SOLUTION · AUTOMATIONMicrosoft Power Automate
Automate approvals, notifications, repetitive processing, and system integration to connect AI's judgment to real business workflows.
Cloud flows, RPA, process mining, and AI all run on a single platform. Simply consolidating a structure that once split tools across vendors clears up duplicate licensing and operational overhead.
If there's an API, use cloud flows; if not, use desktop flows. Because both approaches work together, every system in your organization falls within the scope of automation.
Three Costs Are Rising at the Same Time
What's needed is a shift that puts people on judgment and automation on repetition.
Repetitive Manual Work
Rising labor costs, human error, processing delays, and bottlenecks. People still move between systems, manually re-entering the same data.
Legacy Automation
High licensing costs, complex maintenance, and limits on scaling. Admin staff end up tied down by the tools themselves.
System Silos
Data scattered across systems means the overall flow is invisible, leaving no basis for identifying where the bottlenecks are.
Five Capabilities, Running on One Foundation
It consolidates a structure once split across automation tools from different vendors. Tool sprawl and duplicate licensing are cleared up.
Cloud Flows
API-based automation. Handles approvals, notifications, data integration, and document generation.
Desktop Flows
Screen automation. Brings legacy systems and portals without APIs into automation scope, too.
Process Mining
Uses data to surface bottlenecks and rework, diagnosing what's worth automating.
AI Builder
Brings document recognition and predictive models directly into your flows.
Copilot Studio
AI Agents take on the steps that require judgment.
Automate, Find What's Next, and Scale Safely
The three stages cycle continuously within a single platform. That's why this isn't a one-time rollout — it becomes a structure that keeps running.
Simplify Processes
Boost productivity for individuals, teams, and the whole company with low-code and AI-based tools.
Continuous Improvement
Process and task mining, plus AI recommendations, keep surfacing the next opportunity for improvement.
Scale Safely
Scale across the company under enterprise governance.
Cloud Flows When You Have an API, Desktop Flows When You Don't
Because both approaches work together, every system in your organization falls within automation scope. You can even chain them together within a single flow.
| Category | Cloud flows — DPA | Desktop flows — RPA |
|---|---|---|
| Applies When | The target system has an API | No API — only a screen interface is available |
| How It Works | Connects apps, services, and data via cloud APIs | Mimics user screen actions, running on a PC or virtual machine |
| Typical Targets | Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, SaaS, internal APIs | Legacy Windows apps, ERP screens, web portals |
| Execution Type | Serverless — no dedicated runtime environment needed | Attended (user's PC) or unattended (dedicated machine/VM) |
| Maintenance | Affected only by API changes | Affected by screen changes — AI self-healing eases the burden |
Show It, and It Builds the Flow. The Screen Changes, and It Heals Itself.
The single biggest cost in traditional RPA operations was the rework triggered every time a screen changed. That's exactly what's changing now.
Show
Show the screen and narrate the task — multimodal AI combines screen understanding with speech recognition to capture what you're doing.
Generate the Flow
Generative AI turns the captured task into an executable flow.
Self-Healing Operation
When the UI changes, AI recognizes it and adjusts the flow on its own, cutting down on downtime.
Flows and Agents Aren't a Substitute for Each Other
"Should we build this as an agent, or as a flow?" is a question that comes up constantly. There are three deciding factors — can the procedure be fully written as rules · does the input format vary each time · how costly is a mistake.
| Criteria | Power Automate — Flows | Copilot Studio — Agents |
|---|---|---|
| Processing Method | Executes a defined procedure exactly as written (deterministic) | Given a goal, constructs its own procedure (non-deterministic) |
| Input Type | Strong with structured and semi-structured data | Unstructured — strong with emails, documents, conversations |
| Exception Handling | Every branch must be mapped out in advance | Judges by context and escalates to a person when needed |
| Reproducibility & Audit | Very high — same input, same result every time | Relatively lower — requires designed logging, evaluation, and guardrails |
| Best Fit | Clear-rule, repetitive processing | Judgment, interpretation, inquiry response, exception handling |
Licensing Runs on Two Axes: 'People' and 'Automation Objects'
Reviewing a quote without understanding this structure leads to significant estimate errors. Unattended desktop RPA requires both axes together.
User License
Assigned to a specific person and determines what that person can use. This covers things like using premium connectors and running attended desktop RPA.
Capacity License
Assigned to a bot or flow so automation runs independent of any person. This covers unattended RPA and process-level automation.
A Bot = A Concurrent-Run Slot
A single bot can have unlimited tasks registered, but they run sequentially. If you need N tasks running at once, you need N bots.
Cost Follows Concurrent Runs, Not Headcount
Even an approval flow used by hundreds of people costs little if concurrent runs are low. The starting point for sizing is concurrent run volume, not the task list.
Licensing structures and names can change, so we always confirm against the latest Microsoft licensing guide when reviewing a quote.
Keeping Growth and Control in Balance
The more business users build on their own, the more unmanaged flows accumulate. That's why we design a control framework alongside the rollout from day one.
Environment Separation
Separates development, testing, and production environments, with environment policies and owners assigned per department.
Data Loss Prevention
Classifies connectors as business or non-business use, controlling data-exit paths through policy.
Unified Monitoring
Check flow execution status and capacity usage in one place, managed through unified governance reporting.
Solutions worth exploring together
Dynamics 365 F&O
A cloud ERP that unifies finance, SCM, production, and project management. The core platform that becomes the execution foundation for Agentic AI.
Learn MoreCopilot Studio
Design task-specific agents in natural language and deploy them to Teams and web channels. Connects directly to ERP via MCP.
Learn MorePower BI
Visualize KPIs and exception/risk signals so people and AI Agents make decisions on the same data.
Learn MorePower Apps
Rapidly build field-focused business apps with low-code and extend them to mobile and portals.
Learn MoreHow many bots will you actually need?
Share your task list, and we'll map out the configuration and scope you need based on concurrent run volume.