'Work less, do more' in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations with the help of Flow and PowerApps

At first glance, the Microsoft Flow slogan, "work less, do more," seems to contrast with economic theories, because its slogan implies that a maximum output can be achieved with a minimum input. Naturally, Flow cannot disregard the basic principles of economics but it can help with automating and combining business processes in ways that were previously unthinkable or only possible with considerable investments in interface techniques. By simplifying those connections and helping to automate tasks, Flow has the potential to revolutionize the way in which work gets done and give people more free time to concentrate on other things.

Let's take a look at a practical example that deals with the process of sending informational material about new products or new delivery terms to customers.

In the old days the process of sending out information to customers was often very manual, even when tools such as Microsoft Word templates were used, due to the missing link to customer data often tracked in ERP systems. For that reason, people typically prepared their Word templates, retrieved the customer information from their ERP systems, and stored them temporarily in an Excel file. This Excel file was then used as the data source for the Word template to create serial letters that were then sent out to customers via letter post.

Today, this process can be implemented with the help of Flow and PowerApps. Nowadays, the process starts - as in the old days - with the creation of Word templates. Today those document templates are saved in a cloud-based archive, so PowerApps can retrieve them and make them available for selection in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations (D365FO) through the incorporation of the PowerApp in the D365FO web client. The next screenshot exemplifies ...