How Power Platform's Low-Code and AI Features Accelerate Digital Transformation

Flash back: waterfall methodology

Back in 2007, a client had a simple request: build an internal app for their accounting department. The goal was straightforward to eliminate the paper trail and endless emails of employee reimbursement requests and approvals. They wanted transparency. They wanted speed. Most of all, they wanted to erase human errors.

What followed, however, was anything but simple.

The project kicked off with a quest for requirements, a journey that involved 10 to 15 key players over four to eight grueling weeks. This wasn't building the app but this was just figuring out what the app should do. With a signed-off document that was probably already out of date.

Next came the infamous tech stack brainstorming session. A roomful of architects argued over .NET, Java, PHP, and a dozen other platforms, debating the pros and cons of each, knowing full well it would set the course for the next several years. Then, a new team was assembled, complete with new hires and re-shuffled developers.

A year was originally planned for development. It stretched into two. The initial budget? A distant memory. By the time it was all over, the client had spent millions on infrastructure, servers, licenses, and labor, just to get a functional reimbursement app. It was a monument to how we used to build things: slowly, expensively, and with more meetings than actual code.

Present:

In present day world, it’s not just technology that speeds up product to market, its also importance of Agile method of product development that makes it possible to withstand competition.

Cloud is deepest curve in evolution of technology. Microsoft came up with an idea of Power Platform to empower non technical team to build technical solutions. Simple, Easy to build, drag and drop, code similar to excel formulas.

Few points just to be understandable for any non Microsoft developer/user explaining how easy to build a simple to medium complexity applications in Power Platform.

• Page building resembles PowerPoint slides.

• Code behind pages and controls resembles Microsoft Excel formulas.

• Access is through simple Microsoft 365 groups assigned to pre-existing roles that come with Power Platform.

• Backend workflow approvals are drag-and-drop with multiple actions that can be integrated with any internal, external, or cloud applications through API.

• Deployment includes export and import with one solution file. Reports with pre existing report templates with any data sources.

Core Components of Power Platform:

Power Apps: Building custom applications with a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface for web and mobile devices.

use case: Form to submit reimbursement request. Page to see all login users’ requests with status. screen for admins to monitor and process all requests, Search for a specific request based on any field value.

There are two types of apps- Canvas Apps and Modal driven apps.

UI intensive and need freedom to build , choose canvas app with data sources like SharePoint, Dataverse, SQL etc..

when your priority is to build a complex, data-centric business application quickly and efficiently, with less emphasis on custom branding and UI.

caveat: By default, not responsive. controls must be arranged in containers for responsiveness to support multiple devices. Formulas can be tailored to device type for different behavior.

Microsoft Flow: Creating automated workflows and processes to connect applications and services.

use case: Send emails to accounting department approvers in multi step approval process with Approve/Reject/Need clarification buttons straight from email without even opening the application.

Power BI: Analyzing data and providing actionable business intelligence through reports and dashboards.

use case: Report to monitor requests for specific time period, Time taken to address requests, Report of requests based on request type.

Power Pages/Gen Pages: Building secure, external-facing websites for customers, partners, and the public using a low-code approach.

use case: Rebuilt accounting Reimbursement process app with Dataverse as database. Use AI natural language to create Gen pages ( canvas app with multiple pages) with react code.

Dataverse: The secure and scalable data storage service that underpins the Power Platform. We can connect to data source from Power platform components, however the underlying data storage service is Dataverse for Power Platform.

AI in Power Platform:

How can we miss AI in AI era where whole world is trying to be the best leveraging AI.

• AI Builder: A key feature that adds intelligence to business processes without requiring data science expertise.

  • Pre-built AI models: Ready-to-use models for common scenarios, including:

    • Form Processing: Extracting data from invoices, receipts, and other documents.

    • Object Detection: Identifying and counting objects in images.

    • Sentiment Analysis: Analyzing text to determine positive or negative sentiment.

  • Custom AI models: Building and training models tailored to specific business needs.

• Copilot for Power Platform: Generative AI assistance across the platform.

  • AI-powered app building: Creating apps by simply describing requirements in natural language.

  • Intelligent flow creation: Generating automated workflows from natural language descriptions.

  • Copilot in Power BI: Quickly creating reports and summarizing data through conversation.

• Next-gen AI for bots: Discussing how Copilot Studio (formerly Power Virtual Agents) enables the creation of sophisticated, AI-powered chatbots for improved customer and employee engagement.

Multiple use case that our team deployed:

• Organization policy submission and renewal with a multi-step approval process.

• Change management process for the IT department with a multi-step approval process and BI dashboards.

• Application to maintain and manage contracts for the IT department.

• Application to submit high-priority production calls with customers, with updates every hour.

• Visitor visit notification request process.

Please do reach out for any technical suggestion, happy to help !!

Happy hash coding…..