A lot of customers of all levels have asked me:
“Why you have a team focused on Power Platform? Isn´t it better to build on .NET? You have the knowledge.”
Background:
}exghts is one of the leading software development companies building solutions based on the Microsoft ecosystem ready to be deployed on-premise or on the Azure Cloud Stack.
Our teams are stuffed with highly educated and certified people to make sure our clients get the most out of the solutions we create and deliver to them following industry-leading standards.
Discussion: .NET or Power Platform
Back to the main question of what the right thing for the client is:
“It depends! ”
Sounds like the most common and well know manager answer, but in this case it’s true. It´s far more than a technology decision for a single application. It´s a decision of the companies’ strategy and where the company wants to go.
Complex decision – and it is:
Technology-wise, there are a lot of restrictions on the Power Platform.
On the one hand, you´re forced to do things in a specific way. Flow and Logic apps are slow, limited and if you want it complex you need development know-how. To optimize things, you need the right architecture and deep knowledge of Azure services. The licensing model is expensive, a combination of per seat and usage, which makes a calculation on the long hard.
On the other hand, you can deploy fast, manage everything, compliance and security are build-in and you deploy directly on all platforms, including iOS and Android.
Power Platform is evolving every day the functionalities grow and the restrictions will disappear – you just need to understand it from the ground up! Enterprises face the situation of legacy and cloud application mix, administration, and shadow applications. Power Platform is the answer.
Time to bring in a new dimension:
If you look at the history of industries, you will find out that the big transformation is coming out of IT-Services. In automotive it´s no longer the horsepower making a car interesting. It´s the design combined with the assistant systems. A Self-driving car has a bigger value than a car that beats the 250 KM/h. A freezer bag combined with an app tells you what is inside helps you understand what you can cook and so on and so force. It will affect all industries; the innovation part is coming from add on services to your core product.
Here are some questions that could help you understanding:
- How can I manage the transformation, what do I expect from my employees and how can I make them be part of it?
- How do I manage the usage of data in my organization? In general, and from an application perspective?
- Would it be helpful, if some people (citizen developer) in my organization could help optimizing workflows and processes themselves and directly build the technology to execute?
- Is there any value to react fast on changing processes in- and externally?
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- If yes, what is the strategy to achieve it
- What would be the monetary value?
- Do I believe that change is a critical factor today and in the future?
If you answer the questions you will find out what is important for you and what is the right long-term strategy.
It´s far more than a technical decision. It impacts up to 30% of your organization. HR must make sure, to hire the right candidates and develops existing. Employee’s skills profiles will change dramatically. Data will be the core element understanding how your organization is evolving, transparency will take place, and decisions are made on the data collected.
Building a data-driven culture will be the result, combined with a people-first approach, that combines the value of data with privacy and development.
Answering the question:
What should I do now?
You will need both! Employees will create simply based processes with Power Platform, but also start building complex applications. Some of them need to be ported to a long-term application based on .net, other will just fix a short-term change or challenge.
Do not make the mistake to rate the decision based on the current technology status of the platform. Microsoft builds industry-specific backend solutions. Healthcare, Finance, and Government is just the beginning and will over time come for all industries. Easily accessible through Power Platform.
Use the power of your people, make them ambassadors of your brand, help them build your future.
Regarding that discussion: Targo, our latest product, replacing operational management tasks will be available in 3 different versions:
Stand-alone version, that even can be integrated through WhatsApp, Teams integrated and in a completely different approach using the values of the Power Platform.
Outcome:
Both approaches and technologies have their pros and cons, important are to understand both deeply and build a backend infrastructure that makes both technologies accessible and usable.
Build your own DPaaS (Development platform as a Service) to make in- and externally innovation happens, empower your people to be part of your transformation.
Pro developer will use the same backend, highly skilled partner will help you pushing technology to the edge.
Building that culture and backend will be a critical factor to acquire future talents. It´s not a question of if you will need Power Platform, it´s more a question of when!
HR will be a critical factor in that transformation. Power Platform is just as good as it will be used.
If you want to understand more of that discussion (I also have internally), we´re happy to help you build the right thing and build the thing right!
Armand Sullot
CEO at }exghts
