Microsoft Power Platform: Harnessing The Power for your Business

Thinking of switching to low-code but not sure what exactly this means for your business? We hope this article helps make this concept a bit more understandable.

The world is changing rapidly around low-code, with nearly 70% of new enterprise applications being developed using some kind of low-code platform. Low-code has become popular recently mainly to help achieve three objectives: Streamline operations, boost productivity and drive transformation. One of them happens to be Microsoft Power Platform, a go-to tool for many; offering a range of low-code applications that help users create, analyse and automate business processes with ease.

Understanding Microsoft Power Platform

Microsoft Power Platform is an integrated suite offering innovative end-to-end business solutions that host tools such as Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Pages and, of course, Microsoft’s Copilot Studio. These solutions have empowered individuals, from citizen developers to people with professional coding experience, to build processes that work best for their business.

All the Power tools have their own unique functionality, but they all work together seamlessly, providing a well-rounded solution for app development, workflow automation, data analysis, page creation and AI assistance. Let’s take a brief look at these solutions and find out what they can help you with.

Power BI: Everyone’s speaking about monitoring data and keeping on top of insights and reports. Power BI is your solution for business analytics and data management, with over 300k+ organisations and 2M+ current community members. It is known for its office-like experience that helps visualise and share insights from your data. This helps create interactive dashboards and reports that support data-driven decision-making across your organisation. Its user-friendly and powerful interface makes it accessible to anyone, even if they’re not a data expert.

Power Apps: With Power Apps a small fusion team within a modern organisation can build a collaborative cloud application with a lot less effort and minimal coding. It supports both canvas apps (which offer design flexibility) and model-driven apps (which are more structured). This means you can now develop applications without needing to be a coding wizard.

Power Automation: In today’s day and age almost half of work activities globally have the potential to be automated using the current availably automated technology. This implementation can make all the boring, manual, repetitive tasks like collecting and processing data redundant. Doesn’t that sound great? Imagine the amount of other more important custom work you can focus on with all that saved time. Power Automate connects different systems and services, helping you streamline your business processes, reduce manual work and boost efficiency. You can also use pre-built templates or create custom workflows to suit your business, making it efficient for businesses of all sizes to implement RPA development.

Power Pages: Power Pages allow you to build secure, low-code websites quickly. It’s perfect for creating web-based interfaces for business applications and data. You can also use it to engage with external users and partners. Whether you need a customer portal or an onboarding system, Power Pages integrate smoothly with other Power Platform components, making your data and workflows easily accessible through user-friendly web pages.

Copilot Studio: Microsoft Copilot is now being used everywhere, not just for business purposes but also personal use. By using natural language processing and machine learning, this tool can provide smart responses and automate routine interactions, making your life easier and improving customer satisfaction. Designing intelligent, actionable and connected AI assistants for employees and customers has never been better.

Benefits

• The low-code approach means that even non-technical users can get involved in creating apps and automating workflows. This reduces reliance on IT and speeds up the deployment of new solutions.
• Power Platform seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft products like Office365, SharePoint, Azure, Teams as well as other third-party applications. This ensures smooth data flow and collaboration across the business.
• By enabling rapid development and automation, the platform can help cut down on development costs and operational expenses. You can build and deploy solutions faster, getting a better return on investment.

Conclusion

We’ve seen how Microsoft Power Platform is a game-changer, providing tools that empower organisations right from state & local governments to retail, financial and many other sectors to innovate and optimise their operations. By enabling users to create custom applications, automate workflows, analyse data, build intelligent chatbots and develop secure websites, it encourages digital transformation and fosters a culture of continuous improvement.

If you would like to find out whether the Power Platform should be your go-to solution get in touch with our team of experts for a tailored consultation.