First of all, it was nice to see familiar faces there, and it was at least equally nice to see unfamiliar ones! Thank you all for showing up to participate in the discussion, it was much appreciated.
To recap, we had a quick presentation – you will find the link below:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/116l7TaolAAIjOrbJv1PxuhGNr1eFG58-iCe26Tu0qNg/edit?usp=sharing
And, in the discussion that followed, a few additional items were brought up, so I’ve listed them below (hopefully, I did not miss something important there):
1. In general, it seems the consensus was that, for complex calculations, plugins might be somewhat more suitable.
2. Flows definitely outmatch plugins when it comes to the integrations.
3. Where plugins can use tracing service, flows have “Run History” available right away, and, in many cases, it is much more convenient to look at the run history than to look at the traces.
4. Plugins can literally plug into the execution pipeline and make changes to the records without incurring API calls (As in, in the pre-operation stage we can set target record attributes without calling service.Update). In the flows, that would have to be an update, which is an API call. Coincidentally, there were a few people on the call who considered this important, and that probably has to do with the amount of data processed on their projects. Which makes sense, since every API call counts in those cases (keeping in mind current API limits).
Aside from that, I was wondering if there is a scenario where a business user would actually be creating their own Flows. Still looking for somebody who could share their story on this one! One potential scenario that was mentioned is, possibly, asking users to follow/use a template when creating their own Flows.
We also talked about classic workflows and how it might be challenging for Microsoft to take those away, although, I think we somewhat divided as to whether we should be using them. I’d say the use of classic workflows is, generally, discouraged these days. However, it does not mean they are just going to break out of a sudden. Besides, Power Automate is asynchronous, and, in that sense, real-time workflows are, often, the only possible low-code option.
With that, another session is coming up in two weeks – we are going to talk about how Power BI can replace SSRS when it comes to reporting/print forms. Although, this could also turn into a broader discussion of how to do “reporting and print forms”. There is event link below, will be happy to see you there:
https://www.linkedin.com/events/oct12itaintboringpowerplatformc6843586222267478016/