Summary
This article summarizes the tools for business process automation, robotic process automation (RPA), data integration, and data pipelines (ETL / ELT) at University of Michigan and Michigan Medicine.
Details
Business Process Automation Tools
Tools for automating business processes, approval workflows, and passing data from one application to another.
| Product / Framework |
Description |
Connectors |
Contacts / Resources |
| Power Automate |
Visual and low-code tool for creating workflows, automating processes, and moving data across cloud providers and Microsoft services. Comes in cloud and desktop versions. |
- Cloud (SharePoint, Teams, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, many more)
- FTP / SFTP
- Email
- No access to internal servers (behind firewall) such as Oracle, MS SQL Server, or MCommunity
- Access to custom APIs and several cloud providres is disabled by security policy
- Front-end automation / RPA (Power Automate Desktop)
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| TeamDynamix iPaaS |
Connects enterprise systems with a library of pre-built connectors for data integration, using a visual workflow flow builder. Can be used for process automation, API calls, and integration including lightweight data pipelines, and for customizable and interactive forms. |
- Cloud (SharePoint, Google Drive, Dropbox)
- FTP
- Email
- Custom APIs
- On-site / internal servers (MCommunity, TDX, ServiceNow). No access to Michigan Medicine internal servers by default (but possibly configured with firewall exceptions)
- Requires on-boarding by ITS TDX team
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| Slack Workflows |
Basic workflows that run inside Slack, with limited connections to external services. |
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| Automation Anywhere |
Low-code RPA and workflow automation tool with many third party connectors. Can be used to automate tasks in Epic via front-end macros or backend API calls. |
- Cloud (SharePoint, Teams, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, many more)
- On-site / internal servers (MCommunity, TDX, ServiceNow) including Michigan Medicine internal servers such as Oracle and MS SQL.
- Front-end automation / RPA
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Data Integration, Cloud Data Flow, and Data Pipeline Tools
Tools for ETL / ELT, data loading, data transformations, data cleaning, data pipelines, data wrangling, etc.
| Product / Framework |
Description |
Connectors |
Contacts / Resources |
| Power Query |
Data connectivity and data preparation tool from Microsoft that integrates into Excel and the Power Platform. |
- Many cloud services
- Custom APIs
- Microsoft 365 services (Outlook, Email, Calendar, Planner, To-Dos, Forms, SharePoint)
- ODBC
- Excel, CSV, many other file formats
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| Tableau Prep |
Data preparation, cleaning, and transformation tool for Tableau dashboards. |
- Many cloud services
- Custom APIs
- File shares
- JDBC
- Excel, CSV, many other file formats
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| Pentaho Data Integration & Analytics |
Java-based data orchestration tool for building and maintaining analytic data pipelines, with a focus on Extract-Transform-Load (ETL). |
- MiShare / FTP / SFTP
- Email
- On-site / internal services in Michigan Medicine environment (Oracle, MS SQL), with limited access to U-M environment
- Access to custom APIs, including RedCap and MyDataHelps
- Not generally available to developers outside of HITS or a Trusted Service Provider (TSP)
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| Informatica |
Platform for cloud integration and data management, focused on Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) processing. Available in cloud and on-premise versions. |
- Cloud
- FTP / SFTP
- Email
- SSH
- Custom APIs
- On-site / internal servers (Oracle, MS SQL, TDX, ServiceNow).
- Not generally available to developers outside of ITS, HITS or a Trusted Service Provider (TSP)
- Not able to write to MCommunity API
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|
| Apache Airflow |
Java-based platform to programmatically author, schedule and monitor workflows and data flows. |
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| Denodo |
Data virtualization and data integration platform that allows combining multiple data sources into a single "virtual" database, while keeping the data in the original systems. |
- Cloud services and custom APIs
- FTP / SFTP
- Internal databases on U-M environment only (Oracle, MS SQL). No access to Michigan Medicine environment.
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| SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) |
Part of Microsoft SQL Server, SSIS is a data pipeline and transformation tool that can be used for both ETL and ELT. |
- Internal MS SQL databases in U-M and MM environment.
- Flat files
- Some APIs depending on security configuration
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Notes
- This list is not exhaustive. Please help improve this article by letting us know of other automation/ETL tools you are using at Umich.
Resources
About the Author
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Gabriel Mongefranco is a Mobile Data Architect at the University of Michigan Eisenberg Family Depression Center. Gabriel has over a decade of experience in data analytics, dashboard design, automation, back end software development, database design, middleware and API architecture, and technical writing.
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