As businesses continue to look at how they can automate processes in 2023 and beyond, many view Microsoft Power Automate and Nintex Automation Cloud as the two leading platforms in the business process automation (BPA) space. Although both platforms provide similar services in BPA, it is important to understand the key differences between them before you decide which platform is best for your organization.
At Elantis, we have unique insight into process automation based on our experience with clients and our knowledge of industry best practices and standards. As a Microsoft Gold-Certified Partner, our team members have multiple Microsoft certifications and specialize in the Power Platform. As a Nintex Premier Partner, Elantis has a team dedicated to BPA, including a Nintex virtual Technical Evangelist—one of only 15 in North America.
This article provides an unbiased view on BPA and highlights why BPA is integral to the future of your business, the challenges of BPA, and the advantages and disadvantages of Microsoft Power Automate and Nintex Automation Cloud.
The Future of Business Will Be Automated
Intelligent workflow has risen in popularity over the past five years; it is clear that workflow automation services will continue to grow, and that early implementation of automated processes will give your business a competitive advantage. In fact, if you are not already considering automation for your business, you might be falling behind.
In a recent survey of over 400 business and technology leaders, 47% of those leaders already began implementing intelligent automation for their processes (a 30% increase from the same survey last year). Furthermore, 87% of those leaders believe that organizations that are not currently automating business processes will be negatively impacted by this decision within the next five years.
The choice is not if you should implement BPA in your organization—it is how you should implement BPA, and what BPA platform is best for your organization.
Common Challenges of Business Process Automation
Having a solid workflow automation strategy can skyrocket productivity in all facets of your organization. Before choosing between Microsoft Power Automate and Nintex Automation Cloud, it is important to understand the common challenges businesses face regarding BPA. Understanding these challenges will help you make an informed decision when considering the advantages and disadvantages of BPA platforms.
Some common BPA challenges are:
- Integration and Compatibility: Since BPA focuses on automating workflows across all systems in an organization, it is important to ensure that legacy systems and software are integrated and compatible with the BPA platform you choose.
- Maintaining Security and Privacy: As efficient as BPA is for maximizing productivity, it is also important to develop a content governance strategy to help ensure there are no privacy risks within your BPA workflows.
- Failure to Focus on Continuous Improvement: As with any AI-powered service, BPA services are optimized if they are properly managed by administrators. A common challenge faced by organizations is the dependence on BPA to solve problems for the business, without considering how administrators can provide direction to make sure they are continuously improving and optimizing the BPA platform.
- Lacking Trust in Unbiased Decision Making: BPA platforms offer objective, quantifiable solutions to workflow challenges. It is important to trust the decision making powers of BPA platforms, using them to understand how biases can inform human-made workflow solutions.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Microsoft Power Automate
- Advantages:
- Power Automate contains an extensive list of templates that can be used to automate simple process tasks. These templates are focused on specific triggers to help Power Automate understand exactly where certain workflow action points can be automated.
- Power Automate includes a large number of connectors that can be integrated with other services, such as Salesforce and Dropbox. This list of connectors is constantly growing, ensuring that your BPA services with Power Automate can be adopted seamlessly within your ecosystem of existing workflow services.
- Disadvantages:
- The main limitation of Power Automate is that it specializes in automated processes in sequence, meaning automated processes going from point 1 to 2 to 3, for example. In this sense, these automated processes cannot be triggered to alter processes earlier in the sequence.
- Once a specific workflow is implemented, it cannot be altered once started.
- There is a limit of actions that can be implemented per workflow, so you need to make sure every triggered action is critical to the success of your automated workflow.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Nintex Automation Cloud
- Advantages:
- Nintex Automation Cloud includes a highly advanced form-building process that can help build, store, and share documents with complicated logistics.
- Through innovative Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Nintex Automation Cloud is perpetually striving to eliminate all manual processes within a workflow.
- As a result of RPA, the use of Nintex can often be far less time-consuming than other BPA platforms.
- Disadvantages:
- Higher costs of implementation and maintenance of BPA services, as well as the management of its cloud database.
- Creation of some workflows can be more complicated and less user-friendly, requiring more coding knowledge than workflows in Power Automate.
- If there is a bug or a broken workflow, solutions may be complicated and need to be fixed by a knowledgeable expert.
Which Process Automation Platform is Best?
Although Microsoft Power Automate and Nintex Automation Cloud offer similar BPA services, there are key differences that may make each service better suited for some organizations than others. The best part about the BPA dilemma is that there are no wrong decisions; both platforms are leaders in the BPA sector, so the decision depends on which of these services is best for your business.
As a Microsoft-Gold Certified partner and Nintex Premier Partner, Elantis is well positioned to offer a unique view for unbiased recommendations. Our team of automation experts can help you decide which process automation platform is best for your organization.
If your organization is exploring process automation options, how do you know which platform is best used when, where, and how? The question is often, “Which platform is best?” But the answer doesn’t always consider cost control, compatibility, or complexity.
During a webinar on November 28, 2022, Elantis will take an unbiased approach to help you evaluate your automation options. This session will explore common BPA dilemmas, licensing comparisons, and customer success stories to help guide your decision. Register today to reserve your spot!
