What Is Microsoft Power Platform?

Microsoft’s Power Platform is a suite of applications designed to improve data accessibility between disparate solutions and teams. 

The Power Platform brings business intelligence, development, and connectivity to teams across any organization. With the Power Platform, businesses can save time by automating tasks, gain insights by drilling down into data, and build virtual agents and apps that cater to unique operational processes.  

What Is the Power Platform?

The Power Platform is Microsoft’s suite of tools for data analytics, workflow automation, and much more. Currently, Microsoft offers five applications under the Power Platform umbrella:

• Power BI – A business intelligence platform that helps teams visualize complex data sets and build interactive reports
• Power Apps – An application builder that allows teams to design custom apps
• Power Automate – A cloud service that synchronizes data and workflows between disparate solutions
• Power Pages – A platform for creating, hosting, and managing business websites
• Copilot Studio – A virtual agent builder powered by Microsoft’s proprietary AI

These Power Platform applications can be used by anyone, including those with little to no coding experience. They use drag-and-drop interfaces to keep management simple but offer surprising depth when it comes to capabilities. This makes them a good fit for large and growing organizations.

The Fundamentals

The Power Platform is part of the Microsoft ecosystem, an enormous suite of solutions for businesses of all kinds. The Power Platform is a standalone suite under the larger Microsoft umbrella, but certain aspects connect it with other Microsoft systems. For instance, Power BI is a business intelligence tool that is part of the Power Platform, but it is also a built-in component of Microsoft Fabric, a full-scale data analytics solution that exists separately from the Power Platform.

As part of the Microsoft ecosystem, the Power Platform is designed to seamlessly integrate with Microsoft’s other business solutions, such as the Dynamics 365 suite of software for customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP).

Why Companies Choose the Power Platform

With millions of monthly active users, including employees at a vast majority of Fortune 500 companies, the Power Platform is considered a leading suite for business intelligence and low-code development. On top of glowing user reviews on sites like G2 and Gartner, the Power Platform has been named a leading solution by organizations like Forrester for the strength of what it offers and the strategy behind its development.

Features and Capabilities

Microsoft’s Power Platform comprises five applications with unique functionality: 

Power BI

Power BI is Microsoft’s flagship solution for business analytics. It’s designed to improve data accessibility across entire organizations with its robust visualization and reporting capabilities. Power BI pulls data from multiple sources, including OneLake (Microsoft’s data lake), Azure databases, and CRM software from Microsoft or select third-party developers. With all this data unified, teams get powerful insights into key business metrics, enabling faster decision-making and more transparency across the organization.

• Report generation
• Report publishing
• Embedded artificial intelligence
• Advanced dataflows
• XML for Analysis

Power Apps

Power Apps is Microsoft’s low-code app builder. Designed for users with little to no coding experience, Power Apps enables users to build custom applications for mobile devices and the web. Power Apps connects to Microsoft’s data platforms—Dataverse and SQL Server—as well as solutions like Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365 to ensure that core business data is visible across different departments.

• Custom app builder
• Customer website manager
• Data connectors
• Data storage and management
• Microsoft Dataverse access
• Workflow manager
• Managed environments
• AI Builder service credits

Power Automate

Power Automate’s custom workflow builders reduce manual workloads by automating key business processes. The app handles repetitive tasks such as collecting data and synchronizing file versions to help teams prioritize revenue-building activities rather than redundant ones. Plus, its drag-and-drop design means users can build custom automations with little to no coding experience.

• Custom app builder
• Customer website manager
• Data connectors
• Data storage and management
• Microsoft Dataverse access
• Workflow manager
• Managed environments
• AI Builder service credits

Power Pages

Power Pages is the Power Platform’s application for creating, hosting, and managing business websites across multiple browsers and devices. Building websites through the Power Platform is faster than coding them, plus the software updates existing databases and spreadsheets in real-time as purchase orders, form fills, and other new information comes in.

• Customizable site templates
• Branded sites with custom design elements
• Prebuilt Dynamics 365 application templates
• Dataverse connectivity through forms, data grids, and more
• Authentication provider access
• Content delivery network
• System, custom, and virtual tables
• Dynamics 365 tables

Copilot Studio

Copilot Studio, formerly Power Virtual Agents, is a component of Microsoft’s Copilot AI focused on AI-powered chatbots. These chatbots can be built with minimal coding, then deployed across external channels like company websites and social media platforms, or internally on intranets and Microsoft platforms like Teams. They will pull from Dataverse or other connected databases to supply requested information in real-time and connect customers and team members with the information they need.

• Generative AI Chatbot agent creation
• Microsoft 365 Copilot plugins
• Cloud flows with Power Automate
• Power Platform connectors and data transfers
• Dataverse access
• Managed environments
• Multichannel agent plugins

Power Platform Capabilities 

Microsoft’s five Power Platform applications can be enhanced with additional capabilities: 

AI Builder

AI Builder offers prebuilt and customizable generative AI models that enhance automation. Power Apps users receive 500 service credits, and Power Automate users receive 5,000. 

Connectors

Connectors are prebuilt and customizable integrations that facilitate communications between specific apps, devices, and data. Power Automate and Power Apps come equipped with more than 1,000 connectors that also work for Copilot Studio, but it’s possible to customize connectors if additional integrations are needed. 

Copilot and Generative AI

Power Platform users can tap into Copilot to make the modules even easier to use. With conversational language, users can employ Copilot to aid with app, workflow, and website creation. 

Power Fx

A low-code language that acts as the Power Platform’s programming language. It is a blend of natural, conversational language and spreadsheet formulas. 

Pricing

Each Power Platform module is individually priced, with overall costs typically—but not always—based on the number of active monthly users. Plans are paid on an annual basis, and higher-tier plans come with advanced features.

Integrations

The Power Platform can be used as a standalone suite, but it performs best when integrated with other applications, especially those in the Microsoft ecosystem. These are some of the most common Power Platform integrations:

Dynamics 365

Dynamics 365 is Microsoft’s suite of CRM and ERP applications for sales, marketing, operations, and more. The Power Platform is designed to synchronize with Dynamics 365 applications such as Dynamics 365 Sales and Business Central to expand capabilities and create a unified tech stack.

• Power BI – Create interactive dashboards from sales and service data, and embed reports directly in Dynamics 365
• Power Apps – Build custom applications that expand existing Dynamics 365 features
• Power Automate – Automate tasks between Dynamics 365 and other solutions; e.g., trigger Teams notifications whenever a new lead is created
• Power Pages – Design self-service portals for customers and partners whose account data lives in Dynamics 365
• Copilot Studio – Summarize large data sets to quickly find relevant trends

Microsoft 365

Formerly Office 365, Microsoft 365 is a suite of productivity tools such as Word, SharePoint, Teams, and Excel. The Power Platform connects with Microsoft 365 modules to enhance collaboration and productivity workflows.

• Power BI – Create live dashboards and reports based on data in Excel, SharePoint, Teams, or OneDrive, and embed those dashboards in Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint
• Power Apps – Add onto existing features in Microsoft 365 with integrated apps that track specific data in Excel and SharePoint
• Power Automate – Trigger Outlook and Teams notifications whenever files are uploaded or updated
• Power Pages – Enable Microsoft 365 authentication for website logins, and display or collect data from SharePoint or Excel in self-service portals
• Copilot Studio – Add chatbots to Teams for quick querying that pulls from SharePoint, Outlook, and more

Microsoft Fabric

The Power Platform’s applications are closely tied to Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft’s data and analytics platform. Fabric unifies data, making it easy for the Power Platform to pull from and add to existing data sets. Power BI is already part of Microsoft Fabric, but here’s how the other apps connect:

• Power Apps – Pull enterprise-level Fabric and OneLake data to build scalable custom apps
• Power Automate – Automate workflows that move data between Fabric and other applications
• Power Pages – Display Fabric data for external stakeholders with secure customer- and partner-facing portals
• Copilot Studio – Connect chatbots to Fabric data to ensure accurate query responses

Third-Party Applications

The Power Platform can also connect with third-party applications, including:

• Sales, marketing, and service software like Salesforce CRM and HubSpot CRM
• Communication tools like Gmail and WhatsApp
• Data gathering tools like SurveyMonkey and JotForm
• Productivity tools like Google Drive and Basecamp
• File management tools like Docusign and Adobe Acrobat
• Ecommerce platforms like Shopify and Stripe
• Web analytics solutions like Google Analytics and LinkedIn Ads

The quality and availability of third-party integrations may vary depending on which software you use. Get in touch with a dedicated Microsoft solutions partner for help.

Is the Power Platform Right for Your Business?

The Power Platform is a robust suite, but it’s not the only business intelligence and data management tool available. So how do you know if it’s a good fit for your business? Review the following questions; if you answer “yes” to one or more, then the Power Platform might be a smart choice:

• Are you a growing mid-sized or enterprise-level company?
• Do you struggle to gather, analyze, and share data across your business?
• Have you heavily invested in Microsoft solutions?
• Is data security a top concern at your company?
• Do heavy workloads with redundant tasks impede your team’s productivity and innovation?
• Are other business intelligence tools too code-heavy for your team?
• Will process automation save your team time and energy?

How to Get Started

Navigating the Power Platform can be complex, but you don’t have to do it alone. As a long-standing and trusted Microsoft partner, Cargas is uniquely positioned to guide you through this process. We’ll help you assess your needs, understand how each module can integrate with your existing systems, and make a plan that aligns with your budget and business goals. Whether you’re an existing user in need of Microsoft Power Platform training or you’re just shopping around for business intelligence software, our team is here to help. Contact us today to find the right solution for your business.