Power Automate Benefits & Use Cases For Modern Businesses

It’s 2022 and automation of any business process today is not a matter of whether you should but when are you’re going about it. For any modern workplace that relies on automating repetitive tasks, it helps improve operational efficiency to reduce costs and get better ROI. This helps facilitate communication, collaboration, productivity and employee satisfaction for optimum utilization of resources in an efficient manner.

And, in a competitive landscape where modern businesses require digital solutions that are fast, efficient and easy to use, Microsoft’s Power Automate is emerging at the top.

Part of Microsoft’s Power Platform suite, this cloud-based tool allows the automation of workflows and processes for businesses. Previously known as Microsoft Flow, it is primarily a business process automation (BPA) software with the option to include attended and unattended bots.

• Creation of workflows
• Task automation based on recurring, frequent and routine status
• Automation of legacy business processes
• Logic design for Power Apps

This low-code process automation tool provides the creation of several types of flows. It is important that you learn about them to determine which ones would make the most sense for your organization.

Broadly they are segregated into two categories;

• Flow
• UI Flow

Flow

While Flow is used for workflow automation, it is further listed under three categories;

• Cloud flows
• Business process flows
• Desktop flows

Cloud flows:

Is much required when the automation is to be triggered – either automatically, instantly, or via a schedule.

• Automated Flows: Enables seamless creation of a series of events once a kick-off event is triggered. For instance, if you want a flow to be created every time a user adds a new item to your SharePoint list, you can create an automated flow with the “when an item is added” trigger and pair it with the corresponding list.
• Instant Flows:  Widely used for its capability to act instantly at the click of a button & flow needs to run immediately. Typically, the approval process in Teams and SharePoint are general examples of activities that can be triggered with Instant flows.
• Schedule Flows: This allows the scheduling of a series of tasks that have a specific deadline. For instance, if you want a flow to run at 10:00 AM every day, schedule flow is your new best friend!

Business Process Flows:

Ideal for streamlining tasks and processes, it helps assure that everyone carries out specific tasks in a similar way with consistent data entry. It is especially useful for organizations that have specific requirements & need to follow certain procedures. Allows defining the right path for workflows and can be further customized to match the assigned security roles.

Desktop Flows:

Typically used for automating tasks on the desktop and web through Power Automate Desktop. Further, there are two other ways to create desktop flows: with Windows recorder (V1), or Selenium IDE.

UI Flow

As a valuable component of Power Automate – it adopts a machine learning solution to resolve more complex issues. And, like any other ML-powered software, it learns what actions are to be performed through user feedback. This flow comes in handy for legacy software that does not have API. It essentially smoothens the way for legacy software to exchange data with cloud applications. It enables reproducing the user actions to transform manual tasks into automated workflows by mimicking human drive interaction.

At Rishabh, we offer Power Automate consulting services and help you decide on a flow that best suits your business needs. Learn how you can drive value across multiple processes & achieve desired outcomes.

Seamless Integrations

As part of the Microsoft ecosystem, your business can leverage seamless integration with more than 250+ applications both within and outside. The connection with other MS solutions such as OneDrive, Dynamics 365, Office 365, SharePoint, or more offers your business applications the ease of transferring data to and from applications.

Streamline Business Tasks

Allows assigning priority to notifications. It would allow not to miss out on important events. Further, you can expert notifications for a high-priority activity in the future as well. For instance, every time a new entry is added to SharePoint, you can set up a pop-up notification without opening the application. This helps managers and teams stay up to speed on developments & act on information. So, every time a critical document needs instant approval, the entire process is automated and the person responsible for document approval is immediately notified.

Ready to Use Templates

The workflow management tool offers multiple ready-to-use templates that can be set up in no time. You can leverage more than 100 templates to choose from and here’s a quick look at how you can utilize them:

• Email notification when a file is uploaded to OneDrive
• Email to responder when a response is submitted on Microsoft Forms
• Use MS Forms to create the task in Planner & send a message on Teams
• Send an email when a new item is added to SharePoint
• Run sentiment analysis on tweets & add results to the Power BI dataset

Reduce Costly Human Errors

Automation of repetitive tasks with this tool means almost 0 errors in your business processes. It also provides a sense of direction for the organization. And, automating menial tasks that typically require manual input ultimately improves efficiency, and productivity. It allows the employees to become more confident and feel relieved while handling their tasks. The end outcome is a satisfied and dedicated workforce.

Accessible Anywhere

Offers monitoring of business workflows from home or on the go for the team members. It allows the creation, running & monitoring of workflows from wherever they are.

Now, let’s look at the various automation scenarios that would enable you to understand the application of the powerful tool across industries.

Healthcare Industry

Healthcare institutions continue to struggle with paper processes. Right from patient registration to the scheduling of appointments, from managing disconnected systems to never-ending document management, these processes are not sustainable in the long run.

Here’s how Power Automate can benefit healthcare providers;

• Automation of patient registration & discharge
• Helpdesk process automation
• Moving test results to EHR systems
• Automation of staff onboarding and shift rotation
• Billing & claims automation
• Document approval workflow

Retail Industry

Being one of the fastest-growing industries in recent times, the world of retail is continuously evolving to keep customers engaged & satisfied. It enables retailers to optimize process operations and reduce the massive man-hours.

Here’s how retailers across the world leverage Power Automate’s UI flows:

• Inventory & freight management automation
• Automation of real-time information flow across systems like POS & inventory control
• HR processes automation – onboarding & offboarding, payroll, and reporting
• Automation of processes like sales analytics, return orders, new product launch and more

BFSI Industry

The institutions in this vertical are prioritizing the need to transform core business operations by rapidly adopting business process management solutions.

Here’s a look at how the tool can automate various processes like;

• Customer & employee data extraction
• Process validation & addressing customer concerns
• Loan application capture
• Application of business rules
• Accounts payable processes

Manufacturing Industry

Automation finds its implementation not only in production but also across purchase, order, inventory management & deliveries. With Power Automate, manufacturers can focus on enhancing product quality, improving response time, reducing production waste and more.

Right from procurement to supply chain here’s how manufacturers are utilizing automation to their advantage:

• Distribution & logistics workflows
• Data tracking & document processing
• Real-time order monitoring
• 24X7 customer query assistance

Business automation enabled saving money, scaling up tasks and supporting desired goals for gaining significant recognition. As a powerful tool that steers your business towards success, Microsoft Power Automate is the ideal solution to streamline critical processes, intelligently!

Further, it enables businesses to enhance simple or complex processes across the entire organization with intelligent, low-code apps and with a small learning curve. We at Rishabh can help you define a scope & assign a team of skilled resources to build & implement automated workflows and accelerate your business outcomes!