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The Starter Kit includes tools for governance, such as pre-configured Power BI dashboards for monitoring, templates for best practices, and resources for automating and managing the Power Platform environment effectively.

A Centre of Excellence (CoE), particularly for the Microsoft Power Platform, can help identify a range of issues and challenges within an organisation. These include:

1. Governance and Compliance Issues: The CoE can identify gaps in compliance with internal policies and external regulations, especially concerning data handling, privacy, and security. It helps ensure that all Power Platform applications adhere to necessary standards.
2. Security Vulnerabilities: By providing a framework for regular security assessments, a CoE can identify vulnerabilities within the Power Platform environment, such as potential data breaches, insecure data storage, or unauthorised access.
3. Inefficient Resource Utilisation: The CoE can pinpoint areas where resources, including licenses and personnel, are not being used efficiently. This includes identifying redundant applications, underutilised tools, or overlapping functionalities.
4. Lack of Standardisation: A common issue in many organisations is the lack of standardisation in app development and process automation. The CoE helps identify these inconsistencies, promoting best practices for a more unified and professional approach.
5. Insufficient Reporting and Analytics: Lastly, a CoE can identify areas where organisations are not effectively using data analytics and reporting capabilities of the Power Platform, thus missing out on critical insights that could drive business decisions.

As an organisation increasingly adopts and integrates Microsoft Power Platform tools (like Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and Power Virtual Agents) into its operations, several issues can arise, particularly in the absence of a structured management approach like a Centre of Excellence (CoE):

1. Redundant Development and Efforts: Without a centralised oversight or knowledge-sharing hub, different teams or departments might end up independently developing similar solutions. This leads to duplication of efforts, wasting time and resources that could have been better utilised elsewhere.
2. Uncontrolled and Inefficient Licensing: As more users across the organisation start using Power Platform tools, there’s a risk of uncoordinated licensing management. This can result in unnecessary expenses due to either purchasing more licenses than needed or not utilising existing licenses effectively.
3. Scattered Data Practices and Security Concerns: With the ease of creating apps and automation, there’s a risk of creating disparate data practices. Users might inadvertently create data silos, where information is not effectively shared across the organisation, or worse, mishandle sensitive data, leading to security vulnerabilities.
4. Lack of Standardisation in Development: Each team or individual might follow different standards and practices for creating apps and workflows. This lack of standardisation can lead to inconsistencies in user experience, difficulties in maintenance, and challenges in scaling solutions.
5. Overwhelmed IT Department: As usage grows, the IT department might become overwhelmed with requests for support, integrations, or even fixing poorly built applications. This can strain resources and divert attention from strategic IT initiatives.
6. Missed Opportunities for Synergy: Without a CoE, the organisation might miss out on opportunities to create synergies between different teams or departments. A CoE facilitates the sharing of solutions and best practices, which can lead to more innovative and efficient use of the Power Platform across the organisation.

While the degree of risk varies, most organisations that extensively use Power Platform tools are likely to face some of these issues. A CoE serves as a proactive approach to manage these risks, enhance efficiency, and ensure that technology investments align with and support business objectives.

Even if your Power Platform has been set up by a professional consultancy, the implementation of a Centre of Excellence (CoE) remains highly beneficial for ongoing management and adaptation to changing needs.

The CoE ensures that the platform continues to align with evolving business processes and objectives. It plays a crucial role in maintaining governance and compliance, crucial in a landscape where data privacy laws and regulations are constantly evolving. Additionally, a CoE keeps your Power Platform environment at the forefront of technological innovation and best practices.

The value of a CoE extends to managing user adoption and training as your organisation grows and changes. Despite an expert initial setup, redundancies and inefficiencies can develop over time; the CoE is instrumental in identifying and resolving these issues, and optimising resource utilization.

In essence, a CoE offers more than just a solution to immediate challenges; it provides a sustainable framework for continuous improvement, innovation, and strategic alignment, essential for long-term success in leveraging the Power Platform.

A CoE helps identify and mitigate security risks by implementing best practices in security, monitoring user activities, ensuring data protection, and regularly auditing the Power Platform usage for potential vulnerabilities.

Success is measured through KPIs like improved compliance rates, user adoption levels, efficiency gains, reduction in security incidents, and alignment with business outcomes. Regular reviews and audits also help assess CoE effectiveness.