Announcing the Process map public preview in Power Automate

Announcing the Process map public preview in Power Automate

Am really keen on exposing PowerApps / Flow news - this was provided from Microsoft Flow. You can read out the full post available on this link:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/blog/power-automate/announcing-the-process-map-public-preview-in-power-automate/

 

We’re thrilled to announce the public preview of Process Map in Power Automate, a significant advancement for process-centric observability at scale. This feature is seamlessly integrated into the Automation Center, your hub for end-to-end automation monitoring and management in Power Automate.

A screenshot of a computer

What is the Process Map?

The Process Map is designed to enhance process-centric troubleshooting and monitoring in Power Automate by providing increased visibility and efficiency. It offers a detailed, end-to-end view of a process that’s managed by a parent orchestrating flow, showing all of the associated child and desktop flows. The map also recognizes structural flow elements, such as conditions, and displays flows that didn’t execute due to specific conditional logic or upstream errors. This is critical for understanding how a problem in one part of the process can affect other parts and assists in taking appropriate countermeasures to address issues.

Key benefits:

  • Accelerated troubleshooting: Quickly identify and resolve issues with an end-to-end, process-centric view that includes contextual information on runs, connections, and design-time aspects.
  • Comprehensive visibility: Gain full transparency into your automation processes, including flows that were skipped or missed due to conditional logic or upstream issues.
  • Enhanced impact analysis: Understand and analyze how issues affect the entire process, facilitating faster recovery and implement effective countermeasures.
  • Stronger collaboration: End-to-end process visibility enables faster, context-rich communication with impacted teams, accelerating recovery and driving continuous improvement.

Key features

  • Runs view: Displays the main flow run that orchestrates the process and its child runs, enabling users to track execution, identify issues, and optimize processes.
  • Overview view: Provides a design-time process hierarchy view with connected subprocesses, offering quick insights and serving as the future home for aggregated process data and configurations.
  • Runs tab integration: We’ve enhanced the flow runs page with new run row hover options. New icons let you create or view process maps for the selected process run and its child runs.

How to get started

This feature is being rolled-out now and you can test it today in the US preview region. Further details are available in the Process Map documentation.

The post Announcing the Process map public preview in Power Automate appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Setting Edit Rights in a SharePoint Site – Approach with Caution!

Setting Edit Rights in a SharePoint Site – Approach with Caution!

Setting Edit Rights in a SharePoint Site – Approach with Caution!

Scenario: A marketing team is using a SharePoint site to collaborate on a critical presentation for an upcoming product launch. The document contains sensitive information such as pricing strategies and competitive analysis. All team members are given Edit rights to the site to encourage seamless collaboration. The site includes various document libraries and multiple automation points using document libraries and lists.

Incident: One of the team members, Alex, accidentally deletes a slide that outlines key metrics for the presentation while editing the document late at night. Unaware of the deletion, Alex saves the document and uploads it back to the SharePoint site.

The next morning, during a meeting with stakeholders, the team presents the incomplete document. The missing slide causes confusion, leading to miscommunication about the product’s goals. Additionally, retrieving the deleted content becomes time-consuming, as the team needs to check previous versions and piece together the missing information.

Impact:

  • Reputation Damage: The team appears unprepared and unprofessional in front of stakeholders.
  • Loss of Time: Valuable time is wasted trying to recover the deleted content and address the errors.
  • Potential Financial Implications: Miscommunication about product goals could lead to misaligned strategies, affecting the launch’s success.

Lesson: This scenario highlights the risks of granting Edit rights broadly. It underscores the importance of assigning Edit rights selectively and implementing controls such as versioning and approval workflows to safeguard critical documents

SharePoint is a powerful collaboration tool that allows teams to efficiently manage documents, share information, and work together on projects. However, when configuring access permissions, granting Edit rights indiscriminately can lead to several risks and challenges. Below are the key reasons why setting Edit rights in a SharePoint site should be approached with caution:

  1. Risk of Accidental Deletion or Modification

When users have Edit rights, they can modify or delete files, folders, or even site components. While this level of access may be necessary for certain roles, it can lead to accidental changes or deletions. This may result in loss of critical information, disrupted workflows, or significant time spent restoring deleted items.

  1. Compromised Data Integrity

Edit permissions allow users to alter content, which can introduce errors or inconsistencies. Without proper oversight, documents and information may lose their accuracy or become outdated due to untracked edits. Maintaining data integrity is essential, especially for projects or systems that rely on precise and consistent information.

  1. Lack of Version Control Awareness

While SharePoint does offer versioning capabilities, users with Edit rights may not always use them correctly. Overwriting files or failing to save new versions can make it challenging to recover previous iterations of a document. This can be particularly problematic in scenarios where collaboration requires retaining a history of changes.

  1. Security Risks

Granting Edit rights increases the risk of sensitive information being exposed or manipulated. Users may unintentionally or deliberately share content with unauthorized individuals, resulting in data breaches or non-compliance with organizational policies. Limiting permissions to read-only for most users helps safeguard confidential information.

  1. Disrupted Site Structure

Users with Edit rights can modify site components, such as views, lists, or libraries, potentially disrupting the site’s structure and functionality. Such changes can create confusion among other users and hinder productivity.

  1. Overcomplication of Permissions Management

If Edit rights are granted broadly, managing permissions becomes more complex. Revoking access, addressing security incidents, or troubleshooting issues can become tedious, especially if the site has a large user base.

Recommendations

To mitigate these risks, organisations should consider the following best practices:

  • Adopt the Principle of Least Privilege: Grant the minimum level of access necessary for users to perform their tasks effectively;
  • Use Read-Only Access for Most Users: Reserve Edit rights for a select group of individuals who truly need this level of control;
  • Implement Workflow Approvals: For edits to critical documents, use workflows to ensure changes are reviewed before implementation;
  • Regularly Audit Permissions: Periodically review user access to ensure it aligns with their current roles and responsibilities.

By carefully managing Edit rights in SharePoint, organisations can enhance collaboration while minimising risks and maintaining the integrity of their data and systems.

New Security Features for Desktop flows: Enhancing protection of identities, secrets and desktop infrastructure

New Security Features for Desktop flows: Enhancing protection of identities, secrets and desktop infrastructure

Am really keen on exposing PowerApps / Flow news - this was provided from Microsoft Flow. You can read out the full post available on this link:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/blog/power-automate/new-security-features-for-desktop-flows-enhancing-protection-of-identities-secrets-and-desktop-infrastructure/

 

Power Automate continues to evolve, bringing new security features to help organizations protect their data and automate intelligent processes more securely by design. Here are some of the latest enhancements:

Protect Identities and Secrets with credential management

  1. Desktop flow connection credentials with Azure key vault and CyberArk secrets: Power Automate now supports storing connection credentials securely in Azure Key Vault (AKV) or CyberArk. This ensures that passwords are encrypted and managed securely, reducing the risk of unauthorized access. This feature includes support for automatic connection updates at runtime (like when a password rotation occurs).
  2. Certificate-Based Authentication with MFA (Public preview): To further enhance security, Power Automate now supports certificate-based authentication in desktop flow connections. This passwordless solution adds an extra layer of security, meeting multi-factor authentication (MFA) requirements for attended as well as unattended scenarios. This feature is available from Power Automate for Desktop Build 2410.
  3. Credentials for Desktop flow actions (Public preview): For desktop flows, Power Automate allows the use of credentials directly within flow actions. This ensures sensitive information is handled securely, not stored in scripts or logs, and accessible only to authorized users. This feature is available from Power Automate for Desktop Build 2411.
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Protect Networks

  • VNet support for Hosted machine groups (Public preview): the Power Automate hosted RPA solution provides a streamlined approach for setting up and scaling robotic process automation (RPA) to run RPA workloads running on virtual machines managed by Microsoft and hosted on Azure infrastructure. You can now connect your own Azure virtual network (VNet) to your hosted machine groups (Public preview) enabling:
    • Network isolated, private environments with customized network security measures, such as Network Security Groups and firewalls, to control and monitor traffic.
    • Integration with on-premises networks through VPN or ExpressRoute where access to on-premises resources is necessary for RPA workloads.

Please note that connecting your own Azure VNet with individual hosted machines is already a generally available (GA) capability.

  • Network Level Authentication support on Microsoft Entra joined or hybrid devices (Public Preview)
    • Network Level Authentication (NLA) is a security measure that mandates user authentication prior to the establishment of a remote desktop connection. This feature assists organizations in mitigating the risk of unauthorized access by ensuring that only authenticated users can initiate a remote session, thereby protecting against vulnerabilities associated with the authentication process.
    • This feature is now supported when running unattended workload using a MS Entra ID account on a Microsoft Entra joined or hybrid device.

These new security features make Power Automate an even more robust tool for automating intelligent processes while maintaining a high level of security. By protecting identities and secrets, safeguarding networks, and monitoring for threats, organizations can confidently leverage Power Automate to drive efficiency with hypermation.

The post New Security Features for Desktop flows: Enhancing protection of identities, secrets and desktop infrastructure appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Boost productivity: Automate emails, documents, and images with Microsoft AI Builder

Boost productivity: Automate emails, documents, and images with Microsoft AI Builder

Am really keen on exposing PowerApps / Flow news - this was provided from Microsoft Flow. You can read out the full post available on this link:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/blog/power-automate/boost-productivity-automate-emails-documents-and-images-with-microsoft-ai-builder/

 

In today’s business environment, streamlined workflows and reduced manual tasks are essential. Microsoft AI Builder brings the power of advanced automation to routine processes like email handling, document processing, and image management, helping businesses run smarter and more efficiently. With new capabilities, including multi-modal content processing, structured JSON outputs, flexible model selection, Dataverse grounding, and an extensive prompt library, AI Builder elevates agents, apps and automation to the next level of business impact.

Next generation document and image processing with GPT

One of the most game-changing updates in AI Builder is the new multi-modal content processing capability, which allows businesses to handle various data types —including text, document, and images—within a single natural language instruction. This integration greatly simplifies the process of crafting AI actions for intelligent document processing. Unlike traditional machine learning models that require extensive training and expertise, AI Builder’s multi-modal processing can be set up using natural language, and without training data.

Structured JSON outputs now generally available

With AI Builder’s new structured JSON output feature, businesses gain a more deterministic and reliable way to handle generated content. Unlike traditional outputs that might vary in format and structure, JSON outputs are now generated with a consistent predefined schema that you define at design time, ensuring that every result aligns precisely with expected data formats. This determinism in content generation means your automated workflows will produce predictable, structured data every time, and those results will be readily integrated as variables in your Power Automate workflow for downstream processing. This feature is especially beneficial when integrating AI Builder outputs into other systems, as it reduces the need for additional data cleaning or transformation. Whether feeding data into a CRM, database, or custom application, you can ensure that data is generated in a structured and predictable way. 

Dataverse grounding is now generally available

The new Dataverse grounding capability empowers Generative AI models with up-to-date, contextually relevant information from your organization’s own data. By employing Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), AI Builder integrates directly with Dataverse to pull in real-time, business-specific knowledge, giving models a deeper understanding of your unique context.

This RAG-enhanced approach allows AI models to dynamically retrieve and incorporate relevant data from Dataverse during processing, enabling Q&A scenarios with accurate responses that are also highly contextualized to your organization. For instance, models can instantly access customer histories, product information, and up-to-the-minute operational data, enriching outputs with knowledge directly grounded in your business reality.

As part of this feature becoming generally available, the capability has been enhanced to support multiple tables, including tables with large amounts of data records.

Model selection: GPT-4o and GPT-4o Mini

AI Builder offers flexibility in model selection, allowing users to choose between the powerful GPT-4o and the cost-effective GPT-4o Mini. This adaptability enables customization based on specific project requirements and resource considerations. 

Prompt library

The prompt library feature provides a collection of pre-designed prompts, serving as templates to expedite the creation of AI models. This resource accelerates development and ensures best practices are followed in prompt engineering. Users can modify templates to suit specific needs, adjusting language, tone, and detail to match organizational standards and requirements. The templates cover key areas like document extraction, data transformation, and content generation, making it easy for users to find the right starting point for their intelligent automation goals. 

Use cases to get started

With AI Builder, you don’t need to be a coding expert to leverage the power of AI in your daily operations. By creating prompts that can extract information from documents, classify emails, and even analyze images, you can empower your team to work smarter, not harder. AI Builder works hand-in-hand with other Power Platform tools like Power Automate, Copilot Studio and Power Apps, enabling users to create intelligent workflows and applications that are customized to meet the needs of any business.

For example, let’s say your team frequently processes customer inquiries. Using AI Builder and Power Automate, you can design a workflow that analyzes the content of incoming emails, categorizes them by urgency or topic, and even suggests responses. This not only saves time but also keeps communication consistent and efficient. By setting up this automated flow, businesses can stay on top of customer interactions and ensure timely responses.

Are you ready to bring AI to your organization?

The AI Builder Documentation provides a comprehensive guide on setting up AI Builder, configuring models, and integrating it with tools like Power Automate and Power Apps. For step-by-step tutorials, the Microsoft Learn AI Builder Learning Path is an excellent place to start. It covers everything from foundational concepts to advanced use cases, helping users of all levels become proficient in leveraging AI Builder to automate and optimize workflows.

Join our Ignite sessions and read about other exciting announcements for Microsoft Power Platform:

The post Boost productivity: Automate emails, documents, and images with Microsoft AI Builder appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

The next frontier in enterprise intelligent automations with Microsoft Power Automate

The next frontier in enterprise intelligent automations with Microsoft Power Automate

Am really keen on exposing PowerApps / Flow news - this was provided from Microsoft Flow. You can read out the full post available on this link:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/blog/power-automate/the-next-frontier-in-enterprise-intelligent-automations-with-microsoft-power-automate/

 

The latest AI experiences in Power Automate are redefining the boundaries of what is possible in enterprise automation—transforming how we optimize and manage business processes to achieve more. Developers can now create advanced automation faster, business analysts can quickly extract, analyze, and optimize critical processes, and IT administrators can seamlessly manage and govern automation at scale. Copilot in Power Automate makes it faster to build solutions that save valuable time and reduce costs, thereby achieving business outcomes. Step into the future with the Power Automate advanced, enterprise-grade intelligent automation solutions.

Find the right low-code automation plan for your business with Power Automate.

Build advanced, reliable automations faster with AI 

Developers are key to business process innovation. In Power Automate, it is now possible to build automations that utilize AI within cloud flows using generative actions, easily use natural language to create expressions for flows with Copilot for expressions, and incorporate document processing into workflows with next-generation document processing. These features enhance developers’ ability to deliver solutions efficiently and effectively. 

Introducing next-generation document processing with GPT 

Efficient document management is vital for smooth operations and timely decisions, but traditional AI models require lengthy training and frequent updates. With GPT-4-powered document processing, now available in public preview, you can use natural language to extract and process unstructured data from documents like invoices, medical results, or emails. This next-gen tool handles multi-modal content, automating email, document, and image processing for improved productivity. For makers who want to blend in pro-code or gain greater control, we’ve added the ability to structure outputs using JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) directly inline. Makers can combine multi-modal content with enterprise knowledge from Microsoft Dataverse in their prompts. This feature enables makers to quickly deploy document and image processing directly into existing workflows using natural language instructions.  

Learn more in our Use AI Builder in Power Automate documentation and be sure to join our Power Automate session for a deep dive. 

Transform your automation processes with generative actions 

Generative actions allow you to add AI-powered steps to your cloud flows, letting AI reason over enterprise guardrails provided in unstructured content format such as documents and PDFs, and decide the best course of action for complex tasks. For example, with generative actions you can automate conditional approvals based on the content of incoming emails and company policies. This feature, currently in the Early Access Program, is coming soon to public preview, when you will be able to create, edit, test, and run generative actions all from within the cloud flow designer. 

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Create and edit expressions faster with Copilot 

Copilot for expressions, now in public preview, is designed to assist developers and makers in creating or editing complex expressions using natural language. By simply describing what you want to build and referencing the dynamic data in the flow, Copilot translates your prompts into specific expressions in your Power Automate flow, speeding up development and reducing manual coding time. 

UI of cloud flows designer in Power Automate where a user has entered text in the "Generate an expression with Copilot" field and has a suggested expression.

To learn more about this feature and how to get started, read our Create and edit expressions with Copilot documentation.

Streamline automation and operations  

Monitor and manage at scale with new automation center 

Automation center, now generally available, is a central hub for efficient monitoring and troubleshooting experiences for automation processes across Power Automate at scale. The automation center provides comprehensive visualizations that enable you to monitor the health of your automations, quickly detect issues or trends, and troubleshoot problems more efficiently. 

Whether you’re a developer, operator, Center of Excellence team member, or business analyst, the automation center provides a centralized view of all automation activities. Now generally available, it features a user-friendly interface with dashboards that show recommendations, the health status of work queues, and desktop flow activity. Additionally, new views for execution logs, performance metrics, and integrated agents are now available in public preview. 

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To learn more and to get started, read our Automation center documentation.

Improve robotic process automation (RPA) reliability using repair with Copilot 

Repair with Copilot, now in public preview, simplifies resolving user interface (UI) control issues in both attended and unattended RPA with Power Automate for desktop. By proactively providing solutions to common automation issues, such as notifying the right person in the automation center, repair with Copilot reduces downtime for RPA scenarios.  

Example of using repair with Copilot for unattended RPA:

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Example of using repair with Copilot for attended RPA: 

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To learn more and get started with repair with Copilot, read our UI and browser automation actions documentation.

Start your journey into a new era of automation and AI 

Are you ready to bring your organization into the future with the latest AI capabilities in Power Automate? Get started with a free trial or compare plans, join our sessions below at Microsoft Ignite 2024, and read about other exciting announcements for Microsoft Power Platform.  

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The post The next frontier in enterprise intelligent automations with Microsoft Power Automate appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.