Desktop Automation

[RianaS]

Hi,

I'm a South African and need some advice on which actions to use for the following tasks I want to automate with Desktop Attended RPA license.

Current process (manual)

Step 1:  Open a file manager, signing in and search in a certain directory for a file. (File is usually received outside business hours)

Step 2 :  If the file exists, then I need to check if the system processed the file correctly, by creating a new file in another directory.

Step 3: I also need to open an inhouse SQL DB enquiry application and run a few queries to check if the system processed the file correctly.  (audits)

Step 4:  I need to note some of the information from the queries on a "MS List" for operational staff to monitor.

Step 5: If all the checks are done and correct, I need to FTP the newly created file to another location and receive a response from the location that they received it. And again note that on the MS List.

I have built a couple of RPA flows in our company so I know the basics, I have also started playing with Desktop Recorder and tested it to see if I can open an application on my desktop, sign in and run a query successfully.  

But I need some advice, because I see there are many actions I can take, but I need to know which ones would be the best for the steps I have above.  I don't have a lot of time to really dive into this deep because I need to prove that Power Automate will be able to assist our business processes and produce a POC ASAP?  Can anyone maybe assist me?

Also I have the current licenses :

• Power Automate RPA Attended
• Common Data Service Attended RPA

I want to do the POC in "Attended flow", but obviously the actual flow will have to run on Unattended eventually, which license will be best to get then?  I want to be able to automate about 12 -15 user's tasks on their desktop eventually.

The reason why I think that attended desktop flow wont necessarily work is because I read an article that when your desktop is running an attended flow you wont be able to do anything else on your desktop, which is not what I want.  I want to automate mundane tasks in the background which will give my operational people (users) time to do more client service related tasks. 

Can anyone please provide some help or advise?

Riana Smit

riana.smit@qlink.co.za 

[csundar]

@RianaS  - You may not need a new license at all.

I have actually developed something similar with resources all in Azure through the Power Automate (MS Flow) base capabilities without using the RPA functionality.  I triggered mine on a schedule and performed the following tasks:

- Checked folder for latest file

- Read contents of file into database tables

- Captured errored records

- Moved processed file into alternative location

- Sent success email from shared mailbox

- Sent errored records email from shared mailbox

If resources are not in Azure then I'm not sure if you can do this without RPA.  

[RianaS]

Can you tell me what actions you used for all your steps?

[MichaelBoruta]

@RianaS From my point of view, it depends primarily on the SQL DB. Is it located onsite or in a cloud? If it is in a cloud, you may not need any additional license as you are not automating any 3rd party application. 

[csundar]

@RianaS 

Here are the connectors for Flow.  Some are Premium connectors (think it's $10-15mo for those)

Each has a set of actions allowed.  For my flows I was using Azure Blob Storage, SQL Server (connects to Azure), and Azure Data Factory for the I/O work.  I was using other connectors (Outlook Shared Mailbox), HTTP (for API calls), and SharePoint actions for other items.

There is a really robust set of actions in Flow.  

Good luck

[RianaS]

Hi

@MichaelBoruta It is all located on site.

[csundar · Accepted solution]

@RianaS 

Are you able to install the on prem data gateway to provide cloud access to the on prem resources?