Ultima's IA-Connect enables Microsoft's Power Automate to be used with legacy applications

With more remote working, streamlined workforces and increasing customer expectations, companies need automation to help their employees deliver faster and better. Microsoft's Power Automate does this by automating everyday workflows to help manage daily business processes, which are manual, repetitive and time-consuming. However, until now, it has been hard to link Power Automate with legacy and bespoke apps, particularly those that are hosted through Citrix or remote desktop infrastructure. 

IA-Connect removes the difficulties of connecting legacy apps to Power Automate as it uses robotic process automation (RPA) as an enabler. Ultima Labs developed IA-Connect in 2019 to enable fast, secure automation of business processes over Microsoft RDS and Citrix virtual apps and desktops sessions and is used by Blue Prism in its global solutions.   

Amyn Jaffer, Head of Ultima Labs, says, "Power Automate is an excellent tool which democratises automation across organisations by providing hundreds of connectors into business systems and blending this with Azure Cognitive Services and AI – this is what’s called a Digital Process Automation (DPA) platform.  What DPA isn’t so good at is connecting with core legacy and bespoke applications. So, we’ve adapted our IA-Connect product to solve this problem. We can now use Power Automate to automate legacy and bespoke applications, broadening the possibilities for automating business processes, for example, the ability for healthcare companies to automate their EPIC and Cerner systems which will create substantial productivity savings.  

"IA-Connect is the only RPA enabler for Power Automate that directly integrates with Power Automate cloud flows. This means that you can seamlessly automate your bespoke / legacy system from your cloud-based workflow without handing it off to another system. It can automate your on-premises SAP apps seamlessly within your Power Automate cloud flow solution. With IA-Connect, your workflows are all designed, managed and run in the cloud for your on-premise systems, thereby reducing your management overhead and centralising your workflow insights," says Jaffer. 

Ana Demeny, Partner Technical Architect (Power Platform Integration & RPA), Microsoft "Within the space of just a few months, the team at Ultima Labs has built one of the first intelligent automation products in the Microsoft space. Their talent, hard work and flexibility is a recipe for success, making them one of the lead partners for automation and RPA in Microsoft Technologies.  

"I'm excited to continue working with them not only to enhance their IA-Connect product but also to enable other organisations to achieve more with Microsoft Power Automate," says Demeny.