Can Power Automate Really Help Me?
The following post is from Community Ninja Austen Brown, a Raiser's Edge and database administration consultant with Prenger Solutions Group, a Blackbaud Partner.
Spoiler alert YES! And let me tell you how… I first learned about Power Automate during a Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT Geek Out webinar in February 2021. The content covered simply blew my mind. The possibilities for automation, even with little to no coding experience, seemed endless. I eagerly signed up for the 101 Accelerator Course and began to plan my wish list, collaborating with team members to dream up business processes that we never had time to implement or tasks that could be taken off our plates. I spent five hours a week for seven weeks, in class and talking to peers in office hours, practicing new skills learned. I graduated with three flows created – each adapted from the gift notification flow available in the template showcase – and the beginnings of a custom flow, built from scratch.
The benefit to my organization was immediate – the two gift notification flows eliminated two tasks from my colleagues’ plates, and collectively saved the organization approximately 2 hours a week. The third notification flow, notifying fundraisers of their upcoming opportunity asks, enabled me to support a team member’s request without adding a recurring task to my plate. From here I turned my focus to flows that could assist me, in my position, to keep data clean and aid in data/gift entry.
In November 2021, I made the transition from working as a Database Administrator to a Database Consultant, joining the team at Prenger Solutions Group. I now have the pleasure of helping multiple organizations improve their database systems as well as building custom Power Automate flows to help their teams talk to donors in new ways, automate data hygiene tasks, and accomplish things they never thought possible.
What is Power Automate?
Power Automate is a low code/no code solution that can assist you in automating your organization’s business processes. This could be anything from sending out notifications on recent gifts to specific staff members, to replacing and expanding possibilities for your acknowledgement letter process, to automating data maintenance and hygiene tasks.
Take a moment and think through what processes you do on a recurring basis to support your team, department, organization. Think about what you are not currently doing because it would take too much time. Chances are these could be automated through Power Automate. The possibilities are endless for what Power Automate can accomplish!
What is the difference between Power Automate and Raiser’s Edge NXT Workflows?
Raiser’s Edge NXT Workflows can support only two possibilities (adding actions to constituent records and sending emails to constituents), whereas Power Automate has limitless possibilities, a true ability to customize a workflow to your organization’s specifications – you can automate data collection, analysis, updates, and creation, for pretty much every area that is currently available to you from within Web View.
I’m interested in getting started. What now?
Check a recent community post, Power Automate – Where do I Start?, where I covered frequently asked questions about how to get started with Power Automate.
Blackbaud has put together an extensive resource site with detailed step-by-step instructions for every facet of the process, including a free on-demand Accelerator training course and video tutorials. Be sure to check out the monthly Office Hours and the Microsoft Integration forum on BB Community to connect with other citizen developers (non-developer users who create automated flows using little to no code).
Check out the list below for additional resources available to you as a Blackbaud Product user:
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Getting Started - https://docs.blackbaud.com/microsoft-connectors-docs/microsoft-power-platform/getting-started
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Initial Set-up - https://docs.blackbaud.com/microsoft-connectors-docs/microsoft-power-platform/initial-setup
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Power Automate Basics, Key Concepts - https://docs.blackbaud.com/microsoft-connectors-docs/microsoft-power-platform/basics
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Free On-Demand Accelerator Course - https://docs.blackbaud.com/microsoft-connectors-docs/microsoft-power-platform/getting-started/training#accelerator-101-on-demand-videos
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Tutorial Instructions for Acknowledgements, Notifications, Sign-up Form - https://docs.blackbaud.com/microsoft-connectors-docs/microsoft-power-platform/power-automate
What is the Template Showcase?
The template showcase is a collection of flows shared by Blackbaud employees, partners, and community users. This is a wonderful place to really get a feel for what is possible within Power Automate. Every flow listed here links back to a Blackbaud Community post where the flow’s creator has shared details about the flow including a sample flow that you can import into your Power Platform environment.
Here are a few of my favorites:
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Thank you for this info! I may have to wait until late spring to really explore Power Automate, but I am already seeing how it would be incredibly useful to our faith-based org.
@Austen Brown, thank you for this post--already bookmarked it!!!
One thing did jump out to me tough: “…I spent five hours a week for seven weeks, in class and talking to peers in office hours,” What do you recommend for the over-worked, stressed out, Database Admin who doesn't have a lot of time (no time at all really…) to devote to learning Power Automate?
I am fortunate that we have a Hyper-automation Team at my Org that is awesome at churning out automated Workflows, but without them I would be totally lost! The flip side is, I had to teach them a lot about RE-NXT because they had no “point of reference” for the NXT Connectors.
I am a firm believer that Power Automate can transform our daily work processes and add enormous value to how much we accomplish in a day, but so far there is a very steep learning curve and precious little time to study it.
Thank you so much, I will take these courses
Hi @Keith Wilson - The time it takes to learn anything is always a hurdle. Aim for a time of year that is ‘slow’ for your organization, where there are the least number of projects occurring, and start learning Power Automate. The best part about the Accelerator course being on-demand is you can access it whenever and move through it at your on pace; the course mentioned above (and in your quote) was one of the last ones to be scheduled. Take it one session at a time; once you make it through the Week 3 session, that is a good point to start downloading beginner flows from the Template Showcase (specifically the gift notification) to implement in your environment. If you have time join the Office Hours once a month and keep in touch with other citizen developers in the Microsoft Integration forum.
@Austen Brown thank you for this! I have dipped my toes in reading things but haven't done much else. Having so much linked here is a great place for me to start diving in deeper when we are ready to consider other options.
@Austen Brown - thank you for the shout out on the Getting Started materials. It's so awesome to see how you have embraced new technology and transformed the trajectory of your career.