In this exciting module, you will learn all about building automated solutions. Hello again. Are you ready to explore some more Microsoft Power Platform products that can empower anyone to quickly and easily build business solutions? Well, in this module, you will first be introduced to Power Apps portals. You will see how it provides a great way for internal and external audiences to view and interact with data from Microsoft Dataverse, or Dynamics 365. You will then learn how to streamline repetitive tasks and business processes with Microsoft Power Automate. Thanks to Power Automate's No-code, Low-code platform, you will see that people with all skill levels from typical business users to IT professionals can build flows to automate processes. Finally, you will explore how to build the flows available to you and the different business needs they meet. That way, you can begin to identify which of your own business processes you can automate, allowing you to update outdated processes and save time too. Now, let's get started. Have you ever had difficulty with calling customer service support and being placed on hold for ages? I know I have. Power Apps portals come with solutions and features that can help modern businesses engage a modern audience, allowing you to create websites that provide customers with self-service support and so much more. By the end of this lesson, you should be able to explain what Power Apps portals are and the business value they provide and recall the core components for content and data access. You should also be able to create portals using a template and recognize some of the differences in portal behavior based on security. What are Power Apps portals? Power Apps portals give internal and external users secure access to your data from Microsoft Dataverse or Dynamics 365. This may be done anonymously or through various providers. These include commercial authentication providers like LinkedIn, Microsoft, Meta, which was previously termed Facebook, and Google, or enterprise providers such as Azure Active Directory or AD B2C and Okta. In addition, portals allow you to set authentication requirements and customize data for each user. You can also allow users to submit their information privately with straightforward admin controls. Now, you may be wondering what Power Apps portals can do for you. Well, portal capabilities and power online consumers who prefer to find answers on their own through self-service and community options. With Power Apps portals, you can build anonymous or authenticated websites that provide consumers with a branded, personalized self-service experience. As a part of this self-service experience, portals help you provide an organized, searchable knowledge base. This way, you can deliver consistent, up-to-date answers. You can also provide consumers with a community experience for peer-to-peer support and direct interaction with your subject matter experts. Additionally, portals provide simple navigation with seamless transitions between self and assisted support. Out of the box, mobile optimizations for portal and knowledge articles also ensure that customers can get the help that they need anytime and from any device. In fact, providing a web portal interface takes advantage of various user trends. For example, did you know that most global consumers expect brands and organizations to offer a self-service portal? Nearly 1/3 of consumers stay connected with brands they've done business with to make sure that they're getting the most out of their purchase. Importantly, half of these consumers use multiple channels to stay connected. These include web, mobile telephone, social, and self-service channels. Consumers also often use many channels for a single support experience. The web portal interface considers these user trends by providing a space for any type of engagement. The Microsoft Dataverse can be directly accessed by partners, groups, and employees to create a modern connected experience for external users and internal business operations. Now, imagine that your business is already using Power Apps. Power Apps portals can deliver even more for you. More specifically, Power Apps portals can provide self-service support, build a sales pipeline, empower employees, and engage a mobile workforce. Let's take a closer look at these additional capabilities. When your business is growing, rather than having to employ extra staff and call centers, you could use Power Apps portals to add self-service capabilities to your website. Your customers can then search knowledge articles, engage with other customers, find answers, and create support cases when needed, which go directly into Dynamics 365 Customer Service. The great thing about portals is that this can all be done without a single interaction from your resources. Portals can also help you build a sales pipeline. When a lead fills out a Contact us form on your company website, this information is recorded in Dynamics 365 Sales. Here, the record can become part of your sales pipeline automatically. Additionally, portals can empower employees. For example, when an employee needs a new computer, they can fill out an online form. This information will be recorded in Dataverse, so the help desk staff can immediately access and process this information. You can also empower agents on any device wherever they work. Field technicians can process and complete work orders in the field, instantly updating Dynamics 365 Field Service. Power Apps portals are built on top of Microsoft Dataverse. This architecture comes with a major benefit because all the differentiating features of model-driven Power Apps are the features of Power Apps portals as well. These features include centralized management, common data model, roles and permissions, forms and views, and business rules. Other capabilities are declarative workflows and actions, Plug-in Architecture, integration with other services, Microsoft Dataverse extensibility, and audit. Ultimately, Power Apps portals deliver a complete content management system out of the box with all contents stored in Microsoft Dataverse. As a result, content can be edited through the portal studio and directly by using the Portal Management app. Additionally, the robust Microsoft Dataverse security model can help secure the content. There you have it. You've been introduced to Power Apps portals. Now that you know it's capabilities and the value we can offer, I'm sure you're ready to get started using portals.
