In an era of rapidly evolving technology and growing market competition, businesses are increasingly seeking solutions to enhance efficiency, reduce human error, and ultimately improve their bottom line. Automation has emerged as a powerful strategy for achieving these objectives, enabling organisations to streamline repetitive tasks, optimise workflows, and save valuable time and resources.

Microsoft Power Automate, formerly known as Microsoft Flow, serves as a robust and flexible automation platform designed to address a wide range of business needs. Integrated within the Microsoft ecosystem, Power Automate empowers users to create automated workflows between various applications and services. With features such as real-time triggers, customisable actions, and an extensive library of pre-built templates, Power Automate streamlines the automation process, allowing businesses to focus on their core competencies and drive growth.

This blog post aims to provide an in-depth exploration of Microsoft Power Automate and its capabilities in enhancing efficiency and streamlining workflows. We will discuss the key features and functionalities of the platform, providing real-world examples and use cases to highlight its transformative potential for businesses across various industries. Additionally, we will offer practical guidance for implementing Power Automate within your organisation, covering best practices and valuable tips for successfully adopting the platform and reaping its many benefits.

Join us as we delve into the world of Microsoft Power Automate, unlocking the power of automation to streamline your business processes, reduce human error, and propel your organisation towards greater success in today’s competitive marketplace.

The Building Blocks of Microsoft Power Automate: Triggers, Actions, and Connectors

Microsoft Power Automate boasts a range of powerful features that enable users to create customised, advanced workflows tailored to their specific needs. To better understand the platform’s capabilities, let’s take a closer look at its key components:

1. Triggers

Triggers serve as the starting point for any workflow in Power Automate. They are events that initiate the workflow, usually based on specific conditions being met. For example, a trigger might be a new email arriving in a user’s inbox or a file being uploaded to a SharePoint folder. Power Automate offers a wide variety of triggers to choose from, ensuring that workflows can be tailored to suit the unique requirements of each organisation.

2. Actions

Actions are the subsequent steps that Power Automate executes once a trigger has been activated. These can include actions such as sending an email notification, updating a database entry, or creating a new calendar event. Actions are highly customisable, allowing users to adjust settings and parameters to suit their specific needs. Users can also chain multiple actions together, enabling complex, multi-step workflows that automate various aspects of their business processes.

3. Connectors

Connectors act as the glue that binds different applications and services within Power Automate workflows. They provide the means to integrate data and actions across a vast range of supported platforms, including Microsoft 365 apps, third-party services like Slack and Salesforce, and even custom APIs. Power Automate offers over 400 pre-built connectors, as well as support for custom connectors, ensuring that businesses can create seamless workflows that incorporate their existing tools and systems.

Real-World Use Cases for Microsoft Power Automate

To fully appreciate the potential of Microsoft Power Automate in transforming business processes, let’s explore some real-world use cases that demonstrate its capacity to streamline workflows and save time:

Simplifying employee onboarding: Automating the employee onboarding process with Power Automate can significantly reduce manual effort and ensure a consistent, efficient experience for new hires. Workflows can be designed to trigger when a new employee’s details are entered into a HR system, subsequently initiating actions such as creating a user account, assigning necessary permissions, and sending welcome emails with relevant resources.

Streamlining approval processes: Power Automate can be utilised to automate approval workflows, such as purchase order requests or content approvals. By automatically routing approval requests to the appropriate individuals and sending notifications when actions are required, Power Automate ensures a consistent, time-efficient approval process and minimises the risk of bottlenecks or delays.

Automating customer support: Power Automate workflows can be used to streamline customer support tasks, such as auto-responding to common queries or categorising and prioritising incoming support tickets. By automating these repetitive tasks, customer support teams can focus on addressing issues more effectively and improving overall customer satisfaction.

Consolidating data and generating reports: Power Automate can automate the process of consolidating data from various sources and generating custom reports. For instance, a workflow can be designed to fetch sales data from different systems, consolidate the data into a single location, and subsequently generate a weekly sales report that is automatically emailed to relevant stakeholders.

Best Practices for Implementing Microsoft Power Automate

Successfully adopting Microsoft Power Automate and reaping its benefits requires a thoughtful approach and adherence to best practices. Consider the following tips as you embark on your Power Automate journey:

Start small and build gradually: When first exploring Power Automate, begin by automating simple, repetitive tasks and gradually progress to more complex workflows as you become more familiar with the platform’s capabilities.

Test and monitor your workflows: Before deploying your Power Automate workflows, thoroughly test them to ensure that they perform as expected. Continuously monitor and assess the performance of your workflows, making adjustments as necessary to improve their efficiency and effectiveness.

Ensure data security and compliance: Make certain that your Power Automate workflows adhere to your organisation’s data security and compliance requirements. Utilise built-in security features such as data loss prevention (DLP) policies and encryption to protect sensitive information.

Train and educate your team: Encourage your team members to learn about Power Automate and how it can help them be more efficient in their work. Offer training and resources to ensure that your entire team is well-equipped to leverage the potential of this powerful platform.

Harness the Power of Automation with Microsoft Power Automate

Microsoft Power Automate offers a versatile and powerful platform capable of automating a wide range of tasks and processes, ultimately boosting efficiency and minimising human error. By embracing the capabilities of Power Automate and following best practices, organisations can streamline their workflows, save valuable time, and propel themselves towards greater success in today’s competitive business landscape.

Ready to revolutionise your business processes with Microsoft Power Automate? Contact egforit Software Services today. Our team of software specialists will guide you through the implementation process, ensuring that Power Automate is tailored to your unique needs and delivers the results your organisation deserves.

The importance of keeping macOS software up to date cannot be overstated, as it is crucial for maintaining the security, performance, and functionality of your device. This blog post will explore the essential aspects of running macOS software updates, providing insights into the benefits of staying current and offering practical tips for managing updates on your Mac. We will discuss the differences between software updates and upgrades, the importance of creating a clear software update policy, and the use of tools and resources available to automate the update process

By following these guidelines and best practices, MacBook users can enhance their software update experience, safeguard their devices, and ensure a smooth and seamless user experience.

Understanding macOS software updates is essential for maintaining the security and performance of your Mac. Software updates and upgrades are two distinct processes. A software update is a small, incremental change that fixes bugs, adds security patches, and enhances performance, while upgrades introduce new features and may change the user interface/ Apple releases updates frequently to improve performance, address security vulnerabilities, and add new features

Keeping your Mac up to date is pivotal for optimal performance and security, as updates can improve power efficiency and shield it from software bugs. By understanding the differences between updates and upgrades and the benefits of keeping software current, Mac users can ensure that their devices are secure, efficient, and equipped with the latest features and improvements.

Managing macOS software updates is a crucial aspect of maintaining the security and performance of your Mac. To effectively manage updates, it is essential to have a clear software update policy in place, which outlines the frequency of updates and the responsibilities for managing them

 There are several tools and resources available to automate the update process, making it easier to manage updates on multiple devices

Some common challenges associated with managing software updates include keeping track of update schedules, dealing with update errors, and ensuring compatibility across different devices and platforms

To overcome these challenges, consider the following best practices:

1. Enable automatic updates: Automating the update process ensures that your Mac is always up-to-date and reduces the risk of missing important security patches. 
2. Create a backup of your data: Before initiating any update, create a comprehensive backup of your data to prevent data loss in case of unexpected issues during the update process

     3. Check for compatibility: Verify that the update is compatible with your     device and its applications before proceeding with the installation

     4. Optimize your Mac after updates: After updating your Mac, perform necessary maintenance tasks to ensure optimal performance and address any potential issues

      5. Monitor update cycles: Stay informed about update cycles and plan accordingly to minimize disruptions to your workflow

By following these best practices and utilizing available tools, Mac users can effectively manage macOS software updates, ensuring that their devices are secure, efficient, and equipped with the latest features and improvements.

In conclusion, keeping macOS software up to date is essential for maintaining the security, performance, and functionality of your device. This blog post has provided valuable insights into best practices for running macOS software updates, including the importance of checking for known issues before upgrading, the steps to take before upgrading your Mac operating system, and the importance of testing the new OS before committing to it on your Mac’s production startup disk. By following these guidelines and recommendations, Mac users can ensure that their devices are updated securely and efficiently, minimizing the risk of any post-update issues. It is crucial to stay informed about update cycles, plan accordingly, and utilize available tools and resources to automate the update process. By doing so, individuals can take a proactive step towards safeguarding their digital lives and ensuring the security of their macOS devices.

Contact egforit Software Services, an Umbraco partner based in Cairo, today and let our team of developers guide you through the migration process, ensuring a successful upgrade to the latest version

Software modernisation is the process of updating legacy and outdated software with newer software, frameworks, and infrastructure. It is also known as application modernisation or legacy software modernisation. The main advantage of software modernisation is to improve security, add features, or to connect to other systems. Modernising software means extending its lifespan instead of retiring it and developing or migrating to a new piece of software.

Many businesses, both small and large, have come across challenges to their businesses due to limitations of outdated software. Some of the issues faced include:

• Security risks
• Inefficient process
• Lack of integration and software connections
• Unstable software
• Costly maintenance and upkeep
• Older version needs an update

Depending on certain situations and for specific requirements, it may be recommended to rehost, re-platform, or completely replace a system, each with its own pros and cons to consider.

Software modernisation methods

Common methods of software modernisation include:

Lift-and-shift: This involves taking the existing software or application and migrating from its environment to a newer infrastructure; an example of this could be from on-premises to cloud. This method ensures that the application is only moved without making significant changes to its code or architecture. As such, it equates to a relatively simple process, depending on the complexity of the software.

Re-factoring: This method consists of rewriting parts of the underlying code of the software, so it can run effectively in a new environment, typically the cloud. It may also involve restructuring the existing code to ensure it will work as intended in the new location. Refactoring is a common method for expansive amounts of code that need to be broken down into smaller “chunks”, this is referred to as microservices.

Re-platforming: This method is considered in between lift-and-shift and refactoring as it does not require major changes to the software code, as is the case with refactoring, but requires updates to be made. These updates would then enable the legacy software to take advantage of a cloud platform and enhance current capabilities.

A serverless function is a programmatic function written by a software developer for a single purpose. It’s then hosted and maintained on infrastructure by cloud computing companies. These companies work to maintain your business code and execution to allow developers to deploy code faster and easier.

The use of serverless functions offers several big business benefits. Developers have the chance to focus on application development and better quality coding in the long haul.

Last month, Microsoft announced a preview of serverless for Hyperscale in the Azure SQL database – uniting all the benefits for Hyperscale and serverless in one solution.

Scalability

Serverless functions can automatically scale based on demand. This means that if your application experiences a sudden surge in traffic, the serverless functions can handle the load without any additional configuration or infrastructure set-up.

If a function needs to be run in multiple instances, the servers will start up, run, and end them as they are needed, often using big containers. As a result, a serverless application will be able to handle high levels of requests just as well as it can process a singular request. A traditionally structured app would be overwhelmed with a sudden increase in usage.

Cost-effective

With serverless functions, you only pay for what you use. This means that you don’t have to worry about paying for idle resources or overprovisioning servers. Instead, you can focus on optimising your code and only paying for the resources you need.

However, it’s worth noting that serverless architectures are not built for long running processes. Because serverless providers charge for the amount of time code is running, it may cost more to run an application with long-running processes in a serverless infrastructure compared to a traditional one.

Flexibility

Serverless functions are designed to work with a variety of programming languages, including .NET. This means that you can develop your serverless functions using your preferred language and framework, without having to worry about the underlying infrastructure.

Faster time to market

With serverless functions, you can quickly deploy and iterate on your code without having to worry about managing infrastructure. This can help you get your application to market faster and respond to changing customer needs more quickly.

Reduced operational overheads

Since serverless functions abstract away much of the underlying infrastructure, you can focus more on writing and maintaining code rather than worrying about maintaining servers or managing dependencies.

Azure Pricing Calculator shows total cost of an intended workload on Azure, granting the ability to anticipate costs. Azure cost analysis shows how much each workload will cost as they are running within Azure. It also predicts future costs based on current configurations.

Azure budgets will alert Azure users when spending thresholds have been met. Finally, Azure Advisor helps to provide cost optimisation recommendations by identifying idle and underutilised resources. It provides easy ways to implement actions to reduce spend.

Azure payment options

Azure offers different VM payments depending on the client’s requirements.

On-demand/Pay-as-you-go: This allows clients to launch VMs instantly, which means this is the most expensive option. However, it does offer flexibility and convenience as companies can run instances without interruption.

Spot: This is an interesting option as it allows organisations to buy spare Azure compute capacity for much cheaper than On-demand. Savings can be up to 90% but the thing to note is that Microsoft can terminate a Spot instance depending on capacity demands. This option is best for workloads that don’t require constant running.

Reserved: VM instances can be reserve for one or three-year periods. This means savings of up to 72% compared to On-demand pricing.

Any web developer worth their salt knows the importance of JavaScript in modern web app development. In recent years it’s become the backbone of development and one of the most popular programming languages, empowering front end web developers to build high quality user interfaces for both web and app.

But picture this: .NET running on a web browser, with no add-ons, plugins, or tech wizardry. Does that sound impossible to you?

Blazor is an application used to build out website functionalities in HTML, CSS, and C#, just to name a few.

Blazor applications are built using the ASP.NET tool, Razor, which consists of both HTML and C#.

What are the features of Blazor in .NET?

Despite sharing similarities to Vue, Angular, and React, Blazor is a framework in its own right.

It’s fast, reusable, and (most importantly) it’s open source, paving the way for great support from the community.

If you’re still not convinced, here’s some more features that make Blazor a great .NET framework.

What are the benefits of Blazor?

Blazor is an excellent tool for those looking to streamline their business operations. Especially consdering it covers both client and server side coding.

Until Blazor came onto the scene, JavaScript was the king of full stack web apps. Meaning backend developers specialising in .NET had no other option than to learn JavaScript if they wanted to ace full stack development.

Blazor in .NET also means the end product is faster compared to Java/.NET. If you use the client-side Blazor framework, you can develop performance intensive apps like VR/AI with ease. Blazor also comes with WebAssembly, meaning your server-side code runs faster than languages like Javascript.

On top of that, Blazor doesn’t consume too much network bandwidth. Where most applications consistently download/upload date, Blazor users only need to download the app once, with no impact to speed or core functionalities.

The Boomi cloud migration process involves moving a company’s entire digital ecosystem from one cloud to another. This ecosystem is filled with all the essential data a business needs to thrive – think databases, applications, and services that are vital to day to day operations.

This is why, if you’re thinking of starting a cloud migration, you will want to be strategic about it.

By creating a cloud migration strategy, you’re establishing the process by which you execute the movement of critical business functions. Taking a data focused approach to cloud migration will maintain data integrity and accessibility, and also help you optimise your infrastructure to meet your business goals.

Define your cloud migration goals

Just like most things in life, knowing where you’re going is the most important part of the journey. So what’s driving your need to migrate? What business needs and goals are you trying to fulfil?

Above all else, make sure your goals are viable. Studies have shown that most cloud migration projects either don’t achieve the desired results or take far longer than expected. You may find you need to break your migration down into more manageable chunks.

Create a cloud architecture to meet your needs

You may find that the best solution combines cloud migration with other data services, such as data warehousing. Working with cloud migration specialists guarantees a better end solution – you map out your needs, and they map out the perfect structure.

Is it time to consider a multi-cloud strategy?

Some businesses benefit from using a multi-cloud strategy. Reasons to consider moving your data to more than one cloud service include:

• Different vendors have different applications and capabilities which might meet your business need.
• Other vendors might be able to provide lower costs
• Some vendors are better suited for handling high risk data than others
• Keeping data across several clouds can mitigate the impact of cloud downtime or security risks.

Spring clean your data

Before starting your cloud migration journey, make sure to remove discrepancies and duplicates in your data. Otherwise cloud migration will be more difficult, the monthly costs for storage can be higher.

Low-code platforms

Cloud migration requires a certain amount of one time coding. Boomi Integration platform as a service (iPaaS) is a low/no code option that reduces the burden on your IT department and allows your team to make changes daily, by themselves.

Boomi Cloud Migration: 7 strategies worth trying

Rehost

Otherwise known as the “lift and shift”. Rehosting is all about moving a direct copy of an organisation’s data infrastructure directly into the cloud.

Refactor

A step above rehosting. known as the “lift tinker and shift”. It’s all about moving a direct copy of an organisations data infrastructure directly into the cloud.

Revise

This method involves making architecture changes to a system before migrating it to the cloud. Businesses tend to opt for this when they need to optimise cloud services.

Rebuild

This is a ground-up approach to rebuilding data architecture. It allows you to take complete control.

Replace

Replacing involves scrapping the existing architecture and migrating to a prebuilt architecture.

Repurchase

The least complicated technique… just buying a new solution.

Replatform

If your primary goal is to improve data management without any other significant changes, replatforming might be the best strategy for you. It involves tinkering with your existing platform and creating a better way of working.

If your initial discovery phase and analysis show that now is not the time to conduct your migration to the cloud, it’s perfectly fine to hit pause and wait until there’s a valid reason to make the move.

We are celebrating today as some of the NewDay digital transformation projects our developers contributed to have won Gold and Silver awards at the prestigious Egypt , middle east Digital Experience Awards 2020 (Egypt , middle eastDXA).

The awards celebrate exceptional customer service experience delivery through digital technology. So for these projects to be nominated, let alone win, is a fantastic piece of recognition from the Egypt , middle east’s digital experts.

This praise echoes the great feedback coming back from NewDay’s millions of customers and internal teams. This is a great reward in itself for the egforit Software developers who are continuing to work on these exciting projects.

As the changes to IR35 come into effect next month, how prepared are Egypt , middle east organisations to deal with the new challenges it brings? IT contractors and the companies who use them are now in difficult territory, and that doesn’t look likely to change. However, egforit Software is offering alternatives in the form of IR35 consultancy solutions for IT contractors and compliant IT recruitment.

What is the challenge presented by IR35?

The new law makes medium and large businesses responsible for setting the tax status of independent contractors. While this may sound simple, the criteria are not straightforward. HRMC uses four factors—control and direction, substitution, mutuality of obligation, and exclusivity—to determine whether an employee falls inside IR35. Some large businesses, such as GlaxoSmithKline, find the situation so vague that they have banned contractors altogether.

So how do our IR35 consultancy solutions for IT contractors tackle this issue?

Our IR35 consultancy solutions

But all is not lost. Our IT consultants, working for clients under a specific Statement of Work (SOW), are not affected by IR35. This effectively allows us to step in where IT contractors fear to tread.

And as an IT consultancy with 25 years of enterprise-level experience, egforit Software is uniquely qualified. Our consultants are certified in the leading business technologies, including SAP, IBM, Microsoft, Dell Boomi, and MuleSoft. What’s more, our in-house Microsoft, PHP, and Java developers are able to customise and build any manner of business software. The ever-growing list of businesses we work with, from FTSE 100 companies to local SMEs, is testament to our expertise.

Plus IR35-compliant IT recruitment

Besides consultancy, the other alternative is IR35-compliant IT recruitment. Due to our size, egforit Software is exempt from the IR35 rules. This means we can provide IT contractors in a compliant fashion through our recruitment wing, egforit People.

Unlike most recruiters, egforit People works with our own technical teams to ensure every candidate has the skills required. Rather than taking candidates at face value, we understand their qualifications from an IT insider’s perspective.

On top of this, we use bespoke testing tools to check our candidates’ practical abilities. This ensures that each candidate is exactly as advertised and that your business gets the expected result.