Microsoft Teams Productivity: Team Up With Power Automate

In the modern workplace, staying connected and working efficiently are more important than ever. Many organizations rely on Microsoft Teams for daily collaboration; it is the go-to platform for collaborating with colleagues, holding meetings, sharing files and keeping everyone in the loop. But did you know that you can take your Teams experience to the next level with Power Automate? Imagine automating those repetitive tasks that eat up your time or setting up workflows that keep your team informed without lifting a finger. That’s where the power of Microsoft Teams automation with Power Automate comes into play, significantly boosting Microsoft Teams productivity.

Microsoft Power Automate is a powerful tool that allows users to create complex automated workflows tailored specifically to their business needs. These flows function across their most used apps and services both within and outside the Microsoft suite of products. Power Automate supports the creation of both cloud and desktop workflows, allowing users to automate tasks across various online services and automate tasks that you perform locally on your device. This combination of offerings can transform your organization’s daily operations, making processes more efficient and communication more effective without ever having to switch applications.

A powerful feature of integrating Microsoft’s Power Automate with Microsoft Teams is the ability to create and manage cloud flows from directly within Microsoft Teams by leveraging the “Workflows” Teams application. To install this application simply navigate to the “Apps” icon located in the bottom left-hand corner of your Teams application to access the Microsoft Teams app store. Once inside the app store, search “Workflows” in the top left-hand search bar, and upon searching, install the “Workflows” application, which can be pinned to the sidebar for ease of future access.

Once the “Workflows” application has been installed, users can begin creating, managing and sharing Power Automate cloud flows. Upon opening the application, users will be greeted with a few different options to help them get started. The home screen enables users to begin creating new workflows quickly, either from blank or from one of the many templates Microsoft offers to help get users started on their automation journey. By selecting the “Create” tab located in the navigation bar at the top of the Teams window, users can browse all the available templates or begin creating brand-new workflow by selecting “Create from blank”.

From the home screen, users can also manage their existing cloud flows. Users can see a few important properties such as flow name, last modified date, co-owners, flow type as well as the team and channel that particular flow is applied to (if applicable) at a glance. Users can quickly turn a flow on and off with the status column switchers located next to the flow name. Clicking into one of these flows will take users directly to the flow details screen. This details screen provides a comprehensive overview of any given cloud flow, allowing users to efficiently manage and monitor its performance. Crucial details such as a flow name (1), connections (2), owner and who it is shared with (3) as well as its run history (4) are all available to ensure flows are running smoothly and efficiently.

One final capability of the workflows application in Microsoft Teams is the “Chat” feature. This feature allows you to list flows present within your Power Platform environment as well as get a description of the actions that flow performs. You can also trigger scheduled cloud flows or manually trigger flows that do not require any additional inputs to kick off. It functions similarly to all of your other Teams chats, allowing you to leverage this already familiar interface in new innovative ways.

With the “Workflows” application installed, users can create new automations in Teams. Teams serves as a platform for creating automation and can be automated with various triggers and actions in chats and channels. These triggers, such as user @mentions, specific keywords or responses to adaptive cards, can initiate cloud flows. Power Automate can seamlessly handle tasks like document management, automatically saving and organizing files and setting permissions based on the chat or channel. It can ensure OneDrive files are synced and backed up and send Outlook notifications for new content in Teams channels. These examples highlight just a few of the practical automation capabilities available with Teams and Power Automate.

Now that users are ready to begin their Microsoft Teams automation journey, here are some tips to more effectively create and manage these new cloud flows. When thinking about what to automate, it is helpful to identify repetitive and time-consuming tasks that do not require a lot of complex problem-solving to reduce manual effort and free up some time from your schedule for more strategic business challenges. With the integration of workflows into Microsoft Teams, you can collaborate with colleagues during the workflow creation process to identify additional valuable opportunities to automate and build flows together. In the spirit of collaboration, make sure to leverage the notes capabilities present for Power Automate actions to help alleviate any confusion for users that may be editing a workflow created by another user. Users should leverage the available templates to save themselves time during the automation creation process, allowing users to quickly reconfigure flows to fit their needs rather than creating brand new automatons from scratch, which can negatively impact their Microsoft Teams productivity. Finally, always monitor and maintain your flows regularly to ensure they are running as intended. Spend some time reviewing the available history and analytics to ensure proper workflow health, to reduce the likelihood of errors and optimize flow performance.