Introduction to Microsoft Flow, presented by Dan Toomey to the Brisbane Azure User Group, using several slides by Charles Lamanna (Microsoft)

1. Microsoft Flow
Easy Desktop Integration
Dan Toomey
Mexia Consulting

2. Enabling the Digital Enterprise
Who am I?
• Senior Consultant / Integration Architect
• MCT, MCPD, MCTS BizTalk & Azure
• Pluralsight Author
• www.mindovermessaging.com
• @daniel2me

3. Acknowledgements
Charles Lamanna
Principal Group Engineering Manager, Microsoft
@clamanna

5. Microsoft Flow helps non-developers work smarter by
automating workflows across apps and services
Get notifications Synchronize files Collect data Automate approvals

6. Automate advanced scenarios with multiple steps,
branching conditions, and more

7. Click-to-code for integrating
the systems you’re already
using… even custom APIs.
New services being added
every week!
https://flow.microsoft.com/manage/connections/available

8. Get started quickly
with hundreds
useful templates

9. • Templates focus on the
services involved (and not the
backing workflow)
• Community can publish
templates for all Flow users
• Per company / organization
templates later this year
Simple explanation + landing page for templates

10. Easily share templates via
social media or email with
your colleagues or friends
See how much this
template has been used
and who published it
Detailed description of
what the template does
and needs
Select Use this template to
sign up/sign in and
configure the template
Simple explanation + landing page for templates

11. Sending an Exchange email when a new file
is added in Dropbox
Authenticate to your O365 account.
Build email Subject and Body
Choose to include properties
from previous step (Dropbox
file) to improve relevance
Specify Send To email address
and additional properties
(optional): From, CC, BCC and
ImportanceConnected to johnsharp@contoso.com
Authenticate to your Dropbox account.
Select folder to monitor
PowerApps
Build your own flow from scratch

12. See detailed inputs /
outputs for each step
Save visual representation as
building / creation time
Debug any flow if needed

13. Same list of connections is
shared between PowerApps
and Flow so you only have to
sign in once
If your password changes or
you revoke the application
access you can come here to
sign-in again and fix it
Delete connections if you no
longer want Flow and
PowerApps to be able to
access that data
Consolidated list of all connectors

15. • Integration is a problem that spans the enterprise
• Limited resources / time for central Integration
specialists; unmet need for office workers
• Flow enables “self-service” for simple integrations
Why are we talking about Flow?

16. Flow focus:
Business Users & Specialists
BizTalk & Logic Apps focus:
IT Pro / Developers
Who is the audience for Flow?

18. Grow-Up Story from Flow
• Flow is good for simple integrations and
empowering users to do integrations without going
through devs + IT
• However, sometimes IT / devs need to take over
when the Flow gets too advanced or becomes
business-critical
• Any Flow can be converted to a Logic App (will be
one-click later this year)

21. • Enriching or pushing data to existing store; e.g.
• take customer information from SalesForce / CRM and add it to a SharePoint list
• Approval workflows for common administrative tasks; e.g.
• resume screening; vacation requests; etc.
• Capturing data for better visualizations
• take data from an “unsupported” database and push it into Power BI (using
Excel or SQL connectors)
Example Use Cases

22. from Daniel Laskewitz (here)
Flow + SharePoint

23. from John White (here)
Flow + PowerBI

25. • Embedding where it makes
sense
• Focusing on information
products (not dev tools)
• SharePoint Online is in
private preview
Flow available for Office workers

26. • In addition to flows being available in SharePoint
Online, you will be able to embed Flow directly
into custom applications
• Includes the ability to browse flow templates +
create them
• as well as.. the ability to kick off a create-from-
template
Your App
Embedding directly into applications

27. • Easily create mobile-optimized applications
• Connect to your data where it resides,
access a wide variety of data sources, from
SharePoint lists to Excel files
• Integrate apps with larger processes;
trigger workflows across your Enterprise
based on user actions
PowerApps

28. AUTOMATE
Flow
ACT
PowerApps
Connectors to Data and APIs

29. • Common question about Flows – since it is a multi-tenant, SaaS
product
• Standard practices: data sovereignty (e.g. EU customers stay in the
EU), encryption of sensitive data at rest (e.g. keys / tokens); etc.
• In the future: will allow organizations to enable / disable particular
connectors or templates, so that users cannot unintentionally violate
a security boundary (e.g. copy SharePoint files to Dropbox)
What about security?

30. • For example: financial or payments data, or mission
critical B2B data
• Reason to move to Logic Apps / BizTalk instead of
Flow (e.g. development in production would be
very risky)
• Azure has a lot of enterprise / compliance controls:
Azure Cloud Policy, Azure Security Center, Azure
Audit Logs, and more
For very tight security

32. Recap
• Microsoft Flow brings Integration to non-developers / non-IT – big opportunity &
change in large organizations
• BizTalk + Logic Apps cover different, advanced scenarios
• Investments you make in BizTalk 2016 + Logic Apps will also pay dividends with
Flow

34. Resources
• Service Website:
– https://flow.microsoft.com/
• Browse Documentation:
– http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=786358&clcid=0x409
• Blog (with multiple posts each week):
– https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/
• Community User Group:
– http://powerusers.microsoft.com/
• Videos:
– https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8nfc9haGeb55I9wL9QnWyHp3ctU2_ThF
• Twitter:
– @MicrosoftFlow
– #MicrosoftFlow

35. Thank you.