Previously integrations between systems have been rather specific. For instance, someone has build an integration between Dynamics 365 and Mail Chimp or something similar. The introduction of Logic Apps and Power Automate has, however, at least from a Microsoft ecosystem perspective, changed this quite a lot. Now, when someone asks for an integration it is usually preferable to build and use custom or standard connectors in Power Automate / Logic Apps instead. This allows for more flexibility in the integration with the downside that the actual logical flow of the integration still has to be built, which can be a daunting task in itself in some cases.
Hence, when we at CRM-Konsulterna started a conversation with one of the larger digital signature companies in Sweden, Verified, about helping them create an integration to Dynamics/Power Platform, we suggested to them that we acutally not build an integration at all but rather a connector to Logic Apps/Power Automate. This connector has now been released and we are very proud of this and hope that it can be of great use to many companies that want to build integrations to Verified.
And as LogicApps/Power Automate are more generic solutions, this actually enables integrations to any of the other 600+ systems to which there are connectors nowdays. Hence someone who wants to build an integration to Saleforce or even SurveyMonkey can now do this using Power Automate or Logic Apps.
One of the things that need to be mentioned with regards to Power Automate is, however, that there sometimes are issues with the execution of Flows. This is not particuarly common but it does happen. It has also been improved over time by Microsoft but we do feel that it is important to consider this fact when building integrations with Power Automate. So, for instance making sure the logic both triggers on a particular event and has a “clean up” job which runs periodically and catches any records which for some reason wasn’t processed correctly.
I don’t think this should discourage the use of Power Automate or Logic Apps but that you need to make the logic a bit more robust.
Another interesting issue which can arise due to the fact that Power Automate is so easy to work with is that people with no programming experience start making Flows. This might not be a problem if you make a simple flow but with more complex logic you typically have to consider some fringe cases, what we call exceptions in programming, for instance if there is no data in a field where data is expected. This can cause a Flow excution to break or do unforseen things. Hence, having a good process for monitoring Flows and having experts have a look at them to notice any potiential problems, especially when they grow in complexity, compliance or use.
With this, I hope you have fun with Power Automate and create some amazing Flows to help you in your everyday life! And thank you all amazing colleagues who made the launch of this connector possible.
Read more about it on Microsoft Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/verified/
Read more about Verified: https://www.verified.eu/
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