Microsoft Power Platform Services

Power Platform suits internal processes that live in spreadsheets, email threads or paper forms: approvals, inspections, onboarding, requests, stock counts and status tracking. It is also the standard way to extend Dynamics 365 without heavy custom code. A Power App with a few flows can often replace a manual process in weeks rather than months.

It is not always the answer. High-volume customer-facing systems, complex transactional logic or products you plan to sell are often better as custom software. We'll say so during discovery rather than force a low-code build where it doesn't fit.

Licensing shapes the design, so we check it before building. Some Microsoft 365 plans include limited Power Apps and Power Automate rights for Microsoft 365 data and standard connectors such as SharePoint, Outlook and Teams. Premium connectors, Dataverse and custom connectors need premium licences: per user (Power Apps Premium, Power Automate Premium), per flow (Power Automate Process) or pay-as-you-go through Azure. Dynamics 365 licences include rights to use Power Apps and Power Automate within the context of the Dynamics 365 application.

Unattended desktop flows need a Power Automate Process licence or pay-as-you-go, while Power BI sharing and Copilot Studio usage (Copilot Credits) have their own licensing models. We map who needs what so you buy for real usage, and we always confirm current terms with your Microsoft licensing provider, as Microsoft updates them regularly.

• Standard vs premium connectors
• Per user, per flow or pay-as-you-go
• Dynamics 365 use rights
• Power BI sharing & capacity
• Unattended automation
• Copilot Studio capacity

Power Platform spreads quickly once people see what it can do. Without guardrails, the result is hundreds of unowned apps in the default environment, flows that break when someone leaves, and data copied into places it shouldn't be. A Centre of Excellence is the team and set of practices that prevents this: who can build where, which connectors can be combined, how solutions are reviewed and how makers are supported.

Microsoft now steers governance towards the Power Platform admin center and managed environments, with built-in inventory, usage monitoring, sharing limits and data loss prevention policies. We set these up, design an environment strategy, and put application lifecycle management in place with solutions, source control and deployment pipelines.

• Environment strategy
• Data loss prevention policies
• Managed environments & sharing limits
• Solutions, source control & pipelines

Power Platform reaches other systems through connectors: Microsoft services such as SharePoint, Teams, Outlook and SQL, widely used SaaS products, and custom connectors we build over your own APIs. Where a system has no API, desktop flows can drive its user interface. For high-volume or business-critical integrations, we often recommend Azure services or dedicated middleware alongside Power Platform instead of flows alone.

Dynamics 365 Sales, Customer Service and Field Service store their data in Dataverse, so model-driven apps, cloud flows and Power BI reports work directly with the same records. Business Central and Finance and Supply Chain Management connect through their own connectors and business events. On the Microsoft 365 side, apps can be embedded in Teams, approvals delivered in Outlook and Teams, and documents stored in SharePoint.

Copilot capabilities run through all of this. Copilot in Power Apps and Power Automate helps makers build from a description, and Copilot Studio extends Copilot in Dynamics 365 with agents grounded in your own data.