At its core, an Automate365 Automation is a predefined process designed to handle the unattended provisioning of Microsoft 365 workspaces—like SharePoint sites and Teams—without needing human intervention. Instead of manually handling every single workspace request, you define the steps, conditions, and actions just once, and the automation applies them consistently at scale.
The primary purpose of these automations is to free up your IT teams from repetitive, manual tasks while streamlining and standardizing your provisioning processes. This allows you to leverage external system data as both the trigger and the data source, ensuring controlled and governed workspace deployments across your organization.
New to Automate365? This solution simplifies creating consistent Microsoft 365 workspaces by automatically applying uniform structure, content, rules, and policies. You can learn more in our article: Understanding Automate365.
Why unattended provisioning with Automations
Unattended provisioning with Automate365 Automations transforms how organizations manage the creation of Microsoft 365 workspaces. By automating the deployment process, you can achieve major and unique key benefits:
Seamless integration with your other systems
Automate365 integrates directly with your existing systems, including self-service helpdesks and various data sources. This allows you to:
Automate provisioning from existing systems: Trigger provisioning based on new requests submitted through helpdesk systems (like ServiceNow or JIRA) or new data entries in existing sources (such as Salesforce or SharePoint lists). This aligns with existing processes and minimizes disruption to your teams.
See the full list of systems you can connect to.
Leverage data: Automatically pull relevant data from the original request or data source and use it to configure the provisioned workspaces, delivering unique, customized experiences.
Enhanced efficiency and reduced overhead
Unattended provisioning removes the need for manual intervention, streamlining entire provisioning workflows:
Free up IT resources: Automated processes always run consistently, freeing up IT teams from repetitive provisioning tasks, reducing errors, and significantly decreasing delivery time.
Orchestrate end-to-end solutions: Integrate with other workflows—either before or after provisioning takes place—to orchestrate comprehensive, automated solutions.
Scheduled provisioning: Configure timed provisioning based on specific schedules, ensuring workspaces are delivered precisely when needed.
Robust governance and consistency
Ensure all deployments meet organizational standards:
Automated compliance: Automatically enforce all policies and rules during provisioning.
Maintain approval workflows: Ensure that all necessary approvals still happen, even within automated processes.
What's in an automation?
This section details the key components of an automation and guides you through the steps of the creation wizard. You will learn how to configure triggers, data sources, and post-provisioning actions to build complete automated workflows.
Each section below (linking to separate articles) corresponds to a step in the automation creation wizard:
Choose automation type
This initial step defines the trigger type for your automation, whether it's event-driven, scheduled, or manually initiated, determining how it will run.
Select a Data Source
Establish connection: Select and connect to one of the many possible data source platforms to source information into your automation.
Set trigger conditions: Define specific rules or conditions that must be met for your automation to execute.
Select template: Choose which template will serve as the blueprint for all workspaces to be provisioned through this automation.
Configure workspace
Map dynamic tokens: Dynamically configure new workspace details, like membership and content, based on information from your data source.
Post-run actions
Set notifications: Configure automated emails or alerts to inform users or administrators about the status or completion of the automation process.
Create callbacks: Create external webhooks that can be called by other systems upon automation completion.
Save
Assign a name and description to your automation for easier identification and management within Automate365.
Managing your Automations
Discover how to organize, update, and maintain your collection of Automate365 automations for efficient operation and easy troubleshooting.