How does the Power Platform transform processes?
Organisations use numerous business processes every single working day. From generating reports to dealing with customer service issues or raising a holiday request, the same steps are typically repeated by multiple employees each day. Processes are all designed with one common goal – to streamline the way you work. The best processes are quick and easy to follow. They don’t create additional work or stress.
A 2019 report by the Financial Director found that inefficient processes waste up to a third of employees’ time. The report found that employees struggle within workplaces where manual and paper-based processes are commonplace. This leads to frustration amongst workers.
Inefficient processes lead to inefficient operations that can have a negative impact across an organisation. Below are some indicators of inefficient processes that impact on employee productivity.
Mistakes made due to out-of-date processes
What made sense a year ago, might not work today. If you have out-of-date manual, paper-based processes, this could be costing your organisation time and money.
Too much time spent on manual tasks
Often, employees carry out multiple tasks, often replicating work that has been completed by others. This is time-consuming and error-prone.
Overly complex procedures
Complicated processes can be difficult to understand and time-consuming to follow. This leads to errors and non-adoption as staff look for easier ways to work.
Struggling to find information
Employees often struggle to find information quickly, and often there is no single repository for information which can be accessed by all staff at the click of a mouse. In many cases, there is not “one version of the truth” available to all.
So, how do we transform inefficient, time-consuming, manual and repetitive processes into automated processes that save time and improve operational efficiencies? The answer lies with The Microsoft Power Platform.
Improving processes with Microsoft Power Platform
The Power Platform is a business application platform which enables organisations to create and deploy apps, reports and workflows. Power Platform applications can connect to Office 365, Dynamics 365, Azure, and hundreds of third-party applications to provide your organisation with the ability to create automated, streamlined and efficient processes. The Power Platform consists of Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate and Power Virtual Agents.
Power Apps
Without writing a single line of code, Power Apps lets you create custom enterprise business apps to simplify and transform everyday business processes.
- Build apps for any mobile device with a drag and drop interface.
- Connect to Office 365, Dynamics 365 or other solutions.
- Publish out to your organisation and transform how work gets done.
Power Automate
Power Automate is designed to automate and integrate business processes. Otherwise manual, paper-based, repetitive tasks are automated, leading to faster, more efficient processes.
- Automate and model business processes across your apps and services.
- Trigger actions, grant approvals and get notifications where you work.
- Automate legacy, on-premises and cloud-based applications and services.
Power Virtual Agents
Power Virtual Agents is a chatbot solution, which enables you to easily create powerful virtual agents that engage in personalised conversations – all without the need to be a developer, AI expert, or a data scientist.
As well as assisting customer service agents, Power Virtual Agents can be used to automate other business processes, such as HR procedures. For example, a chatbot can be used to automate and streamline an employee’s leave request and remove the need for employees to log into a separate portal to request leave. By typing in a simple phrase to the chatbot like “I would like to take leave on 2nd May”, the approver will receive a message notifying that a request is pending. Power Virtual Agents can be designed to assist with a whole host of processes across your organisation.
Summary
The Power Platform offers an abundance of opportunities to digitally transform and automate manual processes to improve operational efficiencies and make everyday working more productive.
To find out more, discover our new guide, which delves into the functionality of the Power Platform and gives real-life examples of end-to-end digital solutions created by integrating Power Platform applications.