How far can Power Automate go?

[JohnHollis]

Hello All,

When I'm reading the solutions that Power Automate can solve they seem to be small problems but applied in large organisations so that the small efficiency applied on a huge scale is extremely beneficial to that firm. For my small business the effort of learning Power Apps and Power Automate wouldn't really benefit me for a small problem such as automatically sending an email when a task is complete.

Where it could be beneficial, if possible, would be to use it as my main software as the tech I have at the minute is very poor. As a Mortgage Adviser in the UK I'd like to use Forms (or any other app) to complete the Fact-Find / initial survey and for this to generate other documents automatically. I would produce a Fact Find document and Recommendation Report based on the answers in that initial survey. I imagine I'd have to use Excel as a database and I could use Dynamics as my CRM.

Does anybody think this is possible??

Thanks in advance

John

[#2]

Dynamics is just a Power App built on the Dataverse (the core Power Platform database) so if you have a Dynamics license, you don't need to use Excel to store data.
That said, if you are a small business, I would question whether you even need Dynamics.
For £15 a month, you could buy a Power Apps per User license. This would give you full access to the Dataverse (with 10Gb of storage) and Power Automate.
The Accounts and Contacts tables that you get in Dynamics are included in the Dataverse, Leads and Opportunities are not.
If the documents you want to generate are in Word, there is a very simple Word connector that can populate a Word template.
You could capture the date in MS Forms and use that to create/update records in the Dataverse.

[#3]

Hi Donal,

Thanks for your help with this. Tech isn't my thing so I need someone like yourself to hold my hand through this, metaphorically speaking of course.

So, in short, you think this is possible?

That's great news because I've begun watching YouTube videos on how to use Power Apps but my main concern is that I fall down the rabbit-hole of this and then find out in 6 weeks time that it's not possible.

One of my main concerns is can Forms and the other basic apps handle the amount of information required in this type of process? As previously mentioned, many of the examples given that demonstrate automation are for basic processes such as a staff survey with half a dozen questions. What I'm looking to do dwarfs that but in my mind it is possible and worth the effort.

Any ideas on what I should do next? Should I get Power Apps? Explore what the dataverse is?

Thanks again

John

[#4]

@JohnHollis just be aware that in Forms you have a hard limit of 100 questions, but in reality it can be quite a bit lower if you include a lot of likert type questions as each statement is considered 1 question. I had to be quite careful about this in a form for a public consultation recently.

Rob
Los Gallardos
Intranet, SharePoint and Power Platform Manager (and classic 1967 Morris Traveller driver)

[#5]

Cheers Rob,

Is there any alternative to Forms?

How would you suggest I structure this? Do you even think it's possible?

John

[#6]

@JohnHollis I think you should explore Dataverse. Yes, you will have to learn, but it I think it will be worth it for your business. Effectively, you can build a CRM for very cheap.

I think your main challange here will be getting the data in. I have barely used Forms and when I went to look at it there, it see`that is being rebranded to Dynamics 365 Cutomer Voice - which means it may have a Dynamics dependency.  Transition from Forms Pro | Microsoft Docs 

[#7]

@Donal McCarthy Customer Voice is the old Forms Pro and is a totally separate product now from standard Forms.

Rob
Los Gallardos
Intranet, SharePoint and Power Platform Manager (and classic 1967 Morris Traveller driver)

[#8]

@JohnHollis  if you are doing this in the Office 365 Power Platform apps rather than the core apps you are going to have to learn Power Apps or Power Automate, there is no way round that. Forms is a good jumping-off point but do bear in mind my previous comment re the question limit. Then it will need a flow in Power Automate to save each form response into a SharePoint list and to create the PDFs. It's all do-able but needs learning and work.

Rob
Los Gallardos
Intranet, SharePoint and Power Platform Manager (and classic 1967 Morris Traveller driver)

[#9]

@RobElliott - thanks - that makes sense - like I said - don't really use forms

@JohnHollis - if you run into a wall with the forms limitations that @RobElliott mentioned, Power Automate does have a connector for paid Surveymonkey accounts.

I really would try to use the Dataverse as opposed to SharePoint. 

[#10]

Any ideas where is the best place to learn? Is it YouTube channels? Websites? Books?

[#11]

Same to you Rob, where's the best place to start learning? Is it YouTube channels? Websites? Books?

[#12]

Microsoft provide really excellent learning resources, see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/browse/?products=power-platform