Contents
Business Value of Microsoft Power Platform
This course takes you through Power Platform, giving you an understanding of what Microsoft Power Platform is and what kind of value it can provide you and your organization.
Learning Objectives
- Explain each application, what it does, and when to use them
- Understand how Power Platform communications with other Microsoft products
- Understand administrative tasks and determine from which admin center they can be accessed
- Define data loss prevention policies and understand security options within Power Platform
Intended Audience
- Users looking to learn about the core components of Power Platform and additional insight into how their data connects within it
Prerequisites
- No prior knowledge of Microsoft Power Platform is required
Power Apps is a low to no code app development tool that you can use to create custom applications for your organization's unique needs. Within Power Apps, you can easily connect to data through the Dataverse or through a multitude of online and on-premises data sources. A few common data sources include things like the Microsoft Dataverse, SharePoint, Dynamics 365, Office 365, and even SQL servers. Power Apps makes connections with other data sources through something called a connector, and there are hundreds of them that you can implement into your applications. Understanding the data sources is imperative as certain types of apps only work with data from certain types of sources. The three types of apps you can create are known as canvas apps, model-driven apps, and portals. Canvas apps are highly customizable apps that you can create for either PC or mobile devices.
Use canvas apps when you want a simple drag-and-drop functionality and the freedom to make your app look exactly how you want it. Model-driven apps on the other hand, are built specifically, from data stored in the Microsoft Dataverse. And because of this, model-driven apps can be a little bit more restrictive. Like canvas apps, a model-driven app works on both mobile and PC, but has much less customizability. Rather than having complete control over the look and feel, it automatically determines the layout of the app based upon how you define the data, its forms, its rules, and its relationships. And finally, the third type is portals; allowing for the creation of external facing websites without needing to understand coding. If you're familiar with Dynamics 365 portals, then you probably already know more about Power Apps portals than you think. Because as of October 2019, Dynamics 365 portals became known as Power Apps portals. Each of these types of apps has a different ideal environment in which they can be used, but with the variation application types it should cover all of your business needs.
Perhaps the best thing about Power Apps is that it has a wide range of app templates that you can use to quickly create your own app or at least get a base structure for an app that you're looking to build. Some templates are things like; budget tracker templates, a service desk app template, or even a community portal template, all to interact with your organization's community. Each of these templates brings a unique pre-built solution that you can customize for your specific organizational needs. So, be sure to check them out before going out and fully building a brand new application from scratch.
Lee has spent most of his professional career learning as much as he could about PC hardware and software while working as a PC technician with Microsoft. Once covid hit, he moved into a customer training role with the goal to get as many people prepared for remote work as possible using Microsoft 365. Being both Microsoft 365 certified and a self-proclaimed Microsoft Teams expert, Lee continues to expand his knowledge by working through the wide range of Microsoft certifications.