Democratizing

Automation
The new imperative for the enterprise
 June 2021 Table of contents 2

1/ 4/ 7/
Unlocking human Security and compliance Automation for all
potential through at the core
automation

2/ 5/
Automation that works AI that’s future-ready,
for people available now

3/ 6/
Enabling human ingenuity Power Automate:
at enterprise scale Automation for all
 June 2021 Unlocking human potential 3
through automation

Unlocking
human potential
through
automation
 June 2021 Unlocking human potential 4
through automation

Technology enables humans to be repetitive, hands-on, error-prone tasks are

more efficient by freeing us from a drag on the strategic thinking needed
time-consuming, manual processes. to drive the business forward. Businesses
But widespread technology adoption has need to constantly evolve and accomplish
ushered in new inefficiencies. Information more strategic work, in less time, with fewer
channels inundate workers with emails and resources.
notifications, and much of the day is filled
with manual data entry and copy-and-
paste exercises. Disconnected solutions
require people to patch together processes
across siloed information sources. These

OPPORTUNITY EVERYWHERE

60% of all
occupations have
at least 30% of
activities that could
be automated1

1
McKinsey, Driving Impact at Scale from
Automation and AI, February 2019.
June 2021 Unlocking human potential 5
through automation

Manual processes are still holding us

back. Human cognition and creativity—
the fundamental drivers of business
value—should be freed to focus on
driving innovation for the organization.

Frictionless ways to automate repetitive

tasks and improve processes put the focus
back where it belongs: on sophisticated,
strategic work. Automating tedious tasks
frees us for more time to create. To consider
the big picture. To think. To innovate.

Automation empowers us all to achieve

more. It’s time to rethink automation.
 June 2021 Automation that works 6
for people

Automation that
works for people
June 2021 Automation that works 7
for people

Today’s savvy business workers are

creative and skillful at combining
multiple tools and applications to invent
new processes fine-tuned to solve their
specific challenges. But too often, siloed
applications force them to resort to manual
entry, repetitive cut-and-paste actions, and
other mundane activities.

Freeing workers for more strategic work

calls for a fresh approach to automation. A
low-code approach that requires minimal
programming skills makes automation
accessible to all. It must also meet the entire
spectrum of an organization’s automation
needs by encompassing both API-based
digital process automation as well as UI-
based robotic process automation. API-
based automation executes workflows
across the immense variety of modern
cloud services that workers use every day.
UI-based automation automates processes
and exchanges data with legacy, on-
premises software that is still essential in
many enterprises.
 June 2021 Automation that works 8
for people

With this approach, workers use

preconfigured templates and simple
Excel-like expressions to create
automations on their own. This is the
democratization of automation: where
everyone is given the tools to do their jobs
faster, smarter, and more easily. And where
everyone has a voice in how to make the
organization more efficient, from the entry
level to the C-suite.

Almost half of all

work activities
50% globally could be
automated using
current technology1

1
McKinsey, Driving Impact at Scale from
Automation and AI, February 2019.
 June 2021 Enabling human ingenuity 9
at enterprise scale

Enabling human
ingenuity at
enterprise scale
June 2021 Enabling human ingenuity 10
at enterprise scale

Automation is more
than a solution
to a short-term
problem. It’s a
long-term strategy
and an investment
in leveraging the
talents within teams.
One that can help
uncover and create
new efficiencies for
years to come.
But until recently, the ability to automate
remained in the hands of coding experts—
human resources available only for selected,
high-priority initiatives. Fully unlocking
the promise of automation calls for scalability
across multiple dimensions. The requirements
• Cost. Cost-effective, usage-based
encompass:
• Applications. Automation extends to all the
applications that teams touch every day.
• Data sources. Integration with a common
data platform, along with the ability
to connect to data from on-premises
software and cloud services, creates
connectivity across the entire business.
pricing scales across any scope of
automation required, from individual use
to enterprise-wide adoption.

• Abilities. Novices get started quickly with

prebuilt templates, while more technical
users and professional developers use the
same tools for building robust, tailored
automations to execute enterprise-wide
process improvements.
 June 2021 Enabling human ingenuity 12
at enterprise scale

With automation ACTIVITIES WITH HIGH

AUTOMATION POTENTIAL1

built for growth,

organizations
can scale up with
confidence 64%

Collecting data

69%

Processing data

1
McKinsey, Driving Impact at Scale from
Automation and AI, February 2019.
 June 2021 Security and compliance 13
at the core

Security and
compliance at
the core
When workers automate workflows that
access sensitive, confidential, or private
data, security can’t be an afterthought.
An automation platform must be founded
on security and compliance for the entire
organization and must embed the following:
• Integration with directory services to
deliver secure, cloud-based identity and
access-management services, with security
across the enterprise
• Built-in data handling practices that meet
or exceed standard data resiliency laws
• Data privacy protection that enforces
industry best practices, adhering to the
strictest codes
• Native data loss prevention with
customizable policies, avoiding the need to
buy third-party services
Enterprise-grade governance delivers the
essential visibility and control that IT needs
to ensure compliance, keep the use of
automation within acceptable boundaries,
and protect the organization—all while
giving individuals and teams the freedom to
automate processes independently.
 June 2021 AI that’s future-ready, 15
available now

AI that’s future-
ready, available
now

The ability to automate familiar and
repetitive tasks is only the beginning.
Choosing an intelligent automation platform
takes artificial intelligence out of the hands
of data scientists and puts it into the hands
of those who can make immediate use of
it. In fact, everyday automation is the ideal
application for moving artificial intelligence
from the theoretical realm and into doing
practical work.
Templates and drag-and-drop simplicity
allow everyday users to build, train, and
publish AI-driven workflows and models.
Prebuilt, templated models allow frontline
business users to embed AI capabilities
for handling tedious tasks such as invoice
processing, form processing, prediction,
object detection, and text classification.
June 2021 AI that’s future-ready, 16
available now
AI capability will become absolutely essential
as digitization continues to explode and
applications and devices generate more
data. Operationalizing intelligence at a
larger scale will lead to better products,
streamlined operations, and greater value.
And the key enabler is comprehensive
automation, made accessible to all. This is
what will allow enterprises to keep up with
the rapidly expanding art of intelligence and
maximize the value that can be extracted
from innovation.
 June 2021 Power Automate: 17
Automation for all

Power Automate:
Automation for all
June 2021 Power Automate: 18
Automation for all

Microsoft Power Automate empowers

everyone—from workers on the
frontline of business to experts at the
forefront of technology—to seamlessly
build secure, automated workflows that
reduce manual, repetitive tasks. Without
writing a single line of code.

Bringing robotic process automation and

digital process automation together into
one seamless, integrated SaaS offering,
Power Automate handles everything from
simple tasks to complex, enterprise-wide
processes. It serves the entire spectrum of
an organization’s automation needs.
 June 2021 Power Automate: 19
Automation for all

Power Automate integrates connectors Business teams and IT alike can reduce their
for more than 270 popular apps and backlogs and focus on what really matters:
services, and it supports legacy, on- doing the more complex things that
premises software for which there are machines can’t. The very things that make
no APIs. It natively integrates Dynamics us human.
365, Microsoft 365, and Azure, using
Azure Active Directory for authentication
and security. Across them all, workers can
create workflows that deliver notifications,
synchronize files, collect data, and more.
 June 2021 Automation for all 20

Automation
for all

Request a demo of Power Automate

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