Scope of the possible with Power Automate

skills
beginner
Power Automate
Published

September 9, 2025

Previous attendees have said…

  • 64 previous attendees have left feedback
  • 98% would recommend this session to a colleague
  • 97% said that this session was pitched correctly

Three random comments from previous attendees
  • Very informative on what the product could potentially do and ‘pointers’ for what to look out for e.g. ‘board approval’ Excellent demo :-)
  • Brilliant introduction to MS Power Automate!
  • I thought it was a useful introduction and I’m thinking about how I might use power automate to help me. Looking forward to the next session.
Forthcoming session(s)
Booking link Date
Scope of the possible with Power Automate 10:00-11:00 Tue 24th February 2026

Introduction

  • this session is 🌶 - for beginners
  • it’s designed as a demonstration session to show what Power Automate might be used to achieve, and how it works

Session outline

  • a warning
  • an introduction
  • scope of the possible
  • three example tasks
  • free play

A word of warning

Warning

Do not use Power Automate for anything unless you’re absolutely sure that your organisational policies permit it

  • many boards and orgs have serious information governance and information security objections to Power Automate
    • automation tools are an excellent way to break your data
    • they’re also an excellent way to compromise its integrity/security
    • especially true if you’re thinking about automating processes with sensitive information
    • if in any doubt, speak to your IG/Caldicott/information security colleagues before setting to work

Quick introduction to Power Automate

Scope of the possible

  • Power Automate is an extremely useful tool for H&SC
  • but you should be aware of some complicating factors for people like us:
    • massive and confusing range of different templates and use-cases, often with a business-focus
    • a thick layer of promotional AI talk over everything at present (late 2024)
    • unexpected cost/IG barriers to using parts of the platform
    • glitchy, and often requiring more coding skills than you might expect
    • generally shockingly poor documentation

This session = honest, application-focused, introduction

  • we’ll build three example flows that will:
    1. take an Excel workbook, extract some parts of it, and save as a new Excel file
    2. turn a response to Microsoft Forms into a Teams post
    3. turn an Excel workbook into a simple mailing list

Subset an Excel file

  • you’ll need a sample data file - I used this open data about council assets from Falkirk
  • in Excel, I converted the data to a table, then saved the workbook to OneDrive
  • in Power Automate, then create a new flow via New flow > Instant cloud flow Instant cloud flow
  • then Manually trigger a flow Manually trigger a flow
  • Add a step Add a step
  • Excel online > List rows present in a table and populate List rows present in a table
  • there are several ways we could subset the data subset the data
  • we’ll demonstrate by taking the first 20 rows take the first 20 rows
  • Create csv table Create csv table
  • Create file Create file

Microsoft Forms to Teams

  • here’s an overview Overview (floverview?) of a Form-to-Teams flow
  • create a simple form (ours is at https://forms.office.com/e/8Zds2aTS5c) create a simple form
  • grab the form id grab the form id
  • create an Build an automated cloud flow - Build an automated cloud flow
  • Enter your form ID Enter your form ID(veDvEDCgykuAnLXmdF5Jmn79kl25VpJIq3eErXXCYKBUMU9LWURaUUhUT0xYOUtNQVY1UFpURTQ1Vi4u)
  • Get response details Get response details
  • Populate with the form and step details Populate with the form and step details
  • Post message in a chat or channel Post message in a chat or channel

Excel workbook to mailing list

  • here’s an overview overview
  • start with a simple .xlsx. Again, that will need to be on Sharepoint or Onedrive start with a simple .xlsx
  • List rows present in a table Add a List rows present in a table
  • Apply to each Apply to each
  • Send an email notification (V3) nested inside the Apply to each Nest your email notification inside an apply to each
  • add the expression items('For_each')?['email'] add the expression items('For_each')?['email']
  • enjoy the result Many emails result