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Blue Prism vs Power Automate Desktop?

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Posted on by Dimani

Hello

We have an automation that was created by another team using Blue Prism, and we are considering using Power Automate Desktop to recreate it.

The reasons we are considering using Power Automate Desktop to recreate the automation is that Blue Prism are mainly it is slow, and it is relatively not that easy to learn, and it requires a license.
Power Automate Desktop is not approved by our company, and I wonder if it is a better choice, and we should pursue to have it approved for use.

I wonder if anyone has used both and if you think Power Automate Desktop is a better opinion?

The automation does the followings:
1. Open a web application and go to a particular website
2. Enter some values and click a button to generate a report
3. Click a button to open a file dialog, give it a file name and save it to a shared folder
4. Open Excel
5. Open the file generated in 3 above
6. Open a file that has a macro
7. Run a macro to process the file in 3 above
8. Save the processed file
9. Email users

There is a variation to the automation. Instead of generating the report in a web application, generate the report from Excel instead.
1. Open Excel
2. Select a menu item from the ribbon to list the available options and select one of them which is a login form
3. Enter the login username, password, and select the system (drop down list) to login. Once login, it displays another window for input entries
4. Enter input values for the report
5. Run the report and save it to a shared folder
6. Open the file generated in 5 above
7. Open a file that has a macro
8. Run a macro to process the file in 5 above
9. Save the processed file
10. Email users

Can Power Automate Desktop do all of the above?

How is the speed of Power Automate Desktop? We have a few hundred reports. Blue Prism takes 2-3 mins at least for each report.
Is Power Automate Desktop easy to learn?
Is it correct that Power Automate in M365 cannot do the above?

Thanks

Dimani

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Power Automate Desktop

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Gidi 601 on at

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Hi Dimani,
I can‘t compare the performance between Blue Prism and Power Automate Desktop, but I doubt that it‘s much difference here.
With Power Automate you can‘t execute Excel macros therefore you think about Power Automate Desktop. If the macros can’t be transferred into Office Scripts than you can automate the described processes with Power Automate Desktop.
For Power Automate Desktop you also need to consider license costs.

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MichaelAnnis 5,727 Moderator on at

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I’m fairly certain either option can be done. I hands, down prefer Microsoft Power Automate Desktop. I have been using PAD for 4 years and it has dominated my bot making. When I worked at SS&C, I spent 60 hours trying to learn Blue Prism, and still couldn’t get it to run a simple command line. I was horrified by the learning curve it had. PAD is very simple to learn with very little syntax learning curve. Variables are in parenthesis and anything numbered is a 0 index, so the first item is [0]. That’s really all you need to know to get started. It has ample documentation, and the PAD community is one of the best I’ve seen. Lastly, attended automation is free to users with M365 license, which is just about any business organization. Unattended can range based on per user, per bot, or pay-as-you-go, but it is pennies compared to blue prism.

Personal pitch: I am currently accepting clients and would love to set up a call. Feel free to message me if this is something that you are interested in.

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gquintana 2 on at

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Can Power Automate Desktop do all of the above?
Without any problem, Power Automate has 2 versions, the first in the cloud and this version is the one that comes integrated with the Office 365 license. This version executes flows only in the cloud through connectors to applications including most Microsoft products. In the case of your second robot, you would use Excel, and with this version you could do everything you request.
The second version is Power Automate Desktop and this version allows you to manipulate any application as if you were a user. This application would allow you to manipulate your web application and download the report you request, and through the web version you could send the email to your destination users.

How is the speed of Power Automate Desktop? The speed is very fast and of course the way and logic in which you build your robot influences, but you can build these two robots very quickly and they execute very quickly
Is it easy to learn how to use Power Automate Desktop?
Like any programming language, you have to dedicate some time to it, and understand that you are always learning new things, we train our programmers and it takes us approximately 1 month for them to learn the concept of robots (because it is a different concept from "traditional" programming) and Power Automate, so I consider that it is very easy to learn it, but it always helps if someone explains it to you, you can learn it on your own because there is a lot of documentation, but starting with a course is always the best.
Is it correct that Power Automate on M365 cannot do the above? As I told you, the Power Automate version of Office 365 can make the second robot without problems, and the first with the Power Automate Desktop version which has a cost increase of $40.00 US Dollars, but believe me, you are going to get a lot out of it.
I hope I have been clear and I hope this explanation helps you.
Gerardo Quintana

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MichaelAnnis 5,727 Moderator on at

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*deleted as duplicate.

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