But what is BPA? Let’s keep it easy to understand. 

Business Process Automation (BPA) uses technology to handle repetitive, manual tasks automatically. 

With Microsoft 365, tools like Power Automate, SharePoint, and Power Apps help you make smooth workflows. No more manual work. No more chasing approvals. BPA runs everything in the background. 

For example, with Power Automate, you can create workflows that send approval requests or update data in Teams or Outlook—automatically. This means fewer mistakes, faster work, and more time for the things that matter to you. 

Why Do you need Business Process Automation?

Think about your day. So much time spent on paperwork, approvals, and entering data. It’s tiring, right? Now, imagine if all of that happened automatically. You’d have more time to focus on growing your business. 

That’s what BPA does. It automates the boring, repetitive tasks so you can focus on bigger things. Your workflows get faster, your team is less stressed, and your business is ready to grow. 

And here’s the best part: You don’t need to be a tech expert. It’s easy to set up with tools you already use in Microsoft 365. And with Beyond Intranet, it’s even simpler. 

Capture Data Like a Pro 

You use data every day. But how do you get that data? That matters. 

With Microsoft 365, no need for paper forms or long emails. You have Power Apps. These tools help you easily build forms that work on phones, tablets—anything you need. 

Imagine your team, out there, entering data straight into a form on their phone. No paper. No mistakes. Just clean data, going straight into your system. 

And what’s better? Beyond Intranet helps you build these forms. Simple or complex, we walk you through it, step by step. 

Make Business Logic Work for You 

Collecting data is just part of it. What comes after? That’s the real game. 

For example, you collect a measurement, but it needs rounding to feet, not inches. Or you report a problem, and different managers need alerts, depending on what time it happens. That’s business logic. 

With Power Apps, you add this logic right into your forms. It’s not just about getting data—it’s about making sure the next steps happen smoothly. The form guides users, showing different options based on their answers. 

It’s like a quiet helper, keeping everything on track. And with Beyond Intranet, we make sure your logic is spot-on, no matter how tricky your process is. 

Power Up Your Workflows 

So, you’ve got the data. You’ve applied the logic. Now what? 

Power Automate. This is where the magic happens. It’s like the brain of your automation. It moves your data, makes sure everything gets where it needs to go, and you don’t have to lift a finger. 

You want to save data in SharePoint? Easy. Need to send out approvals or reminders? Simple. Want to create documents automatically? Done. 

And guess what? Beyond Intranet can help you make these workflows smart. We’ll show you how to trigger actions, assign tasks, and make sure everything ends up where it belongs—inside Microsoft 365 or even outside of it. 

Store Data Securely and Smartly 

Now, where does all that data go? 

You need it stored somewhere safe, but also somewhere you can get it anytime you need. 

With Microsoft 365, you’ve got SharePoint and OneDrive. These aren’t just places to dump files. They keep your data safe and make sure you can get to it whenever you need. Whether it’s a SharePoint list, a OneDrive folder, or something more complex like Dataverse, your data is secure and ready to go. 

Need something bigger? Azure and SQL Server have your back. They grow as your business grows. 

And here’s where Beyond Intranet helps even more. We’ll set up your storage, making sure it’s not just safe, but easy to find and use. You’ll always know where things are and how to access them—no stress. 

Stay in the Loop with Notifications and Tasks 

Automation doesn’t mean you’re out of the loop. Actually, it’s the opposite. You’re always in the know. 

With Power Automate, you can get notifications and tasks set up based on the data you’ve captured. Whether it’s a simple review or something more detailed, your team will always know what to do and when. 

No more missing deadlines. No more chasing people. Just smooth workflows that keep everyone on track and informed. 

And yes, Beyond Intranet makes sure your notifications are on time, tasks are clear, and everything runs like clockwork. It’s all about keeping things moving—without you having to do all the work. 

See the Big Picture with Dashboards 

You’ve got the data. You’ve automated everything. But how do you keep track of it all? 

That’s where dashboards come in. With Microsoft 365, you can create simple views in SharePoint or go deeper with Power BI. These dashboards aren’t just for show—they’re like your control panel. 

Imagine logging in and seeing everything: what’s done, what needs attention, and where things are stuck. You can catch problems early, track progress, and make smart decisions—all from one screen. 

And don’t worry. Beyond Intranet can help you build these dashboards. We’ll make sure you get clear views, whether you need a quick snapshot or a detailed breakdown. You’ll see the big picture, clearly. 

Why Beyond Intranet? 

You’ve seen what BPA can do. But why should you trust Beyond Intranet with your Microsoft 365 system? 

It’s simple. We know this space inside out. We’re experts in Microsoft 365, and we understand how to shape BPA to fit what your business needs. Whether you want to fix one small process or completely change the way you run things, we’re here for you. 

We don’t automate just for the sake of it. We take time to learn about your business, look at where you’re struggling, and build solutions that actually work. We’re not just a service provider—we’re a partner in helping you succeed. 

Get Started Today 

Ready to make the jump? Want to see your business change with BPA in Microsoft 365? 

Let’s talk. Beyond Intranet is here to guide you, step by step. From the first meeting to full setup, we’ll help you get the most from BPA and Microsoft 365. 

Book Your Discovery Session Now 

Don’t wait. Your journey to a smoother, more productive business starts right now. Click below to set up your Microsoft 365 Discovery Session with Beyond Intranet. Let’s see what BPA can do for you! 

We don’t just offer solutions—we offer peace of mind. We make things simpler, less stressful, and possible. Ready to see what Business Process Automation Services can do for you? Let’s make it happen. 

You’ve got a company to run. You’ve got people to manage. But every day, your team wastes hours on mind-numbing tasks. Data entry. Invoice processing. Email sorting. All those tiny things that add up. 

What if you could eliminate those tasks a What if your team could focus on the work that actually matters? 

That’s where Robotic Process Automation (RPA) comes in. 

And when you pair RPA with Microsoft 365, you get the ultimate combo to supercharge your business. 

Let’s dive in. 

What is RPA, Anyway? 

Think of RPA as an army of invisible bots. They work quietly in the background, handling repetitive tasks that your team has to do every day. But unlike humans, bots don’t get tired, bored, or make mistakes. They just work. 24/7. 

You can teach these bots to: 

• Sort emails 

• Enter data into spreadsheets 

• Process invoices 

• Manage customer communications 

And a whole lot more. And why should you care? 

Because RPA can free up to 80% of your team’s time. No more grunt work. Just pure productivity. 

How Does RPA Fit into Microsoft 365? 

You already use Microsoft 365. You live in Outlook, Excel, SharePoint, and more. 

Imagine if all those apps could talk to each other, without you lifting a finger. 

RPA in Microsoft 365 connects the dots. Bots seamlessly automate tasks inside the apps you already know and love. 

Real-World Benefits: Faster, Cheaper, Smarter 

Let’s talk numbers. 

• Speed: RPA can reduce task time by 50-70%. That email you spent 2 hours sorting? A bot can do it in minutes. 

• Cost: Companies see 30-200% ROI in just a year. Less manual work means less labor cost. 

• Scalability: Need more hands on deck? Add more bots. They don’t need breaks or vacations. 

Microsoft-Specific Automation: Why It’s a Game-Changer 

RPA + Microsoft 365 = magic. 

Here’s how RPA makes your favorite Microsoft tools even better: 

• Outlook: Sorts emails, auto-responds, and extracts important details. 

• Excel: Automates data entry, analysis, and processing. No more formula mistakes. 

• SharePoint: Automatically organizes and manages documents. 

• Power Automate: Builds workflows to connect all your apps without any coding. 

• Azure: RPA integrates with Azure to streamline operations and manage resources. 

Now your Microsoft environment isn’t just a bunch of tools, it’s a well-oiled machine. 

Imagine This: A Day Without Manual Tasks 

Picture this: Every morning, your inbox is already sorted. The priority emails are flagged, and the rest are filed away. 

Your invoicing system? Fully automated. Your Excel sheets? Updated, error-free, and ready for analysis. 

No more back-and-forth between apps. No more copy-pasting. Just the important stuff—done. 

That’s what RPA in Microsoft does for you. 

Why You Can’t Do This Alone 

You might be thinking, “That sounds great! But I don’t know how to set it up.” 

That’s where Beyond Intranet comes in. 

We’re not just RPA specialists. We’re Microsoft experts. Our team knows Power Automate, Power Apps, and Azure inside and out. We know how to make RPA work seamlessly within your existing Microsoft setup. 

What We Do: End-to-End RPA Services 

Here’s what you get when you partner with us: 

• Consultation: We analyze your current processes and find the best automation opportunities. 

• Development: We build custom bots tailored to your business needs. 

• Integration: We connect your bots to your Microsoft apps and other systems. 

• Training: We teach your team how to manage and tweak the bots. 

• Support: We’re here to help if anything goes wrong, and to improve the bots over time. 

Why RPA Will Make You a Winner 

Think about it. 

• Productivity skyrockets: Your team focuses on high-value work, not boring admin tasks. 

• Costs plummet: You save on labor costs and reduce errors. 

• Growth becomes easy: You scale operations without expanding your headcount. 

And all this happens without disrupting your current Microsoft environment. It’s like adding a turbocharger to a car you’re already driving. 

Common Challenges (And How We Solve Them) 

RPA sounds amazing, doesn’t it? But here’s the thing: doing it wrong can be a disaster. 

Here’s what can go wrong: 

• Bad process selection: Automating the wrong tasks won’t give you the results you want. 

• Technical issues: Integrating RPA with complex legacy systems can be tricky. 

• Change resistance: Your team might resist using bots if they don’t understand the benefits. 

• Governance: Without the right controls, bots can go haywire. 

But don’t worry. Beyond Intranet has been through this before. We know how to avoid these pitfalls. 

Real Success Stories: RPA in Action 

Don’t just take our word for it. Here’s how RPA has transformed other businesses: 

Banking Automation: 60% Faster Processing 

A European bank struggled with manual trade finance processes. We deployed bots to extract trade documents, enter data, and reconcile records. 

Results: 

• 60% faster processing 

• 30% productivity boost 

• 15% cost savings 

Pharma Research: 80% Faster Insights 

A pharmaceutical company spent weeks sifting through research data. We automated the process using bots with natural language processing (NLP). 

Results: 

• 80% faster research 

• New discoveries that would’ve been missed 

• Improved scientist productivity 

HR Onboarding: 90% Faster 

A healthcare company battled a slow, manual onboarding process. We automated everything: HRMS, IT systems, payroll, and more. 

Results: 

• 90% faster onboarding 

• 100% process consistency 

• Better compliance and employee experience 

How to Start Your RPA Journey 

You’re probably thinking, “How do I get started?” 

It’s easy. 

• Book a free consultation with Beyond Intranet. 

• We’ll assess your current workflows. 

• We’ll identify the best processes to automate. 

• You’ll get a roadmap to implement RPA—seamlessly integrated with your Microsoft environment. 

When Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, made this bold prediction, he was referring to the game-changing potential of Microsoft’s newest offering – Copilot. 

An AI-powered productivity assistant, Copilot promises to simplify workflow automation for Microsoft Power Platform users drastically. But is the hype justified? 

In this guide, we’ll take an in-depth look at how Microsoft Copilot works, its core capabilities, real-world use cases, and step-by-step instructions to integrate Copilot with Power Automate to unlock transformative levels of automation. 

So buckle up for a sneak peek into the future of work – one where AI removes roadblocks, unburdens employees, and powers next-level productivity! 

Understanding Copilot in Power Automate: Your AI-Powered Automation Sidekick 

The necessity for workflow automation has reached unprecedented levels today. Companies are handling increasingly complex business processes spanning hundreds of apps and data sources. 

Manual management of these workflows inflicts a massive toll on productivity and bottom lines. Research pegs the loss of productivity due to poor workflow automation at a whopping 20-30%! 

This is where Microsoft Copilot comes into the picture. 

In simple terms, Copilot acts like a digital assistant specially designed to make automation more accessible. It lets you automate complex multi-step workflows across different platforms with ease. 

Here are some of the ways Copilot simplifies workflow automation: 

• Contextual Recommendations: Copilot analyzes your automation scenario and gives intelligent recommendations for the next best steps tailored to your unique requirements. This allows even automation beginners to build advanced flows faster.
• Auto Completion of Tasks: Copilot can automatically fill in configurations, expressions, and other tedious parameters needed to set up workflows. This saves tons of time and spares you manual grunt work.
• Error Reduction: By suggesting proven best practices for automation, Copilot ensures your workflows follow optimal logic with minimal errors.
• Real-Time Feedback: As you build workflows, Copilot provides continuous feedback when it detects issues. This allows you to rectify problems on the fly rather than after rollout.
• Adaptability: Copilot continually learns from your usage patterns and customizes its recommendations. The more you use it, the more attuned Copilot becomes to your needs.

With Copilot enhancing Power Automate, Microsoft has made a pivotal move to inject AI directly into its automation platform rather than offer it as an appendage. 

This tight integration gives users direct access to the problem-solving prowess of AI right within Power Automate as they work. 

But enough theory. Let’s look at how Copilot manifests in real life and the tangible value it offers end users of Power Automate. 

Copilot in Action: Practical Examples of Automation Magic 

To truly grasp the benefits of Copilot, it’s best to walk through some examples of it in action: 

Streamlining Customer Onboarding with Copilot 

Maya works at a software company handling customer onboarding. Each time a new customer signs up, she needs to execute a long sequence of tasks across multiple systems. 

• Enter customer details into Sales CRM software 

• Create accounts in payment and deployment platforms 

• Send welcome email with login credentials and how-to guides 

• Schedule initial onboarding call and add it to shared calendars 

• Generate license agreement and save it to customer’s SharePoint document library 

Earlier, Maya had to perform each step manually which took almost 30-45 minutes per customer. But now with Copilot, the entire sequence is automated with just 5-6 clicks! 

As Maya activates the customer onboarding flow in Power Automate, Copilot scans the input trigger (new Sales order) and her usage history. It automatically recommends relevant actions like: 

• Create new account in Stripe (payment platform) 

• Send email from Outlook template 

• Add event to Office 365 Group Calendar 

• Generate agreement docs with customer details 

Copilot pre-fills all the configurations needed to set up these steps correctly. For example, the document generation action already knows which template to pull from SharePoint and where to save the output agreement. 

With Cortana anticipating every requirement, Maya creates an end-to-end automated workflow spanning multiple Microsoft 365 apps in under 10 minutes. 

The result? 

• Onboarding time reduced from 30-45 min to 2-3 min 

• Number of manual steps cut down from 12 to ZERO 

• Human effort needed lowered by 95% 

• Risk of errors eliminated with automated handovers 

As you can see, Copilot has helped compress a lengthy and complicated cross-application process into a simplified one-click flow. The time and effort savings are massive here! 

Other Common Copilot Automation Examples: 

• Parse support tickets from multiple sources and auto-populate helpdesk system 

• Extract data from documents and populate backend databases 

• Automate lead distribution to sales reps based on geography and workload 

• Build multi-level approval workflows across teams and applications 

• Sync inventory, orders, shipments across ecommerce apps 

• Compile daily reports by pulling data from multiple productivity tools 

As these examples demonstrate, Copilot opens up a world of possibilities when integrated with Power Automate. Almost any workflow that requires piecing together actions across diverse systems can be automated efficiently using this combo. 

Setting Up Copilot: How To Get Started 

Now that you’ve seen Copilot’s capabilities in action, let’s get into the specifics of setting it up within your Power Automate account. 

While individual steps might vary slightly across organizations, this framework covers the key steps for enabling Copilot: 

Step 1: Ensure Your Office 365 Tenant Meets the Prerequisites 

Like most Microsoft offerings, Copilot builds on top of Azure – Microsoft’s cloud platform. So the first requirement is an Office 365 or Microsoft 365 license that provides access to Azure AD and other backend services. 

Most commercial licenses like Microsoft 365 Business Standard, E3, and E5 should work here. You can verify exact prerequisites for your plan using the Microsoft Docs links in the References section. 

Apart from license validation, also ensure Copilot is activated across your organization by admins. 

If you face access issues during setup, consult your IT team and SharePoint admins to enable Copilot globally. 

Step 2: Install the Power Automate Desktop App 

The next step is to install Power Automate Desktop on your windows machine. This thick client app provides the user interface to configure Copilot. 

• Download Power Automate Desktop from Microsoft AppSource 

• Install and activate the app using your Office 365 global admin or automation admin credentials 

Once installed, Power Automate Desktop allows you to manage cloud flows and also build robotic process automation (RPA) scripts for desktop scenarios. 

Step 3: Initiate a Flow and Access the Copilot Pane 

Open Power Automate Desktop app and initiate creation of a new cloud flow using the left pane options. This is where you will integrate Copilot. 

As soon as you activate flow creation, you will notice a chat-like Copilot Window next to the central canvas. 

This is where Copilot will offer recommendations as you build flows. You can also expand or collapse this pane anytime. 

Step 4: Add a Trigger for Your Workflow 

Click on the central canvas and select a trigger for your flow. 

For example, choose “When an email arrives” trigger if you want to automate an action upon receiving emails. 

Once you define a trigger, Copilot scans the context and provides a set of suggested follow-up actions. 

Step 5: Review and Add Copilot’s Suggested Actions 

In our example, Copilot may suggest common email automation actions like: 

• Send approval email 

• Add flag 

• Move email to folder 

Review these actions and choose the relevant ones for your use case. Selected actions get added directly to the visual workflow builder minimizing manual configurations. 

You can overwrite any predefined configurations using the action properties pane if needed. 

Step 6: Connect to Data Sources 

In case your flow needs to interact with external services and data sources, Copilot can auto-generate suitable connectors. 

For instance, if you wish to extract details from emails and populate a database, choose DB connectors like SQL Server or SharePoint Lists: 

• As soon as you select a DB service, Copilot will recommend relevant operations like INSERT, UPDATE, SELECT etc. automatically configured with table/list details. 

• You no longer need to manually look up table names or column labels. 

• Simply plug Copilot’s suggested DB actions into your workflow to enable data interchange across apps. 

Step 7: Handle Logic and Conditions 

When you have multiple branched logic or conditions in your workflow, Copilot comes handy to construct the formulas flawlessly. 

For example, assumptions you have an approval flow where email text needs to be reviewed for certain keywords using an IF condition. 

• Add a condition box in the relevant stage of automation 

• Copilot will predict you need to extract email body text and scan for keywords 

• It will auto-complete the condition check precisely with placeholders for keywords 

• Simply add the terms you want to detect without worrying about syntax issues 

This way Copilot tackles the most complex aspects of building flows without you needing prior programming skills. 

Step 8: Configure and Test Flow 

Once your Power Automate flow with Copilot recommendations is ready, finalize configurations using action properties and custom editors. 

Next, test the end-to-end flow with sample data to ensure accurate functioning. Copilot’s validation during build process reduces chances of runtime errors. 

Over time, continue adding new triggers, actions, and conditions with Copilot’s assistance to enhance process coverage. 

Remember, you can always revert unwanted suggestions or delete any unstable components recommended by the assistant during experimentation. 

That concludes a step-by-step overview of initializing and using Copilot for Power Automate. While the instructions might seem lengthy, the actual usage is designed to be seamless. 

In practice, Copilot feels like having an automation expert whispering essential tips into your ears as you model workflows! 

Unleashing the Power of AI-Driven Business Process Automation 

The ingredient that makes Microsoft Copilot so special is how it democratizes access to AI for building automation flows. Tasks that previously required advanced technical skills can now be completed by citizen automators from business roles. 

Let’s recap the tangible ways organizations and automation architects can benefit by embracing Copilot in Power Automate: 

• Accelerate Digital Transformation Projects 

Lack of internal skills and IT dependency have long hindered process modernization initiatives. With a smart sidekick like Copilot, you overcome these bottlenecks through self-service automation. 

• Enable Citizen-Led Innovation 

Domain experts in the business can now prototype and build solutions tailored to their requirements without mandatory engineering support. The productivity possibilities are endless! 

• Sustain Long-Term Consistency 

Even when key automation architects switch jobs, the continuity of solutions is ensured as Copilot’s recommendations remain consistent across users and teams. 

• Make Institutional Knowledge More Accessible 

Often the patterns and templates saved by former automation experts become inaccessible once they exit organizations. With Copilot codifying these best practices, team changes don’t result in know-how loss. 

• Reduce Automation Technical Debt 

AI assistance during modeling phases results in cleaner and more maintainable solutions with lower technical debt. This saves costs and effort on downstream lifecycle management of flows. 

By empowering general business users to create reliable automation unaided, Copilot solves two critical problems – employee bandwidth limitations and loss of expertise – in one shot! 

Is Your Organization Ready to Take a ‘Copilot’ to the Future? 

The automation innovation sparked by Microsoft Copilot makes one thing clear – AI-assisted development is no more just a novelty but the way forward for modern digital organizations. 

However, the shiny new potential still begs some questions: 

• How can we foster user adoption of Copilot-enabled Power Automate in employees unfamiliar with automation concepts? 

• What level of initial handholding would business users need to capitalize on Copilot’s potential especially those without prior programming experience? 

• How can we implement necessary guardrails and governance protocols given the democratization of automation capabilities? 

• Does AI-generated flows require extra validation before deploying workflows in live environments? 

As promising as Copilot appears, actualizing and scaling the benefits demands significant enablement initiatives, especially within business technology teams of large enterprises. This necessitates: 

• Conducting extensive training programs and boot camps for business users to develop comfort with Copilot 

• Building reusable template catalogs for common automation scenarios 

• Developing centers of excellence around AI-assisted automation 

• Formulating enterprise policies, standards, and best practices for Power Platform usage. 

The clarity emerging from examples like Tesla, Netflix, and Uber is that proactive laying of groundwork accelerates the activation of new-age paradigms. 

The time is now right for forward-looking organizations to make a wholehearted commitment so employees across all levels can thrive in tomorrow’s AI-first automation era! 

The bottom line – Microsoft Copilot in Power Automate makes the accretion of automation skills easier than ever. The real test lies in our appetite as enterprises to seize the moment and effect an organization-wide transformation that reshapes the future of work! 

It is said, “To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often.” How soon will your company change gears and ride the Copilot wave to push the boundaries of Intelligent Process Automation? The odds for success look brighter than ever! 

Businesses are always swamped with work. But workflow automation can help your business save time by reducing or eliminating the time you spend on repetitive tasks. This means employees spend more time on their essential tasks while completing daily work faster. However, workflow automation is generally perceived as automating only single-step repetitive processes. But, today’s businesses want to automate multi-step, cross-departmental operations that can benefit the entire company. Business process automation solutions come in handy for this requirement. These solutions automate workflows saving users valuable time by removing Businesses from time-consuming, error-prone manual and repetitive tasks. 

One of the best solutions out there is Power Automate.  Microsoft Power Automate is a key technology within the Power Platform family that also assists in building rapid applications using PowerApps.  

Power Automate is a service that helps businesses automate the process or task for various apps and services with ease. Using Power Automate, you can collect data from different data sources and send data to store in the database, send email notifications to internal and external users, synchronize files, and more. Following are a few examples of what we can do with Power Automate. 

1. Automate the business processes and workflow
2. Send automatic email notifications or reminders email for pending tasks.
3. Connect with multiple data sources and can move data between different systems.
4. Schedule the flow to execute on a specific time-frequency.
5. Connect with 500+ connectors or any publicly available API
6. Automate tasks on your local computer, like computing data in Excel.

How Power Automate Benefits Your Business to Automate Workflows

Being a no-code/low-code platform, anyone with basic business flow understanding or an IT professional can create a Power Automate workflow. No core programming skill is required to develop a workflow in Power Automate. The development and deployment of Power Automate are speedy. Since Microsoft Power Automate is a cloud-based service, users can create Power Automate easily on the cloud and publish it. The flow publishing process is straightforward and fast, saving lots of time. Also, you don’t need to install any tool for its development. You can open it on any browser and have a ready development environment. Different types of industries are benefiting from Power Automate. For example, Manufacturing, Insurance, Healthcare, Banking, Retail, etc. 

Let us look at an  Insurance Case Study to understand how Power Automate helps automate workflows even complex tasks without breaking a sweat.   

We helped a SaaS company that works towards developing software solutions for Insurance companies. Their innovative Commercial Insurance Risk Intelligence (CIRI) software converts documents into intuitive and informative dashboards, giving risk executives all the required information, they need to be productive and effective. 

The client’s tracking and prioritization of the processes related to each of the received documents were improved by Beyond Intranet. To automatically push the documents received at Shared Mail Boxes and Client New Work to the Document Centre, we created Power Automate flows across the processes inside these document libraries. The flows also made it possible to track different stages of the papers inside the Document Center, update their metadata, and notify the user. 

Result? 

The legal team could add clients, create contracts, submit/assign contracts to the project team, approve/reject the contract, and send contract documents to the client for digital signature. After receiving the signed contracts, they also marked the contracts as finalized.  

For better adaptability to dynamic environments, Power Automate today is categorized into 3 types. 

Types of Power Automate flows 

     1.Cloud flows

     2. Desktop flows

    3. Business Process flows

1. Cloud flows:  You can use cloud flow when you want to trigger the flow automatically, instantly, or via a schedule. Cloud flow too is categorized into three essential types.

a. Automated Workflows: Automated flows trigger automatically when an event performs. For instance, when an item is added/modified in a list or when an email arrives from a specific person etc.

b. Instant flows: Instant flow starts the automation on a button click. You can automate repetitive manual tasks from your Desktop or Mobile devices. For example, if you want to send an email to a team/user instantly, all you have to do is click on the button. You can perform multiple tasks using instant flow like sending an email, requesting approval from Teams or SharePoint, etc.

 2. Scheduled flows: Scheduled flow helps schedule automation. For example, sending email notifications at a specific time, updating data in the database, etc.

3. Desktop flows: Desktop flow automates the task on the Web or the desktop. There are two legacy methods of creating desktop flows: 

Windows recorder (V1)

Selenium IDE

Business process flows: Business process flows assist in streamlining complex business processes. It can streamline a business for simplicity, increase service quality, improve service delivery, or contain costs. One of the emerging fields within Business process Automate is Robotic process automation.

Steps for creating your first flow 

To create Power Automate Workflows, you can use the steps below. 

1. Open the browser and access the URL https://flow.microsoft.com/, you will get the login screen. Here you can sign in with your O365 account. After successful login, you will see the below screen. 

1. Click on Create Link. 

Here you can see different types of flows. As per your requirement, you can select and create the flow. 

You can also create flow using a predefined template. 

    2. In our example, we take Automated cloud flow and click on Automated cloud flow. 

  3. After clicking on Automated cloud flow, you will get a popup to enter your flow name and choose your flow trigger. 

For example, we enter the flow name as Send Notification on item creation and select the trigger when an item is created. For example, now we can click on Create button. 

Below is the image for reference. 

    4. After clicking on create button, the user will be redirected to the Power Automate development screen, and here user needs to enter the site URL and list name on which we need to set the flow trigger. 

5. When we click on the Site Address dropdown, we will see all the sites URL where you have permission. We can select the site URL here, and then in the List Name dropdown, we can choose the list name where we have to associate this flow. 

To add a new step in the flow, we can click on the New step button, and after this, we will get the option to add the Actions we want.  

6. In our example, we wanted to send an email when a new item was created in the CandidateDetails list. Now we can search the Send an email in the search box and we can get related actions in the below action tab. Here we can click on Send an email action to add this to the flow. 

7. Now you will see the Email Action and here we need to add an email address in the To field. This email user will receive an email notification when an item is added. Also, need to add the Subject and Body text here. 

After adding the detail this can look like the below. 

Now we can click on the Save button to save this flow. 

After Save, if the user adds a new record in the CandidateDetails list, the flow will trigger, and an email will be sent to the user like below. 

To summarize, here Are the Advantages of Power Automate 

• Excellent tool for Citizen Developers 
• Easy for Beginners 
• 500+ Connectors are available to connect with different sources 
• Affordable and easy way to set up automation in a Microsoft environment 
• Microsoft Power Automate streamlines your work processes 
• Availability of RPA in Power Automate 
• Saves time at a great cost point 
• Has Huge Potential for complex process 
• Requires less code to create Power Automate

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion  

In the above example, we saw how easy it is to create a Power Automate flow. We can manage complex business processes easily with the help of Power Automate. Workflow automation not only speeds up operations and reduces labor expenses, but also improves customer satisfaction and gives you additional options to scale and accuracy. You receive faster approval procedures and auto-validation of data with Power Automate workflow automation, which ultimately reduces bottlenecks in the pipeline and improves workflow efficiency. To learn more about our Power Automate consulting services.

Looking to make your processes more efficient? Make an appointment with us for a demo. 

About Author

Taha Siddiqui

Taha Siddiqui writes and plans technical and engaging content for Beyond Intranet as a senior content developer. He holds an engineering degree from Mumbai University and brings 6+ years of professional experience to his work. Over the last three years he has been central to Beyond Intranet’s Microsoft 365 content efforts, focusing on SharePoint, Power Platform and Copilot.