Supercharge Your ERP: How Power Platform Extends the Capabilities of Business Central
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a powerhouse. It handles your finances, your supply chain, your operations, and your sales all within one application. However, every application has its limits. Every business has its own unique processes a certain approval flow, a certain reporting requirement, or a certain requirement to be able to access the application on a mobile device that is not met by the out-of-the-box application. This is where Microsoft Power Platform plays its role. If you think about your car analogy again, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is your car engine, it does all the hard work. The Microsoft Power Platform is your car’s turbocharger, your dashboard, and your Bluetooth connectivity, things that make your car experience better, faster, and more integrated. This is how the four pillars of Microsoft Power Platform: Power Apps, Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow), Power BI, help extend Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central’s capabilities past its native limits. 1. Power Apps: Tailoring the User Experience The web interface of Business Central works well in a typical organization; however, it may not work well in all situations. For instance, the warehouse staff may need a simple scan and go interface on a tablet, whereas the sales staff may need a quick view of the credit limits of customers on a phone. How it extends BC: Embedded Apps: You can use Power Apps to build custom apps and embed them inside the interface of Business Central. Hence, users do not have to navigate through multiple screens. Mobile First Solutions: You can build an interface using mobile first solutions for the warehouse staff to pick, pack, and ship products without using a laptop. Simplicity: You can replace a complex interface with a simple form-based interface for data entry. 2. Power Automate: Eliminating the “Copy-Paste” Grind One of the most time-wasting activities is the “copy-paste” grind. For example, an email comes in with a new sales lead. You copy and paste the lead into BC. A package ships out. You copy and paste the tracking number into the courier company’s email system. How it extends BC: Workflow Automation: With Power Automate, “flows” can be set up. For example, if a new sales order comes into BC, Power Automate can automatically email the customer an invoice as a PDF. Approval Chains: While BC has some approval features built-in, Power Automate allows for complex approval scenarios that involve multiple steps and users (such as vendors or clients) using Microsoft Teams or Outlook. Data Synchronization: Power Automate allows for the synchronization of data between BC and other third-party applications (such as Salesforce, Shopify, or SharePoint) without the need to write complex code. 3. Power BI: Turning Data into Decisions You get standard reports out of the box with Business Central; however, most of those reports are static lists of numbers. To fully understand your business’s health, you need visualization. How it extends BC: Deep Visualization: Power BI plugs directly into your Business Central data to give you interactive visualization. Instead of flipping through screens of your sales data, you can see a heat map of your top-selling areas or a line chart of your cash flow. Real-Time Analytics: You can pin your reports to your Business Central home page. What this means is that as soon as you log into Business Central, you see your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) updated in real-time. Unified Reporting: You can use your Business Central financial data along with your HR data from Excel or your marketing data from a CRM system to get a 360-degree view of your business. 4. Co-pilot: AI-Powered Self-Service Co-pilot Integration: You can use the new technology of AI and integrate it with Business Central for tasks like sending emails, analysing data trends, and document creation, all through the Power Platform. The “Citizen Developer” Advantage: In the past, if you wanted Business Central to do something new, you would need a developer who would write AL code for you. This was a very expensive and time-consuming exercise. The Power Platform gives the power of innovation to “Citizen Developers,” who are power users in your organization, like your finance, operations, or sales teams. Conclusion While Business Central gives you the solid foundation that you need to run your business, the Power Platform gives you the flexibility to run it your way. By using these low-code tools, you will be able to minimize your workload, increase your insight, and deliver a better experience to your employees and customers.
