Chess delivers automation for virtually any type of situation, including business process automation using tools such as Microsoft Power Apps, Power Automate & Copilot Studio, Azure and infrastructure automation, DevOps automation and AI‑driven workflow orchestration.

Yes. We can build automation solutions that work perfectly well across cloud and on-premises systems.

Generally speaking, traditional automation follows rules, while AI‑driven automation can handle complexity, variability and decision‑making using intelligent agents.

Both Copilot Studio and Connex AI can build complex automations and orchestrations and so there is some crossover between them. Connex AI offers native voice integration, live call management, sentiment analysis, social integration, agent prompting and coaching, and is perhaps more suited to building solutions for contact centres, sales teams and similar environments. While Copilot might be able to match that functionality, it would likely take much more development time to achieve.

Connex AI complements Microsoft platforms by orchestrating complex workflows and AI agents alongside Power Platform, Azure and Copilot.

No. Automation can deliver value at any scale, from small teams automating approvals to enterprise organisations standardising cloud operations and delivery pipelines.

We typically start with high-volume, repetitive or error-prone tasks, then prioritise automation based on effort, impact and return on investment. This SSE case study is a good example of a company-wide and difficult manual process being turned into much smoother app and automation-driven solution.

Power Automate focuses on automating workflows and processes, while Power Apps is used to build simple applications that often trigger or interact with those automated workflows.

Yes. Power Automate includes hundreds of connectors and can integrate with many third-party and line-of-business systems, as well as custom APIs.

An Application Programming Interface is a set of rules that allows one program or app to communicate with another for the purposes of sharing data or creating a bigger solution from different components. For example, Sage accounts software has an API that would allow a Power Platform app or workflow to share data for reporting or other uses.

Not necessarily. Power Automate is a modular platform so automations cab built from standard building blocks chained together. Users comfortable with scripting, Excel macros and similar tools should be able to create useful automations. However, very complex solutions might require one of our experienced developers to create a rounded and reliable solution.

Azure Automation is used to automate operational tasks such as patching, configuration management, scheduled maintenance and repeatable administrative processes across cloud and hybrid environments.

Logic Apps, Functions and other Azure tools are typically used for more complex, integration-heavy or event-driven scenarios, especially where scalability or custom logic is required.

Event-driven automation triggers actions automatically when something changes, such as a file being uploaded, a resource being created, or an alert being raised.

A serverless solution is a function which provides a capability but that does not need a traditional server to host it. In this respect, there is none of the typical maintenance and support element that a server requires.

‘Infrastructure as code’ uses templates or descriptions to define and deploy infrastructure consistently, reducing manual configuration and ensuring environments are repeatable and auditable

Yes, when configured correctly. We help organisations implement governance and security controls so Copilot respects existing permissions and data boundaries. For example, Copilot can be configured to only work with internal company data and not use or share any data externally.

No. Copilot complements automation by accelerating tasks and decision-making, while tools like Power Automate handle structured, repeatable workflows. It would be typical for our automation solutions to use a combination of Power Automation and Copilot working together.

We design automation with security, role-based access, auditing and governance controls built in from the start, aligned to Microsoft best practices.

A well-designed automation solution will include monitoring, error checking, exception handling, alerts and other elements to ensure reliability. These elements are often the difference between a user-generated automation and a professionally-developed solution.