SPOILER ALERT: This is going to be a looong article 😅 But my hope is that it will answer many questions about this topic.
More and more companies are turning to automation to simplify their processes, which is, obviously, great. However, despite the growing popularity of Microsoft Power Platform (which is also great), some companies have yet to establish a clear strategy or a way to track what’s happening in their environments.
This lack of governance can lead to a wild west of uncontrolled environments, often starting with the default environment, where there’s little oversight into who is creating what, how apps and flows are being shared or whether sensitive data is at risk.
The default environment, if unmanaged, can quickly become chaotic. This exposes the organization to significant risks such as:
- Security vulnerabilities: apps using unauthorized connectors.
Data governance issues: apps and flows are shared without proper control.
Difficulty scaling: users adopt the platform without a clear understanding of best practices.
Now to the reason I’m writing this blog post
I'm often asked to perform a Power Platform analysis, reviewing Power Automate flows and Power Apps applications and to provide recommendations.
From what I’ve seen businesses find themselves in situation where they’ve enabled citizen development but lack a centralized way to track and manage the applications and automations that have been created. Without a proper Center of Excellence (CoE) in place, companies face the risk of duplicated efforts, apps going unmonitored or, worse, critical data breaches
This blog post is here to address those challenges and to show how establishing a Power Platform CoE (specifically using the CoE Starter Kit) can bring order, governance and innovation, ensuring your automation initiatives stay secure, compliant and aligned with your business goals.
Let’s dive in!
Introduction to Power Platform Center of Excellence (CoE)
The Power Platform Center of Excellence (CoE) is designed to help organizations adopt, govern and scale their use of Microsoft Power Platform. It brings together a set of tools and components aimed at providing administrative oversight, encouraging best practices and fostering innovation. The CoE plays a crucial role in managing environments, supporting makers, and ensuring that apps, flows, and connectors are used efficiently and securely.
What is the CoE Starter Kit?
The CoE Starter Kit is a collection of Power Apps, Power Automate flows, Power BI reports and tools that help organizations implement a CoE. It provides a framework for managing governance, nurturing makers and automating workflows. Some key components include:
1. Core components: Tools that help admins manage resources like apps, flows and environments across their tenant. This includes inventory management, Power BI dashboards and apps like the DLP Impact Analysis and Set New App Owner.
2. Governance components: These help enforce governance policies through features like app archival and compliance monitoring.
3. Nurture components: To support makers within the organization. The CoE includes Welcome email Flow and components designed to onboard new makers and share best practices.
It’s important to clarify that a CoE is not just about tools, but also about the people involved in managing and supporting the platform.
A CoE team may include roles like admins, solution architects, citizen developers and governance specialists. Having the right team in place is critical for maintaining control over Power Platform solutions, ensuring that governance policies are followed and supporting users across the organization
Benefits of implementing the CoE Starter Kit
1. Governance and process standardization: The CoE Starter Kit helps enforce governance across Power Platform environments, ensuring that apps and flows adhere to data security and organizational guidelines. It also simplify processes like environment requests and user activity tracking.
2. Lifecycle Management: The CoE Starter Kit helps track component creation and usage as well as identify inactive apps and flows. It automates the environment cleanup process with tools like App Archive and Cleanup.
3. Data Loss Prevention (DLP): The CoE includes a DLP Impact Analysis that provides visibility into how new policies might affect existing apps and connectors.
Microsoft CoE vs. Power Platform CoE
If your organization already has a Microsoft Center of Excellence (CoE), you might wonder if this covers your Power Platform needs. While a Microsoft CoE can support broader IT governance, a Power Platform CoE ensures that Power Platform specific activities, such as Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and app ownership, are appropriately managed.
Differences in Data Loss Prevention (DLP) between Microsoft and Power Platform governance
DLP policies exist in both Microsoft 365 and Power Platform governance, but they serve different purposes.
Microsoft 365 DLP: This is generally focused on managing sensitive information across Microsoft 365 services like SharePoint. The policies are broader and designed to protect critical business data from being shared externally or stored improperly.
Power Platform DLP: It focuses specifically on how connectors interact with data across apps and flows by preventing unauthorized connectors from accessing sensitive data.
Recommended for medium to large business
Smaller companies may not immediately require the full suite of governance tools offered by the CoE Starter Kit, making it better suited for medium to large enterprises. These organizations often have multiple departments with varying levels of Power Platform adoption, making governance and user support essential.
How to get started
Prerequisites to set up the CoE Starter Kit:
- A Power Apps Per User license and Power Automate Per User or Per Flow license.
- Admin access to the tenant with the Power Platform Admin or Global Tenant Admin role.
- Install and configure the CoE Starter Kit
Conclusion
With Copilot, it’s easier than ever to create solutions, but that also means it’s easier to miss important governance steps. Without a CoE in place, apps could be deployed with insufficient security measures, leading to potential data leaks or unauthorized access. In short, the CoE isn’t just about managing what’s already been created, it’s about preparing for future success in a fast changing digital world.
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