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Home » A Beginner’s Guide to Automation Using Power Automate

A Beginner’s Guide to Automation Using Power Automate

What exactly is Microsoft Power Automate?

Microsoft Power Automate is a low-code, no-code drag-and-drop application that allows users to build workflows that automate routine tasks and business processes.

The app is accessible on mobile, desktop, and Microsoft Teams, and as an app for browsers.

Users can get started quickly using the templates and connectors that come with the box, that can be modified according to the requirements.

Templates can be used to notify recipients copies of files, moving attachments to emails to OneDrive and approvals.

The use instances that can be used with Power Automate are varied, including the onboarding of new employees to document approval, gathering feedback from customers and managing help ticket tickets.

Power Automate comes with more than 300 connectors that let users access and access data through the help of pre-designed action and triggers.

Contrary to SharePoint Designer Power Automate works with applications that are not Microsoft-based, like Google Drive, Dropbox, Twitter and many other.

For IT departments IT teams, the possibility of adding automation to older systems without having to replace or reconfigure the systems is an enormous advantage.

Based on the security of your Azure Active Directory, Power Automate is extremely secure and simple to audit.

In addition, automation is replacing processes that are paper-based, thereby increasing the protection of your data.

The pricing of Power Automate starts at $15 per month for each user and is unlimited in active flow.

Power Automate includes robotic process automation (RPA) and Process Advisor.
Robotic Process Automation

This feature, included in Power Automate Desktop This feature lets users build workflows on a large scale – with no programming.

With a point-and click interface, users can take notes of their mouse movements and keyboard strokes during the course of performing an activity. The RPA system converts this data to an automatic workflow, such as recording data for a weekly summary.

Users can improve flows by using built-in actions and connectors and also add exception handling to verify the flow on a regular basis.

Looking for a Power Automate guide? Visit our website for more details.

Users can design two kinds of workflows:

Attended RPA that runs whenever the user logs in. It is perfect for tasks which require human interaction such as the approval process for the request for a vacation.
Unattended RPA is run even if the user isn’t registered. A trigger that is specified starts the process.

Process Advisor

Process Advisor, a new enhancement to Power Automate, is a tool for mining processes that offers insight into the way people are working. Process Advisor maps workflows, uncovers bottlenecks and tasks that could be automated.

The tool can determine the apps your team is using frequently , and then automate certain tasks, such as transfer of data from one application to another.

Process advisor makes it easy for teams to collaborate with administrators or business analysts to improve their processes.

What is Power? How does it Automate Function?

Power Automate workflows, also known as flows, are built around events and triggers.

The trigger triggers the process, such as getting an email from an important project stakeholder.
An action occurs after the flow has been triggered. This could include establishing the task after an email that is marked as important is received. A flow may contain several actions.

There are five major kinds of Power Automate flows, categorized as desktop, cloud or business process flow.

Cloud flows are:

Automated, the flow is that is triggered by an event. such as sending an email when a particular item on the SharePoint list changes.
Instant flows let users manually trigger a flow using the desktop or mobile application by pressing an icon. For instance, you can easily send an email reminder to your team members prior to an event.
Scheduled, that runs at specific times.

Desktop flows can be designed to automate the tasks you perform via the internet or on your desktop using Power Automate Desktop.

Business Process flow is built around a sequence of actions that aid people to complete their tasks more efficiently and with less mistakes.

There are three options to start the flow:

Begin from scratch using any of the processes mentioned above.
Make use of an established template.
Choose an appropriate connector.

How to make an Power Automate Flow

In this case we’ll use an example to create an email in Microsoft Teams when a new item is added to the Planner.

To begin using Power Automate, log in to Microsoft 365, and use the app launcher to start the app.

From the homepage From the homepage, you can:

Start your project quickly by using templates.
Check available connectors.
Make sure you are managing your flows.
Create the new flow.

Find ‘Planner’ and locate the template.

It is possible that you require logging into Microsoft Teams and Planner.

Here, you can enter important details like details like the Plan ID, Team, and Channel.

Click Save. Now you’ve got yourself a an easy flow that will improve the communication between teams.

There are several methods to verify the flow of the process, including the Flow Checker as well as Test.

Any time you can view the status of any flow by going to My Flows.

In this particular area it’s not difficult to:

Edit each flow
The team member can share the flow with the team member
Review the history of the flow.

How to Use Power Automate Workflows to help with Project Management

Project management is comprised of a variety of tasks management processes as well as team communication, reporting on projects changes, approvals and change requests etc.

While these daily procedures are vital to ensure that projects run efficiently, they can be very time-consuming for project team members and managers alike. Software for business process workflow is able to streamline and automate a lot of these procedures so that team members can focus on their work while project leaders can ensure that projects are on the right course instead of trying to keep track of updates.

Microsoft Power Automate is a great tool to enhance project workflows since it works with many of the additional Microsoft 365 tools that you’re already using in your day-to-day task management.

Five processes for managing projects which Microsoft Power Automate can help to set up

Approvals

to manage approvals from the stakeholders of request for project approvals, permission requests documents, budgets, etc. throughout the duration of the project. Power Automate helps you set the approval procedures to make it easier for the project to move forward without communication issues or obstructions.

Document management

One of the most difficult aspects when working on large teams of project managers is keeping all the documents for the project all in one place, with simple access to every team member. It can be difficult to record and track every change made to the documents. This problem gets more difficult when working with teams that are remote. Power Automate project templates help you to consolidate the document storage for your project which allows you to easily keep track of changes and documents.

Sharing and creation of reports

Project managers are aware of the significance in business intelligence, and the ways it can help improve the business outcome. As a project manager you will require tools that transform data from different sources into reports that are able to track the development in your work. Power BI helps you do this and also make data-driven business decision-making.

Communication and workflows

Microsoft Power Automate is available as an app within Microsoft Teams. While on MS Team, you can effortlessly build and manage workflows without switching between different apps. It is also possible to communicate via channels with your team members on projects.

Control of productivity

There are templates available under the heading ‘Productivity’, “Notifications as well as Calendar’ in order to manage your tasks for projects and keep track of deadlines. An enormous amount of work can often overwhelm the best of managers, and can result in a decrease in efficiency. These templates can aid you in setting the correct sequence or priority to your project obligations and inform your team members when they need to be.