Stephen Siciliano, Author at Microsoft Power Platform Blog http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/power-platform/blog Innovate with Business Apps Fri, 10 Jan 2025 02:07:01 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Microsoft named a Leader and Positioned Furthest for Completeness of Vision in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Robotic Process Automation http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/power-platform/blog/power-automate/microsoft-named-a-leader-and-positioned-furthest-for-completeness-of-vision-in-the-2023-gartner-magic-quadrant-for-robotic-process-automation/ Tue, 08 Aug 2023 11:00:19 +0000 For the third consecutive year, Microsoft has been named a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Robotic Process Automation. This year Microsoft is positioned furthest in Completeness of Vision.

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For the third consecutive year, Microsoft has been named a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Robotic Process Automation. This year Microsoft is positioned furthest in Completeness of Vision.

We would like to thank our millions of active users and community members using Power Automate who helped us create innovative solutions for them to do more with less.

Over the past year, engagement with our community, customers, partners, and developers has led to a multitude of new features that are helping more individuals, teams, and organizations automate business processes at scale.

We’ve continued our momentum by announcing the inclusion of our generative AI component, Copilot, within Power Automate. Additionally, we launched custom UI actions for Power Automate for desktop (PAD), added additional cloud API connectors in the desktop flow designer for RPA, released general availability for hosted RPA, and more.

Learn more by accessing the full report.

Magic Quadrant for RPA depicting several different automation platforms in various quadrants (Challengers, Niche Players, Visionaries, and Leaders). Microsoft is placed in the “leader” quadrant.

*This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Magic Quadrant for Robotic Process Automation. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Robotic Process Automation, 2nd Aug 2023, Saikat Ray, Arthur Villa, Melanie Alexander, Keith Guttridge, Andy Wang, Paul Vincent.

Gartner is a registered trademark and service mark and Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

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Join us at the second Power Platform Conference this October in Las Vegas – sponsored by Microsoft http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/power-platform/blog/power-automate/join-us-at-the-second-power-platform-conference-this-october-in-las-vegas-sponsored-by-microsoft/ Fri, 04 Aug 2023 14:23:31 +0000 Join us at the second Power Platform Conference this October in Las Vegas - sponsored by Microsoft

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Join us at the second annual Power Platform Conference, sponsored by Microsoft, this October in Las Vegas! Discover, connect, and explore in-person across keynotes, sessions, breakouts, and more – dedicated to Microsoft Power Platform products (Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Power Pages, and Power Virtual Agents) and featuring the latest on AI-infused experiences, including Copilot. You don’t want to miss this unique opportunity to learn directly from leaders and community experts!

Kicking off October 1 and 2 with pre-conference workshops, the event runs October 3-5. 2023, ending with post-conference workshops on October 6. In addition to featuring more than 100 speakers and more than 70 sessions, you will have the opportunity to connect – and reconnect – with users from around the world, building personal and professional relationships, while gaining valuable insight into what’s new and next for Microsoft’s business applications – including AI.

Below are some featured sessions and speakers for Power Automate. One session I’m most looking forward to is “Power Automate in the Real World,” where I’ll be hosting a panel of customers with discussion around Power Automate adoption in the real world!

 

Featured Power Automate sessions

 

Featured Power Automate speakers

  • Stephen Siciliano (VP, Power Automate | Microsoft)  
  • Ashvini Sharma (Partner Group Product Manager, Power Automate | Microsoft)
  • Christine Jefson (Principal PM Director, AI Builder | Microsoft)
  • Anjili Chaudhry (Group Product Manager, Process Insights | Microsoft)
  • Lindsay Shelton (MVP | Application Programming | MCT)
  • Heidi Jordan (Senior Modern Workplace Consultant | Avanade)
  • Norm Young (Microsoft MVP | SharePoint, Power Automate and Power BI Solution Architect, People and Technical Leader | AvePoint)
  • David Shadle (Principal Design Manager | Microsoft)
  • Matthew LeHew (UX Content Designer | Microsoft)
  • Elaiza Benitez (Principal Consultant | Rapid Circle)

 

Don’t delay—sign up for the Microsoft Power Platform Conference today—we can’t wait to see you in Las Vegas! 
Click here to register: https://aka.ms/MPPC23/Automate/Register 
Click here for hotel reservations: https://aka.ms/MPPC23/Automate/Hotel

 

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New Microsoft Power Automate features to develop and orchestrate automation http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/power-platform/blog/power-automate/new-microsoft-power-automate-features-to-develop-and-orchestrate-automation/ Tue, 23 May 2023 07:55:22 +0000 At Microsoft Build 2023, we’re sharing new ways you can automate and orchestrate business processes across your organization with Microsoft Power Automate.

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At Microsoft Build 2023, we’re sharing new ways you can automate and orchestrate business processes across your organization with Microsoft Power Automate.

Continue reading to learn more about our latest announcements and how you can get started today.

Accelerate development with AI-powered experiences

At our Future of Work event in March 2023, we showed a sneak peek at what was coming soon with AI across Microsoft Power Platform. Today, we’re excited to announce the preview of Copilot in Power Automate and a refreshed, modern cloud flows designer that helps accelerate development so you can focus on what’s important.

Copilot in Power Automate—now in preview

Alongside a new cloud flows designer is the preview of Copilot in Power Automate. Building off the foundations of the describe it to design it feature using natural language to accelerate the creation of automation, these two unified experiences enable developers to work smarter—not harder.

Graphic of Cloud Flow designer layout.

As a Continuous Improvement Analyst at 3M, I’m always on the lookout for innovative ways to boost our operational efficiency. My experience with Power Automate started with the ‘Describe it to design it’ feature, which allowed me to effortlessly create custom workflows tailored to my unique needs just by describing them. I’ve since developed more than 20 flows for a range of applications, including managing Microsoft Forms survey responses and orchestrating processes involving SharePoint, Excel, and Planner. I’m excited for the upcoming launch of Copilot in Power Automate, which will further enhance my automation capabilities and help streamline processes at 3M.

—Tommy Tang, Continuous Improvement Analyst, 3M

This functionality is available in preview environments today. Start using the new cloud flows designer and AI capabilities with GPT, and learn more from our official documentation in Microsoft Learn.

Customize functionality with robotic process automation custom actions

Actions SDK for desktop flows—now in preview

Power Automate for desktop has a vast number of drag-and-drop actions that help you interact with a desktop’s UI so you can automate legacy apps and systems, powered by robotic process automation (RPA). Now, using the new actions SDK (preview) for desktop flows, developers can create custom actions to speed up development. Power Automate for desktop Microsoft Visual Studio templates are also available through NuGet.org to help kick-start action creation. Makers can then access custom actions developed by their organizations and include them in desktop flows. They can then utilize them in the same fashion as they do all other standard actions.

Creating a new project for the actions SDK for desktop flows in Visual Studio.
Download the actions SDK from NuGet.org and learn more by reading our documentation.

Orchestrate smarter with hosted RPA and work queues

Hosted machines—now generally available

Earlier this year, we announced the preview of hosted machines and the general availability of hosted machine groups with the hosted RPA add-on for Power Automate. This groundbreaking approach to running RPA bots at scale takes the weight off IT for setting up and managing virtual machines by letting Microsoft do the work for you with hosted infrastructure. This empowers our customers to run RPA quickly and at scale while freeing up resources and reducing costs.

Infographic showing information about hosted machine, attended and unattended RPA and hosted machine group, for unattended RPA in production.

We are excited to announce that hosted machines is now generally available. Hosted machines give developers a quick and simple way to build, test, and run desktop flows without providing or setting up any physical machines.

Key features include:

  • Work or school account integration: Enables access to resources that are part of the business plan linked to your organization, such as Microsoft 365, SharePoint, and Azure.
  • Vanilla or custom virtual machine images for your hosted machine: Use a vanilla virtual machine image provided by Microsoft or personalize your hosted machines by providing your own Windows image directly from your Azure Compute Gallery. Providing your own Windows image allows you to have all your applications installed on the provisioned hosted machines.
  • Connect to your own virtual network: Securely communicate with each other, the internet, and your on-premises networks.

Creating hosted machines in the Power Automate web portal.

 

Managing hosted machines in the Power Automate web portal.

If you’re ready for a test drive, sign up for a free Power Automate trial. You can also learn more about hosted machines in our documentation or see pricing for the hosted RPA add-on.

Manage your digital workforce with work queues—now in preview

Next, we’re excited to announce the preview of work queues in Power Automate. Power Automate has previously had run queues built-in for managing all the work your digital workers are doing. The new work queues feature will take this to the next level—providing full digital workforce management, which involves managing and optimizing the use of digital workers, such as software robots, and distributing prioritized work effectively across automations and available resources.

Work queues help you prioritize work items, with the highest-priority items being completed first, regardless of whether they’re processed by digital workers, human workers, or through integrations. The work queue orchestrator decides which item to pick next based on factors such as when it was added to the queue and its priority level. By using work queues in combination with other digital workforce management tools—such as hosted machine groups, advanced analytics, and process mining—organizations can gain insights into the performance of their automation processes to improve the efficiency, scalability, and fault tolerance of automation processes, while also reducing costs and improving the quality of services.

Screenshot of Work Queues

To get started using the preview of work queues, sign in to your Power Automate environment and create your first work queue from the left navigation pane. To learn more, visit our documentation to help get you started.

Learn more about the new features in Power Automate

These new features in Power Automate can help you do more with less, continuing our mission to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. Low code accelerates development so you can spend less time building, and more time innovating. And with new functionality using AI-powered experiences and RPA orchestration, you can help ensure your automation runs smoothly so you can achieve even more.

To experience all these new things, visit the links below:

Learn more about other announcements across Microsoft Power Platform: 

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Improving the Azure OpenAI models in Power Automate to save people time http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/power-platform/blog/power-automate/improving-the-azure-openai-models-in-power-automate-to-save-people-time/ Tue, 04 Apr 2023 17:00:00 +0000 In October of 2022 we released the Describe it to design it feature where you can write a simple sentence and get a flow based on this description. In this post, we’ll dive more into the details of the improvements we’ve been making with this feature.

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This post is co-authored by Walter Sun, PhD, Vice President of Applied AI, Microsoft’s Business Applications & Platform Group.

In October of 2022 we released the Describe it to design it feature where you can write a simple sentence and get a flow based on this description. In this previous blog post, we shared how we initially built out this feature. Since release, we have seen it dramatically improve the experience of building flow reducing the flow creation time in half and flows are 1.8x more likely to run week-over-week compared to building from blank. In this post, we’ll dive more into the details of the improvements we’ve been making with this feature.

Model fine tuning

1) did NL2Flow suggest one or more flows, and

2) did the user review and accept the suggested flow

For privacy reasons, Microsoft does not, by default, get access to the sentences that you type or the details of the flows that are generated. However, administrators can opt-in to share this data with Microsoft, which can help us to improve our models. We used this opted-in data to identify which sentences had the lowest rate of successful suggestions and acceptance. With that data, we were able to generate more sample flows that targeted those areas and use that sample data for further fine-tuning of the model.

We have since had two additional rounds of model improvements – NL2Flow-003 (which was released in November) and NL2Flow-004 (which was released in January). Each release led to improvements in these two metrics. For example, between NL2Flow-002 and 003, we observed an increase in the flow acceptance rate by 3.0 points to 52.6%, and between NL2Flow-003 and 004 we saw an improvement of 2.2 points to 90.3% for successful suggestions.

This type of fine tuning is only possible because of the number of people trying out this feature – this month we’ve seen over 29K. As more people use Power Automate (and opt-in to helping Microsoft improve the model with their data), the models will only get better.

Finally, it’s worth noting that this process of fine tuning is distinct from traditional reinforcement learning (RL). In the future, we plan to apply RL, leveraging our A/B platform to handle the explore and exploit processes, but we need to have a large enough amount of data before we embark on this learning methodologyfor NL2Flow (like it has been done with ChatGPT).

Validating improvements

To ensure that the model is directly responsible for the improvements we observed, we show some users the current model and some a new one – a process called A/B testing. This is similar to the way we release new versions of the Power Platform, where a percentage of the users get newer release of the platform as well to test before full deployment to all. By doing so, we can know that the model itself is responsible for the changes, not other factors.

At the same time, it’s critical that we know that people are more successful with Describe it to design it, compared to other ways to build flows. And this is exactly what we see:

  • 76% of flows created by NL2Flow in the last 7 days ran at least once (compared to 64% for flows created from templates, or 43% when created from scratch)

Together, with A/B testing and comparing to other ways users build flows, we have mechanisms in place to ensure we’re continually improving the experience for users.

Microsoft is committed to creating Responsible AI by design. Our work is guided by a core set of principles: fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability. We are helping our customers use our AI products responsibly, sharing our learnings, and building trust-based partnerships. For these new services, we provide our customers with information about the intended uses, capabilities, and limitations of our AI platform service, so they have the knowledge necessary to make responsible deployment choices.

What’s next

As we shared at the Future of Work with AI event on March 16th – the next step is to support interactive design with Copilot for Power Automate – so you can use natural language while you build out your flow. This will build on the NL2Flow models that have already been developed, as well as adding in new interactive behaviors powered by ChatGPT. We’re excited to share more details on this in the coming weeks.

 

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Explore new capabilities in Microsoft Power Automate at the Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/power-platform/blog/power-automate/explore-new-capabilities-in-microsoft-power-automate-at-the-microsoft-business-applications-launch-event/ Wed, 22 Mar 2023 15:55:08 +0000 Businesses today are constantly facing new and bigger challenges. Technology is diversifying and evolving faster than ever to address these issues, giving industries across the board a growing number of solutions to sift through.

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Businesses today are constantly facing new and bigger challenges. Technology is diversifying and evolving faster than ever to address these issues, giving industries across the board a growing number of solutions to sift through. While managing these fast-paced changes and innovations, you also need to engage your customers at every touchpoint with remarkable customer experiences.

To help your team take on these complex challenges and drive your business toward future success, it’s essential to invest in the right technology.

Discover the next generation of intelligent business applications

The future of business starts today—and we’re excited to invite you to get a first look at what you need to get ahead at the Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event. Watch product leaders guide you through the new capabilities. See hundreds of new product features, advancements, and innovations to help you drive revenue, delight customers, increase visibility, and strengthen collaboration across your organization.

Learn about the new features and capabilities being released across Microsoft Power Automate, including:

  • Advancements in natural language processing, including new automation tools to support additional activities, connectors, and geo-availability.
  • Investments in desktop flows to provide authentication for Windows desktop applications, drive organization-wide adoption of automation at scale, and enable ISV integrations for more options to build RPA solutions.
  • More cloud flow integrations with Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and Microsoft Power Platform to provide automation for workflows across your organization.


And there’s much more in store. You’ll also see how these solutions work for businesses like yours with demos hosted by Microsoft product experts. You’ll hear from Charles Lamanna, Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Business Applications and Platforms, about how to innovate with business applications to grow your business faster than ever. The team behind the Microsoft Power Platform 2023 release wave 1 will also share insights and guide you through how all these updates, advancements, and new tech will help you:

  • Expand visibility, reduce time, and enhance creativity in your departments and teams with unified, AI-powered capabilities.
  • Empower your employees to focus on revenue-generating tasks while automating repetitive tasks.
  • Connect people, data, and processes across your organization with modern collaboration tools.
  • Innovate without limits using the latest in low-code development, including new next-generation AI capabilities.

AI innovations

A major theme of this digital event is the evolution of AI. Leaders in the field will show you some of the latest developments in AI that are leading the next generation of business applications. You’ll also join us for a special session that includes a deep dive into the tech behind language models hosted by Dr. Walter Sun, Microsoft Vice President, AI in Business Applications. Throughout the event, you’ll receive expert guidance on how to build more agile, customer-focused teams by empowering your solutions with AI and see firsthand how to get more value out of your data, collaboration, and tools.

Brand-new insights from the experts

Find out how to enhance your customer experiences across your business with a look at real-life scenarios in expert-led demos of new capabilities and features. Gain valuable insights for overcoming your current challenges from other Microsoft customers who will share their journeys. And get answers to questions from the experts during a Q&A chat.

For a range of key best practices, strategies, and insights applicable to organizations across many industries, you don’t want to miss this digital launch event.

Watch product leaders guide you through the new capabilities. We hope you’ll join us.

Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event

Tuesday, April 4, 2023

9:00 AM–10:30 AM Pacific Time (UTC–7)

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Automate smarter than ever before with AI Builder and Copilot in Power Automate http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/power-platform/blog/power-automate/automate-smarter-than-ever-before-with-ai-builder-and-copilot-in-power-automate/ Thu, 16 Mar 2023 15:00:54 +0000 In October of 2022 we released the Describe it to design it feature where you can write a simple sentence and get a flow based on this description. Today, we have two announcements on how we're bringing more intelligence throughout the Power Platform and Power Automate specifically: Copilot in Power Automate and create text with GPT in Power Automate—on the Desktop too!

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Power Automate AI banner

Microsoft Power Automate boosts efficiency and digitizes tedious business processes. As a low-code automation platform, it’s critical that it’s easy for you to get started since there are so many processes in the business that can be automated. In October of 2022 we released the Describe it to design it feature where you can write a simple sentence and get a flow based on this description. This feature makes it faster to build better flows: it takes only 50 percent of the time to create a flow, and flows are 1.8x more likely to run in the next week compared to building from blank. Today, we have two announcements on how we’re bringing more intelligence throughout Microsoft Power Platform and Power Automate specifically.

Copilot in Microsoft Power Automate

Power Automate will make it possible for you to not just describe a flow to create, but also improve and iterate on your flows with AI-driven conversations. This next-generation AI based Copilot in Power Automate will sit right inside of the flow studio and help out with every flow that’s being built or changed.

Copilot in Power Automate will allow open ended and conversational experiences while authoring your flows. As you build, you’ll be able to ask questions and get assistance making improvements and changes. You won’t need any special knowledge of how Power Automate works—simply by using natural language you’ll be able to build and enhance everything from a simple flow to a complex, robust enterprise-wide process.

Power Automate is advancing to the next step in the evolution of code abstraction: moving from custom code to low code to natural language authoring, with the arrival of your personal next-generation AI copilot in Power Automate. This will allow human and machine to work together and empower every person on the planet to build transformative automation in a language that is naturally understood.

You can get started today with the preview for Describe it to design it—now available in the EU in addition to the US. And stay tuned as we release more Copilot features in the coming months.

Create text with GPT in Power Automate—on the Desktop too!

Makers are not the only people who need to use the power of next-generation AI, anyone using automation also needs intelligence built into the processes themselves. Last week, we announced that AI Builder now brings Azure OpenAI Service to its user-friendly interface, enabling makers to use a new low-code generative AI model and templates in Power Automate cloud flows. Today we are announcing two new places you can use generative AI: in your apps with a next-generation control, and in Power Automate for desktop:

There is a new AI Builder action that you can use in your desktop flows called Create text with GPT, just like in cloud flows today. This new action will make it possible to do things like:

  • Content creation: creating for daily communications to teams or on social media
  • Customer service: gather feedback (be it positive, neutral, or negative) and respond accordingly
  • Back office: fast extraction of information (such as phone number, address, and amount) from large text and documents saving hours of manual and unreliable scraping
  • And much much more!

This is just the first AI Builder action that we are adding to Power Automate for Desktop, in the coming months we will make it possible to call any AI model from your desktop flows. Get started using generative AI in your cloud or desktop flows by signing up for the preview.

And, discover our other next-generation AI announcements across Power Platform and Microsoft:

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Announcing new releases for Microsoft Power Automate hosted RPA http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/power-platform/blog/power-automate/announcing-new-releases-for-microsoft-power-automate-hosted-rpa/ Thu, 12 Jan 2023 16:55:46 +0000 Microsoft Power Automate now supports two hosted RPA scenarios that provide developers and COE admins a simple way to setup and scale automations. Using Microsoft hosted infrastructure running in Azure, Power Automate hosted RPA empowers our customers to run RPA quickly and at scale while freeing up resources and reducing costs.

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Microsoft Power Automate now supports two hosted RPA scenarios that provide developers and Center of Excellence admins a simple way to set up and scale automations:

  1. Individual hosted machines, now available in preview, enable developers to build or test automation and business users to run automation.
  2. Hosted machine groups are generally available and automatically scale workloads to optimize unattended automation in production, delivering improved business process continuity and governance at scale.

Using Microsoft hosted infrastructure running in Azure, Power Automate hosted RPA empowers our customers to run RPA quickly and at scale while freeing up resources and reducing costs.

Simplify and accelerate machine setup and allocation

Setting up RPA infrastructure manually is time consuming. It can take days to get machines for automation—from the initial machine request and creation to installation and assignment. Power Automate delivers a consistent setup experience and license for both individual hosted machines and hosted machine groups, making it faster and easier to set up and manage RPA for your organization. Instead of doing all the heavy lifting yourself, anyone with just a few basic parameters can build, test, and run large-scale automation in minutes. Just give it a name, select the base image and account to be used, and you’re all set!

If you need more advanced automation for specific desktop applications, you can bring your own virtual machine (VM) image through our integration with Azure Compute Gallery. For common scenarios, a Windows image sufficient for web automation is provided by default.

Hosted machines for attended and unattended automation

For many automation scenarios, a single machine is sufficient to support a broad range of business processes. Individual hosted machines give developers a quick and simple way to build, test, and run desktop flows without providing or setting up any physical machines.

When testing is complete, the desktop flow can be deployed on a single machine to support individual business users running in both attended and unattended mode. For unattended scenarios that are more robust, you can start by building the desktop flow on a hosted machine. Then, it can be assigned to a machine group that distributes and scales the automation workload based on demand.

Infographic showing hosted machines are for citizen and pro developers to build or test automation, and for business users to run automation in attended or unattended mode. Hosted machine groups are for unattended RPA in product to optimize your resources for higher efficiency and lower cost with automatic scaling and dynamic load balancing.

Hosted machine groups for unattended automation at scale

Automatically react to spikes in demand with scalable infrastructure

Planning for variability in RPA utilization is challenging and time-consuming, making it difficult to guarantee response times when speed is necessary. When additional capacity is needed, critical processes are slowed or put on hold waiting for support teams to set up and allocate more machines. In some cases, large pools of machines are allocated to support peak-load processes, resulting in low average machine utilization and higher costs.

Hosted machine groups solve this problem by automatically provisioning hosted bots when needed. Bots are virtual machines running in Azure that run your automation flows unattended and can scale to run simultaneously on multiple Windows VMs. When a desktop flow waits in the queue and no bot is available, a new bot is created automatically up to the maximum number of bots determined by the admin. There is no need to set up or register those machines and they can be easily reassigned to different workloads whenever you need them.

You don’t have to worry about whether you’ll have enough machines to run your automations when demand spikes, or whether you have underutilized machines adding cost without delivering value to your organization.

Screenshot of Power Automate hosted machine group setup including user selection of the maximum number of bots allowed for the machine group.

Improve efficiency with dynamic load balancing

Hosted machine groups let you share resources among different automation scenarios. Multiple RPA processes with varying load levels are automatically scaled in and out based on real-time load. The number of bots allocated to the group are automatically assigned across different RPA processes, ensuring available machines are efficiently utilized.

For example, you can have 10 bot capacity shared between two groups—let’s say one for sales and one for finance. If finance requires additional processing capacity while sales workloads are light, the majority of the 10 bot capacity will be assigned to finance. When finance’s processing is complete or returns to normal levels, the bot machines assigned to finance will be available again for sales or other hosted machine groups to run their workloads.

Monitor your RPA queue and optimize your environment

Visibility is essential to managing and optimizing your RPA infrastructure. Power Automate gives administrators real-time data on process flows coupled with a simple management user interface (UI) to adjust and optimize RPA infrastructure. You can view runs that are in process and those that are in queue as well as a complete history of all completed runs. High priority desktop flows can then be promoted to the top of the queue or reprioritized based on business need.

As traffic increases or decreases over time, it’s easy to adjust the maximum number of bots in a hosted machine group. At any time, the number of bots for each team can be limited to ensure others have capacity to meet their demand. And of course, the hosted machine group can be deleted when no longer needed.

Screenshot of Power Automate invoice management where users can view and manage flow status including succeeded, running, and queued.

Accelerate innovation with Power Automate hosted RPA

With our latest hosted RPA add-on, scalable automation is now accessible to everyone from information workers to pro developers to centers of excellence. Manage your costs, optimize your resources, and spend more time focusing on what’s most important to your business.

If you’re ready for a test drive, sign up for a free Power Automate trial. You can also learn more about hosted machines and hosted machine groups in our documentation or see pricing for hosted RPA add-on licenses.

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Microsoft named a Leader in the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Robotic Process Automation http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/power-platform/blog/power-automate/microsoft-named-a-leader-in-the-2022-gartner-magic-quadrant-for-robotic-process-automation/ Fri, 29 Jul 2022 15:55:39 +0000 For the second consecutive year, Microsoft Power Automate has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Robotic Process Automation.  

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For the second consecutive year, Microsoft has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Robotic Process Automation.

Since we added Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in 2019 alongside our digital process automation (DPA) and AI offerings, our momentum has continued to expand.

After we acquired Softomotive in 2020, we launched Power Automate for desktop and included it in Windows 10 and 11 at no additional cost. Users of Windows are now empowered to automate their desktop and web applications to gain time back for higher-value work, while admins retain control with Data Loss Prevention policies.

More recently, we announced the preview of hosted RPA bots to auto-scale unattended scenarios, a new pay-as-you-go option for greater flexibility, and now provide over 750 connectors to cloud services.

We want to take this opportunity to thank our customers, community members, and partners for helping shape Power Automate and this outcome with their feedback and continued support.

Learn more by using the following link to access the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Robotic Process Automation.

Image is of the 2022 Gartner RPA Magic Quadrant which features Microsoft in a Leader position.

This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from https://aka.ms/Analyst-Gartner-DocRPA22. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Robotic Process Automation, July 2022, Saikat Ray, Arthur Villa, Melanie Alexander, Keith Guttridge, Andy Wang, Paul Vincent.

Gartner and Magic Quadrant are registered trademarks and service marks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

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Join us at the first Microsoft Power Platform Conference Sept 20-22 http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/power-platform/blog/power-automate/join-us-at-the-first-microsoft-power-platform-conference-sept-20-22/ Thu, 28 Jul 2022 14:00:28 +0000 The first annual Power Platform Conference sponsored by Microsoft is coming to Orlando for an amazing in-person event this September, with keynotes, sessions, breakouts and more—all dedicated to Microsoft Power Platform products: Power Automate, Power Apps, Power BI, Power Pages and Power Virtual Agents.

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The FIRST ever Microsoft Power Platform Conference

The first annual Power Platform Conference sponsored by Microsoft and Power Platform Conference is coming to Orlando for an amazing in-person event this September, with keynotes, sessions, breakouts and more—all dedicated to Microsoft Power Platform products: Power Automate, Power Apps, Power BI, Power Pages and Power Virtual Agents.   This is a unique opportunity to learn directly from leaders and community experts for Power Automate. The topics range from in-depth feature tips & tricks, to setting up automation at scale within the enterprise, and a digest of roadmap and product strategy. If you don’t know where to start, I would recommend the “Strategy & Roadmap” session, as well as “Extending SAP with Power Platform” which will both be very exciting.   Kicking off on September 18 & 19 with pre-conference workshops, the event runs September 20-22, 2022.  In addition to featuring more than 100 speakers and more than 150 sessions, conference-goers will have the opportunity to connect—and reconnect—with users from around the world, building their personal and professional relationships, while gaining valuable insight into what’s new and next for Microsoft’s business applications.

Power Automate sessions

Featured Power Automate speakers

  • John Anastasopoulos (Group Product Manager | Power Automate for desktop)
  • Ashvini Sharma (Group Product Manager | Power Automate cloud flows)
  • Pranav Rastogi (Principal Program Manager | Microsoft Power Platform CAT)
  • Tomasz Poszystek (Biz Apps MVP)
  • Fausto Capellan Jr (Biz Apps MVP)
  • Gwenael Bego (Group Product Manager | AI Builder)
  • Azure McFarlane (Biz Apps MVP | HSO)
  • Geetha Sicasailam (Biz Apps MVP | Artis Consulting)
  • Harysh Menon (Principal Product Manager | Power Automate)
  • Dian Taylor (Biz Apps MVP | Dynamics 365 | RSM)

Capping off the week is a conference-exclusive night at Universal Orlando Resort, home to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter® and Islands of Adventure™!

Don’t delay—sign up for the Microsoft Power Platform Conference today—we can’t wait to see you in Orlando!

Click here to register: Microsoft Power Platform Conference.

Click here for hotel reservations: Loews Royal Pacific Resort Reservations.

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Latest innovations to scale automation with Microsoft Power Automate http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/power-platform/blog/power-automate/latest-innovations-to-scale-automation-with-microsoft-power-automate/ Tue, 24 May 2022 14:55:14 +0000 Today at Microsoft Build, we announced new ways your organization can streamline business processes at scale with Microsoft Power Automate. Be sure to watch the Microsoft Build session, Exciting innovations in Power Automate, to learn about the latest innovations we’ve made to help to scale automation across your enterprise easier.

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Today at Microsoft Build, we’re excited to announce new ways your organization can streamline business processes at scale with Microsoft Power Automate.

We understand swift access to resources is key, especially for teams who heavily depend on the speed of IT to address their needs. Impactful automation initiatives require collaboration across departments, and the Center of Excellences (CoE) has become a core component for success.

Continue reading and be sure to watch the Microsoft Build session, Exciting innovations in Power Automate, to learn about the latest innovations we’ve made to help to scale automation across your enterprise easier.

Auto-scale with hosted RPA bots in preview

Since Power Automate launched desktop flows, our robotic process automation (RPA) capability in 2019, we’ve continued listening to your feedback and exploring ways we can further democratize automation for all.

With the release of Power Automate for desktop, automating repetitive, mundane tasks across legacy and modern systems became an easier reality. Now included for free in the Microsoft Store for Windows 10 users and built-in to Windows 11, users can begin using attended RPA bots right on their desktop—at no additional cost.

We are taking the next step in our journey with the preview of hosted RPA bots, now available in Power Automate. As a true software as a service (SaaS) for RPA, unattended RPA bots can now be created and automatically scaled across hosted virtual machines that are powered by Microsoft Azure.

Gone are the days of strenuous approval cycles and costly deployment. With Power Automate’s hosted RPA bots, just create a group of bots by setting up basic parameters and use it to get virtual machines scaled automatically for your unattended RPA scenarios—with no Azure subscription required.

Power Automate will handle every aspect of machine management for you, helping focus your time where it’s needed most.

AT&T scales with Power Automate RPA

AT&T has been taking advantage of unattended RPA in Power Automate since the start of 2021, and we’ve been partnering with them on building and improving our hosted RPA bots at scale, pushing the edge of what’s possible in digital transformation. They’ve welcomed citizen and pro developers to create automations that not only help individual groups but their entire enterprise. AT&T calls this the democratization of AI—making AI and machine learning tools and capabilities accessible to every employee, even if they’re not data scientists or developers. With more than 2,500 unattended RPA automations running across 1,600 virtual machines, they are no stranger to scaling automation.

“Using Power Automate RPA has been transformative for AT&T. And the benefits of hosted RPA bots will help eliminate hours of tedious, manual work to be able to focus on serving the customer and optimizing AT&T’s operations. Our employees continue to embrace and enable business transformation using Intelligent Automation.”—Dhru Shah, Director of Technology, AT&T

Take Johnie Mcgee, who is an Applications Developer at AT&T. Johnie created an intelligent automated flow in Power Automate that also leverages AI Builder to differentiate between invoice and permit documents so that they can automatically be processed. Sporting around 99 percent accuracy, this flow can save a projected 3,500 hours a year, opening opportunities for AT&T workers to ideate ways to push the enterprise further.

AT&T’s focus on robotic process automation is part of a years-long tech transformation and modernization effort, which includes migrating applications to the cloud, pioneering software-defined networking and network function virtualization, and bringing edge compute capabilities into the network.

For more information about the hosted RPA bots in preview, be sure to check out the manage machine groups docs page and our dedicated Microsoft Build session. If you want to jump in and get started, sign-up for a free trial or access with the unattended RPA add-on.

Explore ready-to-use RPA examples

To further accelerate adoption and innovation, we’re happy to share a new experience in Power Automate for desktop. Users can access a growing library of ready-to-use desktop flows that serve as examples for what’s possible across Excel, desktop, and web automation. Just launch an example and explore its logic or begin customizing it to make it your own. To get started, make sure you are using the latest version of Power Automate for desktop and visit Examples from the app’s home screen. Be sure to watch some helpful use case videos.

Power Automate for desktop Examples screen showing a list of Desktop Automation flows.
Figure 2. Desktop Automation examples screen in Power Automate for desktop.

Embed Power Automate inside your apps

Next, we are excited to announce the ability to embed Power Automate inside of your SaaS application, and the future ability to use a new pay-as-you-go business model to support embedded scenarios. Developers can get started today using the Technical Embed SDK. Our launch partner is Adobe, which is using the Technical Embed SDK to embed Power Automate into Adobe Acrobat Sign for advanced document signature and processing workflow. We plan to make the pay-as-you-go meter more broadly available in July 2022 with more details to be disclosed at the Microsoft Inspire conference. If you’d like to be considered for early access, please register for the Power Automate Technical Embed SDK and pay-as-you-go pricing here.

Adobe workflow creation experience in Adobe Sign showing Power Automate cloud flow templates.
Figure 3. Adobe workflow creation experience using Power Automate’s Technical Embed SDK.

Analyze cloud flows with process advisor

We also have a new process advisor integration in Power Automate, which is our process and task mining capability.

Developers building complex flows need to be able to understand history and performance across hundreds or even thousands of runs. For example, what part of the flows are taking the most time? What parts are failing? Are there branches of logic that are unused, and you can safely get rid of? You can now answer these questions with cloud flows analytics with process advisor, no matter how many times your flow runs.

Now in preview, in just a couple of minutes, you can get insights into the history of your cloud flows to then discover opportunities to monitor and optimize your business. Read our blog to learn and discover more about the latest process advisor capabilities announced at Microsoft Build.

Screen in Power Automate for web showing an established cloud flow with the new process insights (preview) card.
Figure 4. Process insights in preview accessible through a Power Automate cloud flow.

Create flows within Power Apps canvas studio

Lastly, we know a lot of developers build apps and flows together, and that is why we continue to make it easier to do so. Now you can get started building automation right inside of the canvas studio so you can focus on creating. There’s no need to exit and build a flow separately through the Power Automate web portal—you can just click Create a new flow from inside of your app and keep your authoring experience centralized.

Create your flow screen popup in Power Apps canvas studio showing templates for cloud flows.
Figure 5. Create your flow in Power Apps canvas studio.

Start automating for free

We’ve covered a lot about the latest innovations in Power Automate to help your organization scale with ease. As a reminder, Windows 10 and 11 users can start automating attended RPA bots for free on their desktop. And if you want to extend automation across the cloud, sign-up for a 90-day free trial of everything Power Automate has to offer. If you’ve previously signed up for a trial, explore our different licensing plans.

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