Power Platform | Hyperautomation Trend 2022

In my previous article I was talking about it´s almost time to an introduction of principles for responsible low-code. Due to recent customer conversations, I had a kind of „throwback thursday“ momentum and was thinking about a revisit of some articles I wrote back in June.

One thing that pop´s out for a while now is talking about the future of IT services delivery models, reconsidering how to lower implementation effort, still ensuring highest standards for security and governance, though finding the balance between governance and guidance to allow for easy adoption and scale-out.

I can´t think of any CIO or CTO agenda, this section isn´t part of. But there´s more to an IT agenda that fits future purposes and challenges – such as finding a fitting model of Hyperautomation to work for your company. As said, I was talking about this trend earlier, revisiting it today to share my updated thoughts with you.

Organisations around the world continue to struggle with disruptions and supply chains, fitting customers demand and operate profitably. To become more resilient, businesses need to rethink how they manage and operate across their entire business operations. Gartner talked about the Hyperautomation motion with 85% of their clients reporting that they will increase or sustain Hyperautomation investment strategies over the coming year. You can still watch that webinar on demand here.

Customers asking me how to use Hyperautomation to build a more resilient IT services delivery framework, I showed and discussed with them following visual:

This visual outlines where many companies are starting today assessing their current state with data still being siloed and clumsy business operations with a high focus on manual tasks to close the gaps. Though insights and actions should play an important role first, the majority of work still is about manual interactions and transaction processing.

So how to flip around the light bulb? How to push worforce transformation, enabling and equipping them with IT services that allows them to do more with less? CIOs and CTOs are surging for adaptions of technology to shape their IT Services delivery model and support transforming workforce. But introducing new software assets in uncertain financial times with lowered IT budgets and goals to optimize the IT services delivery model sounds like a mountain tough to climb on. The underlying pinning is „data„. How to find an integration layer that allows for easy digests of information when needed? Orchestration of tools as a platform should be called out as the answer.

This reminds me of slides I´ve been using in the past to talk about the importance of orchestrated tools as a platform and the role Power Platform plays in here. While it´s easy to grow IT landscape on a use-case per use-case base, making best-of-breed decisions and implementing those tools could easily end up in missing an integration layer between them. No suprise this ending up in again siloed data, instead of what the original purpose was – to find a harmonization layer for data.

Microsoft’s Cloud offer including Power Platform is about the „orchestrated tools as a platform“ and funny enough, not being about Microsoft Cloud services usage only. Including 3rd party business operations software and/or 3rd party cloud services while still allowing for an overall Identity-, Security-, Management- and Compliance Layer is part of the storytelling.

To help you understand the building blocks of the conversation, let´s dive into above visual with a focus on the left side first:

It shows a sample of possible vendors that have been selected while choosing a business operations software that addresses the needs for Robotic Process Automation (RPA), or Customer Intimacy (CRM). Many of those tools ending up in a missed integration layer.

Now, let´s switch gears and take our eyes to the right side with the blocks shown above the „orchestrated tools as a platform“ block:

The all-over foundational layer being an Azure services layer taking care of Identity-Management, Security, Managing and Compliance. On top of it, a relaunched developer velocity layer which now builds the inclusiveness layer to all kind of creators + AI services. For example help using natural language processing to be transformed into code logic. Still including traditional services, such as Application Lifecycle Management, but adding low-code tools as another powerful option.

In the middle, you do find the business operations layer which is a composite or mesh of Microsoft 365, LinkedIn, Power Platform, Dynamics 365 Business Applications and your choice of additional business operations software, such as SAP, workday, UIPath, IBM, Adobe or Celonis to name a few. As you can see Power Platform plays a central role in here to „glue“ together previous siloed service lines and ensure transforming workforce by allowing for collaborative applications. If you want to understand more around this, I encourage you to read the interview between Mary Jo Foley and Jeff Teper & Charles Lamanna that you can find here.

But there´s more to a modern IT services delivery model, such as building and establishing a Center of Excellence for ensuring implementation, adoption, scale-out and continuous training initiatives + running innovation motions for either improving current business operations or creating even new business. That´s why you find this building block on top of it.

It then shouldn´t be a surprise that IT should use an IT Services Management layer to managing incoming requests or monitoring bug or issue reporting. In the example I´ve added servicenow as a typical vendor of ITSM tools.

And last but not least, once those building blocks are in place, you could also imagine that using an industry cloud solution is no longer fake news. Cause in fact the strategy and vision you build and followed all of a sudden becomes your individual industry cloud solution – orchestrated as a platform, including various vendors and crossing boundaries if you will, by not being exclusive to just Microsoft services. All this well known as Business Operations/Ecosystem.

Driving digital transformation, doing more with less. Until then,…