Discover how JourneyTEAM empowers business teams to confidently build and deploy their own Power Platform instance through our guided implementation approach.
Today’s businesses thrive off of data. It’s used for everything—from building marketing and sales strategies to enhancing business efficiency and productivity. However, with the amount of data growing exponentially (one source estimates that 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated daily), it’s becoming more difficult for businesses to access, organize, and act on data.
To help businesses better organize data, Microsoft created the Power Platform—a portfolio of intelligent, robust solutions empowering businesses to do more with data than ever before. Below, we’ll provide an overview of the Microsoft Power Platform, what it’s comprised of, and how JourneyTEAM ensures a successful deployment through our proven Sherpa methodology.
What is the Power Platform?
Microsoft created the Power Platform to help businesses stay on top of increasingly large data. This would enable businesses to unlock and harness the powerful insights hidden in datasets to improve overall business efficiency, performance, and innovation.
The Power Platform is comprised of four solutions:
● Power BI: Power BI enables users to display and analyze data. Here, they can analyze raw data from various sources and visualize it in an easily digestible and actionable way. This allows business users to make data-driven, informed decisions that further business growth and innovation.
● PowerApps: Microsoft Power Apps is “a suite of apps, services, and connectors, as well as a data platform, that provides a rapid development environment to build custom apps for business needs.” The platform enables users to modify and act on data via a myriad of intelligent tools.
● Power Automate: Previously known as Microsoft Flow, Power Automate enables users to build automated workflows between applications to sync files, receive notifications, and more.
● Power Virtual Agents: This solution enables users to create intelligent, AI-powered chatbots that can fulfill a range of requests—from providing answers to simple questions to resolving issues.
Together, the solutions enable users to build intelligent business applications, analyze and report on complex data, automate processes, or build virtual chatbots to assist with communication and problem-solving. Each tool is considered low-code, meaning users with little to high technical skill can easily use the applications which reduces the need for IT involvement.
Why Use the Power Platform?
Once integrated, the Power Platform provides numerous benefits for business teams, some of which can be found below.
Centralizes All Business Data and Processes
The Power Platform ensures business teams have access to all data, regardless of where it lives. The solution centralizes all data and processes in a single location, providing users with a single source of truth. This helps to avoid bottlenecks, eliminates data siloes, and provides a 360-degree view of data.
Automates Processes
Manual, time-consuming, and paper-based processes are all eliminated via Power Automate. The solution digitalizes and automates operations which increases employee productivity efficiency and productivity, and enables teams to save valuable time and resources.
Intuitive, Easy-to-Use Platform
Other business applications typically require heavy IT involvement, not for initial set up but training as well. The Power Platform features one of the most intuitive, easy-to-use interfaces on the market. Simple drag-and-drop tools allow users, regardless of their technical skill, to easily manipulate and report on data. Citizen developers can easily create and deploy business applications while end-users easily adopt and use new features—all without the help of IT.
Work Across Devices
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s more important than ever for users to have access to business tasks, projects, calendar items, email, and more. The Power Platform features full web and mobile integration so users can easily complete tasks and collaborate with fellow colleagues remotely via cloud-based tools.
Seamless Integration with Microsoft Tools
One of the key benefits of the Power Platform is its seamless integration capabilities with other Microsoft solutions. These end-to-end integrations provide both professional and citizen developers with easy access to all business data, allowing them to build smarter, more efficient business solutions.
Improves Data Accuracy
Microsoft Power Apps is highly customizable, allowing users to customize form fields that meet hyper-specific needs. Power Automate then ensures all data flows seamlessly into Power Apps while Power BI ensures all data is accurate, up-to-date, and completed. This helps to reduce data errors and ensures users are making decisions on high-quality data.
Reduces Costs
According to a 2021 Forrester report, businesses that utilize the Power Platform reduced application development costs by 70%. Businesses are also able to reduce costs around third-party or vendor application subscriptions thanks to Power Apps flexibility and customization capabilities. An earlier version of the Forrester report found that organizations saved over 50% on licensing costs alone using the Power Platform.
Unleash the Power of the Power Platform
The benefits mentioned above are only the beginning of what business teams can expect with the Power Platform. Enhancing data security, streamlining reporting activities, increasing overall business productivity, and simplifying compliance management are also additional benefits of using the solution.
However, for businesses to realize the full power of the Power Platform, it’s critical the solution be customized to business's unique needs. Additionally, all users, regardless of their role, should have a basic understanding of the tools and capabilities featured in the platform. This ensures the solution is working for, not against, the business.
And that’s where JourneyTEAM’s Power Platform Sherpa program comes in. Taught by our team of industry experts, we work closely with business teams to understand their unique goals and objectives and then tailor the solution to fulfill them. We then work closely with employees to ensure they have at least a basic understanding of what they can do with the Power Platform. And with our guided implementation approach, teams can choose to have as much or as little support as they want.
The best part? We ensure implementation and onboarding costs are kept as low as possible, allowing teams to maximize their resources and budget.
Join us for the next Power Platform Sherpa program beginning July 25. The five-week program includes:
Nine workshops taught by expert developers.
Access to our team of senior consultants who can help answer questions and resolve issues.
Four one-on-one sessions (90 minutes each) with our support team.
Access to our online community where users can collaborate with other developers.
The option to join JourneyTEAM’s Managed Service Offering Program for additional and ongoing support.
Contact JourneyTEAM today to register for our upcoming Sherpa program or to learn more.