Breaking Down the Power Platform
What is it? What does it include? And how is used?
The Microsoft Power Platform is a collection of software tools that integrate with Microsoft applications and allow users of all types – technical and non-technical – to perform a variety of tasks, such as creating automated workflows, performing complex data analysis, and building custom apps. The Power Platform integrates with Microsoft business applications and technologies, including Microsoft Dynamics 365 products, Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), Azure, and Dataverse.
Power Platform components
The Power Platform is comprised of five major components:
Power Automate
Power Automate lets users be more productive by creating automated workflows to perform repetitive tasks, such as tracking approvals, sending notifications, transferring files, etc. These workflows can be triggered automatically or by a user action and can include conditional logic.
Power Automate use cases
Power Automate has use cases across multiple industries, including retail, healthcare, education, manufacturing, and project management. Here are typical examples:
- Document approvals – Assign requests (invoice approval, leave requests, expense reports) for approval to the appropriate individuals, collect their responses, and store approved documents for final review.
- Sales proposals – Generate sales proposals and quotes automatically using CRM data.
- System monitoring and alerts – Monitor hardware and software system performance and send alerts if certain thresholds are exceeded.
- Order confirmation and tracking – Send customers automated order confirmations and tracking information when the item ships.
Power BI
Power BI is a business intelligence tool that helps users collect data from various sources, perform analysis on that data, and generate reports based on the findings. Power BI can be used to create easy-to-read summary dashboards, provide descriptive visualizations of input data, and derive valuable insights from the data.
Power BI use cases
Organizations use Power BI’s power data visualization and business intelligence capabilities to transform raw data into actionable insights. Here are a few examples of how Power BI is being used:
- Key Performance Indicator (KPI) tracking – create reports and dashboards to monitor sales and financial KPIs, such as profit margins, win/loss rates, profit margins, cash flow, and more.
- Customer segmentation – Create targeted marketing campaigns by segmenting customers using various criteria, such as demographics, geography, and buying behavior.
- Customer retention – Track customer churn across various categories and determine root causes to aid in customer retention efforts.
- Problem resolution time – Track the average time to resolve time-sensitive issues, such as customer support tickets, customer wait times, or time on hold, to identify areas for improvement and improve customer satisfaction scores.
Power Apps
Power Apps provides users with a low-code, drag-and-drop development environment to create custom business apps to connect with Microsoft products, such as Outlook, Teams, and Dynamics 365 Business Central, without requiring advanced coding skills. Power Apps can provide solutions for business needs without significant costs in development time or resources. Apps developed using Power Apps can run on mobile devices and web browsers.
Power Apps use cases
Organizations use Microsoft Power Apps to build mobile and web applications quickly and connect them to various data sources. Here are several use cases showing how Power Apps are being used in various industries:
- Field services maintenance and repair – Enable field services personnel to access product documentation and resources, view customer history, upload pictures and description of field work, create invoices for work performed, and collect customer signatures while on-site.
- Customer feedback – Gather customer feedback and track reviews, giving insight into customer satisfaction scores and identifying areas of improvement.
- Appointment scheduling – Provide customers, patients, or clients with the ability to see availability and schedule, cancel, or reschedule appointments.
- Inventory lookup – Allow retail salesfloor personnel to check inventory levels in-store and nearby stores and warehouses for better customer service.
Microsoft Copilot Studio
Microsoft Copilot Studio lets users create AI-driven Copilots for various Microsoft products to facilitate employee productivity and customer interactions. Examples include creating context-sensitive chatbots, summarizing data, and generating employee onboarding workflows.
Microsoft Copilot Studio
Organizations use Microsoft Copilot Studio to incorporate generative AI capabilities into their use of Microsoft products. Here are several ways Copilot Studio is being used in businesses today:
- Content creation – Businesses are using Copilot Studio to generate blogs, social media posts, and advertising copy. Copilot can even write SEO optimized content that is aligned with the company’s branding and voice.
- Respond to FAQs – Copilots can provide automated answers to frequently asked questions, freeing up time for customer service representatives to address more pressing customer requests and issues.
- Employment screening – Scan resumes for key qualifications matched to job requirements and send the qualified candidate resumes to the relevant hiring managers.
- Code generation – Copilot can help developers by generating code snippets, assisting in debugging code, and suggesting comments.
Power Pages
Power Pages provides a low-code platform to create and host responsive, external-facing websites that work across web browsers and devices.
Power Pages use cases
Here are several real-life applications of Microsoft Power Pages:
- Customer self-service portal – Let customers create accounts, manage profiles, and check order status.
- Employee training and development – Provide employees a central hub for training and self-development including the ability to register for career development courses, track progress, download training materials, and document course completions.
- Building permit application and approval – Municipalities use Power Pages to allow businesses and residents to submit permit requests, track the permit progress, and be notified of approvals or denials.
- eCommerce portals – Allow users to order products or services, manage their orders, and submit payments using a website that integrates with the company’s financial management software.
Integrating the parts
While each component of the Power Platform has useful applications, these technologies can be combined to provide powerful business solutions.
For example, users can embed AI-driven chatbots from Copilot Studio or display reports and dashboards from Power BI into websites built with Power Pages. Power BI can be applied to data taken from Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Dynamics 365 products.
In fact, through its integration with other Microsoft business products and technologies, the Power Platform can create sophisticated solutions across the Microsoft ecosystem using Dataverse.
Dataverse is a secure cloud-based platform that allows organizations to store and manage data for use by various business applications. Dataverse integrates with other Microsoft products, like Excel, SQL Server, and Dynamics 365 Business Central, as well as third-party services, letting users import, export, and synchronize data from multiple sources. Dataverse has native integration with the Power Platform which allows users to incorporate data from the Dataverse into their Power Platform tools and apps.
For example, this seamless integration among technologies allows users to create custom Power Apps using data from Excel, CRM, and Dynamics 365 Business Central to generate proposals automatically to their customers using Outlook.
The Power Platform’s deep integration with the Azure platform and tools facilitates managing and analyzing massive datasets. Users can combine Power BI with Azure Synapse Analytics for real-time analysis of large datasets or combine Power Apps and Power Automate with Azure Functions to handle complex business logic and extend application functionality.
Endless possibilities with Power Platform
The Power Platform lets business users create custom solutions and extend the capabilities of their existing Microsoft products.
Contact ArcherPoint to learn how to effectively use Power Platform’s rich capabilities for your business.