Automating processes requires a fair amount of short-term work to reap long-term benefits. In this example, I had to build the online form, data-tracking and mechanized flow in order to automate the entire process going forward. The benefit of the 365 Package is that Microsoft Forms, Excel and Power Automate can seamlessly link and hence I digitalized the original form using Forms. This was a relatively simple and quick form for students to fill out:

As the form states, once submitted the form gets sent to their Research Advisor and GAR (Program Director) for approval. Power Automate enables such approvals to be automated by creating a Flow. The Flow for this particular process is somewhat complicated, as seen below. Again, this entailed a fair amount of work to build but once created, can be left on to fully automate the entire process going forward.

Each flow begins with a ‘trigger’, which in this example is when a new form is submitted. The flow then proceeds to pull the details from the submission, and has various formulae to separate the information into useable data.

The flow then inputs the submission data into a spreadsheet, which it then pulls from and continues to update throughout. This part of the flow also shows the first approval stage - “Start and wait for Advisor approval”, which is demonstrated below:

Advisor Approval - Flow input

Approval Email - Flow input

Advisor Approval - Email received

As shown above, the flow automatically emails the student’s advisor who then simply clicks approve or reject. The spreadsheet being automatically updated throughout pulls the student’s advisor details in order for them to make the decision on their student’s courses.

The flow continues on a similar premise, sending approval from advisor to the GAR for subsequent approval. At each stage, conditions are input whereby - if rejected - students would be automatically emailed with the details of the rejection. The final stage above shows the automatic email sent to students if all stages of approval are granted, as displayed below

Approval Email - Example

This is the culmination of the flow on the faculty and student end, which in summary automatically went as follows;

• Student submits their course selections through an online form

• The selections are automatically sent to their advisor, who approves them

• The selections are then automatically sent to the GAR, who approves them

• The student is informed that their selections are informed and can now register accordingly.

The last stage on my end ensured accurate data records and management, a hugely important aspect. However, this is again done automatically by the Flow:

The flow automatically updates the spreadsheet tracking student data, selections and outcomes.

Power Automate enabled an arbitrarily complicated process to be completely automated and improve efficiency going forward. This is just one example of a process I have been able to automate in my current and previous roles by using Power Automate, with other examples including automatically reminding people of deadlines, automatically updating and transforming data, and more.

It is certainly one of the most valuable skills I have learnt, honed and mastered in my time working with data for the following reasons:

1. Greatly improves efficiency and user satisfaction by reducing and simplifying workloads, freeing up student/faculty/staff time and enabling faster completion of routine processes

2. Helps to ensure and maintain accurate records and data, by minimizing human error and enforcing consistency

3. Assists in manipulating and updating data accurately across various platforms, spreadsheets, databases and systems

4. Ability to be scaled appropriately to fit a particular business task/need due to it’s flexibility

5. Ultimately streamlines business processes and reduce costs