What is Power Apps?

Power Apps is a suite of apps, services, connectors and data platform that provides a rapid application development environment to build custom apps for your business needs. Using Power Apps, you can quickly build custom business apps that connect to your business data stored either in the underlying data platform (Microsoft Dataverseor in various online and on-premises data sources (SharePoint, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, SQL Server, and so on).

Power Apps.

Apps built using Power Apps provide rich business logic and workflow capabilities to transform your manual business processes to digital, automated processes. Further, apps built using Power Apps have a responsive design, and can run seamlessly in browser or on mobile devices (phone or tablet). Power Apps "democratizes" the custom business app building experience by enabling users to build feature-rich, custom business apps without writing code.

Power Apps also provides an extensible platform that lets pro developers programmatically interact with data and metadata, apply business logic, create custom connectors, and integrate with external data.

For more information:

Power Apps for app makers/creators

Using Power Apps, you can create three types of apps: canvasmodel-driven, and portal. More information: Overview of creating apps in Power Apps.

To create an app, you start with make.powerapps.com.

  • Power Apps Studio is the app designer used for building canvas apps. The app designer makes creating apps feel more like building a slide deck in Microsoft PowerPoint. More information: Generate an app from data

  • App designer for model-driven apps lets you define the sitemap and add components to build a model-driven app. More information: Design model-driven apps using app designer

  • Power Apps portals Studio is a WYSIWYG design tool to add and configure webpages, components, forms, and lists. More information: Power Apps portals Studio anatomy

Ready to convert your ideas into an app? Start here: Planning a Power Apps project

Power Apps for app users

You can run apps that you created, or that someone else created and shared with you, in browser or on mobile devices (phone or tablet). More information:

Power Apps for admins

Power Apps admins can use Power Platform admin center (admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com) to create and manage environments, get real-time, self-help recommendations and support for Power Apps and Power Automate, and view Dataverse analytics. More information: Administer Power Platform

Power Apps for developers

Developers are app makers who can write code to extend business app creation and customization. Developers can use code to create data and metadata, apply server-side logic using Azure functions, plug-ins, and workflow extensions, apply client-side logic using JavaScript, integrate with external data using virtual entities and webhooks, build custom connectors, and embed apps into your website experiences to create integrated solutions. More information:

Power Apps and Dynamics 365

Dynamics 365 apps, such as Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Marketing also use the underlying data platform (Dataverse) used by Power Apps to store and secure data. This enables you to build apps using Power Apps and Dataverse directly against your core business data already used within Dynamics 365 without the need for integration. More information: Dynamics 365 and Dataverse

Try Power Apps for free

You can build Power Apps for free. Simply sign-in to Power Apps. For more information, go to Sign in to Power Apps for the first time. Initially, you'll have access to the default environment.

A license is needed to play the apps made with Power Apps. You can both build and play Power Apps for free by signing up either for a 30 day trial or developer plan.

Purchase Power Apps

If you have decided to purchase Power Apps, see here for detailed information: Purchase Power Apps.

Power Apps US Government plans

Power Apps US Government consists of several plans for US government organizations to address the unique and evolving requirements of the United States public sector. The Power Apps GCC environment provides compliance with federal requirements for cloud services, including FedRAMP High, DoD DISA IL2, and requirements for criminal justice systems (CJI data types). More information: Power Apps US Government

What is the Power Platform?

Microsoft rapidly innovate, update and release new products and solutions, which can make staying on top of changes difficult. However, this frequent pace of innovation makes Microsoft technologies very exciting. One of the biggest new areas from Microsoft that you will read a lot about is the Power Platform.

Note: This article has been updated as Flow has been re-branded as Power Automate. Some visuals remain branded as Flow.

What is the Power Platform?

The ‘Power Platform’ is a collective term for three Microsoft products: Power BI, PowerApps and Power Automate (previously known as Flow). They provide the means to help people easily manipulate, surface, automate and analyse data and can be used with Office 365 and Dynamics 365 (as well as other third-party apps and other Microsoft services). The Power Platform is possible thanks to the Common Data Service (or CDS), which is essentially the underlying data platform that provides a unified and simplified data schema so that applications and services can inter-operate.

Power Platform Overview

Why is the Power Platform so important?

In this digital age, we are extremely reliant on data – and the amount of data companies are creating is continually increasing. While all this data is inevitable, it is useless unless companies gain insights and meaning from it - to gain tangible value.

Historically, data analysis, app creation or automation would be achieved by IT/Development teams. This would require staff to outline their requirements and aims, submit these requests to their IT department (or even an external partner) and then see whether it was approved and subsequently, wait for it to be built. This would be time-consuming and would use valuable resources internally or be costly if fulfilled externally. What're more, those requesting the solution would tend to have an immediate need and waiting for weeks could cause internal delays.

This is why the Power Platform is so exciting. The Power Platform enables data democratisation – the ability for digital information to be accessible to the typical (non-technical) end user. It provides three technologies that allow staff to do more with their data themselves without coding knowledge. While it doesn’t allow the intricacies and flexibility of custom coding, it does provide a simple method for most users to be able to create, automate or analyse their data in ways which have never been possible for the average worker.

PowerApps, Power Automate & Power BI explained

As mentioned, the Power Platform consists of three technologies - let's look at these three in more detail. 

 

PowerApps- Logo

PowerApps is a low-code approach to custom app development, allowing users to quickly create apps with a ‘point and click’ approach. It allows you to:

  • Build mobile-friendly apps quickly and without development knowledge and reducing pressure on busy IT teams
  • Connect to and surface data from your business applications, such as Dynamics 365 and Office 365 (and also third-party apps)
  • Surface key data into a user-friendly app to help data entry – meaning users only see the information they need to fulfil a particular task
PowerApps-Screen

Microsoft-Flow-Logo

Power Automate used to be known as Microsoft Flow. This allows you to create automated workflows between your Microsoft services or other third-party applications, which allows staff to avoid carrying out repetitive tasks and save valuable time. It allows you to:

  • Use pre-built automation templates for common automations (within the Flow Gallery)
  • Create you own automations by connecting various applications, such as Outlook, SharePoint Dynamics 365 or non-Microsoft apps like Twitter, Asana, Gmail, MailChimp etc.
  • Set up triggers, alerts, automated emails, push notifications and much more – with no coding and in minutes
  • Overall it allows you to save time, reduce human error and streamline your processes
Microsoft-Flow-Screen

Power-BI

Power BI is a business analytics tool which allows you to easily connect to data sources, create visuals and gain business intelligence quickly. It allows you to:

  • Click and connect with Microsoft and third-party cloud services, as well as on-premise data sources
  • Easily manipulate data and create visuals, such as charts, dashboards, maps and many more – so you can present your data in an easy-to-digest format
  • Use natural language to query data and get results (i.e. “show me our sales pipeline for 2018 by month, by sales person”)
  • Overall, allowing you to easily analyse and make sense of complex data to enable continual improvement
Power-BI-Dashboard

How does the Power Platform fit with the wider Microsoft strategy?

The Power Platform connects to a wide range of data sources – including third-party apps such as Google Analytics and Twitter, however it is extremely powerful when working with Office 365 and Dynamics 365. Microsoft pitch the Power Platform as a way to “unlock the potential of Dynamics 365 and Office 365 faster than you ever thought possible” so you can easily extend, customise and integrate these services.

The Power Platform is going to be a big area of investment from Microsoft and as it is still fairly new, we expect that it will be regularly updated and improved as the products mature. What’s more, as Microsoft continue to focus on bringing all their technologies closer together, we can expect the Power Platform to be a key player for this – helping connect services like Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Azure easily with a low-code/no-code approach.

How do I get it? Power Platform licensing and pricing

There is not currently a licensing bundle for all three products together. Instead you can purchase the three separately (and can mix and match) - or, if you haven't tried them you can use free versions or free trials to test their capabilities. 

PowerApps and Power Automate licensing is fairly complex. You can read the latest licensing guidance here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/powerapps-flow-licensing-faq If you have any questions around licensing and pricing we recommend speaking to a Microsoft Partner. 

Power BI – There are three versions available, Free, Pro and Premium, which you can compare here: Power BI Pricing (Microsoft).

  • Free
  • Pro - note, required for sharing Power BI reports and dashboards
  • Premium (POA)

 

3 JUN 2019 - LISA CURRY

What’s included in the Microsoft Modern Workplace?

As businesses evolve it is very easy for their business technology and processes to quickly become out of date and potentially result in inefficient operations that predominantly affect customer experience and profit margins.

The Workplace Evolution published by Harvard Business Review found that 78% of senior executives in enterprise businesses believe fostering a modern workplace strategy is essential. However, only 31% think their company is forward-thinking enough to do so.

Changing a fixed mindset into a forward-thinking one within any business is no easy task, and with the implications of remote working due to the pandemic, many businesses have undergone rapid transformation over the past few months by implementing Modern Workplace technology within their businesses. This enables their employees to be supported by the leading technology that enables them to work smarter and be more productive, collaborate with remote teams and reap the other many benefits that Microsoft 365 offers.

What’s included in the Microsoft Modern Workplace?

The Microsoft Modern Workplace is one that operates using the suite of Microsoft 365 technologies and productivity applications that harness the power of the Cloud.

Microsoft Modern Workplace applications improve employee productivity and satisfaction and create more seamless communication across the business whilst promoting collaboration and maintaining the security and integrity of systems and data.

 

What is a Modern Workplace?

The definition of a Modern Workplace is an operational setup which has been professionally designed to meet both the physical and technological needs of both your business and its employees.

A Modern Workplace drives company-wide business transformation by utilising the latest Microsoft technology to power and streamline business operations and empower employees to do their best work around the clock.

What’s included within the Microsoft Modern Workplace?

Microsoft 365, includes Office 365, Windows 10 Enterprise, and Enterprise Mobility + Security and a variety of productivity and collaboration tools designed to support modern ways of working, help facilitate digital transformation, and most importantly keep your business secure.

How does the Microsoft Modern Workplace facilitate automation?

Within Microsoft 365 is Microsoft Power Automate (formerly Flow) which enables you to implement both Digital and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) across the business. By automating tasks you can quickly boost productivity, giving employees more time to focus on innovation than administrative tasks. You can also automate time-consuming tasks using the built-in AI capabilities and integrate with over 100 applications such as Microsoft Dynamics 365, Twitter, MailChimp, Google Analytics etc.

How does the Microsoft Modern Workplace promote collaboration?

When internal and external teams come together and collaborate to solve a problem the magic happens. Facilitating collaboration can prove tricky especially with remote/shift workers or multi-site offices. However, the collaboration applications included within the Microsoft Modern Workplace such as Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams for Education, Office 365 and SharePoint enable employees to easily work together on documents no matter their location or time of day. Windows 10 Virtual Desktop takes this even further by allowing users to access their desktop from any device.

Microsoft Teams in particular is constantly evolving and adding new features to improve accessibility and user experience.

This boosts productivity, can raise morale and enables people within different teams to come together. The more flexible it is for employees to collaborate the more collaboration will occur.

How secure is the Microsoft Modern Workplace?

Within Microsoft 365, the security stack gives us the insights to proactively defend against advanced threats, such as malware, phishing, and zero-day attacks as well as identity, app, data, and device protection with Azure Active Directory, Microsoft Intune, and Windows Information Protection.

What are the reasons to adopt a Modern Workplace?

Here are some common reasons why businesses choose to adopt the Microsoft Modern Workplace over a traditional setup:

Disparate communication channels – employees communicate through a variety of different channels which enables messages to get lost in translation, there is limited visibility and a lack of control.

Stand-alone platforms – business management platforms are implemented that have very limited integration and automation with each other. This makes the risk of error high and increases workload.

Data/Team Silos – Teams work in silos with limited visibility to other parts of the business. Data is stored in numerous locations and access is restricted due to the setup.

Hardware – Desktop PCs are commonly used, not all employees have access to laptops or tablets which disables remote working.

Technology – The technology you have implemented has scalable limitations and does not completely meet the needs of your employees.

Security – There is limited or no device or cyber security management in place putting your business at risk in the event of a breach.

 

 Ref: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/itshowcase/microsoft-365