Terri Ramsey Beavers Microsoft recently rebranded their Microsoft Office Flow to Microsoft Power Automate.
But how does this affect you as a consumer? What changes did Microsoft implement? What is staying the same?
Read on to find out!
What Is Microsoft Power Automate?
Before the rebranding happened, Microsoft Power Automate was simply Flow, a software that helped streamline different aspects of your workday. It accomplished this via communication between different apps.
For instance, if you were working with one software but needed to see a message in another, Flow would forward the message to you. This would keep you from having to switch between software to complete your tasks.
What’s The Same As Microsoft Office Flow?
With Power Automate, you’ll still get all the fantastic perks of Flow. This includes the aforementioned ability to streamline your work.
You’ll also get the full Office Suite so that you don’t have to worry about purchasing anything other software for your company.
What’s New
Now that Flow has transitioned to Power Automate, it is itself and so much more.
Microsoft Power Automate is trying to take the stress out of your mundane tasks by automating them. Microsoft accomplished this by adding a robotic process automation (RPA) system.
An RPA is a robot designed specifically to do regular tasks. Some fear introducing RPAs into the workforce will eventually eradicate human jobs. Others hope RPAs will be used to free up time for humans to focus on the more exhilarating aspects of their jobs.
This is Microsoft’s intention. With the introduction of an RPA into Power Automate, the Microsoft team hopes employees will be able to focus on their specialties.
In addition to the RPA, Power Automate gives teams power to innovate. Employees can now create their own bots, called Virtual Power Agents. They require little to no coding, making them easy to create.
Users can also make more complicated bots. This is accomplished by the integration of Cognitive Services and the Microsoft Bot Framework.
The Purpose of The Rebrand
But why did Microsoft choose to rebrand?
As you might be aware, Microsoft already has two other products with “power” in their names: PowerApps for Office 365 and Power BI Analytics. PowerApps is an app design program. Meanwhile, Power BI Analytics helps companies track their data.
Microsoft wanted to combine Flow, PowerApps, and Power BI Analytics into a package called the Power Platform. Because of this, they decided to rename Flow for consistent branding.
Fortunately, a company can have access to all of these products with just one purchase.
Want To Know More?
Now, you know the basics of Microsoft Power Automate and why it was rebranded from Microsoft Office Flow.
If you’re looking for more information that will help you get your business off the ground, you’ve come to the right place! I know what it’s like to be starting out on a business adventure and want to help you make your idea more workable.
Interested? Please check out my other blog posts for advice!