Microsoft has invested heavily in their RPA tool Power Automate in recent years. This has led research firm Gartner to put them in the same category with market leaders such as UiPath last year. Yet this solution is unknown to many people. We're going to change that on this page!
What is Power Automate?
Power Automate is Microsoft's RPA software solution and consists of two parts. On the one hand, you have an online module, which for many companies is even included in the Microsoft license, and on the other hand, an RPA package that needs to be installed on your PC.
What can I use it for?
Power Automate was created to automate administrative processes. Combining an online and local solution, there are few software systems it can't work with! You can use it for simple automations like saving attachments from your email into a folder, to entire business processes from A to Z, and everything in between.
What do I need to get started?
For the cloud solution, you need a license. It is included in some Microsoft Enterprise subscriptions. Otherwise, you can purchase it on a per-user basis with your account. The desktop software is available for free for windows 11, and for anyone who has a license for the cloud solution. After that, you can get started!
For large automations that you want to run independently, so-called unattended robots, you need an additional license and an environment where it can work. For our customers, we set up a separate server environment for this.
Can I build my own automations?
Simple tasks and processes can often be built by yourself without programming knowledge after a short training. With more complex processes, we find that most customers like to get help and support. Apart from the fact that it takes a lot of time to develop yourself because you don't do it on a daily basis, you often need some code knowledge. You also need to realize that once you have built and implemented an automation, it also needs to be monitored and occasionally modified if an underlying system has had an update.
An alternative, therefore, is to outsource the construction work, or the entire automation process.
What is the advantage of Power Automate over other RPA software packages?
This is both a technical and cost issue. At VionA, we work with two software packages for RPA. One is Power Automate, the other Robocorp. The choice of which package we use with a customer depends on the systems in the process. Robocorp is more cost-effective and often also technically the best solution for automating SaaS packages, but as soon as legacy software is part of the process, Robocorp is more difficult to handle. Power automate is technically capable of including legacy systems in an automation, but is somewhat more expensive than Robocorp. Compared to market leader UiPath, however, Power Automate is interesting in terms of costs, while technically it is not inferior anymore. This makes it an ideal solution for many SMEs.
Automate with Power Automate as a service
VionA has the technology and knowledge to deliver your complete automation as a service, with or without Power Automate. We can take care of everything, from searching for automation potential within your organization to permanently monitoring the solutions we build and everything in between. In addition to RPA, this also includes, for example, consulting on your processes, building forms and solutions to improve your process and training. You can find more about this approach here. Take a look on our website for all possibilities and inspiration for potentially interesting processes.
