The Power Platform Explained: Transforming IT with AI and Low-Code Solutions
What is Microsoft Power Platform? It can be a difficult question to answer if you’re not familiar with IT or the building blocks of an IT system. You may even know some of the tools (i.e. Power BI) within the group of products already, but you don’t know how it relates to other tools and systems.
The concrete answer is this: Power Platform is a suite of low-code, AI-powered software development tools
Software has a history. Just like your company you own or work at, software has changed over time according to the needs of its audience. Power Platform was made for an audience of people who want a solution to fit the complexity of their business without needing high level technical expertise to create this solution. By having a solution like this, the entire software implementation process has become cheaper, shorter, and above all, focused on the outcomes your company wants at the end of the project. These benefits occur because of because of the low-code, AI-powered suite of tools in the Power Platform that give the makers simplicity in designing your solution.
What exactly are these tools?
As I’ve mentioned, Power Platform is made from a suite of development tools. Independently, they connect to your existing IT systems to solve the business problem it was built for. For example, you may need visibility in your supply chain so you would build a Power BI report to get real-time KPIs and insights from all of your systems.
Together, the Power Platform suite of tools join to create what ever you may need for your business to succeed. Using the example above, the report KPIs show you employees are not entering data fast enough because of the poor user interface. Therefore, you decide to create an PowerApp for data entry to make it simpler for your employees.
Let’s go over each tool briefly and what they do:
Copilot (Previously Power Virtual Agents)
Designed to create custom conversational AI for your organization, Copilot is an end-to-end conversational AI platform.
Copilot can be used for internal or external scenarios with connections to your current Microsoft data. If you’ve used ChatGPT, this is basically ChatGPT but built for your company and any tasks there instead of your personal use. Copilot was previously Power Virtual Agents, but significant advances in conversational AI has turned PVA into Copilot. Some practical applications of what it can do:
act as a help bot on your website for effective lead triaging
answer questions about your SharePoint files by being trained on them
internal IT support in your organization
Anything that requires a conversation for predictable scenarios can be automated and streamlined with Copilot.
Power BI
Transforms your companies data into real-time visual insights for better decision making.
Power BI is a business analysis tool that allows users to gain insights into their company’s data. Its accessible by a mobile app for quick checks on your business KPIs or by its web page for more detailed analysis. Share reports between groups of users or individuals, subscribe to daily emailed reports, and embed reports into your systems to view all your data in one place. It connects to a multitude of data sources, simplifying data prep, and driving real-time analysis. Some practical applications of what it can do:
monitor business performance on your operational KPIs in real-time
analyze trends and patterns using your historical data for better strategic alignment
share insights across teams so that employees and stakeholders have visibility
If data is collected, it can be visualized and analyzed with Power BI to facilitate better decisions.
Power Apps
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Power Apps is a low-code application development platform that allows users to build custom applications tailored to their business needs without requiring extensive coding knowledge. It's designed to improve productivity and business processes by creating apps that solve specific problems, streamline data entry, or enhance operational efficiency. Apps can be made for mobile phones, integrated into teams, embedded into web pages, or created as a standalone portal just like any other business software application. Some practical applications:
create mobile apps for internal users to improve daily tasks (i.e. expense entry)
improve data collection by building fields that don’t exist in your current systems
enhance customer engagement through app improving customer interactions (i.e. a service request portal)
Focus on your business processes and problems instead of the development difficulties with Power Apps.
Power Automate
Automate workflows and repetitive tasks across multiple applications and services, saving time and improving efficiency.
Automation is key in today’s organizations. PowerAutomate creates automated flows that trigger actions, sends notifications, approve requests, and connects to hundreds of data sources. This flexibility allows you to automate workflows not just within the Power Platform but also with external applications and services, creating a cohesive automation ecosystem. Power Automate streamlines tasks, transforms processes, and enhances productivity. Practical applications:
integrate AI with automation to process forms, interpret sentiments, and automat responses
setup workflows for administrative tasks like data entry and email notifications
use process mining to discover the processes in your business and how they can be more effective
Send data to where it needs to be automatically with Power Automate.
Power Pages
Enables users to build and deploy websites and web portals with ease.
Power Pages uses a low-code environment that simplifies web development, making it accessible to users of all skill levels. It is integrated with the rest of the power platform to ensure other tools and data can leverage anything collected by your website. Power Pages is designed to facilitate engagement, streamline service delivery, and enhance collaboration. Some practical applications:
create interactive customer portals where users can view personalized information, login, submit requests, and access services
design forms and surveys to collect feedback to improve your products and services
share information and updates for stakeholders to access in a secure environment
Empower your business to extend their reach and engagement online with, customizable, data-driven solutions from Power Pages
How can these tools help your business?
Each component of the Microsoft Power Platform—Power BI, PowerApps, Power Automate, Power Pages, and the AI capabilities of Copilot—holds transformative power on its own, enabling businesses to:
visualize data
create custom applications
automate workflows
build interactive websites
leverage conversational AI to enhance operations
When these tools are combined, they form a comprehensive, integrated solution that can transform any aspect of your business. Harness the power of these technologies to not only solve your current business problems, but modernize so that it grows with the future rather than against it.
