How to Leverage Microsoft’s Low-Code Tools You Probably Already Have

As businesses and enterprises face increased costs with no signs of slowing down, it’s time to optimize your budget.

At Arraya, we focus on the many ways you can utilize the technology you’re likely already paying for. Now is not the time to leave money on the table. With Microsoft’s Power Platform, businesses can enhance productivity, innovation, and collaboration through low-code tools.   

At this year’s Microsoft Ignite 2022 conference, Microsoft highlighted the ways customers can make the most out of their technology investments.

Technology demands are increasing and it’s time to take advantage of low-code automation. By infusing artificial intelligence (AI) into processes, businesses can do more without spending more. Here’s how the latest from Power Platform can help modernize your business practices.

Power Platform: Build End-to-End Business Solutions

Power Platform is made up of low-code automation solutions, including Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power Pages. These solutions allow businesses to streamline their processes across their data, applications, workflows, and more. Backed by the smart, secure, and scalable Microsoft Dataverse, business users can be more agile without sacrificing their security.

Microsoft Power BI

Power BI is an analytics and dashboard tool that empowers businesses to collect, utilize, and review their data to provide actionable insights.

With Power BI, users can:

  • Transform data into visual data models that can be shared with colleagues on any device 
  • Collaborate and share customized dashboards and interactive reports 
  • Visually explore and analyze data – on-premises and in the cloud – all in one view 
  • Scale across your organization with built-in governance and security  

This low-code platform is available as either Power BI Desktop, a downloadable application, or as Power BI Service, a software-as-a-service.

What’s New? Power BI’s interactive charts can now be shared directly from Microsoft 365 via OneDrive and SharePoint. This feature is currently in private preview.

Microsoft Power Apps

Power Apps is a low-code programming solution that builds custom applications, without the need for professional software development. Your team can build and launch apps right away using pre-built templates, a drag-and-drop interface, and quick deployments.

The benefits of Power Apps include:

  • Creating low-code applications that enable business transformation and improved business outcomes 
  • More advanced and faster decision-making due to improved access to information 
  • Increased employee satisfaction as users have more control over their work due to the ability to create applications that increase efficiency  
  • Secure applications that tie into Azure Active Directory and Microsoft’s security solutions 

This form of application development costs 74% less and eliminates the need for vendor license costs.

What’s new? Now, coauthoring in Power Apps can be done in real-time, making development easier than ever.

Creators can now work together on the same app and page at the same time for easier collaboration and teamwork. Users will be able to see changes as they’re happening. This new feature is currently in preview.

Microsoft Power Automate

Power Automate provides users with the capability to streamline repetitive tasks and paperless processes through process automation. With this low-code workflow automation, businesses can boost the efficiency of their standard processes and cut down on busy work for employees.

For a specific low-code automation example, check out our webinar: Simplifying HR Processes with Power Platform.

What’s new? Power Automate has a new, low-code automation tool. This allows you to describe what you want to automate in a sentence, and AI will build the flow with natural language processing in seconds. The process of writing expressions to utilize data when automating workflows can now leverage AI to reshape data for more straightforward expression authoring.

Microsoft Power Pages

Announced in preview in May 2022, Power Pages creates secure, low-code business websites that will enhance your customers’ experience.

These in-demand websites (FAQ pages, partner portals, or self-support sites) can get the right information to the right people, without custom code.

What’s new? Power Pages is now generally available. It has a simplified business model by moving to capacity-based subscriptions and pay-as-you-go meters. The licenses are charged per website via monthly authenticated and anonymous users. There is no longer a distinction between internal and external authentication users.

Infuse AI into Your Business Processes with AI Builder

We would be remiss to leave out this crucial Power Platform capability. AI Builder provides AI models that are designed to optimize your business processes, making implementing AI easier than ever in both Power Automate and Power Apps.

You can either build custom models tailored to your specific needs or choose from prebuilt models that are ready to tackle common business scenarios.  

Create document automation, process approvals, detect images, and test, all with pre-built models. This can be done through either robotic process automation (RPA) or process orchestration.

AI Builder uses Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), which is a software solution that captures, transforms, and processes data from documents. IDP solutions can extract data from:

  • Structured documents: Pre-defined documents with a set layout, such as a loan application or tax form
  • Unstructured documents: Freeform documents like a memo or contract
  • Semi-structured documents: Documents that combine a fixed and free-form structure

In the latest release, IDP will have enhanced performance in table extraction, document classification, personal information identification, and in its ability to detect signatures.

Next Steps: Turn Great Ideas into Impactful Solutions

Rather than spending more, these low-code Microsoft tools provide an opportunity to take matters into your own hands. Solve real problems within your business processes with technology you probably already have in-house.

To learn more about automation, check out our blog, Harness the Power of Microsoft Teams: How to Take Advantage of All That Teams Offers. Here, we dive into ways you can eliminate redundant tasks with everything from bots to connectors to Power Virtual Agents.  

To learn more about low-code automation with Microsoft, contact one of our Arraya experts today.

Visit https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/ to connect with our team now.

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Arraya Insights