At the Microsoft Power Platform Conference, a range of new Power Platform features have been announced. We take a look at the key developments.
What is the Microsoft Power Platform Conference?
Held in Florida, the inaugural Microsoft Power Platform Conference has been designed to empower everyone to achieve more in the modern workplace with Power Platform. It features the best Power Platform thought leaders from Microsoft, partners, community experts and customers from around the world.
What are the most significant announcements made at the conference?
Cards for Power Apps
Available now in Preview, Cards for Power Apps brings the intuitive drag-and-drop interface of Canvas Power Apps to Adaptive Cards; a lightweight way to create and send micro-apps to share, collect, and connect data and make business decisions—all without ever leaving Teams or Outlook.
The new designer gives low-code developers the ability to create cards, complete with Microsoft Power Fx integration, that can be used for polls, data gathering, surveys and more advanced business use cases.
Maker matching with an integrated virtual agent in Power Apps
Currently in preview, Power Virtual Agents integration into the Power Apps designer makes it easier for builders to get support in a number of ways via an intelligent chat bot:
- easily search Microsoft documentation to get on-screen assistance with functions and app building processes
- automatically expand a search to include the wider Microsoft community to obtain further assistance, should the Microsoft documentation not answer your query
- be automatically matched to skilled app builders within your own organisation to get assistance in-house
Experienced app makers can be nominated as Advisors into the Advisor Program in one of two ways. Admins will be able to assign specific individuals as advisors and over time, successful makers with strong track records will also automatically receive in-product invitations through intelligent matching.
For an idea of how this new functionality works, click here.
Power Apps Co-authoring
Traditionally, Apps could only be worked on by one person at a time, with other users locked out while changes were being carried out. The new co-authoring functionality brings several benefits:
- multiple makers will be able to see who else is present in the app, see what parts of the app other makers are working on, and see changes made to the app in real-time
- App makers can add new pages and work on them without disturbing the work of others, improving development efficiency and collaboration
- as with Office 365, App makers can see who else is working in their app and easily chat with them or tag them in comments
- co-authoring can help new App makers develop their skills within an organisation, now that they will be able to shadow experienced makers to watch them build an App
What else has been announced?
Here is a round-up of the other announcements made at the Microsoft Power Platform Conference:
- Due to Microsoft acquiring Clear Software, Microsoft Power Platform now includes more than 150 Microsoft Power Automate cloud flows and more than 25 Microsoft Power Apps specifically designed to expedite SAP business processes
- A new Power Up skilling program to help citizen developers build key skills in low-code. This program offers a three-month, guided curriculum with self-paced learning, hands-on labs, app development challenges, instructor-led sessions, and the ability to connect and learn from a robust and supportive Microsoft Power Platform community
Summary
These announcements further demonstrate Microsoft’s commitment to ensuring that more people can get involved in the low-code approach of the Power Platform. As some of this functionality is already available in preview, we would encourage App makers to explore the new features and see how they can benefit their organisation. For existing Strategy 365 clients who wish to discuss the announcements with one of our experts, feel free to get in touch.
