A great discussion among Bot Nirvana members about Microsoft Power Automate Desktop (PAD)
Recording of Microsoft PAD discussion.
Notes from the Microsoft Power Automate Desktop discussion
Here are few points from the discussion. Missing something? Let us know in comments below.
- Microsoft Power Automate Desktop (PAD) is Softomotive Winautomation plus a few more things.
- PAD currently does not have the ability to create custom actions. Power Automate Cloud has the ability to create custom actions.
- Process advisor is a lightweight process discovery tool. For heavyweight, use Fortress IQ (Microsoft partner). Ability to generate foundational RPA script in future,
- PAD has a backward compatibility issue. If there are actions missing, reinstall PAD and you will get back the missing actions.
- To share PAD flows, you have to use the Power Automate cloud. You would need the paid version for this.
- PAD will support 15 languages going forward. Right now, preview supports 4.
- PAD configuration, scripts, logs, etc. stored on the cloud in the Dataverse. Winautomation was storing them locally.
- Power Automate is much more than PAD. Consider using power automate cloud, Power connectors and even integrating your own custom code to customize automation.
- Governance like security, logging, etc is provided by the Power platform. It is provided to an admin, not to users like what other RPA provides.
- All traditional RPA features are available with Microsoft Power though in a bit different way.
