The ‘Power Platform’ is a collective term for three Microsoft products: Power BI, PowerApps and Power Automate . They provide the means to help people easily manipulate, surface, automate and analyze data.
Importance of power platform
We are extremely reliant on data in this digital era. With all the accumulated data we have to gain insights and meaning from it to gain tangible value or else the data will be useless.
Certainly, Data analysis, app creation or automation are done by IT/Development teams which was time-consuming and would use valuable resources internally or be costly if fulfilled externally.
There comes the significance of Power Platform. It enables data democratization – 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 analyze 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 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
Power Automate 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
- 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
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 actual progress for piling works at part 3”)
- Overall, allowing you to easily analyse and make sense of complex data to enable continual improvement
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