Business Applications (ERP & CRM)

Business Applications (ERP & CRM)

Microsoft is at the forefront of digital transformation as evidenced by a wide range of enterprise products. Here, we are talking about Office 365, Microsoft 365, CRM and ERP solutions – Dynamics 365 – or hundreds of services available on the Azure platform. There is no doubt, that this group should also include the set of services which is, Microsoft Power Platform.

Power Platform – What is it and what does it consist of?

In the era of digital transformation, we rely on data that is constantly growing. However, they are useless until they are correctly interpreted, the purpose of which is to obtain specific information. Data analysis, application development or automation are now largely a “plot” of the IT department or programmers. An “ordinary” employee, wanting to improve his work or processes in which he participates, most often turns to the department or programmer for help. In many cases, you are asked to submit the appropriate application, outlining the requirements and goals that you want to achieve. Not only does he have to wait for acceptance, he does not know how long it will take to build the solution. First of all – it is time consuming – and secondly – it “consumes” the company’s internal resources. This is where Power Platform appears.

Microsoft Power Platform is a “package” of services that was presented in 2018. Explaining what a Power Platform is, you can rely on the words of Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, who states that “… Power Platform – including Power BI, Power Apps and Flow – allows anyone in the organization to create an application or workflow. It is the only solution of its kind in the industry – combining application development without code or using a small amount of it, process automation and analytics in one comprehensive platform. It also enables extensibility in Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 as well as leading SaaS business applications of other companies. ” Therefore – Power Platform combines the advantages and functionality off all four components:

Power Automate

Microsoft Flow

A service that supports users in creating workflows between applications and services, and thus – automates processes. These workflows can be used e.g. to integrate and update data, synchronize files or receive notifications from various services. There are  over 250 connectors at your disposal, and the intuitive interface and the ability to start building a “flow” from the ready template makes it easier for less technical users to start.

Power BI

Business Intelligence tool, which is designed to visualize data in a friendly and legible way, so that their analysis is simple and making business decisions even easier. The solution is available to install locally (Power BI Desktop), and the generated reports can be published in the cloud service. Power BI allows you to combine data from many sources, including Excel, SQL, Google Analytics, which can be used to build a common dashboard.

Power Apps

A service that allows you to create applications even without knowing the programming code. Of course, more technical users who know the code can use it. Power Apps can also be extended with connectors available in Azure. At the user’s disposal, as in the case of Microsoft Flow, templates are available to help build the first application.

Power Virtual Agents

Built powerful Virtual Agents with no-code skills. Enable the virtual agent to take action on the customer’s behalf. Easily integrate your virtual agent with hundreds of services and systems out of the box or create custom workflows. Keep an eye on how your virtual agent is performing by using conversational metrics and dashboards. Get in-depth AI-driven insights to improve bot performance.

The Power Platform’s “heart” is Common Data Services (CDS). It is a secure database hosted in the Microsoft Azure cloud that allows you to store and manage business data. Data in CDS is stored as part of entities set; their standard set is also included and it is possible to create them for specific requirements.

Interestingly, these solutions have their own administrative centers, but Microsoft has already released a dedicated Power Platform administration center: https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/.

Power Platform – analyze, act and automate

All four applications – Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate and Power Virtual Agent – have different functionalities and can be used separately, however their potential is only released when they “can” work together. Their joint use allows companies to create useful analyzes and reports (Power BI), simple and advanced applications (Power Apps) and automate processes (Power Automate (known as Flow) already at the user level, without the need to involve the IT department.