What is in a name? So much when the name is Microsoft Power Platform!

If you ask 100 people, what the Microsoft Power Platform is I would put money on it that there would be a different answer from each person. Everyone has a different use for it and has come from a different platform like SharePoint or Database Admin but are now leveraging the same tools.

Let’s take my spin on what the Power Platform is and where it is going. At the moment all artwork and images you see will talk about the following products.

Microsoft Flow

Microsoft Flow is one of my favourite tools. Outside of the Microsoft sphere, we have had tools like IFTT (If This Then That) that allow us to connect different apps and trigger other events. Now we have this in abundance with Flow! There are over 200 connectors that enable you to move your data or processes around multiple applications. However, it does not stop at just Microsoft applications. This is open to anyone who has an API published allowing either a published connector from the vendor or a custom one written to connect via APIs. It also lends itself well to upscaling into a Logic App that can be run on your Azure tenant.

Microsoft Power BI

We are in 2019, and your SSRS, Crystal and Jet Reports are now out of date as soon as you have printed or emailed them to the rest of the organisation. Power BI will give you live data from multiple sources and with a little bit of data engineering can bring everything to your fingertips.

PowerApps

There are multiple types of PowerApps, and the two main ones are Model-Driven & Canvas, so these are what I will talk about. A Model-Driven app will allow you to quickly create an app using the Common Data that is shared in your Common Data Service (CDS). A Canvas app is a blank canvas that will allow you to create any application type from scratch. 

This is the foundation of what Microsoft is positioning it as, and it seems quite a simple thing. However, if we look at what can be leveraged within the Power Platform, then it opens a vast world of possibilities.  

In the diagram above are the applications that I know will leverage the Power Platform, and if I am honest, I think most of these will become parts of this platform. Let's take Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement as an example.

Customer Engagement currently sits on CDS and is what PowerApps would class as a “Model-Driven App” meaning it uses the Common Data model and allows you to create a graphical interface with some component focused no-code design environments. You can then leverage the business process flow to guide people through your app and give an amazing experience, but keep in mind, the data in the background is displayed by the Model-Driven PowerApp.

A testament to that is the current Microsoft Docs Page (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/) which lists Canvas Apps, Model-Driven Apps, Portals and the CDS. Descriptions below:

• Canvas apps start with your user experience, crafting a simple interface with the power of a blank canvas and connecting it to your choice of 200 data sources. You can build Canvas apps for web, mobile and tablet applications.
• Model-Driven apps start with your data model – building up from the shape of your core business data and processes in the CDS to model forms, views and other components. Model-Driven apps automatically generate great UI that is responsive across devices.
• PowerApps Portals start to create external-facing websites that allow users outside your organisation to sign in with a wide variety of identities, create and view data in CDS, or even browse content anonymously.
• Common Data Service (CDS) is the data platform that comes with PowerApps and allows you to store and model business data. It's the platform on which Dynamics 365 applications are built. If you’re a Dynamics customer, your data is already in the CDS.

That covers what is in the PowerPlatform at the moment and where things are going with the current platform, but what about all these new applications and services that are out there? How do you leverage them and are they linked to the Power Platform? Here is a scenario that depicts a potential direction for the Power Platform.

I want to take you on the journey of using new technology in the stack to give your customer an improved experience. In straightforward terms, you can enable Virtual Agent (Chatbot technology) to provide the customer with some prompt and response types questions and post them to your website for troubleshooting. If they don’t complete them, then we can send them a Forms Pro invite, which on completion, with the magic of Microsoft Flow, will drop the Forms Pro Data into CDS and create a Case and Work Order for an agent to call you via Remote Assist to help fix your device. Here is an overview of these products.

Here is an overview of these products.

Virtual Agent for Customer Service

Recently Microsoft has put a shift into Virtual Agents and has slightly moved away from the CafeX/Live Assist solution that has been used for years. You will recognise the setup and layout of the builder. It’s reminiscent of building a Visio diagram or a Business Rule in Dynamics 365. The tool is very powerful and can be built by someone with no coding skills. 

Forms Pro

Ever wanted to have your Survey information go directly into your database? Well, Microsoft's current solution survey solution called ‘Voice of the Customer’ is being deprecated soon within the Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement platform and this has paved the way for Forms Pro to jump in its place. This combined with Microsoft Flow will push your responses into CDS or any other connector in Flow. Meaning that all that useful information can be leveraged right away without the laborious export and import routines that most tools require.

PowerApps Portals

Who says your customer only needs access to the information in your Portals for Dynamics 365 environment? Using PowerApps Portals, you can combine your data sources and custom ‘Build a Portal’ that will suit your business needs as well as giving a great customer experience.

Remote Assist

This is more fun than it should be for something that can save your company time and money. Not everyone can afford HoloLens, Microsoft’s flagship Augmented Reality device, and in some scenarios, it is not practical. However, what if I was to tell you about a mobile application that can pull up your Work Orders and allow you to share what you are seeing to an expert who is not onsite with you? Well, this is precisely what Remote Assist gives you. There is the ability to share product guides, markup the screen to point arrows at the defects while having a chat with the expert in the office who can help you fix the issue. 

AI Builder

I’ve recently checked out the AI Builder and have had some serious fun with it. Yes, it can detect who you are from your pictures once you have trained it with 15 images. However, this could have some great uses in the Medical and Repair industries. For example, Don’t know what that type of rash is on the skin then let me take a picture of it and have AI give you some possibilities or imagine being on an oil rig and you don’t know what the part is called on a switch so you just take a picture and it will tell you and give you a link to the guide.

This is just the start. With Microsoft’s ever-expanding portfolio and the enablement that is available with the infrastructure means that we are going to continue to see some incredible advancements in the Microsoft Power Platform.

Visit Incremental Group to find out more about the Power Platform. Incremental Group has deep expertise across the Power Platform components, Dynamics 365 and Office 365. We have a large team of consultants ready to help you with your journey to the Power Platform.

You can also check out our Power Platform guide which offers an introduction to the Power Platform, its components, and how it is being used to transform organisational processes.