In this exciting module, you will learn all
about building automated solutions.
Hello again. Are you ready to explore some more Microsoft
Power Platform products that can empower
anyone to quickly and easily build
business solutions? Well, in this module, you will first be introduced
to Power Apps portals. You will see how it
provides a great way for internal and external
audiences to view and interact with data from Microsoft Dataverse,
or Dynamics 365. You will then learn
how to streamline repetitive tasks and
business processes with Microsoft Power Automate. Thanks to Power Automate's
No-code, Low-code platform, you will see that people
with all skill levels from typical business users to IT professionals can build
flows to automate processes. Finally, you will explore
how to build the flows available to you and the different business
needs they meet. That way, you can
begin to identify which of your own business
processes you can automate, allowing you to update outdated processes
and save time too. Now, let's get started. Have you ever had
difficulty with calling customer service support
and being placed on hold for ages? I know I have. Power Apps portals come with
solutions and features that can help modern businesses
engage a modern audience, allowing you to create
websites that provide customers with self-service
support and so much more. By the end of this lesson, you should be able to explain what Power Apps
portals are and the business value they
provide and recall the core components for
content and data access. You should also be able
to create portals using a template and recognize some of the differences in portal
behavior based on security. What are Power Apps portals? Power Apps portals give
internal and external users secure access to your data from Microsoft Dataverse
or Dynamics 365. This may be done anonymously or through various providers. These include commercial
authentication providers like LinkedIn, Microsoft, Meta, which was previously termed
Facebook, and Google, or enterprise providers such as Azure Active Directory
or AD B2C and Okta. In addition, portals
allow you to set authentication
requirements and customize data for each user. You can also allow
users to submit their information privately with straightforward admin controls. Now, you may be wondering what Power Apps portals
can do for you. Well, portal capabilities and
power online consumers who prefer to find
answers on their own through self-service
and community options. With Power Apps portals, you can build anonymous or authenticated
websites that provide consumers with a branded, personalized
self-service experience. As a part of this
self-service experience, portals help you provide an organized, searchable
knowledge base. This way, you can deliver
consistent, up-to-date answers. You can also provide consumers with a
community experience for peer-to-peer support
and direct interaction with your subject
matter experts. Additionally, portals
provide simple navigation with seamless
transitions between self and assisted support. Out of the box, mobile
optimizations for portal and knowledge
articles also ensure that customers can
get the help that they need anytime and
from any device. In fact, providing a
web portal interface takes advantage of
various user trends. For example, did you know
that most global consumers expect brands and organizations to offer a self-service portal? Nearly 1/3 of consumers stay connected with
brands they've done business with to make sure that they're getting the
most out of their purchase. Importantly, half of these consumers use multiple
channels to stay connected. These include web,
mobile telephone, social, and
self-service channels. Consumers also often use many channels for a single
support experience. The web portal
interface considers these user trends by providing a space for any
type of engagement. The Microsoft Dataverse can be directly accessed by
partners, groups, and employees to create a modern connected
experience for external users and internal
business operations. Now, imagine that your business is already
using Power Apps. Power Apps portals can
deliver even more for you. More specifically,
Power Apps portals can provide
self-service support, build a sales pipeline, empower employees, and
engage a mobile workforce. Let's take a closer look at these additional
capabilities. When your business is growing, rather than having to employ extra staff and call centers, you could use Power
Apps portals to add self-service capabilities
to your website. Your customers can then
search knowledge articles, engage with other customers, find answers, and create
support cases when needed, which go directly into
Dynamics 365 Customer Service. The great thing about portals
is that this can all be done without a single
interaction from your resources. Portals can also help you
build a sales pipeline. When a lead fills out a Contact us form on your company website, this information is recorded
in Dynamics 365 Sales. Here, the record can become part of your sales
pipeline automatically. Additionally, portals
can empower employees. For example, when an employee
needs a new computer, they can fill out
an online form. This information will be
recorded in Dataverse, so the help desk
staff can immediately access and process
this information. You can also empower agents on any device wherever they work. Field technicians can process and complete work
orders in the field, instantly updating Dynamics
365 Field Service. Power Apps portals are built on top of Microsoft Dataverse. This architecture comes with
a major benefit because all the differentiating
features of model-driven Power Apps are the features of Power
Apps portals as well. These features include
centralized management, common data model, roles and permissions, forms and views,
and business rules. Other capabilities are declarative workflows
and actions, Plug-in Architecture,
integration with other services, Microsoft Dataverse
extensibility, and audit. Ultimately, Power
Apps portals deliver a complete content
management system out of the box with all contents
stored in Microsoft Dataverse. As a result, content
can be edited through the portal studio and directly by using the
Portal Management app. Additionally, the robust Microsoft Dataverse
security model can help secure the
content. There you have it. You've been introduced
to Power Apps portals. Now that you know
it's capabilities and the value we can offer, I'm sure you're ready to
get started using portals.