What is the Power Platform?
Microsoft’s vision for the Power Platform came from the recognition that data is central to every business process, and a belief that organisations that harness their data – to gain insights then use data to drive intelligent business processes – will outperform those that do not. Microsoft has long wanted to empower individuals with it’s technology.
The Microsoft Power Platform provides the millions of workers who see opportunities every day to create something better than the status quo, the ability to make a change.
This FAQs article provides an introduction to the Power Platform and addresses commonly asked questions with a Power Platform FAQs.
Power Platform FAQs
Power Platform overview
The Microsoft Power Platform is a business applications platform enabling organisations to create and deploy apps, reports and workflows. Connecting the apps to Office 365, Dynamics 365, Azure and hundreds of third-party applications provides your organisation with a complete end-to-end digital solution that transforms business processes.
What does it comprise of?
Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate and Power Virtual Agents. These applications can be used alone to improve processes, or combined to deliver more complete business solutions.
What are the data connectors?
The Power Platform connects to 200+ external data sources. Examples of Power Platform data connectors (available through Power Automate) include Adobe Creative Suite, Basecamp, Gmail, DropBox, LinkedIn, Sharepoint, Outlook and many more. See a full list here.
What is Power Apps?
Power Apps lets you create custom business apps to simplify and transform everyday business processes, using a drag and drop interface, and without writing a single line of code. Apps can be built for mobile devices and can connect to Office 365, Dynamics 365 SharePoint and other Microsoft solutions.
What is Power Automate?
Power Automate, formerly called Microsoft Flow, automates and integrates business processes. Otherwise manual, paper-based, repetitive tasks can be easily automated, leading to faster, more efficient operations.
What is Power BI?
Power BI lets you harness the power of your data and bring it all together from a range of sources such as Dynamics 365 or Excel. With Power BI, you can create and deliver interactive real-time dashboards that help facilitate smarter decision-making.
What is Power Virtual Agents?
Power Virtual Agents is a chatbot solution, which enables you to easily create powerful virtual agents that engage in personalised conversations. Like the rest of the platform, these can be spun up by citizen developers and often without the need of a developer, AI expert or a data scientist. As well as assisting real-life customer service agents, Power Virtual Agents can be used internally in an organisation to automate business processes, such as HR procedures.
Find out more
The Power Platform offers an abundance of opportunities to digitally transform and automate manual processes to improve operational efficiencies and make everyday working more productive. Contact us to learn more.