How to Use Microsoft Power Automate? [In Under 10 Minutes]

It doesn’t matter what your position is, I can guess you waste (at the very least some) time in your job. Not since you wish to. You waste time as a result of your job quietly calls for it. Copying knowledge from one device to a different. Chasing approvals. Sending the identical replace for the tenth time. Such mundane, but important duties determine whether or not your work strikes ahead or not. Day after day, these small, repetitive duties drain your focus way over the “essential” work ever does. Enter Microsoft Energy Automate, an AI automation device constructed to resolve precisely this drawback.

Energy Automate takes the repetitive, rules-based work off your plate and lets automation deal with it for you. As an alternative of adjusting how you’re employed round damaged processes, Energy Automate reshapes the method itself. As soon as that shift occurs, you cease working as per the method; your course of begins working for you.

Because the title suggests, Microsoft Energy Automate brings the “energy” of automation with it. With little to no-code requirement, Energy Automate allows you to optimize a number of enterprise processes with end-to-end automation. What this principally means is that this – arrange the method automation as soon as, then sit again and calm down, as Energy Automate does the job for you, day by day, with out fail.

Right here, we will discover this AI device from the home of Microsoft intimately. We will take a look at the way it advantages the customers, the way it works, and learn how to put it to make use of in your personal processes.

Enlightening, proper? However why do you want it?

Why Use Energy Automate – Advantages & Worth

Allow us to start with the very fundamentals. Above, I’ve shared what Microsoft Energy Automate actually is – an AI-powered automation device. However the true, or somewhat extra impactful query is – how does it aid you?

Nicely, the advantages are many, but the largest one, and the very cause for its existence, is that Energy Automate allows you to save time by lowering guide work. Think about not having to ship that day by day mail with all of the reviews to everybody in your group. As soon as arrange, Energy Automate can do it for you robotically, day by day, with out fail.

In case that wasn’t a cause sufficient to make use of it, right here is how Microsoft Energy Automate can convey unparalleled effectivity to your workflows:

1. Improves accuracy & consistency: A human worker could also be on depart or just “overlook” to do the repetitive activity day by day. An AI automation won’t ever miss it. What’s extra, it is going to do it with utmost accuracy, simply as you prepare it to do, so no extra miscalculations or “Oops! Missed it” moments.
2. No-code automation for enterprise customers: As soon as you start utilizing Energy Automate, you’ll realise how Microsoft has constructed it from scratch for utmost accessibility. How? The AI device principally handles all of the backend coding and automation by itself. All you must do then is solely hyperlink some processes on a canvas and let AI do the remainder.
3. Integrates Microsoft and third-party instruments: Though it’s an in-house device by Microsoft, Energy Automate doesn’t limit itself to Microsoft apps. It may possibly automate processes throughout third-party apps as nicely, like Gmail and others, eradicating any attainable roadblocks in your course of automation journey.

Microsoft Energy Automate: Core Idea and The way it Works?

To take advantage of Microsoft Energy Automate, we first want to grasp the way it truly works. Fortunately, the core thought behind the device could be very easy. It follows a ‘Set off to Motion’ format. One thing occurs first, and Energy Automate responds with an motion that you’ve outlined earlier. In case you’re acquainted with Make.com or n8n automation instruments, you understand what I imply right here.

For instance, a brand new e-mail arrives in your inbox. That’s the set off. Energy Automate then saves the attachments from the e-mail right into a folder of your alternative. That’s the motion. You possibly can chain as many actions to a set off as you need, increase a complete chain of automation.

These automated chains are known as Flows. Every move handles one full activity from begin to end. Microsoft Energy Automate provides several types of flows to deal with totally different environments:

1. Cloud Flows: These flows run solely on the cloud. They work greatest for on-line apps like Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive, Groups, Google Drive, or Slack. Simply choose a set off occasion, outline the motion, and your automation runs on-line with out touching your desktop.
2. Desktop Movement: Some duties don’t occur on-line. Many corporations nonetheless depend on outdated or offline apps. Desktop flows resolve this drawback. They use RPA (Robotic Course of Automation) to click on buttons, sort textual content, and transfer information in your pc similar to a human would do. This makes automation attainable even for legacy methods.
3. Templates and Connectors: Right here is one of the best a part of Microsoft Energy Automate. You do not want to construct all the things from scratch. The platform provides a whole lot of ready-to-use templates. Decide one which matches your activity, tweak a couple of settings, and you’re completed.

Connectors assist Energy Automate discuss to different purposes. These connectors act like bridges between totally different instruments. Due to them, a single move can transfer knowledge easily throughout Microsoft apps and lots of third-party platforms.

Right here is a picture to summarise all the things about Energy Automate that we’ve gone by means of until now.

Tips on how to Entry Microsoft Energy Automate?

Getting began with Microsoft Energy Automate is surprisingly easy. You do not want any particular {hardware}, advanced installations, or technical setup. All you want is an internet browser and an e-mail tackle. That’s it.

Energy Automate is on the market as a part of Microsoft’s Energy Platform and may be accessed immediately by means of your browser. If you happen to already use Microsoft merchandise like Outlook, Groups, SharePoint, or Excel, chances are high you have already got entry to Energy Automate in some type. In that case, merely log in together with your Microsoft account and begin constructing your first move.

For freshmen, Microsoft additionally provides a free tier. This allows you to discover primary automation options, check out templates, and perceive how flows work earlier than committing to a paid plan. As you advance, it’s possible you’ll wish to go for versatile paid plans that scale together with your wants.

In brief, there isn’t any steep entry barrier right here. Energy Automate is designed to be accessible from day one, and highly effective as you develop into it.

So now that we all know the place to seek out it, let’s leap proper right into a sensible use-case to raised perceive its working.

Setting Up: First Steps with Energy Automate

Since Energy Automate is designed with accessibility at its core, it doesn’t require any prior automation expertise. The truth is, the platform is designed to information you thru the method from the very first click on.

Listed here are step-wise directions to provide you a glimpse of your upcoming expertise with Energy Automate:

• Go to the Microsoft 365 web site by clicking right here.
• Sign up to your Microsoft account if not logged in already.
• Click on on the Apps possibility on the backside of the sidebar on the left. You will notice this proper above your account information.
• From the prolonged menu, click on on All Apps. Then scroll down to seek out Energy Automate. Click on to open.

You possibly can comply with these pictures for any help by means of this course of:

As soon as open, you shall now see the dashboard of Energy Automate. Hereon, you’ve got two choices to proceed:

1. Construct workflow from Scratch
To construct a move from scratch, choose ‘Create’ from the sidebar on the left. Then start by deciding on a set off – an occasion that begins the automation. This might be one thing like receiving a brand new e-mail, a file being uploaded, or a type being submitted. As soon as the set off is about, you outline a number of actions that Energy Automate ought to carry out in response. These actions can vary from sending messages to updating information or shifting information. e.g., an incoming e-mail might set off a notification for a gaggle on Groups.

2. Use a Template
For freshmen, this is a perfect technique to discover the capabilities of Energy Automate. Microsoft provides a whole lot of ready-made templates for widespread duties equivalent to sending notifications, saving e-mail attachments, syncing information, or managing approvals. If you’re new, merely head to ‘Templates’ within the left sidebar, discover one which fits your wants, and click on on it to set it up in a canvas. It’s that straightforward!

Study as you go, as Energy Automate walks you thru every step utilizing a visible editor. You merely choose apps, select actions, and configure them utilizing easy inputs. There isn’t any coding concerned.

As soon as your move is prepared, you put it aside, flip it on, and let it run within the background.

Your setup is now full, and the workflow ought to now execute robotically every time the set off happens. Now sit again, and say goodbye to guide effort.

Having walked by means of the steps of establishing an automation, allow us to now discover what a real-life automation with Energy Automate seems to be like.

Get Prompt Alerts When a File Is Uploaded to OneDrive

To display how Microsoft Energy Automate works in a real-life situation, we first take an instance from the templates inside the app. The automation will ahead a cell notification, in addition to an e-mail, as quickly as a file is uploaded to a drive. Right here is the way it goes:

Notify and e-mail when a brand new file is uploaded to OneDrive

1. To start with, choose the next template from the Templates menu – ‘Notify and Electronic mail when a brand new file is uploaded to OneDrive.’ This shall open a dashboard with a pre-set 3-step automation. You possibly can take a look at this within the picture beneath.

2. All we now need to do is about the parameters within the varied steps, and the automation shall begin operating. Choose step one – ‘When a file is created’ – and select the folder you want to join underneath the ‘Folder’ possibility. You possibly can depart the remainder of the fields as they’re.

Word: In case your OneDrive isn’t already linked, it’s possible you’ll want to join it first by means of the ‘Change connection reference’ on the backside of the left panel.

3. Subsequent, choose the second step – ‘Ship me a cell notification’ – finalise the message within the ‘Textual content’ subject, and join your cellphone quantity on the backside.

4. Choose the third step – ‘Ship me an e-mail notification’ – select the goal e-mail and body the Topic and the Physique of the e-mail as you need, and you’re completed. Click on on the ‘Save’ possibility from the highest toolbar, and check it for those who like (by means of the choice adjoining to Save) earlier than operating the automation.

Routinely Summarize Incoming Emails Utilizing ChatGPT

Our second automation instance summarizes emails utilizing ChatGPT. Right here is the way it works:

Summarize emails utilizing ChatGPT

1. Choose the template ‘Summarize emails utilizing ChatGPT’ from the Templates menu. This shall open a dashboard with a pre-set 5-step automation. You possibly can take a look at this within the picture beneath. Choose step one and enter all of the parameters for the brand new e-mail within the left panel.

2. Choose step 2 – this step creates a string variable that shops a reusable HTML footer message. This footer message is principally hooked up to AI-generated summaries for compliance and transparency. You possibly can depart all of the parameters right here as they’re.

3. Choose the third step to finalise its parameters. Inside the Immediate part, choose the immediate you want to execute (on this case, AI Summarize is apt). Choose ‘Topic’ and ‘Physique’ as Enter Textual content. This shall subset the topic and physique of the incoming e-mail inside your immediate.

4. Choose step 4 – the “Get my profile (V2)” step fetches your Microsoft 365 person particulars so the GPT-generated abstract may be appropriately attributed, routed, or posted in Groups underneath your id.

5. Choose step 5 and outline the parameters for Put up as, Put up in, Recipient, and Message. As soon as completed, you may merely Save the automation and Check it earlier than making it dwell.

Energy Automate: Widespread Use Instances

Now that we all know how Energy Automate works, listed below are simply among the potentialities that the Microsoft device opens the doorways to:

1. Electronic mail Administration and Notifications

Receiving the identical sort of e-mail day by day? Energy Automate can provide you with a warning solely when one thing essential occurs, as an alternative of you sifting by means of the boring stuff continuously. For instance, it will possibly ship a Groups message when a high-value buyer sends an e-mail.

2. Automated Information Entry and Syncing

Copy-pasting knowledge from one device to a different is annoying and dangerous. Energy Automate retains your information up to date throughout methods, additionally serving to to wash knowledge and cut back human errors.

3. Approval Workflows

With Energy Automate, you may request approvals for leaves, budgets, or paperwork with one click on. So, no extra ready for somebody to verify their inbox. Approvers get reminders immediately.

4. Doc and File Dealing with Automation

Every time a brand new file arrives, Energy Automate can rename it, organise it right into a folder, and even extract essential knowledge. So, now you spend extra time working with the file and fewer time managing it.

5. Helpdesk and Buyer Assist Duties

Assist groups can automate ticket creation, leading to swifter buyer assist response. For instance, each time a person fills a type, a assist ticket is created within the system.

6. HR and Worker Onboarding

Sending welcome emails, granting entry, creating person accounts, now all of it will possibly run in an automatic move inside Energy Automate.

7. Desktop Automation for Legacy Programs

Many organisations nonetheless use outdated software program that can’t combine with cloud instruments. Desktop flows let Energy Automate click on, sort, and navigate screens like a human, fixing the issue completely.

There are lots of extra use circumstances throughout finance, provide chain, compliance, amenities, and IT operations. Automation potentialities broaden day by day as extra methods join with Microsoft Energy Automate. So, merely establish how Microsoft Energy Automate may help reduce your workload and use it to automate your methods, greatest suited to you. Allow us to take a look at a couple of examples of how that is being completed all over the world.

Actual-World Examples of Microsoft Energy Automate

Listed here are some real-world implementations of Energy Automate that spotlight its automation prowess and the outcomes it delivers.

1. Cineplex – Media & Leisure

With Energy Automate, Cineplex automated bill processing, ticket refunds, onboarding duties, and monetary reporting. They saved over 30,000 working hours yearly. Staff now give attention to decision-making as an alternative of paperwork.

2. SLB – International Power Supplier

The corporate automated large-scale knowledge entry and bill processes utilizing Energy Automate. Desktop flows now extract info from scanned paperwork and switch it into methods with out human effort. This improved accuracy and velocity for hundreds of transactions.

3. Toyota Motor North America – Manufacturing

Toyota automated quality-control opinions and reporting actions with Energy Automate. What earlier took hours of guide checks now completes in minutes, growing product reliability and full automation of repetitive duties.

4. Virgin Atlantic – Aviation

The airline makes use of Microsoft Energy Automate to hurry up inside approval and documentation flows. Response occasions dropped considerably. The crew can now focus extra on delivering a greater passenger expertise.

Conclusion

By now, we’ve explored what Microsoft Energy Automate is, the way it works behind the scenes, and the way it may be of use to automate our on a regular basis workflows. We additionally noticed real-life use circumstances of the way it advantages corporations, and established some fast workflows to have a primary understanding of learn how to use it.

All that’s left for you now’s to expertise the facility of automation first-hand. Belief me, when you do, there isn’t any turning again to the common, boring, and intensely tedious duties that took up half of your workday. Energy Automate will likely be your new, and intensely succesful work buddy that has your again.