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At Microsoft Ignite Microsoft announced ‘Microsoft Power Automate Desktop’.  A new desktop-based robotic process automation (RPA) authoring solution that expands low-code automation capabilities for everyone in an organization. In plain English, the translation for RPA is ‘software used to minimize or eliminate manual efforts involved in different areas of your organization’.

What Is Project Power Automate Desktop?

With Power Automate Desktop built into the M365 platform, Microsoft is extending the automation capabilities in Power Automate to on-premises processes and tasks, making it possible to automate any desktop or web-based application. Power Automate Desktop introduces a new drag-and-drop visual designer with over 370+ actions that run on your desktop, so you can automate everyday tasks to more complex business processes and workflows—all from one intelligent automation platform.

Power Automate has two distinct audiences:

• Line-of-business “Citizen Integrators” in enterprise organizations who partner with IT to move responsibility for business solutions closer to the business itself.
• IT decision makers who want to empower line-of-business partners to create their own solutions so IT professionals and integration specialists can focus their expertise on more advanced integration tools, such as Azure Logic Apps.

Building on the power of RPA, advanced functionality in the desktop environment enables any business user to:

• Accelerate automation with an easy-to-use visual designer
• Simulate multiple scenarios with the web and desktop recorders
• Automate Windows applications with key actions
• Reduce bottlenecks with flexible exception handling

Why Does it Matter?

RPA tools play an important role in modern companies because they can automate manual or repetitive human tasks, freeing workers to focus on more important work. This saves organizations time and money by letting workers focus more time on important more complicated tasks. One of the hottest emerging technologies in recent years has been RPA.

Companies who are already invested in the M365 Power Platform and are leveraging Power Automate will already be licensed for Power Automate Desktop.

What’s Next?

See how the City of Kobe has leveraged Power Automate and the Power Platform to support it’s citizens. You can now  access the Power Automate Desktop Preview on Microsoft’s Power Automate site.