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You may wonder when to use a Workflow and when to use Power Automate Flows. While both use automation, they are very different tools in Engage. See the details below for more information on each tool.
Workflow Manager and Workflows
Workflows are typically template based and are designed to work with a series of Tasks and/or checklists, and approvals. They allow you to automatically assign and track the completion of Tasks and assist in streamlining your business processes. Workflows are best suited for multi-step, repeatable processes that are always the same. Workflows do require user intervention to complete the individual tasks and/or checklists and approvals they contain. The benefits of using Workflows include increasing efficiency, ease of onboarding new users and new processes, reducing data entry, reducing missed steps of a process, and reducing human error.
Examples of business processes used in Workflows are New Account Opening, New Client Onboarding, Standard Deposit, and Standard Withdrawal. Each of these processes has repeatable steps that can be assigned to different people or teams automatically. Workflows are designed with an easy-to-use interface that also makes it easy to set up and manage for administrators. Salentica has even prebuilt several workflow templates to get you started. You can run the Workflow instantly, schedule it to run in the future, and even create recurring Workflows. To learn more about Workflow Manager and Workflows start here.
Example of a Workflow with Steps Assigned
This workflow includes steps for a withdrawal process and includes four steps. You can see in the Activities pane that one step is completed and two others are in an Open status.
Microsoft Power Automate Flows
Power Automate Flows can be considered more "pure" automation as Flows often do not require users to start or run them. Flows can help you automate mundane, repetitive business processes by working off of triggers and running processes or actions for you. Flows work based on conditions you set on a template, for example, specific updates made on certain fields can trigger a Flow to update other fields within Engage. Flows can also be used to create notifications about certain events and to create approvals.
An example of this is when a task is assigned in Engage, an email can be sent to Outlook for the assignee. Flows can also be run by clicking a button created for the Flow. You can create instant, scheduled, and recurring Flows. Creating Flows does require knowledge of Microsoft Power Automate and the Flows' use of triggers, actions, and connectors. Connectors allow you to use other Microsoft products such as Outlook, Excel, SharePoint, and OneDrive in Flow processes. To learn more about Microsoft Flow start here.
Example of a Flow In Power Automate
This flow is scheduled to run at 9:00 am daily and send a specified email.
Learn more about Power Automate Flows in this article.
