Ready, Set, Go! How CTOs and Business Analysts Can Accelerate Transformation with the Microsoft Power Platform

Tom Berger
11 May, 2021

As a CTO or business analyst supporting your enterprise organization, you have two “bosses”: Your CEO, who has a vision that requires supporting technology; and the employees who need technology to do their jobs effectively.

That’s a lot of pressure and there’s added pressure because your enterprise organization is growing and changing. You must figure out how to meet those demands with limited time, resources, and budgets. Including systems that are older and exist in silos, manual and complex processes, plus security and compliance concerns.

Oh, and everyone wants everything right now.

The Microsoft Power Platform: Low-code, rapid application development that gets CTOs and business analysts closer to their vision faster

The ideal solution would be to use technology that is already in place. In fact, it’s likely that you must keep at least most of your tools and applications because …

  • … they provide a service to the business that cannot be handled by another OR
  • … those tools or apps are functioning well (for the most part, at least).

What if those tools and applications can’t do everything you need? For maximum performance, they need help which means expensive, time-consuming development. This puts you in a position looking to purchase another app. Let’s be honest, depending on what’s needed, the app might be overkill or may not even exist.

Microsoft responded to this challenge with the Microsoft Power Platform, a single, connected platform of low-code, no-code tools. It empowers businesses like yours to innovate quickly and efficiently while targeting and addressing specific business needs and creating apps or workflows.

Forward thinking organizations and financial services firms are discovering that tools like those in the Power Platform—Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate (used for creating workflows) to name a few—eliminate the need for development projects that take too long and high-dollar developers that cost too much. The Power Platform helps IT departments quickly whittle down that ever-growing backlog of IT projects. The projects that are blocking the company’s ability to function on a daily basis and its ability to accelerate their vision by reaching their goals faster.

Better yet, you control who puts the Power Platform to work. Development can be accomplished by select internal employees, your Microsoft Dynamics Partner or trained IT consultants.

Either way, you gain all the benefits the Power Platform has to offer.

Reduced development time means faster time to market

This is a simple concept, but it is the biggest problem with traditional custom development: It simply takes too long. Lengthy projects delay your transformation and might even cost your enterprise money in terms of missed opportunities or productivity. Isn’t it true that once you’ve decided on a process or workflow that needs to be added or changed, you want to deploy those changes rapidly? That is precisely what the Power Platform was designed to do. Delivering functionality as well as integration with existing systems, the Power Platform brings these initiatives to life in record time.

Here is a real customer example of how quickly you can effect real transformation in a short amount of time:

An investment firm’s portfolio managers were drowning in emails requesting trade approvals and needed an easy, fault-proof way to approve or disapprove trades from any device, from anywhere—and they did not want to remove Salesforce as their CRM. In a workshop that took only ONE DAY, we designed a Power Platform solution that integrates with Salesforce, enabling managers to approve trades with the click of a button on their mobile phones.

Developing solutions with the Power Platform saves time and money

Because development is so fast and easy, the cost savings using the Power Platform are irrefutable. A 2020 study by Forrester reported that the overall reduction, including development and IT management costs, is 45 percent.  The door is flung wide open to companies that could not have afforded to take on an IT project and were forced to make do with a problem that was already costing them money.

Improving and adding workflows and processes streamlines operations and productivity

Power Platform provides freedom, a blank slate, an opportunity to examine every process and workflow for improvements. Without the huge cost, lengthy turnaround and complications around existing technology, there is virtually no limit to what you can do to digitize and improve productivity. That is yet another way to save money, thanks to the Power Platform.

CTOs and business analysts see their IT teams are empowered to deliver more and better solutions even faster

With the Power Platform, your IT team is no longer squeezed. They can be more responsive to the users who depend on technology by quickly delivering solutions that work. IT leaders can also be responsive and even strategic, putting the Power Platform to work to support strategic initiatives and vision. With the ability to digitally modernize, IT organizations are now more responsive to business needs.

Learn how Matthew Case helped a private equity firm by streamlining processes

In HSO’s Challenge Accepted story, a $70Bn AUM global private equity firm recently experienced the benefits of digitally modernizing by automating antiquated, manual processes with the help of the Power Platform.

With tools built by Microsoft, CTOs and business analysts get the benefits of Microsoft technology

Regardless of other applications you’re using, you can be completely confident in the capabilities and reliability of the Power Platform. Like any other Microsoft tool or application, the Power Platform is developed responsibly, tested, and maintained by Microsoft, with an eye for scalability and security. Microsoft’s goal is for enterprise companies to have a healthy business ecosystem. That means delivering tools that work to pull all your systems together in a way you can depend on, now and into the future.

What the Power Platform is NOT

If you’re concerned that the Power Platform will create a new “wild west”, with your employees developing apps and workflows on their own, you can relax. You are not in the software development business. So, while the ease of use of the Power Platform makes it possible for people other than ninja developers to do rapid development, your enterprise organization does not need to take on that responsibility.

The beauty of the Power Platform is that is also empowers your Microsoft Dynamics Partner, other IT consultants or resources to do the work for you. You still gain all the benefits discussed in this post without having to do it in-house.

Turbo-charge your transformation while offering value

Just Say Go! How to Accelerate Your Vision and Drive Your Enterprise Forward Faster with the Power Platform

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