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Technology has become a critical enabler for organisations looking to grow and innovate. However, technology is only useful when everyone has access to and can use it. Hence, the need for Microsoft Power Platform to ensure everyone from the CEO to the sales and marketing frontline can access, analyse, and act on business data.
Microsoft Power platform makes organisations more agile and efficient in their business operations. In addition, its tools provide a host of benefits for clients. For example, the low-code development environment allows rapid application development via canvas and model-driven apps to help organisations take their new applications and features to market faster.
The Power Platform contains five cloud-based services working seamlessly to allow users to access the relevant data they need and develop tailor-made applications. These platforms are Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents, and Power Pages.
This article looks at the Microsoft Power Platform and its benefits for business, especially those that are undertaking or about to undertake a digital transformation. With the help of experienced IT services and business process consultants like Canon Business Services, the Microsoft Power Platform can provide all of the tools your business needs to fuel your digital transformation.
So, let's take a closer look.
Understanding what is Microsoft Power Platform is crucial as it offers a low-code platform for businesses to build customised end-to-end solutions. The system allows users to perform three primary data actions: analyse, automate, and act using Power Apps, Power BI, Power Virtual Agents, Power Automate, and Power pages.
Below are the five Microsoft Power Platform build tools:
Power Apps make it possible for organisations to integrate and distribute their data, as well as access to easy-to-use templates that enable point-and-click app creation. This allows users to quickly build customised applications with zero-to-minimal code required.
Organisations can connect their data, design the user interface, and apply business logic when building the custom applications they need. What's more, users don't need programming experience to develop apps and optimise their productivity or make their work less monotonous.
Power Automate allows organisations to automate their processes and eliminate manual and paper-based activities. As a result, they can quickly build and automate their workflows. It also means that even without complex IT implementation, this tool enables non-technically savvy employees to automate business processes and workflows.
This business analytics tool offers data-driven insights to help organisations find, analyse, and visualise data. The self-service business intelligence tool enables rich data visualisation and reporting.
Additionally, Power BI integrates with Business Central to provide ERP functionality that gives organisations an overview of their business areas and uses business intelligence to provide data insight.
This tool allows organisations to design and build chatbots without AI expertise or coding. In addition, it frees employees from responding to repetitive customer queries. Organisations can significantly minimise the required cost of developing effective and intelligent chatbots as a result.
Power Pages help organisations create, host, and administer external business websites with customisable and ready-to-use templates. It's a secure, low-code, and enterprise-grade software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform.
These five Microsoft Power Platform build tools create a loop that allows organisations to analyze, act and automate their processes and workflows.
Power Platform integrates low-code solutions into existing Microsoft products and Microsoft's secure and trusted cloud services, such as Azure, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365.
The five cloud-based services have individual uses, but connecting and using them allows organisations to create more unified systems and streamline business operations.
Let's look at the benefits of this platform to your organisation.
A 2021 Microsoft study called Forrester Total Economic Impact™ Study revealed that companies using Power Apps on large projects saved about 70% of costs on average. In addition, the platform helps reduce internal and external development costs and is much simpler to manage the applications and maintain the code.
Automation is critical for a successful organisation looking to leverage digital transformations. Unfortunately, repetitive processes take time and effort otherwise used in other business-critical areas. The Power Platform helps increase productivity and eliminate mundane and time-consuming tasks, enabling users to automate processes.
Organisations must control who can access specific data and reports to strengthen their security. Power Platform enhances security by doubling encryption, embedding identity management, and using multi-factor authentication.
All Power Platform tools are browser-based, so users can download and access them from anywhere, on any device. In addition, teams can stay updated on projects by connecting to the platform using desktop or cloud-based solutions.
The Power Platform seamlessly integrates with other apps and Microsoft solutions like Azure, Dynamics 365, and Office 365. For example, it integrates with Microsoft Teams to improve the efficiency of global teams by providing a modern, flexible workplace.
As organisations embrace the value of big data in their decision-making processes, they continue collecting massive amounts of data and storing it in the cloud. As a result, they are harnessing data from multiple sources such as social media, CRM, ERP, and web traffic applications.
Including tools like Power BI allows organisations to analyse and visualise the data collected to derive insights and help make informed business decisions.
Organisations used to rely on specific data resources, like data analysts and their technical know-how, to access and interpret big data. However, these organisations only harnessed a fraction of their total data potential.
Microsoft Power Platform allows everyone involved to add value by connecting to the Microsoft Dataverse, which securely stores data in one place. Therefore, custom apps and processes interact with a centralised set of data sources and business logic, saving time and allowing organisations to focus more on other priorities like business process automation.
Most organisations face limited developer resources, and there are not enough qualified programmers to hire. As a result, there is often a backlog of IT projects that could stunt the organisation's digital transformation.
The Power Platform ensures that you don't need a professional programmer to create custom applications, automation, integrations, and chatbots. Instead, users can build tailor-made apps in a few steps.
As we’ve covered in this piece, the Microsoft Power Platform allows users to create end-to-end solutions without the need for coding skills. However, in order to properly implement this technology into your business, it is critical to first understand and address the overall security infrastructure that you have in place and create a plan to integrate a powerful new piece of technology. The Microsoft Power Platform provides industry-leading protection, but oftentimes organisations may face security challenges in other parts of their business that could make their data vulnerable to attack, or may have gaps in their people, process, technology strategy that the platform cannot address on its own.
As organisations embrace a comprehensive cloud strategy, incorporating advanced technologies during their transition, operations, and decision-making is critical. Therefore, it is important to consult with an expert in IT professional services to make sure that your digital transformation, transition to Microsoft Power Platform, or any other business initiative you want to accomplish is not jeopardised by an outdated security posture.
More employees now work remotely, and online customer demand is soaring, which means that traditional on-premise application security is not enough. Organisations are turning to cloud-native, defence-in-depth, and multi-tiered security solutions for their business data intelligence.
At Canon Business Services ANZ we have years of experience helping our customers optimise, automate and transform their IT and business processes. When properly deployed within your organisation, the Microsoft Power Platform can be a game changing tool that allows organisations to stay agile and build solutions that move their business forward with an advanced set of low-code tools.
Speak with an Expert today to learn more about how Canon Business Services can help your organisation build the right Microsoft Power Platform solution to suit your business needs and fuel your digital transformation.
