What is the Power platform all about? I get this question a lot.

The reality is that the Power platform is more than one thing and it can be “about” a lot of different things.

PowerApps is a pixel-perfect mobile-first UX app creation for the enterprise. Common Data Service is a ready-to-go no-limits data service for building an application backend. PowerApps is the ability to rapidly build forms and views over that data service with minimal effort. Dynamics 365 is a series of commercial applications ready to run your business processes. Power BI is about analyzing and visualizing data from anywhere. Flow is integrating data from multiple services and automating business processes across those services.

It isn’t just one thing. It’s a collection of services that work together to help people make organizations run better.

The Power platform can enable an organization to take a legacy data source – imagine some SQL Server or Oracle database sitting out there with an out-dated UI and missing business logic – to modernize it without having to rip-and-replace. It means being able to put a modern mobile-friendly UI, driving business processes that talk to other services, and analyzing the underlying data with a modern analysis and visualization tool.

The Power platform gives an organization the ability to stand-up capabilities across a wide range of common use cases, such as service and case management, scheduling and dispatching, opportunity identification and tracking, contact and relationship management, project execution, direct marketing, etc. It means all of those ready-to-go applications can be further configured to meet the domain-specific needs of a particular industry or organization, so no one ever has to try to fit into a one-size fit all application.

Whiteboard with red writing showing a flow chart for a business software application

Microsoft Power platform is the fastest way I’ve found to go from idea to application

The Power platform allows non-developer power users can rapidly configure an application starting from zero in a matter of hours to days, complete with enterprises security and control. It means configuring a data model, security, workflow/logic and UI is done with drag-and-drop/point-and-click tools, not code and script.

The Power platform empowers the true developer to build faster-better-cheaper systems by taking advantage of a ready-to-go development platform in the cloud. Rapidly implementing the basic requirements of an application such as data persistence, security and authentication controls, auditing, user search, forms/views, etc. through a service allows developers to focus their time on implementing the bespoke functionality required for a particular organization – writing code, building Logic Apps, complex integrations, etc.

I’m a believer in the Power platform because it enables me to help an organization achieve what I value most: better performance delivered fast.

Making organizations run better is my passion. I focus on process engineering and re-engineering, value optimization, and process automation. Power platform is the single best way I’ve found to implement the technical change required to make these concepts a reality.

Organizations usually can’t start over every time a better way is found; frankly, I’ve never found any organization – even a startup – that can start over every few months (and, if you are looking hard enough, you’ll find areas to improve constantly.) Having a toolset, preferably a reliable long-term well-integrated toolset, to rapidly implement systems (partially or fully) is essential to success.

Every organization needs a no-code/low-code platform to run, without one they’ll fall behind. I’m investing my time, energy, and career in the Microsoft Power platform because it is the most complete option and it is built around the Azure platform, meaning you’ll never run into business needs that can’t ultimately be implemented.