Microsoft Power Automate Reviews

The primary use cases we are focusing on are applying automation to processes and integrating systems with API uploads. We have developed a module to handle private information related to the applications and API uploads to ensure the process is feasible without any challenges.

I believe document reading has been beneficial when dealing with Microsoft. 

There have been some challenges. We have struggled to take advantage of the power of the program due to the complexity of the reports we want to send to Microsoft. This includes client complaints, large discrepancies, and delays from data centers to solve the issues. As a result, we have faced both advantages and disadvantages. After some time, I believe Microsoft may have made changes to the backend that we are not aware of. This could cause issues, and the client has experienced instability in the current process. To address this, we need to make sure that any changes to the backend are documented and communicated clearly to avoid any potential issues.

The technical support has room for improvement.

I have been using the solution for six years.

I give the scalability of the solution a seven out of ten. The licensing is not bad but scaling requires additional work on the solution.

The solution is intended more for small and medium-sized organizations, not for large more complex companies.

We have 5,000 people using the solution.

The technical support attempts to address any queries, but their knowledge is limited. They try to come up with solutions for new problems and document them if they yield results so that if someone else has the same issue, they can get the same solution. However, they are technically struggling. To resolve the issues, Microsoft created a system where their internal technical team works with a mediator who understands the problem but may not understand the technical details. This mediator then takes the ticket up to the technical team analyzes the issue and provides a resolution. This system has saved them time in responding to and resolving the issue.

The initial setup is great. We're currently building with the connectors. However, automating the process may require additional hardware, which can take time to implement. We have to apply the policy and see how their applications access information. To accommodate the additional hardware, our plan has to be adjusted, but if we don't involve any alternatives, we can deploy more easily. 

The automation portion if required is a different department but for the basic setup, we only require two to four people.

The license is 20 million rupees per month. The cost is okay but we are paying per month. Microsoft is providing a license that is automatic which is very helpful. But we know that of the solution, we don't have any annual subscriptions. We pay monthly, otherwise, we choose another solution.

Microsoft is providing an automatic license with a cost of $20 million per month, which is reasonable. However, we don't have any annual subscription options, so we must pay monthly or choose another solution.

I give the solution a seven out of ten.

Microsoft is predicting that improvements will come in the future which will be better than what's currently available in the market. Even if they can build simple and medium processes, they still need to add certain elements and acquire certain licenses in order to run the machine from one place to another. We need to let go of the keys, such as a community rotation which we are automating. I don't believe updates should be pushed for those who are happy with the version they are using because that version is capable and we have fixes for any issues that may come up. Microsoft is now focused on automating development processes. It is important that Microsoft give the community rotation back to users, as we are all users. Regardless of size, we need to be aware of the upgrades that are being made.

We don't believe additional personnel is required for maintenance. We currently have adequate processes in place and automation. In total, there are fifty processes running, two for every system. Therefore, we do not anticipate needing to increase personnel for maintenance purposes.

The other departments have implemented the AP60 and are currently working on it. In my department, we are using Power Automate which is working but I need to check what progress the other departments have made and if they are facing any challenges to determine if it is easier to build with AP60 or with Power Automate.

There are many alternative solutions to Power Automate that also are cloud-based that I believe offer an annual subscription but I am not sure.

I would suggest starting with simple or medium processes, rather than complex ones. Begin with a pilot project to determine if it is profitable or not. We should also try to find a way to automate the process, as it could otherwise become stuck. Additionally, it is important to consider any issues that could arise with the elements that are currently working; the same elements may fail tomorrow. Ultimately, if we can handle these issues in the development phase, the solution will function great.

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.

I'm using Microsoft Power Automate to automate some of my processes. Before using this solution it took me sometimes one day to complete tasks and now I can perform them much faster.

The most valuable features of Microsoft Power Automate are the ease of use and the templates that are provided. I no longer need to make the document from scratch. I can search for what template I want and then it only requires me to modify it a bit for my needs. Additionally, it's helped improve my productivity and efficiency, and at the same time, it's quicker.

Microsoft Power Automate could improve by adding more features to the free version it would be good because there are many features that you have to pay for. There are some functions that IT personnel, like myself, have a difficult time using and could be made more user-friendly.

In a feature release, it would be a benefit if Microsoft Power Automate could integrate with Google. I'm dealing with a lot of external systems, and it would be great if the site was able to connect with Google, because some of the flow requirements use Google. It is very difficult to do it.

I have used Microsoft Power Automate within the last 12 months.

Microsoft Power Automate is stable.

There were several people using this solution in my previous company, and in my current company, I am the only one working with Microsoft Power Automate.

The support from Microsoft Power Automate is good.  If I do not know how to use it they have the Microsoft community. I can ask questions on that platforms and straight away they provide me the answer.

I have not used other solutions previously.

We use Office 365 and this solution is free for me to use with the package we have. We have plans to increase the usage of Microsoft Power Automate.

Microsoft should market Power Automate more to companies' operation personnel, it would be better because then the operations personnel would know there is a solution to make their life and tasks easier.

I rate Microsoft Power Automate a ten out of ten.

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.

It's an RPA (Robotic Process Automation), so it's a robot and we use it to automate a lot of financial reports.

This solution improved the reporting in our organization. The financial department was doing a lot of copy-pasting from different sources to create financial reports. Through ProcessRobot, we were able to automate all those copy-pasting and produce all those financial reports overnight. Our financial department was able to free up a lot of their time. They no longer need to invest their time in the work, particularly in creating the report. They can focus their time on analyzing the data more, rather than exerting more time in report creation.

This solution is easy to use. It was one of the easiest to use, plus the price-quality was the reason why we selected this. Its features for its price were the best fit for our company.

As for what could be improved in this solution: I tried to do some automation on Microsoft Dynamics AX and it was not successful. The integration with Dynamics AX was not really a success, but for the rest, I don't have problems with.

Some automation features on some programs did not work smoothly, so that's a negative feature. That might be solved now with the newer version because Microsoft took over Softomotive. I hope they have improved that feature and that it now works better with their own software.

I'm not really missing features I'd like to see on the next release because we only use it for a really small target area. We just use it for reporting. It's not like we're using it extensively on test automation and other similar processes, but I know we can do a lot more with this solution.

We've been using this solution for three years now.

This solution is really stable.

About the scalability of this solution, we're using the desktop version now, and I know that there's some other version. We can scale it up to use more robots, but we don't have a requirement for it currently.

The technical support for this solution was really okay. Information on the website was documented well e.g. there were nice manuals. I didn't use their technical support, but the website where I could find all the technical documentation was really good. Because it was well-documented, it was self-explanatory and I could start from there.

We used two different solutions, but we switched because they were too expensive for the purpose we wanted to use those solutions for.

Setting up this solution was really straightforward. It just needed a little bit of clicking. It only took a few minutes to install as it's a really simple program. It's not complicated.

Implementing this solution was self-explanatory. I did the implementation myself.

We saw a significant return on investment because we were able to save a lot of time from our financial and human resources staff, so this saves a lot of money and the return on investment on that 1,000 euros is quickly felt.

We paid for one license for this solution. It was a lifetime license for this version (version 8), and we paid around 1,000 euros. At the moment, as long as we use this version, there is no additional cost, but when we upgrade to the new version, it will be a monthly subscription.

We bought the license from Softomotive, so we had one license and that license was restricted to version eight. When we upgrade to the newest version, we would need to buy that upgrade, because Microsoft has taken over Softomotive and they no longer sell licenses. They only sell monthly subscriptions.

We have to transfer our license to a Microsoft subscription, and though they will give a redemption, the cost will change, so this is also one of the reasons why we didn't change to the new version yet.

We evaluated other solutions: UiPath and Kofax.

You're using an older version. Now, Microsoft has taken over this version and they're calling it Power Automate desktop. I think a lot of improvements have already been done to the newest version, so what I'm going to tell you about the old version will no longer be relevant. We need to upgrade to the new version then check if the problems we were having have been fixed in the new version. Overall, we are satisfied with what we use it for because I think it's quite okay for our use case.

The name ProcessRobot doesn't exist anymore. Softomotive has been taken over by Microsoft so this solution has been rebranded by Microsoft to Power Automate desktop.

It's a robot, so it's operating on a server on its own. There's no real user, but it's trying to replace users. There's only one developer who is creating the tasks on that system. We also don't require anyone for its maintenance.

At the moment, we're using this solution to create a report of 50, so we have 50 data scripts running each night. We're planning to extend its use with a couple of reports, but for now, there's no need to further use it for other tasks.

My advice to others looking into implementing ProcessRobot is to try it first because it's free now, so you can test it. You can test it for free on the Windows 11 version. It's delivered by Microsoft for free. Go ahead and test it. The solution is nice and fast.

I would give this solution a rating of eight or nine. Let's say nine out of ten. I couldn't find any pictures for my use case. I think this was the best choice we could make, and ten is too perfect for rating a solution.

We held a hiring event specifically for veterans. All the people who were registering were external to our organization, so we had them fill out a Microsoft form, which then triggered an email, took all their information, and stored it into a SharePoint list. This list fed a Power App, and we were able to:

• Check members in whenever they arrived.
• Capture extra details about them.
• Pass the information onto hiring managers whenever a hiring manager was interested in an individual applicant or somebody who showed up.

In another use case, we used it to track the vaccination status of all employees. There were about 90,000 employees. If they scheduled it, it would trigger reminders whenever an employee's vaccination was coming up.

We set up a process to monitor Twitter so that whenever specific hashtags that we cared about were used, the whole record of what was tweeted out was captured and stored into a SharePoint list because it was free and easy to analyze as well. That has helped. Event triggers, several different connections, and what you can do with the information once you have it have been very helpful.

We also used it as a one-time solution in a scenario where records were captured in a Power App, and oftentimes, those records, which were almost like medical records, would need to go to another team one at a time. We used Power Automate to capture all the information that was stored in Oracle. From the record, it would put the information into a Word document, convert the Word document to a PDF, and then email the PDF off to the team. All that was done behind the scenes with the user clicking one button. It was great.

Different trigger events were most valuable. You could schedule a process on a recurring basis, at a certain time of day or week, or when something happens, which is huge. 

Their connector to Oracle or premium data sets that aren't Microsoft would often fail for me. The information given back about why it failed wasn't always robust to understand how to fix it and why it happened.

Sometimes, Power Automate's flow would turn off when it got fired incorrectly or misfired, but we didn't always get a notification of when it was turned off, and that was a problem.

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

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

I did deal with their tech support, and they were phenomenal. Their support person taught us the whole process of how to take a record, put it into a Word document template that you can customize, turn it into a PDF, and then send that email off. He was phenomenal.

It was straightforward for the most part. Once you do it a couple of times, it becomes more intuitive. There are so many different YouTube videos or resources on Google to be able to figure out how to do something, what are you doing wrong, or how you can work around an issue.

In terms of maintenance, everything that I did was more of a one-off solution. It was me and one other person who would maintain an individual Power Automate statement.

There are so many different capabilities with it. I would advise mapping out your capability, usage, or whatever it is that you want it to do. After that, start to create and go from there.

I would rate it an eight out of 10.

We use it for processing a stream of incoming invoices.

It is a cloud solution, but you install the client on your computer, so it is a hybrid deployment.

I can compare it with the same process on Blue Prism. With Power Automate, we've been able to double the speed. It is more user-friendly. It is faster. It is ten times cheaper. There are quite a few things about it.

Overall, it is a great service at the given price. It is very modern, and it integrates in a great way with pretty much anything. It is also fast. 

They can provide a deeper level of feedback about running processes. When I compare it to Blue Prism, the control room has slightly less information about the running processes and possible errors. I'm not a pro, so I am not entirely sure if this is a core feature of the product or if it is because of the way our partners have developed it or set it up. 

The stability of the UI section in terms of being able to read the visual elements is either at the same level as Blue Prism or better than Blue Prism. 

I don't have experience with scalability, but I don't see any roadblocks for scalability.

We've got plans to increase its usage, but it is about the decision-makers in our company having a good resource strategy. I'm not the main decision-maker, so I don't really know about the plans, but we would definitely want to increase the utilization. It is just a question of how to do it correctly.

We are in touch with a local partner who was a former partner of the Soft MultiTech company that originally developed the tool, which was acquired by Microsoft. They are very responsive. They help us quickly and efficiently with anything we need. We are quite happy with them.

It depends on your technical background. People who've got coding experience don't need to do anything. They can take it and work with it straight away. They don't need any partner or anyone else. They can just develop, but that's not the case for business users. 

Business users apparently need time to adapt and build the knowledge, which is probably the case with any platform, because the background rules need to be followed. In terms of its user-friendliness, it is drag-and-drop from predefined actions. If you know what to do and follow the rules and if you are able to build a strong process, then the product will probably give you everything you need to do that quickly and efficiently.

Its speed of adoption seems faster as compared to Blue Prism. The development and testing take the same amount of time on any platform, but it seems faster in terms of adoption than Blue Prism.

The number of people required for its maintenance depends on the process. It depends on the processes that you automate.

It is quite fresh, but its return on investment would be much better than Blue Prism. The Blue Prism license was somewhere around $10,000 a year, and we're now on $40 a month, which is incomparable, but we're getting the same service.

It is in fact a better product. So, even if you've got some other costs, such as you need some external coding at the beginning, you will get an ROI. We were positive about our return on investment with Blue Prism, and we would be doing much better than that with Power Automate, but I can't give exact numbers. I don't have them.

We've got a subscription package. We are on a monthly package of $40. We've got some discount because we're a big corporate client of Microsoft 365 and other solutions, but the standard price of the package that we use is $40.

For the product, you don't have to pay anything extra. If you're using a partner, you need to pay for their coding, advice, and services, which is a separate cost. The majority of the features are available for free for anyone who is on Microsoft 365.

I would suggest others to go for it. It is definitely a great solution, specifically at the given price. It is really hard for companies that are starting with RPA to justify the costs of some of the competing products, which could be 20, 30, or more times more expensive than Power Automate.

Even at a corporate level, it would be tough to get to a stage where you would find the product having some inefficiencies or some gaps as compared to its competitors. I don't have an experience where we are utilizing the orchestrator, have unattended bots, or are coordinating 20 or more bots, but according to our partners, it is working in such environments. It is about how you actually utilize the product, how well organized you are, how good are your processes, how you are able to build them in the product, rather than the super hard limitations within the product.

I don't really have a full experience with it, but from what I see and what I've learned, I would rate it a nine out of 10.

We've just started with the solution. 

We are exploring Power Automate and trying to get rid of some of the mundane tasks and we're seeking ways to increase the productivity. We're trying to do the automation on it. 

It's not my day-to-day work; I'm into infrastructure. I'm basically heading the APAC team here in the APAC region. I got a request from a couple of users to get rid of the setup of mundane tasks. 

The solution is booming at the moment. They're adding lots of features all of the time. 

The initial setup is very simple.

There's a great community around the product that is very helpful and active.

The solution is free to use if you have a Microsoft E3 license. 

Power Automate has a lot to do. What I've seen, for example, is that UiPath seems to be very efficient and you don't need to have any sort of training. With Power Automate, training is needed. You need to know how to work with pretty advanced queries. They need to add more training materials to their offering. 

It's not as user-friendly as a solution such as UiPath, which is really easy to use. 

Creating unattended bots is quite expensive. 

Having the connectors with multiple platforms would be great. They have connectors for SAP, yet they don't have a connector for the Oracle ERP, for example, or Oracle HCM. They should come up with multiple connectors where it would ease integrating with any other tool, rather than having to create a custom connector and trying to integrate with a third-party tool. UiPath offers multiple connectors and it is very useful. It makes our life very simple. On the fly, we should be able to integrate and talk to the other applications directly without struggling.

We've been working with the solution for just six months. It's only been half of a year so far. 

The community that surrounds the product is very active and quite helpful. 

The initial setup is very easy. It was very simple. In order to do automation, it is very easy to configure everything. It's also easy to maintain. The only part that is kind of complex, for example, is where you have to get into the website to get the data and try to feed the data into an Excel sheet. That happens if you're trying to automate some complex yet mundane task. That's where it helps to have someone on board that knows what they are doing and understands the solution quite well.

Since we are on E3, we get Power Automate as a free service from Microsoft, for everybody in the organization.

I'm from India and anything that I look at, in terms of pricing, be it UiPath or Power Automate the pricing appears to be on the higher side. That said, we're on the E3 Microsoft license and the price for Power Automate comes along with that, as a part of the subscription. It basically covers the basic functionality of Power Automate. In that sense, it doesn't hurt us too much. However, if I have to go set up an unattended bot, it is very expensive. That's something that for sure that I would like to highlight with Power Automate. If you'd like to go for an unattended bot it's quite expensive.

I have looked at other solutions. I was exploring and trying to compare which is the right tool for our environment. I was trying to compare where exactly Microsoft intersects with other services such as UiPath or Automation Anywhere.

We'll likely stay with Power Automate. Power Automate fits our requirements in terms of what we are looking for. If anything is required in terms of the desktop automation that would require us to buy a separate license we may move to something else, however, at this point, we do not really foresee anything that we couldn't do with this product.

I would urge users to stay on top of Microsoft by leveraging the community. They're very cooperative and trying to support us when we ask questions in the community, there'll be somebody who will always jump in and try to help us out. There are multiple forums, apart from the Microsoft community as well. I see multiple websites or blogs where you could find the solution for a question you have. There is a lot of documentation out there.

For working a bit with the solution and comparing it to options such as Automation Anywhere and UiPath, I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten so far.