In this post, we are going to present and explain different tools and resources that Microsoft’s Power Platform integrates and that we recommend learning and incorporating into your work, either in a Consultancy or in a private company.
And why do we recommend you learn and use Power Platform resources? Because it is going to help you to carry out different company’s processes more efficiently.
Power Platform will help you to improve your efficiency by saving time in the processes. It is made up of several programs with enormous potential.
They are the following:
• Power BI
• Power Automate
• Power Apps
• Power Virtual Agents
• Power Pages
Power Platform, known as a low code platform, allows you to collaborate and facilitates the creation of efficient and flexible solutions to analyze your business, automate processes , create your own appas and react in time.
In this post you can read about starting with the Power Platform: Power Platform Where to Start.
Below I tell you about each of the components of the Power Platform and suggested some use cases.
And also you visit the Microsoft Power Plataform official site, here.
Power BI
It is a program that allows you to automate the creation of reports. With the tools Query, Pivot and visualizations you will achieve a very high potential when creating your reports.
With the reports created you will be able to make informed and secure business decisions by putting data-driven insights into everyone’s hands.
With the advantage that you can easily collaborate and share with the rest of your work team.
And what do the different BI tools allow you to do? Well, next I tell you about each of them.
Power Query
First, this BI tool can obtain data from different sources, internal or external to your organization. Once imported using the query editor (Query) you have to work to adapt them to your needs.
This is done by carrying out different actions called by the acronym ETL: Extract, Transform and Load.
- Practical application
When some files do not look the way you need, for example, bank statements or invoice lists, and you want to analyze the information, you will surely have to carry out different “cleaning” actions with the data to be able to work with them.
This “cleaning” is done with Power Query, using different ETL actions.
The best part is that you only need to configure the actions once, and every time the input extract or list is updated, Power Query will repeat the configured actions, and the information will be “cleaned” automatically.
Power Pivot
It serves to process and analyze data, and transform them into meaningful information by creating data models (understood as a set of tables and their relationships between different processes and business functions).
It allows you to perform calculations with functions created in the DAX language. You can create KPIs, and use DAX formulas and advanced pivot tables.
- Practical application
Imagine for example that you are working with tables and files from different sources and have to relate customer accounts with billing information. Power Pivot will help you create a model with different tables and establish relationships between them, so you will be able to work with the data as if all the parts come from the same file.
You can set performance indicators, called KPIs in Power Pivot and know their updated value at all times. You can create important metrics such as turnover, profits, and total expenses, and compare them with the objectives set.
Views
Graphical representation of the data with different visual objects makes the interpretation more intuitive.
Graphs can be made of lines, rectangles, circles, maps, tables, cards, and data slicers. And they are helpful because they make data interpretation easier, allowing you to filter the information interactively showing the results in real-time.
- Practical application
We can create control panels also called Dashboards to have the company’s updated data at hand.
As a picture is worth a thousand words, you can see in the image what I am referring to.
After importing the expense data from a profit and loss account we created the visualizations (there are many others and BI panels much more elaborated, but this example gives you an idea).
• Board.
• Cards.
• Pie chart.
• Two tables with the highest expenses, in this case, purchases of raw materials and salaries.
• Data segmentation.
You have all the relevant information in real-time, presented in an intuitive way.
Power Automate
With the Power Automate tool, you will be able to increase the productivity of your business or activity since you will be able to do more by automating processes of diverse kinds.
By creating automatic workflows with Power Automate, you will be able to perform repetitive tasks more efficiently and productively.
In simple words, a flow connects two or more applications and sends information from one to another automatically without having to do it step by step manually.
- Practical application
Each time you receive an email from Microsoft 365 with an invoice attached, it’s automatically saved by a Power Automate flow to OneDrive for Business.
It is also possible to track your working hours and work location in Excel Online (Business).
Or imagine that every time the boss sends you an email, you want to receive an alert on your phone.
Another example: Every time your company is mentioned on Twitter, you want to save the tweet to an Excel spreadsheet.
Even further, here you are an advanced example using artificial intelligence. With the AI Builder tool, you can automatically read the contents of an invoice or ticket, and save its data to Excel and Power BI.
Power Apps
The Power Apps tool allows you to create applications that will help you to turn ideas into business solutions efficiently and in a fully interactive way.
You will be able to create your apps without having to use any programming language and choose from a variety of data sources, including Excel spreadsheets.
You can use the sample apps, already created and available, modifying and customizing them according to your needs. No need to start from scratch every time.
As Microsoft says on its website, the definition of what this tool is for: “Create applications quickly with data you already have, locally or in the cloud”.
- Practical application
You can create an app for completing and tracking employee expense reports.
Another example: create an app to control budgets with custom categories, making it easier to enter data from the app.
Or an App for controlling assets with information, images, location, anything.
Power Virtual Agents
With Power Virtual Agents you will be able to create and maintain conversational experiences with a Bot or Virtual Agent to offer, for example, support to customers. All without having to know how to code.
- Practical application
Create a Bot available on your company’s website for advice or any other enquiries.
Power Pages
With this Power Platform tool (the most recent) you can create websites, with the same low-code philosophy that makes your productivity skyrocket.
- Practical application
Create a website to safely display the information you already have in your organization, without having to create unnecessary copies of the same data.
Brief conclusion:
There are many tools available today, (many times we even have them included in our programs or subscriptions), to automate processes, increase productivity and gain confidence in the work done, so I encourage you to start just now exploring some of those Power Platform resources presented in this article.
If you want Creativity Spark to help you in this journey, we would love to hear from you and share ideas.