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Microsoft Power Platform helps a business by letting the people who understand a process build the apps, automations, reports and AI agents to run it, inside the Microsoft 365 tenant they already use. It's made up of five products, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Copilot Studio and Power Pages, which share the same data platform and connectors so they can be used on their own or together.
In the past, getting a business app or a proper report meant waiting for a developer or a specialist. Power Platform is low code, so a lot of that work can now be done by people in the business, with IT setting the rules and stepping in for the more complex parts. This post covers what each product does, how they fit together and where we see them make the most difference.
What is Microsoft Power Platform?
Power Platform is Microsoft's low-code platform for building business solutions. Microsoft describes it as five product areas:
- Power Apps for building custom business apps
- Power Automate for automating workflows and processes
- Power BI for reporting and analytics
- Copilot Studio for building AI agents (it replaced Power Virtual Agents)
- Power Pages for building external-facing websites
Underneath them sits Microsoft Dataverse, a data platform with its own security model, and a library of more than a thousand prebuilt connectors to Microsoft and third-party services, with the option to build custom connectors for anything else. Everything runs in your own tenant and works with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams.
What can you build with Power Apps?
Power Apps is for building custom business apps that connect to data in Dataverse or in other sources such as SharePoint, SQL Server and Dynamics 365. There are two main kinds: canvas apps, where you design the screens yourself, and model-driven apps, which are generated from a data model and suit more structured processes. Apps run in a browser and on phones and tablets, and Copilot in Power Apps can now generate a starting app from a description of what you want.
A good example is the work we did for CalMac, the UK's largest ferry operator, with a fleet of 33 ships and about 1,700 employees. Defect reporting had been manual, and managers had little visibility of non-critical defects. We built a crew app in Power Apps for logging defects using values that match CalMac's existing processes, a second app for supervisors and technicians to review defects and record actions, Power Automate notifications to tell the right people when a defect is logged, and Power BI dashboards showing fleet health and recurring defects. The data sits in standard SharePoint lists and the whole thing was deployed into CalMac's existing Microsoft 365 environment as a Power Platform solution.
What does Power Automate do?
Power Automate builds workflows, called flows, that connect your apps and services. Cloud flows run when something happens, such as an email arriving or a form being submitted, on a schedule, or when someone presses a button. Desktop flows use robotic process automation (RPA) to automate repetitive work in older desktop or browser applications that don't have an API.
Typical uses include approvals, notifications, moving data between systems and filing documents. Copilot in Power Automate lets you describe a flow in plain language and generates a first version you can then edit. We've written more about how Power Automate improves business efficiency.
How does Power BI fit in?
Power BI connects to data from Microsoft 365, line-of-business systems and third-party services, models it, and presents it as interactive reports and dashboards that people can explore without needing to be analysts. It includes AI features such as Q&A, where you ask a question about your data in plain language, and Copilot for building report pages and summarising data.
Power BI is also one of the core workloads in Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft's analytics platform. Existing Power BI content doesn't need to move, but Fabric adds data engineering and warehousing tools for organisations whose reporting has outgrown a set of spreadsheets and databases.
What is Copilot Studio?
Copilot Studio is the low-code tool for building AI agents, and it's where Power Virtual Agents went. Agents can answer questions using your own knowledge sources, such as SharePoint sites and documents, and can carry out tasks by calling Power Automate flows and connectors. They can be published to Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Copilot, websites and other channels. Common uses include HR and IT helpdesk agents, policy questions and simple self-service requests.
Where does Power Pages come in?
Power Pages, previously Power Apps portals, is for building secure websites for people outside your organisation, such as customers, suppliers or members. Sites use the same Dataverse data as your apps and flows, so a customer can submit a request on a website that then runs through the same approval flow your staff use internally.
How do you get started with Power Platform?
We'd usually suggest starting with one process that's causing real pain, is reasonably well understood, and touches a few systems, rather than trying to roll out the whole platform at once. Before anything gets built, it's worth deciding a few things:
- which environments you need, so important solutions aren't built in the default environment
- who is allowed to build and share apps and flows
- which data policies apply, so connectors can't move sensitive data somewhere it shouldn't go
- which licences people need, since premium connectors and some features cost extra
Frequently asked questions
Is Power Platform included in Microsoft 365?
Some of it is. Microsoft 365 plans let people build and run apps and flows that extend Microsoft 365 using the standard connectors, and Power BI Desktop is free to download. A standalone Power Apps or Power Automate licence is needed for premium, on-premises and custom connectors, and sharing Power BI content needs a Power BI Pro or Premium Per User licence or Fabric capacity. Copilot Studio is licensed separately, although select Microsoft 365 subscriptions include a limited Teams plan.
Do you need to be a developer to use Power Platform?
No. The tools are designed so people without coding experience can build apps, flows and reports, and Copilot can generate a first draft from a description. More complex solutions, integrations and anything business critical still benefit from experienced developers and proper lifecycle management.
What happened to Power Virtual Agents?
Power Virtual Agents is now Microsoft Copilot Studio. Classic chatbots built in Power Virtual Agents can be cloned and converted into Copilot Studio agents, subject to some eligibility rules.
How long does a Power Platform project take?
It depends on the scope. As a guide, a simple Power Automate flow typically takes us 2 to 4 weeks, and complex automation or replacing a legacy system takes 8 to 16 weeks, confirmed after a discovery phase.
Talk to us about Power Platform
We provide consultancy, development, workshops and ongoing support, and we make sure your own team can look after what we build. If you'd like to talk through a process you want to improve, get in touch or read more about our Power Apps development work.
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