Power Platform concepts

  • 4 minutes

Many organizations that run their SAP landscape on Azure, or considering doing so, also use the Microsoft 365 productivity suite. Most of these organizations want to quickly innovate by including SAP system data and applications in routine communications or workflows.

With the low-code Microsoft Power Platform, SAP organizations can enable connections to support this type of innovation. You can use a data gateway and prebuilt and custom connectors to integrate SAP data and applications with Microsoft 365 applications. In this way, you can speed approvals, validate change orders, and automate otherwise laborious processes. For example, by integrating SAP data or applications with emails or collaboration sites, a business can automate employee time-off or purchase requests.

Power Platform can help SAP users and others drive business by making it easier to:

  • Analyze with Power BI by creating dynamic visualizations from data hosted on internal and external sources.

  • Act with Power Apps to read and update data on PCs and mobile devices.

  • Automate with Power Automate handling repetitive processes through automated workflows.

  • Assist with Power Virtual Agents (PVA) by helping your customers and employees to quickly gain access to the information and guidance they need.

Key products

Enterprise customers can use the four key products in the Microsoft Power Platform suite to integrate with their SAP data and build innovative line of business applications:

  • Power Apps provides a rapid low-code development environment for building custom business apps. It includes services, connectors, and a scalable data service and app platform. This allows simple integration and interaction with existing data in SQL Server, SAP HANA, and other sources.

  • Power Automate lets users create automated workflows between applications and services. It helps automate repetitive business processes such as communications, data collection, and decision approvals.

  • Power BI (Business Intelligence).

    • Power BI Desktop is a complete data analysis and report creation tool that you can install for free on your local computer. It includes the Query Editor, in which you can connect to many different sources of data, combining them into a data model. Then you can design reports based on that data model. You can choose from four major built-in connectors to access SAP environments and visualize data:

      • SAP HANA Database

      • SAP Business Warehouse Application Server

      • SAP Business Warehouse Message Server

      • Custom OData connector

    • The Power BI service is a cloud-based service. It supports light report editing and collaboration for teams and organizations. You can connect to data sources in the Power BI service, but modeling is limited. Most Power BI report designers use Power BI Desktop to create Power BI reports, and then use the Power BI service to collaborate and distribute their reports.

  • Power Virtual Agents enable non-developers to create powerful chatbots using a guided, no-code graphical interface. There's no need for data scientists or developers. Chatbots can be used within Microsoft Teams or as standalones in websites and applications.

Shared features

Several features are shared across the Power Platform products:

  • AI Builder lets users and developers add AI capabilities to the workflows and Power Apps they create and use. AI Builder can help you predict outcomes that can improve business performance without writing code.

  • Microsoft Dataverse is a scalable data service and app platform that lets users securely store and manage data from multiple sources. It then helps users integrate that data in business applications, using a common data model for ease and consistency.