Thanks to Ignite, we have a special roundup this month. There were so many announcements, it has been difficult to work out which ones to focus on without missing any out, and so we’ve instead picked our favourites/the ones we think will have the biggest impact on the client base Power 365 Solutions has.
Power Apps Pricing
We saw a change to the pricing/licensing model for Power Apps on October 1st - Microsoft halved the cost and made it simpler to understand. However, on top of that, termed“low-code with low risk”, we have had an announcement that they will be releasing pay-as-you-go licensing too.
With this, Microsoft has introduced a more flexible way to license apps/related services. Starting immediately, you are now able to use an Azure subscription to cover the costs of your Power Apps usage around the business, basing it on actual usage rather than pre-defined usage.
It has always been a difficult discussion topic when we start exploring a new process with a business, as the question reference how many licenses they need is always hard to estimate. With this model, we can progress through the development and allow our customers to define their needs on usage-based, rather than user-based, and ultimately look to scale up or down their investments based on the usage patterns (rather than locking themselves into an expensive user-based model and not needing it).
It’s essentially a way for you to “try before you buy”.
Power Apps Native iOS and Android Apps
The final part of any app discussion is “How do our users’ access this, we want to make sure it’s professional but easy to access”. Whilst, in all honesty, I quite like having apps installed into MS Teams as I find it has a definitive line between business and personal and I also don’t dislike the Power Apps app as a container for them all - the benefit of having them native to the iOS/Android device is hugely beneficial (from a professional standpoint).
For example, an app built for expenses or managing holiday, timesheets or even viewing your leave balance, having this as a native app on the menu screen of your iOS/Android device gives a hugely professional feel to the organisation. The ability to develop that low-code, no-code app and still have it sit alongside the likes ofLinkedIn allows your users to feel connected with complete fluidity.
To add to the excitement, having multiple different canvas apps is not an issue either -Microsoft are releasing the functionality to have that single “Hub” app and subsequently allow us to use the Launch() command to navigate between multiple.
Microsoft Teams
There has been a host of announcements for Microsoft Teams, so many it’s actually difficult to pick out our favourites. However, a high-level summary seemed appropriate for the ones that stuck out most to us:
Meetings
We are being given the ability to improve meeting experiences with updates such as seeing the order in which hands were raised, hiding, or pinning your own video and giving overflow menus for mobile devices (to prioritise key actions).
Webinars
One that we’re extremely excited about: A virtual green room will enable organisers and presenters to socialise, monitor chat and Q&A and share content before the event even starts!
This one is exciting to us based on our upcoming Power Hour event, as engagement with the attendees before we start the session is absolutely key (albeit Microsoft are holding this out until early 2022 so for now, it’s simply nice to know it’s coming).
Shared Channels
A difficult point when conducting any architecture meetings is working out the balance between layer 2 and layer 3 collaboration. Whilst MS Teams is fantastic for siloed collaboration, it has always been a challenge to then share content outside of that team.
With shared channels, we will have the ability to share out channels with up to 50 teams and as many organisations as you need.
Dynamics 365 +Microsoft Teams
Furthering the hybrid workplace, there’s a need to have solutions that bring people, processes, and insights together.
Microsoft Search will soon allow you to find D365 data, place that data into actionable cards(announced now as Loop components) and place them in Outlook and/or Teams.
All of this aside, there are so many new features coming that one small blog isn’t enough to cover it off. We’ll do our best to keep highlighting our favourites as we go and we hope you’ll join us on the exciting journey Microsoft are forever updating for us.
If you like what you see, there’s more out there! Check out our offerings or get in touch to find out what your company could achieve with Power 365 Solutions.
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