SharePoint 2010 workflow retirement – What does this mean for your business?

Have you ever been using SharePoint 2010 workflows to remove tedious and time-consuming manual tasks? 

You may not be aware that Microsoft has recently announced it will no longer be supporting SharePoint 2010 workflows from 1st November 2020.    

As an existing Microsoft 365 user, this means you won’t be able to create, run or execute these workflows by then.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise as there hasn’t been any investment in SharePoint 2010 and 2013 workflows. Instead Microsoft has been focusing on Power Automate as the replacement tool for quite some time. 

Are you Still Running SharePoint 2010 Workflows? 

Then you need to act immediately. In less than 4 weeks from now, Microsoft will remove the ability to run or create SharePoint 2010 workflows.  

These workflows have already been retired for new users from 1st August 2020, but these changes will soon be affecting existing tenants and their automated processes. 

And on top of that, Microsoft has shared it will likewise progressively remove SharePoint 2013 workflows from the 1st of November. 

Are you on Premis SharePoint 2016 or 2019 Sever?
This is good news; Microsoft will continue to support SharePoint 2010 and 2013 workflow on these platforms until 2026. 

The end of SharePoint 2010 workflows 

SharePoint workflows have been great helping automate business processes; making work easier and enabling everyone to focus on their most critical tasks. This is especially important when the future way of working will include remote work. 

So how could this look in your workplace? 

 Here’s an example:  

Imagine you need your head of department to review and approve a document. If you’re doing it manually, you’re most likely to spend a lot of time forwarding the document to relevant staff, keeping track of edits, and reminding your colleagues about the pressing deadline. This will cause way too many interruptions and prevent you from focusing on more important projects. 

However, if you’re doing it from SharePoint by running a document approval workflow, all these time-consuming steps will be completed automatically from the platform. You won’t have to send multiple documents and chase team members. The workflow will perform these for you. This makes your life easier by saving time and allowing you to fully concentrate on your projects.

Useful, isn’t it? 

But now you’re probably wondering: 

“How am I supposed to keep streamlining my business processes if SharePoint is no longer offering this functionality?”  

 Don’t worry – we’re going to share knowledge to support you through the transition. 

Options you could consider

An impressive number of workflows were built with SharePoint 2010 workflows. If you have ever been using a SharePoint workflow, it has most likely been produced with this version. Considering this, Microsoft has recommended to migrate all automated processes either to Power Automate or other supported solutions. 

 What does this mean? 

1. Migrating workflows to Power Automate 

As part of the Power Platform, Power Automate is also included in Microsoft 365 licenses, meaning you won’t have to pay additional costs.  

Offering modern workflow automation solutions, the tool allows you to build custom workflows and connects them to their SharePoint environments. 

However, Power Automate doesn’t directly integrate with SharePoint and the migration of each workflow is a manual and complex process. To make sure the processes are meeting your specific needs, it also requires developer and some coding skills. 

Every business has different challenges, so you might want to have something that is a bit more bespoke to match your needs. Additional expertise and training might be beneficial to complete the process.  

2. Migrating workflows to a process automation platform

There are third-party tools on the market which integrate with SharePoint and are endorsed by Microsoft. They can likewise improve efficiency, visibility and saves significant time and money with a “low code”/”no code” process automation platform. 

With appropriate training, this solution can reduce on-going expenses and empower your workforce by enabling them to easily generate a diversity of automated processes relevant to your requirements. This guarantees fast migration of workflows within SharePoint. 

We’re here to help 

Remember you will need to update your user community, workflow developers and helpdesk, so you’re ready to manage this change.    

Wondering what are the best ways to migrate your SharePoint workflows? 

These are some of the ways we have been helping customers.

If you don’t have any in–house support or are unsure how to achieve this, Appetite for Business has been supporting individuals and organisations in eliminating time-consuming tasks by bringing their process automation to the next level and producing training materials. And we can do the same for you. 

As a Microsoft Service Adoption Specialist, we’ve built automated workflows via Power Automate, but also offered a process automation platform integrating with SharePoint and other Microsoft 365 applications. 

We provide bespoke services according to your needs, goals and expectations.

Looking for support during this transition? Feel free to get in touch with us.