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Microsoft Power Platform Centre of Excellence

Our experts are here to help your organisation effectively setup, implement, and manage the Microsoft Power Platform Centre of Excellence

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What is Microsoft Power Platform Centre of Excellence?

As organisations increasingly adopt Microsoft Power Platform tools, they often encounter unique challenges associated with the rapid growth in usage. A Power Platform CoE helps organisations effectively adopt, manage, and implement governance for the Microsoft Power Platform.

The CoE is responsible for setting standards, sharing best practices, ensuring compliance, fostering innovation, and guiding the strategic use of technology across the organisation.

It involves people, processes, and governance structures. A CoE aims to break down silos, encourage collaboration, and ensure that technology deployments align with business goals and add value.

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How A Centre of Excellence Can Help You

By monitoring and managing how the Power Platform is used across the organisation, the CoE can help in optimising your resources. This includes avoiding redundant efforts, ensuring licenses are used effectively, and aligning projects with business priorities.

The CoE ensures that the deployment and use of the Power Platform are in line with the organisation’s strategic goals. It also ensures that the use of these tools is in compliance with organisational policies and industry standards. This is crucial for maintaining data security, privacy, and regulatory compliance, especially in sectors where these are critical concerns.

This alignment helps in maximising the return on investment and ensuring that these tools are used to drive business value.

Tailored expertise for your unique needs

Why Use An Expert

Our goal is to unlock the full potential of the Power Platform by optimising your Centre of Excellence setup

While the tools in the CoE starter kit serve as valuable aids in achieving the end objective, the actual architecture of the CoE must be thoughtfully customised by each organisation to align with their unique needs and preferences.

Setting up a Centre of Excellence is not a one-size-fits-all process. Our experts bring a wealth of experience in customising the CoE to align perfectly with your organisation’s specific needs, industry requirements, and long-term goals. We understand that each business is unique, and our approach reflects that.

Our experts can help ensure that your CoE is not only efficiently integrated with your current systems and workflows but also optimally aligned with your long-term business strategies and objectives. Additionally, our team offers ongoing support and training to empower your staff, fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement within the CoE framework.

If You're Already Using Power Platform Tools

  • Enhances Existing Usage: The CoE is particularly beneficial if your organisation is already using Power Platform tools (like Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, or Copilot Studio). It helps in optimising and governing these tools more effectively.
  • Streamlines Management and Governance: CoE offers resources for better management, governance, and monitoring of these tools, ensuring they are used efficiently and in compliance with organisational policies.
  • Facilitates Scale and Growth: If your organisation plans to expand the use of Power Platform tools, the CoE provides a structured framework to manage this growth.

If You Haven't Started Using Power Platform Tools

  • Preparatory Step: If your organisation plans to adopt Power Platform tools in the future, setting up a CoE could be a strategic preparatory step. It can lay the groundwork for a smooth and controlled adoption of these technologies.
  • Consider the Investment: However, if there are no immediate plans to use Power Platform tools, implementing a CoE might not provide immediate benefits. It's an investment for organisations committed to or already on the path of digital transformation using Microsoft's ecosystem.

Centre of Excellence Report Examples

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How We Can Help

To setup CoE a fundamental understanding of the Power Platform components (Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and Copilot Studio) is crucial. Our consultants are not only Power Platform specialists, but have also helped other organisations set up and implement the Centre Of Excellence Framework.

Installation and Configuration

We will install and configure various components of the Starter Kit, such as Power BI dashboards and automation tools within your Microsoft environment.

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Minimised Risks

Our experts ensure a smooth, efficient setup process, significantly reducing the time it takes to get your CoE operational. With our experience, common pitfalls and technical obstacles are avoided.

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Maximising RoI

We help you maximise this investment by ensuring that your CoE leverages all the functionalities and capabilities of the platform effectively. This leads to improved productivity, innovation, and a better return on your investment.

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Governance

Our specialists are well-versed in the best practices of governance and compliance. We'll ensure that your setup adheres to the highest standards, keeping your operations secure, compliant, and in line with industry regulations.

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Training and Communication

A key aspect of our service is empowering your team. We don’t just set up your CoE; we provide the training and knowledge transfer necessary for your staff to effectively manage and evolve your CoE long after our work is done.

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Ongoing support

The digital landscape is continuously evolving. Our experts provide ongoing support and insights into the latest trends and updates, ensuring that your CoE remains cutting-edge and adaptable to future changes in technology and business practices.

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Get A Free Taster Of How The Power Platform CoE Can Help You.
Register for a complimentary consultation where we'll deploy the Starter-Kit Core Components and deliver an in-depth security and governance analysis, uncovering crucial risks and threats – all for free!

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Frequently Asked Questions

See our FAQs or get in contact for more information on any of our services, solutions, or to start your Power Platform journey.

What are the core components of the Power Platform CoE Starter Kit?

The Starter Kit includes tools for governance, such as pre-configured Power BI dashboards for monitoring, templates for best practices, and resources for automating and managing the Power Platform environment effectively.

What problems can a CoE help identify?

A Centre of Excellence (CoE), particularly for the Microsoft Power Platform, can help identify a range of issues and challenges within an organisation. These include:

  1. Governance and Compliance Issues: The CoE can identify gaps in compliance with internal policies and external regulations, especially concerning data handling, privacy, and security. It helps ensure that all Power Platform applications adhere to necessary standards.
  2. Security Vulnerabilities: By providing a framework for regular security assessments, a CoE can identify vulnerabilities within the Power Platform environment, such as potential data breaches, insecure data storage, or unauthorised access.
  3. Inefficient Resource Utilisation: The CoE can pinpoint areas where resources, including licenses and personnel, are not being used efficiently. This includes identifying redundant applications, underutilised tools, or overlapping functionalities.
  4. Lack of Standardisation: A common issue in many organisations is the lack of standardisation in app development and process automation. The CoE helps identify these inconsistencies, promoting best practices for a more unified and professional approach.
  5. Insufficient Reporting and Analytics: Lastly, a CoE can identify areas where organisations are not effectively using data analytics and reporting capabilities of the Power Platform, thus missing out on critical insights that could drive business decisions.

Why does the Power Platform Need a CoE?

As an organisation increasingly adopts and integrates Microsoft Power Platform tools (like Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and Power Virtual Agents) into its operations, several issues can arise, particularly in the absence of a structured management approach like a Centre of Excellence (CoE):

  1. Redundant Development and Efforts: Without a centralised oversight or knowledge-sharing hub, different teams or departments might end up independently developing similar solutions. This leads to duplication of efforts, wasting time and resources that could have been better utilised elsewhere.
  2. Uncontrolled and Inefficient Licensing: As more users across the organisation start using Power Platform tools, there’s a risk of uncoordinated licensing management. This can result in unnecessary expenses due to either purchasing more licenses than needed or not utilising existing licenses effectively.
  3. Scattered Data Practices and Security Concerns: With the ease of creating apps and automation, there’s a risk of creating disparate data practices. Users might inadvertently create data silos, where information is not effectively shared across the organisation, or worse, mishandle sensitive data, leading to security vulnerabilities.
  4. Lack of Standardisation in Development: Each team or individual might follow different standards and practices for creating apps and workflows. This lack of standardisation can lead to inconsistencies in user experience, difficulties in maintenance, and challenges in scaling solutions.
  5. Overwhelmed IT Department: As usage grows, the IT department might become overwhelmed with requests for support, integrations, or even fixing poorly built applications. This can strain resources and divert attention from strategic IT initiatives.
  6. Missed Opportunities for Synergy: Without a CoE, the organisation might miss out on opportunities to create synergies between different teams or departments. A CoE facilitates the sharing of solutions and best practices, which can lead to more innovative and efficient use of the Power Platform across the organisation.

While the degree of risk varies, most organisations that extensively use Power Platform tools are likely to face some of these issues. A CoE serves as a proactive approach to manage these risks, enhance efficiency, and ensure that technology investments align with and support business objectives.

If my Power Platform was set up by a consultancy, would a Centre of Excellence (CoE) still be beneficial?

Even if your Power Platform has been set up by a professional consultancy, the implementation of a Centre of Excellence (CoE) remains highly beneficial for ongoing management and adaptation to changing needs.

The CoE ensures that the platform continues to align with evolving business processes and objectives. It plays a crucial role in maintaining governance and compliance, crucial in a landscape where data privacy laws and regulations are constantly evolving. Additionally, a CoE keeps your Power Platform environment at the forefront of technological innovation and best practices.

The value of a CoE extends to managing user adoption and training as your organisation grows and changes. Despite an expert initial setup, redundancies and inefficiencies can develop over time; the CoE is instrumental in identifying and resolving these issues, and optimising resource utilization.

In essence, a CoE offers more than just a solution to immediate challenges; it provides a sustainable framework for continuous improvement, innovation, and strategic alignment, essential for long-term success in leveraging the Power Platform.

What role does a CoE play in managing security risks?

A CoE helps identify and mitigate security risks by implementing best practices in security, monitoring user activities, ensuring data protection, and regularly auditing the Power Platform usage for potential vulnerabilities.

How do we measure the success of a Power Platform CoE?

Success is measured through KPIs like improved compliance rates, user adoption levels, efficiency gains, reduction in security incidents, and alignment with business outcomes. Regular reviews and audits also help assess CoE effectiveness.

Ready To Start Your Power Platform Journey?

Our experts have over 30 years of combined experience to help companies unleash the power of Power Platform and realise the full potential of Microsoft Office 365. Get in touch today to speak to one of our Power Platform Specialists in the UK.

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