. UiPath is more mature for enterprise-level automation but more expensive, while Microsoft Power Automate is a good start for small automations and for those already using Microsoft products.

I recommend trying Microsoft Power Automate. It is a low-code platform and is easy to learn, allowing quick start to automation.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

We mainly use it in connection with our drug inventories. We use Power Automate to import the files we get from various wholesalers. We also check the prices in our back office.

We are a pharmaceutical compounds organization and also get prescriptions. We have a portal where GPs and doctors can prescribe patients. At the moment, we are looking to put more data into the database so that we can see some statistics from Power BI.

The solution has saved us hours of work. The solution does the work instead of employees.

We are looking for more data integration with various resources. Our plan is to have a deeper look at it in November when we are in Seattle for the two conferences. We would like to consolidate the data from various sources and extract it in order to analyze it. We used an RPA tool and looked at the ML part of it as well. 

I would like to see better data integration with different sources. 

I have using Microsoft Automate for a year and a half. 

It is a stable solution. I rate the stability an eight out of ten. 

It is a scalable solution. Presently, three to four hundred users use the solution and all our clients are small organizations. I would rate it a seven out of ten. 

The technical support team is good. 

Positive

The initial setup is moderately straightforward. The deployment takes a week's time. I would rate the initial setup a seven out of ten. 

The deployment is done by consultants. 

The solution's price is reasonable. I rate the pricing a five out of ten. 

I recommend the solution but I would advise people to get a consultant even if they know someone who has knowledge of Microsoft Power Automate, as it is the fastest way to automate it. I would rate the overall solution a seven 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.

Our use case is for presenting price regeneration. I'm the technical lead for robotics and we are customers of Microsoft. 

As a part of the Microsoft suite, this is a convenient product for us because it integrates well with other Microsoft products. We've also found third-party integrations with third-party applications is quite easy.

I think the speed of the application could be improved. If you're looking at Power BI dashboards, for example, the back-end processing is fine, but when you look at it from a UI point of view, which is what the client sees, the speed of execution could be improved. 

We've been using this product for five years. 

We haven't had any issues with stability. 

The scalability is good, we have around 25 users. 

Microsoft provides very prompt support. 

The initial setup is relatively straightforward and takes a couple of weeks. There's not much maintenance involved because it's part of a larger solution. 

We have seen ROI on investment although it's difficult to quantify. 

The product is fairly priced; the cost is part of the enterprise solution. 

I recommend doing a POC to ensure the product is fit for purpose. 

I rate this solution nine out of 10. 

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.

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

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.

WinAutomation by Softomotive is a scalable product.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.