Using Microsoft Power Platform for Business Transformation

Microsoft Power Platform is a development platform built on Azure, consisting of a suite of no-code or low-code applications that let organizations build end-to-end business solutions. It’s a set of powerful business applications that aim to transform the way people work.

This collection of applications include

· Power Automate or Flow: The service focuses on boosting productivity by streamlining workflows, automating organizational processes and enhancing workflows using AI

· Power Apps : This service offers apps, data connectors & platforms that enable the quick and easy development of custom apps

· Power BI: Business analytics service that helps in analyzing data, providing interactive data visualization, connecting data sources and providing valuable insights into data

· Power Virtual Agents : This service can be used to develop and manage chatbots to engage with customers and within the organization.

How does the Power Platform increase efficiency?

The platform’s no-code, low-code approach means users without developer experience can build digital business solutions. A business solution is anything that can help solve issues or help complete tasks.

The five applications within the Power Platform run on top of the Dataverse, a data service that allows business data storage within a set of tables. Dataverse can integrate data into a single store, which can be used across different Power Platform apps.

Power Platform is versatile, having over 600 connectors. Connectors are proxies allowing Power Platform apps to communicate with other Microsoft apps and third-party services. These connectors enable users to create solutions involving services like SAP, Salesforce, and Twitter and would allow users to make their workflows if a prebuilt connector is unavailable.

The Power Platform also involves an AI builder, which provides AI models designed to optimize business processes, allowing users to use AI to perform tasks.

Benefits of Power Platform

The Power Platform provides several benefits for organizations, which include -

· All business activities on a single platform: Generate vast volumes of business information in the form of data. It is essential for businesses to ensure that the data is accurate and accessible in real-time and to ensure that departmental data silos and process bottlenecks are not formed. Using Power Platform’s end-to-end capabilities, all applications can be integrated to ensure seamless management of this data, giving the team more visibility, control, and access.

· Improve data accuracy: The challenge with big data is capturing relevant data accurately and applying analytics. Power Automate makes the data flow seamless regardless of the external data source or application. Power BI enables interactive visualization of this data for making decisions.

· Streamlining processes: Power Platform helps apply business intelligence and automation across all organizational processes. Redundant processes, procedures and practices can be eliminated and resources can be utilized for business value-adding activities. Power Platform also helps standardize processes by automating and digitizing repetitive tasks.

· Cost-saving: App development is vital for organizations and it comes with a cost. The expense increases as vendor subscription and licensing costs are added to this development process. A report of 2021 by Forrester stated that Power Apps and Power Automate helped reduce application development costs by 70%. Easy customization options for apps using Power Apps allow organizations to unsubscribe to extra services like vendor applications subscriptions, which help companies save more than 50% in licensing costs.

· Compliance management: Compliance and accountability requirements are continuously updated as businesses become increasingly social and environmentally conscious. Keeping up to date with every single need and process can be challenging. PowerApps and Power Automate enable businesses to follow these processes as they control the data collection methods and the results.

· Reports: Power BI can be used to generate reports and dashboards can be generated as per need. All these activities can be brought onto the Microsoft platform and reports can be filtered per specific needs and inputs.

· Collaboration: Microsoft Power Platform and its connected apps provide multiple channels to connect remotely, enabling people to work from any location.

· Data security: Power Platform enables the quick and easy creation of end-to-end solutions and security is critical. The Power Platform is governed by Microsoft Online Service Terms and Microsoft Enterprise Privacy Statement, while Microsoft Trust Centre is a primary resource for Power Platform compliance information.

· Ease of adoption: Developing enterprise business applications requires a steep learning curve and considerable investments in IT. Microsoft’s no-code, the low-code approach makes it significantly easier for team members to adopt and maximize the technology. It enables businesses to make use of the IT department’s full potential.

In conclusion, a business’s ultimate aim is to grow and Power Platform makes this possible by offering a wide range of data and personalization options. Microsoft Power Platform is a powerful toolset and can be used to solve various organizational problems. Organizations interested in taking advantage of Power Platform benefits should connect with Power Platform consulting services to bring their activities to the next level.