Benefits and Uses of Power Automate

Advantages of Automation in Business

Within a business, there are many processes that can be automated to allow better allocation of resources and increase productivity across teams. In particular, tasks that are repetitive and time-consuming can be reviewed, to understand if there is an opportunity to save time, and money and decrease the risk of human error, through automation.

It is thought that 60% of occupations could save 30% of their time with automation, just by automating simple tasks such as:

• Employee onboarding
• Contract management
• Approvals
• Document management
• Invoicing

Leveraging software, such as Microsoft Power Automate, can help you get the most out of your resources. We have pulled together our top processes you should automate using Power Automate that can help your business increase efficiency and drive productivity.

What are the benefits of Power Automate?

1. Streamline everyday tasks

Think about how many emails you receive on a daily basis. Now imagine getting a message when a high-priority email is received. With Power Automate, a template can be enabled for users to receive exactly that, ensuring an important email is never missed again. 

2. Improve workforce productivity

Power Automate helps your business save time, improve productivity and ultimately work much more effectively. By automating repetitive tasks that take up time within the day, employees can work smarter and improve overall business performance. 

For instance, Power Automate can help keep projects on track through streamlining approvals, communications, document management and much more.

3. Automate tasks across business systems

Power Automate connects and automates tasks across hundreds of apps, both within the Microsoft eco-system and external sources. Popular connectors include SharePoint, Power BI, Word, Outlook, Teams, Planner, Asana, Mailchimp, Twitter, Adobe Sign, DocuSign, Google Drive, Eventbrite, FreshBooks and Trello. 

4. Increase employee satisfaction and reduce human error

Automating time-consuming, repetitive tasks enables employees to focus on the things that really matter and require more attention. As a result, this can lead to higher job satisfaction and increased feelings of accomplishment. Additionally, automation reduces the risk of human error, so you can feel confident that tasks are carried out to the highest standard. 

5. Save time with decision making

By automating processes, such as approval workflows to respond to time off requests, document approvals, sales opportunities, etc, you are able to save time with decision-making. 

6. Use predefined templates to create a flow

Although there is an option to build a flow from scratch, Power Automate boasts an extensive library of predefined templates. These flows all fall into one of the three types of flows in Microsoft Power Automate; cloud, business process or desktop. Different flows are best for different scenarios but they all tend to offer time-saving workflows around approvals, notifications, productivity, social media, and more. 

7. Accessible anywhere

Microsoft Power Automate’s mobile app means that team members can create, run, and check on automated workflows even when out of the office. 

Common uses of Power Automate:

You can automate certain tasks, to achieve the following: 

• Get immediate alerts to important notifications or emails 
• Track and catch up with new potential customers 
• Automatically save e-mail attachments to OneDrive or SharePoint 
• Engage with social media. For example, a blog post can be tweeted or published on Facebook automatically, or you can receive a notification if a tweet with a certain keyword was retweeted 
• Automate approval processes, such as time-off requests or document approvals. Employees can then be notified via Teams once the approval has been completed 
• Get a push notification to your mobile, such as when you receive an email from your boss 
• Stay on top of new Dynamics 365 Opportunities 
• Receive an email when a Power BI alert is triggered. Examples of this are sending the support team a heads up when the incident volume is over 100, or alerting sales managers when ten or more leads haven’t been updated in over two weeks

Get started with some of these Power Automate templates

To get you started, Microsoft have various pre-built templates that cover a host of scenarios. We have selected a few of our favourites below:

Keep track of email attachments

The “Save Office 365 email attachments to OneDrive for Business” means you can automatically save email attachments upon their arrival in your inbox.

Get items approved quickly

Request approval for items in Sharepoint, for your supervisor, to view easily in the Approvals Centre. Find out more about Microsoft approvals with Power Automate here. 

Stay on top of your flagged emails

When an Office 365 Outlook email gets flagged in your Inbox, a planner task will be created and assigned to you.

Monitor brand-related posts on social media

Get alerted via email when there is a brand-related social media post and respond quickly using this template flow.

Never miss an event

Get an email summary of your upcoming week such as locations, flights, hotels, and weather, and ensure you never miss an event.