Learning the Power Platform – My First Microsoft Flow
I may have the title wrong for this post as what I am really trying to do is crowd source my first practical Microsoft Flow. For some time, I have been thinking about how I can work Flow into my practical everyday life, to save me time and make me more productive. The other day a use case hit me in the face. Let me give you some background on my situation.
I consult to a range of Microsoft partners around the world. Specifically, I help Systems Integrators (SIs) and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) grow their businesses and access new markets. In this situation I am often provided with an email address for that Microsoft Partner with access to their Office 365 instance.
The problem this creates for me each partner then sends meeting requests to that email address, and with multiple partners means I end up trying to manage multiple calendars. In no time at all I have conflicts within in my daily schedule as the appointments are not in a single calendar.
Yes, I can have multiple calendars in Outlook but when I give access to others to schedule appointments with me in the white space of my schedule, they can’t see the time that is blocked out by the other calendars.
What I need is a Flow setup in each of the Office 365 instances that I have accounts for that takes the appointments and updates a central calendar in my personal company Office 365 instance with that appointment. That will allow me to have a single point of truth in one calendar of all my bookings, and also allow me to share access to that calendar for others to book appointments with me.
I hope this does not sound too confusing. In short, I want all appointments from multiple Office 365 accounts sent to a single Office 365 Account so that they all show up in my primary calendar. Can this be done with Flow? I only need the appointments to flow one way.
The above is my first problem but then my wife often is booking in many social things for me to do with friends that are after hours. As she works for Google, she uses Google calendar to do this and sends me appointments for my Google calendar.
Because I schedule my podcast recordings to work in the different time zones of my guests, I need to make sure that these social activities are also in my primary Office 365 Calendar so they are taken into account when booking after hours’ appointments.
Naturally I also have a Hotmail calendar and outlook.com calendar that are used for various MVP type appointments and these also need to be flowed into my Office 365 Calendar.
With multiple Office 365 calendars, Google, Hotmail and Outlook.com calendar, to be productive I need to have a single calendar view of my work and this is where I turn to Microsoft Flow for a solution.
Here I need your help. Can you design a Microsoft Flow solution to solve my challenge? If you were in my situation, what solution would you architect to get the outcome I am seeking?
I am happy to write a post and give you full credit for what you come up with. Will you accept the challenge?
