Power Automate Your Admin Routines

Most Microsoft 365 subscriptions include Power Automate, which uses AI to automate a lot of administrative tasks. It not only eliminates a lot of tedious copying-and-pasting routines, but it also lets you put many routines on an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly schedule, taking the burden of remembering things off your shoulders.

Power Automate lets you create automated workflows between various applications and services, such as sending notifications, moving data between systems, and managing approvals. It also works seamlessly with Microsoft 365 tools like Excel, SharePoint, and Teams, as well as third-party applications in what Microsoft calls a “low-code environment” that lets users with little to no coding experience to create workflows easily. It has three types of workflows:

  • Cloud Flows that trigger automatically, instantly, or on a schedule
  • Desktop Flows that automate tasks on desktop applications and the web
  • Generative Actions that use AI features such as Copilot to determine the right actions based on user intent

Power Automate is suitable for any size user base, ranging from individuals to large corporations. Anyone with a work or school email address can sign up and register to access the platform through a web browser or the Power Automate desktop app available for Windows.

One of the ways I’m using it is to look for emailed reports that I get several times a day in Outlook. It takes the data in the reports and enters them into an Excel spreadsheet and color codes it to indicate which numbers have changed or remain the same. It also lets me know what numbers have not changed for two weeks. AI reads my invoices, and it scans data and puts it into a OneNote notebook that I can look at and decide what to keep.

I also use Power Automate to track my appointments and hours, and I now have a routine that sorts them all on the first of the month. Overall, I’d say all my routines saved me 17 hours of work in the last week.

While similar automation platforms are available, Power Automate integrates much better with Microsoft systems, including third-party apps that tie into Microsoft. To make it work effectively for you, keep these factors in mind.

  • There are limits to how many requests you can make in a 24-hour period.
  • You need to select the right triggers and actions to ensure your workflows are activated precisely when needed.
  • You need to clearly document your workflows thoroughly so that those who maintain the system and work team members understand the workflow logic.
  • You must test it comprehensively and thoroughly to ensure that your workflows function as intended and handle errors gracefully.

We can help you set up and optimize Power Automate routines focusing on adopting consistent naming conventions, implementing robust error handling, and avoiding unnecessary loops. We can also help with configuration management and flow performance monitoring for continued efficiency. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to discuss your needs and design a system for them.

Yeah, Tablets Are That Good

We stopped by the home of a client we hadn’t seen in person for a while to pick up a couple of old Macs for disposal. They had been in the habit of bringing along a computer when traveling, but when I showed them my iPad with a mouse and keyboard, it started a whole new conversation.

As most of you know, we’ve been traveling a lot lately, and in addition to my phone and computer, I’ve brought along my DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera for fine photography. The computer has been a necessity for complex remote service for our clients’ tech problems and for downloading our photos as we go from place to place.

However, I’ve been able to add a keyboard and mouse to my iPad, and that’s mostly made my computer unnecessary. The display clarity on my iPad is nothing short of remarkable, and the screen is big enough to give me all the information I need for work and play. I can access clients’ computers remotely and see their screens as well as I can with a computer.

For a short time or maybe longer, you might find a tablet more to your liking than your laptop, especially if you travel a lot or are mostly mobile. Many of the apps we use, such as Microsoft 365 with Word, Excel and PowerPoint, have mobile apps for Apple and Android phones and tablets. You can also find mobile versions for apps like Photoshop or use the phot editing capabilities in iCloud or Google Photos. All of them take advantage of the cloud, and they work well on tablet screens.

And while we’re on the subject of phones, we’re increasingly inclined to leave our large cameras in our hotel rooms or ship cabins – or even at home – because the lenses in our phones’ cameras are getting better. We can tout the benefits of the latest iPhone Pro models. They’re small enough to put in our pocket but have the capabilities of any point-and-shoot camera and a wider angle lens on a DSLR. They are also very good in low-light environments. The only area where the DSLR and a high-quality lens are better is a long-distance closeup.

And, of course, when you upload your pictures to the cloud – from both your phone or your DSLR – you can see a large, crisp display of each photo on your tablet screen and make some quick edits, such as cropping and color/light adjustments.

Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to talk about finding more ways to use your tablet instead of your computer and to see what tablet may best suit your needs. And we might even be able to help you find a photography club, too.

Old Windows, Old Files

Believe it or not, we have some clients who need to keep computers capable of running really old versions of Windows to access equally old files. They need to keep these legacy systems going, and we have ways to help them.

One client still has a system running on Windows XP. Windows XP is 24 years old, yet some people consider it to be one of the best pieces of software ever made by Microsoft, and the best all-round version of Windows. It had a reputation for being a reliable workhorse.

One of the apps it can run is Lotus 1-2-3, a discontinued spreadsheet program from Lotus Software. It was the first killer application for the IBM PC and was hugely popular in the 1980s. Running on DOS, the operating system that preceded Windows, it significantly contributed to the success of IBM PC-compatibles in the business market.

Our client still has Lotus 1-2-3 files, which contain vitally needed information, and a computer with Windows XP. Because the Windows system hasn’t been updated for many years, it needs to be kept offline with a separate firewall so that files can be accessed and printed without jeopardizing the company’s security.

While this is an extreme situation, this client is not alone. We support a number of clients who need to use legacy systems, and our major concerns are preserving their access to files and keeping their systems secure.

Because backward compatibility depends on what files can be read, we do whatever we can to make sure files are backed up. We also set up parallel systems to protect online security for the rest of their technology. The older the legacy system is, the more intricate our solution becomes. For most clients, this involves Excel spreadsheets.

If you have a Windows operating system that’s older than Windows 11, we should be looking at systems to backup files and maximize your access. Technology changes quickly, and the sooner we can get to something, the better the plan we can design and implement to protect your valuable data and access to it.

Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to start the conversation. It’s much easier to get everything in order as soon as possible, and that will also help you control your costs.

Microsoft ‘Ignites’ Tech Initiatives

We’ve all grown along with Microsoft, starting with its DOS operating system and moving through Windows and its many reiterations and the package of Word, Excel and other apps that evolved into Office 365. It’s fair to say the company and its products are entrenched in our daily lives, like it or not. At the Ignite technical conference, they showed how they’re digging deeper.

Delivering the keynote at this year’s Ignite conference, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella highlighted the company’s latest product and service launches, including new tools and services for the Azure cloud platform. Most of you are familiar with Azure because we’ve built your backup services on it. We’ll talk more about Azure and backup services in Azure – Always at Work in the Background, but Nadella’s talk showed how all the technology is tying together to ultimately give you more computing power.

“We want every organization to be a digital software company. And that means you all need to have the capabilities to be able to turn every organization into a digital company,” Nadella said. “In fact, our goal is to commoditize digital tech. We don’t want it to be just the province of a few companies in the West Coast of the United States or the East Coast of China…we want every company out there to be a tech company in its own right.”

Let that sink in. Whether you are a small business, a home-based business or a family user, Microsoft wants to treat you as a digital company. We can trace our path to this point from the time that Microsoft opened Office 365, OneDrive and Azure to the smaller users. It’s enabled all of us to share in the technological advances made possible by the economies of scale – and it will only get better.

Nadella touted the introduction of Azure Arc as the beginning of a new era in hybrid computing. Boiled down to simple terms, hybrid computing allows data and applications to be shared across public and private cloud environments – server systems. It will, in turn, enable companies – and you, eventually – to switch seamlessly between private servers used for sensitive operations and public servers for less sensitive operations. That will add speed and ultimately let you pay only for the service you need. Nobody will need to build systems to handle spikes in operations because the hybrid system will handle the supply-and-demand needs of users. Everyone will benefit from flexibility, scalability, and cost efficiencies with the lowest possible risk of data exposure. Azure Arc will be enhanced by open-source projects that will allow developers to build and deploy more power applications.

With the introduction of Azure Synapse, Microsoft will offer data warehousing and big-data analytics, using cloud-native memory hierarchy and storage hierarchy to redefine the rules around analytic workloads. It will bring together two separate categories, data warehousing and big data – in ways that integrate analytics systems. Eventually, this capability should filter down to smaller users who need it on an affordable scale.

Two other products that caught our eye are:

  • Project Cortex is an AI (artificial intelligence) initiative that works with Office 365 to classify and categorize content, such as documents and email, to gain greater knowledge within their context. It is expected to be generally available during the first half of 2020.
  • Project Silica will use quartz glass as a storage device. The company is collaborating with Warner Bros., who stored the original 1978 “Superman” on a piece of glass approximately the size of a coaster. Project Silica uses laser optics to encode data in glass and then uses machine-learning algorithms to decode the data. It’s said to be incredibly durable.

As time goes on, we may be able to incorporate some or all these advances into your technology or business operations. Some of these advances may involve new computers, services or networks to help you take advantage of the benefits that apply to you. We can help you plan for these and other developments. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to talk about where your business is heading and how we can plan for the most efficient acquisition and deployment of suitable systems.