Power Platform Brings Powerful Capabilities to Professional Services Firms

The Microsoft Power Platform is a suite of low-code development tools that empowers users of all abilities to build and launch custom apps, design automated workflows, and leverage the platform’s baked-in intelligence to solve problems and create value.

Power Platform apps were designed to be combined with each other and with the rest of the stack. You can integrate them directly with D365, Azure, Microsoft 365, and a long list of third-party apps to build end-to-end solutions tailored around the needs of your employees and clients — and the firm as a whole.

Below, we’ll introduce each Power Platform app and highlight some of the key benefits they bring to the professional services org.

Power BI

Power BI is a self-service business analytics platform that simplifies data analysis, offering intuitive reporting and self-service analytics tools that make it easy for non-technical users to access critical information and make data-driven decisions.

Power BI brings live dashboards, granular insights, and interactive visualizations into the flow of daily work – it can be embedded directly into Teams, Excel, Dynamics 365 BC, etc. — and customized to fit each user’s role and requirements.

The platform’s self-service Power Query feature simplifies the process of preparing and modeling data pulled from hundreds of sources.

Power Apps

Microsoft Power Apps is a low-code app development platform for building custom apps and extending on the capabilities of existing ones. Users can quickly put together professional-looking apps using data from connected sources, business processes, and the Common Data Model.

Power Apps gives professional services firms an opportunity to present their expertise through new channels. Or — diversify their revenue streams with custom apps, SaaS-like analytics platforms, or app-based add-on services that enable clients to connect with experts as needed.

For example, Accenture used Power Apps (along with the rest of the Power Platform) to empower the citizen developers within its ranks. By creating one, unified platform where Accenture staff could access insights, automate processes, and develop prototypes for apps that address the real needs of their clients. As a result, the firm can quickly deploy new solutions that help them win in disruptive, fast-paced markets.

The Velosio team used Power Apps to create an internal newsfeed app for Teams to make it easier for our non-technical staff to locate files, documents, and answers to common questions – without leaving their workspace or interrupting developers busy working on high-value projects. For developers, the newsfeed serves as a centralized repository with all documentation, processes, and other technical information they might need on the job.

It’s worth noting that Power Apps isn’t just for citizen developers. Firms can save time and money by providing pro developers with a shortcut. They can use pre-built templates and reusable components to enable quick deployments or expand on prototypes designed by nontechnical users.

Power Automate

Power Automate is a service that you can use to automate tasks and processes using different types of flows. You can build simple automations from Microsoft’s ready-made sequences of triggers and actions to save time, eliminate manual processes, and gain more control of your system.

Microsoft customer, Rockwell Automation embraced the Power Platform to improve efficiency across the entire organization. Power BI helped them gain the visibility they needed to start making improvements, while Power Automate allowed them to eliminate repetitive manual tasks. The firm started simple, with triggers and sequences that freed up more time for activities that generated value for clients. Eventually, they were able to layer in more advanced process improvements with a bigger impact on overall performance.

So, once you’ve nailed down the basics, you can optimize your processes using tools like the AI Builder, which allows you to build, train, and publish AI models. Potential use cases include: analyzing customer sentiment, predicting future outcomes, or automating document creation.

There’s also Process Advisor, which helps orgs generate visual maps of their workflows, uses your business data to surface inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement, and record and share processes to help your team solve problems.

Power Virtual Agents

Power Virtual Agents allows you to build intelligent chatbots that can answer questions for website visitors, employees, clients, or partners. Like the rest of the Power Platform, Virtual Agents is a low-code solution that allows non-technical users to build custom bots and embed them anywhere there’s a need for extra support.

You can build topic-specific bots or “global” chatbots that use information captured from conversations about one topic during future conversations, regardless of topic – creating a more contextual experience for users.

Power Virtual Agents comes with hundreds of pre-built connectors that integrate bots with Power Automate, Teams, Azure, and hundreds of other apps. That way, chatbots are connected to all data and business activities – allowing you to track and improve bot performance, automate tasks, and use bot-based insights to learn more about client needs and pain points.

Final Thoughts

Integration with Power Platform is also one of the most powerful (sorry…) ways to maximize the impact of your entire stack. It brings intelligent insights, apps, and workflows to core systems and tools to dramatically change the game for your firm and the clients you serve.

Velosio can help firms take advantage of all the Power Platform has to offer. We’ll help you develop custom solutions from simple automations to full-blown apps – and combine them with the rest of the Microsoft stack.

Contact us today to learn more about what you can do with the Power Platform and how we can help.