Diamond IT Blog

6 ways Microsoft Power Automate will transform your workplace

Written by Samantha Cordell | October 15, 2020

Do you have Microsoft 365 and not yet used Microsoft Power Automate?

Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow)  is one of the many features added to the Microsoft Office 365 suite in the last few years that is not as well known as the traditional desktop stalwarts such as Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.

If you've not yet tried Power Automate, we recommend you do - it's an automation application that connects existing Microsoft and 3rd Party applications through simple actions using "Connectors".

6 ways Microsoft Power Automate can transform your workplace

1. Time management/savings

Power Automate can assist with onboarding and offboarding approval tasks through IT, Payroll and logistics departments.

2. Staying informed

You can get immediate, delayed or journalised notifications via triggered events. These can be email, desktop notifications, SMS's or social media messages.

3. Little life improvements

Receive notifications if it's going to rain on the weekend, so you can plan a visit to the beach, shopping mall or mowing the lawn. Keep up to date with the stock market or your favourite sports team.

4. Data management

Ensure records in your databases are updated automatically from trigger events, or have files saved or created automatically when workflows are triggered.

5. Social Media management

Power Automate allows you to respond automatically to messages, or trigger responses depending on sentiment analysis of the content.

6. Cross-platform integrations

Power Automate allows for coordination for organisations running competing platforms such as Google Docs and Office365.

 

More about Microsoft Power Automate...

Power Automate is one of those applications where its uses are (almost) only limited by your imagination. The only caveat is if the application you're seeking to integrate is supported by one of the current 275 connectors available. More connectors are being added regularly, so if your favourite application doesn't have a connector yet, it may soon - or if you are feeling adventurous Power Automate also supports custom connectors you can write yourself.

A cloud-based application that provides process automation and connects multiple applications, Power Automate can do either or both of these things as part of the same task. For example, an email sent to a mailbox can trigger a workflow that will update a Microsoft Dynamics 365 database (and hence any integrated dashboards and reports), and at the same time add an entry in MS teams to record the change event.

 

Power Automate's Connectors bring it all together

Connectors are the plumbing you use to link your productivity applications and tools to and through Power Automate. Some examples of popular applications with connectors include:

  • Microsoft Teams: Along with its competitor "Slack", "Teams" is a team collaboration tool that includes VoIP, chat, discussion channels similar to social media, file storage and more.
  • Wunderlist: An independent to-do list and job tracker now owned by Microsoft
  • OneDrive: OneDrive (and OneDrive for Business) is a popular cloud-storage app and a competitor for Dropbox and Google Drive. All of these applications have Power Automate connectors available.

Power Automate can transform your organisation

Whether you need our assistance to use Power Automate to automate your existing systems or need it as part of a broader system, our Software Development team is ready to assist you in getting the most out of using Microsoft Power Automate to give your organisation a competitive edge, call us today on 1300 307 907 or contact us via the form below.