Auralis vs building in-house on the Microsoft stack

A company that already pays for Microsoft 365 may reasonably ask whether its help desk could run on top of it. Microsoft provides several components that could be used in a prototype. This comparison examines what running one in production alongside e-automate would require.

What the Microsoft stack provides

Microsoft’s help pages describe several building blocks a prototype could use. A Power Automate automated cloud flow can be triggered by the arrival of an email from a specific person. The Outlook connector can work with a shared mailbox, provided the account named in the trigger is a member of that mailbox. Copilot Studio can use SharePoint as a knowledge source, and it describes agents that answer questions and resolve issues for customers over voice and chat.

Those components cover email triggers, shared mailboxes, knowledge sources and customer conversations. They could form part of a prototype for one narrow request type, and that’s a useful starting point. Production use also needs decisions about integration access, ownership, exception handling and upkeep.

The e-automate connection

A prototype that reads from or writes to e-automate needs an approved integration path. Microsoft’s environment documentation says an app is only permitted to connect to the data sources deployed in the same environment, including connections, gateways and Dataverse databases. The team needs to work out how that restriction applies to its proposed e-automate connection, and it’s worth doing that early.

On the e-automate side, ECI describes the Equipment Solutions Network (ESN) as a data portal that vendor integrations can use to interact with its ERP software. It also says vendors are limited to a specific set of APIs per dealer integration. Before planning a build, confirm with ECI which APIs a dealer-built tool could be authorized for. Microsoft’s connector reference is the place to check whether a suitable e-automate connector exists.

Ownership and maintenance

Microsoft’s help pages also cover what happens when an automation’s owner leaves an organization. An orphaned flow no longer has a valid owner, and it can fail when it uses connections tied to that person’s account. The team should decide how ownership and connections will be reassigned if the owner leaves.

The plan should also settle who keeps the prompts, knowledge sources, exception rules and later changes up to date. A prototype might not reveal the ongoing work needed to keep these elements running, so ownership should be assigned before launch.

What it costs

Microsoft prices Power Automate per user and per bot each month. Copilot Studio includes flexible, usage-based billing, and an Azure subscription is required to use agents. The budget should also account for internal labor to build and maintain the system, because licenses alone don’t cover it.

Where a build makes sense

An in-house build may suit a narrow, stable use case: one shared inbox, one routing rule, no writes into e-automate, and an IT lead who wants to own the result. For a dealer with that requirement, keeping such a build may be reasonable.

Once a prototype works, the next request is easy to imagine, because the service manager may ask whether the tool can also handle toner, open a service call or call the customer back, and each of those would expand the integration and upkeep it needs. Reassess ownership and staffing whenever the scope expands, and don’t wait for the first failure to do it.

What Auralis does with the same jobs

Auralis handles meter reads, toner and service calls, and dispatch logging around the clock, with exceptions routed to your people. The work is written into e-automate through its ECI partner integration via the ESN API, and the service is fully managed. A meter read inside the variance you set posts on its own. A read that doesn’t meet the configured rule stops and goes to one of your people with the reason attached. Auralis runs under a service account you create, scoped to the objects you approve. Telephony covers full inbound and outbound calls. Auralis has completed SOC 2 and ISO work, and customer data is never used for model training.

One dealer we work with saw volume rise 30 to 40% after folding two acquisitions into one team. About 80% of its meter reads were automated within two weeks, and customer wait time fell from a few hours down to a couple of minutes. The same team handled that work right after the acquisitions.

Four questions for your IT lead

1. Which APIs could ECI authorize for a dealer-built tool?
2. Who owns the build in month six, and who covers when that person is away?
3. How will meter-read exceptions be defined and handled, and who decides?
4. What will the security review need to see before it signs off?

Book a 30-minute walkthrough with your IT lead on access, hosting and the audit log.

Sources

• Microsoft Learn, Power Automate cloud flows overview (undated, fetched 23 Oct 2026).
• Microsoft Learn, Outlook.com connector (undated, fetched 23 Oct 2026).
• Microsoft Learn, What is Microsoft Copilot Studio (undated, fetched 23 Oct 2026).
• Microsoft Learn, Add SharePoint as a knowledge source (undated, fetched 23 Oct 2026).
• Microsoft Learn, Power Platform environments overview (undated, fetched 23 Oct 2026).
• Microsoft Learn, Manage orphaned flows when the owner leaves the organization (undated, fetched 23 Oct 2026).
• Microsoft Learn, Connector reference overview (undated, fetched 23 Oct 2026).
• Microsoft, Power Automate pricing (fetched 23 Oct 2026).
• Microsoft, Copilot Studio plans and pricing (fetched 23 Oct 2026).
• ECI, e-automate online help (version 250), Equipment Solutions Network (ESN) (fetched 23 Oct 2026).
• Auralis product information (internal).
• Auralis customer results (internal, anonymized).