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Executive sponsorship

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Getting an executive sponsor and executive leadership buy-in is one of the most important aspects of successful Power Platform adoption, especially in large organizations. Learn how to get an executive leader to sponsor your project, consider the role and activities of an executive sponsor, and understand how to identify an executive sponsor.

Get buy-in from an executive sponsor

Citizen developers come from all parts of your organization and don't traditionally sit in IT. Because they have "day jobs," they report to leaders who need to buy in to the transformation you're making using Power Platform. You may need to empower your citizen developers to take time from their day jobs to make apps, flows, and chatbots.

Consider how you'll get buy-in from executives, managers, and individuals. An effective method is to highlight the positive impact Power Platform could have for different stakeholders. An executive might be moved by projected cost reductions. A manager might be more motivated by the time a solution may save. An individual might be excited by the learning opportunity.

Culture change can take time, and it's important to address people's concerns and how it may affect their part of the organization in the short term and in the long term.

To gain buy-in from your leadership team, demonstrate the impact and business value of your Power Platform solutions, share other customer success stories, or direct them to Forrester's Total Economic Impact report of Microsoft Power Platform Premium capabilities, which outlines the time, cost, and productivity savings of Power Platform.

Activities of an executive sponsor

Adopting Power Platform is far more than just a technology project. It's important to have executive support. Although some successes can be achieved by a few motivated individuals, you'll be in a better position when a senior leader is engaged, supportive, informed, and available to assist with activities such as:

  • Formulating a strategic vision and priorities for Power Platform and low-code.
  • Allocating staffing and prioritizing resources.
  • Approving funding; for example, Power Apps user licenses or AI Builder credits.
  • Communicating announcements that are of critical importance.
  • Decision-making.
  • Resistance resolution for issues that can't be resolved by operational or tactical personnel.
  • Supporting organizational changes; for example, creating or expanding the Center of Excellence.

Identifying an executive sponsor

There are multiple ways to identify an executive sponsor:

  • Top-down: The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) may nominate the Chief Information Officer (CIO) or Head of Digital Transformation to advance the low-code adoption. Having an executive sponsor at the C-level indicates that the organization recognizes the importance of Power Platform as a strategic asset.

  • Bottom-up: An executive sponsor could emerge through the success they've experienced with Power Platform. For example, a department such as Marketing has accomplished great business value with the use of Power Platform. A leader in that department may then grow into the executive sponsor role by sharing successes with other departments across the organization.

    The challenge with this approach is that the sponsor doesn't have formal influence over other business units, and may experience challenges that are beyond their level of influence. Although initial successes can be achieved with a bottom-up approach, the recommendation is to seek a C-level sponsor.

Maturity levels

The following table describes maturity levels that help you assess the current state of your support strategy:

Level State of Power Platform support strategy
100: Initial No executive awareness of Power Platform and its part in the organization's digital transformation journey.
200: Repeatable Some executive awareness and support through informal channels.
300: Defined An executive sponsor is formally identified and expectations for this role are clear.
400: Capable An executive sponsor is well established. A healthy relationship exists between the executive sponsor, CEO/CIO, business departments, and IT leadership. The teams share an understanding of what the organization wants to achieve with Power Platform and are working toward that goal.
500: Efficient The executive sponsor is highly engaged and is a key driver for advancing Power Platform adoption. They take part in ongoing adoption improvements, using KPIs or OKRs to track goals. They celebrate internal success stories and participate as sponsors in internal events such as hackathons.