What Is MS Flow And How Can It Be Integrated Into MS Excel And Other Programs
When Microsoft first introduced MS Flow the main goal was to help businesses become more automated. This was especially focused on those companies that had many semi-repetitive tasks that needed to be performed many times per day. The software was designed with customer service, finance, accounting, human resources, marketing, sales, and accounting departments in mind. This was so that nearly every part of a business could perform their daily tasks more rapidly and increase productivity. There are many benefits to the use of MS Flow, here are some of the objectives, advantages, and compatibilities of the software.
Other Similar Software Is Too Complex
One of the main roadblocks to using these types of automation software is that they tend to be too complex to set up for each task. The goal of Flow was to reduce the amount of time, complexity, and effort in the setup phase to make the software more user friendly so it would be adopted more widely.
Some repetitive tasks that aren’t used very often would never be automated since the operation of programming them all would take more time than doing the task itself. Plus, remembering the hot keys to access each saved task would also become burdensome as well.
Not Always A Ready-Made Software Available
What many businesses encounter, when looking for software, is that the software that comes off the shelf doesn’t always fit their needs, exactly. Then, in order to customize their own software, they would need to hire professional programmers to first design the software, and then constantly update it as the tasks changed and compatibility issues arose.
This could become an expensive investment, having full-time programmers on the payroll, and could also leave a company stranded if any of their programmer left for another position. With a program such as MS Flow, most businesses can develop their own custom program solution to eliminate the use of programmers.
In addition to that, when MS Flow is used, other departments in the same business can integrate together to share data from different sources and work on devices like laptops, desktops, mobile phones, and tablets. This eliminates the need to always be in the office in order to work or make changes to an order.
Pre-Built Templates Can Be Used To Cover Many Solutions
In many cases it’s possible to take one of the already built templates that are available for Flow and adapt them to certain tasks. An online tutorial can walk a client through all of the steps, one at a time, to set up the various actions that are triggered as the end user goes through a finished template.
The idea is to make each step “flow” nicely after the data is entered and take the user to the next step where more data or information must be entered. This would help in filling out forms where calculations have to be made between each entry to provide the basis for the next step in the form.
Flow Can Be Integrated Into MS Excel and Other Programs
The great thing about Flow is its easy integration into Android or iOS mobile apps. Plus, it can also be connected into SharePoint Online and many other Microsoft applications as well. This includes the ability to create automations in up to 42 languages in 6 different regions of the world.
Flow can also be integrated into MS Excel by using an easy to install add-in from Microsoft. This add-in will enable a user to build flows while using the Excel program as well. Since so many people are trained in using, and have used, Excel for decades this makes connecting into Flow a breeze.
Using Excel, a user can adapt and transform many of the workbooks that they already know and use into Flow. And, then they can use Flow to use the same workbooks to perform other solutions for their business.
If you haven’t been introduced to Flow yet, there are hundreds of online tutorials on YouTube to get you started. Microsoft also has their own tutorials that you can read as well, making your business work and flow better to increase efficiency daily.
