Incorporating Microsoft’s Power Platform into your IT operations can be a truly transformative experience for organisations of all kinds.
Social housing providers are constantly under pressure to maximise value in spite of shrinking budgets. Yet Power Platform, with its capacity for automations, AI-driven tools, data centralisation, and low/no code innovation, can completely transform a housing association’s back office and customer-facing functions.
However, once the initial transformational honeymoon period is over, some users find that their Power Platform innovation hits a bit of a plateau. If this sounds familiar, then don’t worry. Here are 4 deeply strategic yet incredibly practical thought-starters to help more advanced Power Platform-using organisations squeeze even more value out of the suite.
Before we get on with the richer, more strategic uses for Power Platform, it’s worth mentioning a few basic ideas, just in case they are new to you. Power Platform can be used to:
If any of these ideas are new to you, then feel free to explore them. If you need any steering, our team is always open to a free consultation.
But if you have already covered all of these bases, here are 4 more advanced applications that will help you get even more bang from your Power Platform buck.
Power Platform is a great tool for simplifying your IT operations. If you’ve been using the suite for a while, you’re likely already aware how it lets your operational teams create their own apps, web portals, and automated solutions to problems. Yet its ability to reduce tech complexity goes even further than that.
When you use Power Platform as a central nexus of business information and processes, you know there’s no need for an elaborate tech stack that includes separate properties, tenant, and wellbeing management systems.
But why not take this a step further? Your accounting, marketing, HR, and administrative systems can all be consolidated under Power Platform too, making it a single, easily governable source of business truth. After all, why invest in separate tools when one cohesive toolbox can do it all? Even if complete migration isn’t practical for you, know that Power Platform can harness over 900 data connectors, so you can integrate off-platform data into Power Platform systems wherever needed.
Over-inflated tech stacks are hard to manage, govern, and secure. A complex stack can leave your IT teams constantly chasing down countless loose ends of tools currently in use - including ever elusive shadow IT. However, with Power Platform in your corner, when a new problem arises, the default “let’s look for vendors or developers” shifts to a more internally innovative approach that’s supported by strong governance and innovation.
In a constantly shifting business landscape, a business’s agility directly translates into its ability to sink or swim. The benefits of Microsoft’s low-code/no-code functionality run far deeper than simply being able to “make your own IT solutions.” These tools open the door to new heights of personal innovation, allowing your teams to craft and test their own proof of concept solutions, quickly measure the impact of those solutions, and further build upon them at pace.
Some of the most notable gains from using Power Platform can be felt by those “at the coalface” who engage with customers, prospects, and external parties every day. And as our Housing Specialist Account Director Ciara McMillan says in a recent episode of our Digital Lounge podcast, “In housing, the real work is not doing the admin. It’s being out there, helping customers who need us the most.”
We’ve already blogged about how Power Platform can support omnichannel contact centre functionality, allowing customers to get in touch with you in the ways that they are most comfortable with; across phone calling, text chat, email, social media, messaging apps, and more, including AI “chatbot” potential and self-serve options.
Power Platform’s AI-powered chatbot-like functionality is getting more and more powerful with every single Wave Release. Thanks to Microsoft Copilot, you can quickly and easily spin up AI chat agents that can act much more like a human agent, with the ability to memorise relevant case information and act on it independently via automations.
But the customer-facing applications of AI doesn’t end with automated agents. AI tools can be used to filter and triage incoming information on the fly - say from a Power Pages form or from a generic “help@” email address - digesting what has been said, gauging urgency, and notifying the most appropriate team or individual.
This filtering can be an incredibly time consuming and draining process for a human to carry out. But AI tools can do it near instantly, at scale, at any time of the day or night - ready for a human to step in and give support now, not later.
Related Reading: How Contact Centre Tech Enables Human-Centred Housing
When things move in the housing sector, they tend to move fast. Industry-wide changes, new legislation, and increased provider scrutiny often require housing associations to make decisions quickly.
And in order to make good decisions, you need good data reporting. In such a fast-paced sector, the days of static reports that go out of date as soon as they are committed to drive or paper are well and truly over. Similarly, organisations may also struggle if their reporting relies on dumping information from various siloed sources into a spreadsheet to extract business critical information.
Power Platform’s suite includes industry-leading data platform Power BI/Fabric, which lets you “turn your unrelated sources of data into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights” - Microsoft’s words, not ours. Power BI/Fabric lets your teams create up to the minute, engaging data dashboards, so your stakeholders can make informed decisions from a true, live, up to date snapshot of the business.
For example, you could set up live dashboards for each board member, focused on their area of responsibility and allowing them to dive into the data on the fly. It goes without saying that there’s real strategic benefit available here, as timely reporting means that you aren’t left behind when a time-sensitive issue or competitive advantage shows up.
Additionally, this could be particularly pertinent now that social housing providers have to abide by new RSH consumer standards. Live reporting gives housing associations a constant, real-time insight into customer sentiment and safety - as well as their own accountability. This way, social housing providers can keep a firm grasp on the condition of every property on their books and the wellbeing of every individual in their care.
Power Platform’s broad functional reach and granular adaptability gives your business strategists and IT teams the perfect opportunity to address old, clunky workflows and to break away from “but we’ve always done it this way” thinking!
Though things move quickly in housing, they move even faster in the world of tech. The years-long IT review and repurchasing cycles of old are now becoming obsolete. Future-focused organisations need to shift their focus towards making continual incremental tech changes and adaptations rather than sticking with static, rigid solutions that change at a glacially slow pace - if at all! Power Platform fully enables this more agile approach to tech.
Of course, Power Platform gives your teams the power to craft solutions to issues they face every day and adapt those solutions on the fly as change inevitably happens. But Power Platform itself is far from a static IT solution - it is constantly evolving as new Wave Releases come along, Microsoft’s Copilot AI is continually being updated, and new data connectors and integrations are always being added.
In the same Digital Lounge episode mentioned above, our Deputy CTO Ollie Sinclair mentioned the possibilities for mixed reality in the housing space, enabling housing providers to better visualise property inspections, repairs, and renovations. Power Apps does have some mobile mixed reality functionality at the time of writing, and Microsoft have shared this helpful training module about creating 3D mobile apps.
Power Platform is much more than just a tool - it’s well and truly an enabler. Yet with such a powerful box of tricks, and one that you have already fully onboarded, it can be tricky to pin down what to do next, where to start, and why. Thankfully, Crimson’s business and technical change consultants are on hand to lead the way.
Organisations who have already implemented the Power Platform Centre of Excellence (CoE) Starter Kit will likely benefit from our Advanced Enablement and Optimisation consultancy service designed for housing partners who are looking to further strategically enhance their digital infrastructure using Power Platform. Advanced Enablement and Optimisation consultancy service
Our consultants are well versed in the housing sector and will work with you to unlock further Power Platform innovation; reveal the depth of potential the suite provides; align business strategy, practicalities, and governance; and distil it all into a technical optimisation plan that fits your organisation like a glove.
If you’re looking to get serious about Power Platform, then get our experts in your corner. Book your free consultation with our housing transformation team today.