When most people think about portals, they think of something scientific and from the future. Perhaps this is why Microsoft used Power Portal to describe one of its latest business software products. Whatever the reason, it is essential for all business leaders to know about Microsoft Power Portal, what it does, and how it may benefit their operations.
What is Microsoft Power Portal?
Microsoft provides its definition of what this powerful piece of business software is right on its website by saying:
PowerApps Portals allow organizations to create websites which can be shared with users external to their organization either anonymously or through the login provider of their choice like LinkedIn, Microsoft Account, other commercial login providers.
It is also possible to create individual websites that employees access when they need to contact a specific department. Power Portals, now known as Microsoft Power Pages, make it easier to deliver employees precisely the information they need to obtain at any time.
There are certain pieces of information that a company holds that it doesn’t necessarily want or need to share with the world. This may include information about:
- Internal company events
- Employee/payroll information
- Benefits information
- Employee handbooks
- Other internal company policies
These are all information that employees may need to access at some point. However, the company doesn’t need to broadcast these to the world. They can set them up on an internal company website so that employees can see what they need. Microsoft Power Portals is extremely useful for that.
Why Should a Company Use Power Portals?
Some new users may be wary about getting involved with another business software product. However, it is reasonable to consider at least the value that a Microsoft Power Apps Portal can add to your organization. Plenty of companies have tried it before, and they often rack up significant wins in terms of productivity. Companies have seen success with other elements of their work as well when using Power Portals such as:
Better Security and Control
Maintaining top-level security and control over your business operations should always be at or near the top of your agenda. There are far too many threats to cyber security these days, and you do NOT want to find yourself as the victim of a cyber attack that could have been prevented.
Power Portals make it easier to keep various elements of your business protected from would-be criminals. By keeping more data internal to the company, there is less of a chance of that data being stolen or repurposed against you and your company.
Make Approvals Easier
When companies grow in size, so does the complexity that surrounds them. Typically, a company that has grown to a specific size will see significant upticks in the amount of bureaucracy required to get anything approved.
This can be highly frustrating to employees just trying to finish their work. Fortunately, Microsoft Power Portal makes it easier to deal with these situations. Here is an explanation of how they make it happen provided by Hitachi Solutions:
…predefined roles within the Microsoft Power Apps environment limits privileges to users based on their role. This helps minimize the number of hands trying to make edits and changes and streamlines development responsibilities.
Cutting out some of the layers of approval means that time is saved and more work can get done. After all, it is much easier to get things done when they are left sitting in an approval status for days or weeks. Companies that act quickly like this can often outrun the competition and grow faster.
Better Stewardship of Company Resources
The way that company resources are deployed matters immensely. It is easy to get careless with those resources and not hand them as one should. Unfortunately, this is also extremely costly to the company, and it is something that everyone should be mindful of.
Small businesses need to be particularly careful with their limited resources. Undercapitalization (aka not having enough resources) is the world’s number one killer of start-ups. Therefore, shifting to the Microsoft Power Platform Portal is a great way to clamp down on wasted resources.
Build Platforms Rapidly
Finally, a big reason to move to Power Portal is that websites and other platforms can be built rapidly within the system. Many business owners are not experts at coding software, but they can work with something like PowerApps Portal to help create websites and other essential platforms without struggling to figure out coding from scratch.
This is a big reason why it is wildly popular in helping companies create the resources required to provide internal information to employees.
How to Access Power Apps Portal
Our Power Portal experts are frequently asked by those who are just starting to get into the system what they need to do to access Power Apps. The first thing to know about this is that it will cost some money to gain access to the Power Platform.
Microsoft does charge for this service, but the vast majority of users say that it is well worth the price tag when you consider the extent of the benefits that you can receive from it.
The pricing breaks down like this:
- Per-App Plan: $5/month per app
- Per-User Plan: $20/month per user (all apps accessible)
- Pay-As-You-Go: $10/month per app per user (only charged for months when you use the apps)
You can select which plan is right for you based on your frequency of use and your company’s needs. That said, once you have paid for your plan, you will have access to the platform.
For more information on how to use Microsoft Power Portal and why it may make sense for your business, please get in touch with us today.
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Microsoft Power Apps
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Connect to data, add business logic and build interfaces that work in your web browser or on your mobile device.
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Benefit from hundreds of pre-built connectors available for popular apps and other Microsoft cloud services.
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Create drag and drop dashboards and reports that give leadership and business users visibility to both local and cloud data sources.
Microsoft Power Virtual Agents
Improve your customer service and your employee satisfaction with self-service chat.
Custom chatbots immediately respond to repetitive questions and requests, freeing your team to focus on value-added tasks.
Microsoft Power Pages
Improve efficiency, increase communication and streamline your business process with secure sites.
Build sites for all your business processes including onboarding, tracking, vendor management and more.
