What is Power Automate

Microsoft Power Automate is an application available as part of Microsoft’s 365 suite of apps that allows end-users to create and automate workflows. A process in Power Automate is referred to as a Flow. Flows can be used to automate almost any business processes. Flows can trigger notifications through emails or text messages, copy files between platforms or send documents through an approval process just to name a few examples. To be able to execute these automated processes, Power Automate uses Data Connectors (described in the next paragraph). There are different licenses available for Power Automate, each with different features and permissions. For an overview of the licenses available for Power Automate, so you can choose the best plan for your organisation, click the link below:
https://emea.flow.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/

So Power Automate allows you to record step-by-step actions such as mouse clicks, keyboard use, and data entry, and then replay those actions and turn them into intelligent workflows.

Data Connectors

A Data connector allows information to pass between different computer platforms. Each data connector usually requires you to add a username and password. For example if you were to create a flow where you want an email attachment to get  saved to OneDrive, the flow would need your Outlook credentials as well as your OneDrive credentials.
A flow uses these Data Connectors to enable information to pass between systems. Therefor, a Flow would use multiple data connections to save an email attachment to OneDrive or a PowerApps form entry submitted to a SharePoint list.

Elements of the Power Automate Home Screen

To create flows we can click the ‘Create’ link in the Navigation Pane. This gives us three options to create a new flow in the main window. They are:

1.     Start From Blank

2.     Start from a template

3.     Start from Connector

Create a flow from a template

Flows can be created two ways:

1.     Based on an existing Flow template

2.     Created as a Blank Flow.

For the first flow we will use one of the provided templates. Flow templates are provided by Microsoft as part of the Power Automate app. Each template is a ready-made workflow that you can use to create the basis for your own Flow.

You can start with a template and completely alter the different steps of the flow by adding, editing or removing steps, rather than starting from blank. This is a good way to learn about the different flows, how they are set up and what sort of steps are included.

Running a Flow

To test a flow after you created it, it must be ‘triggered’. A trigger specifies the conditions that starts a flow. When the trigger condition is true, the system starts the flow.

Triggers

There are different types of triggers that can cause a flow to initiate. In the table on the next page you will find an overview of the types of triggers available and what the condition is for them to start a flow.

For a detailed overview of the full list of trigger types please click the link below.
https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/orlando-servicenow-platform/page/administer/flow-designer/reference/flow-triggers.html