Kicking off the Ignite 2021 event today, Microsoft announced a few updates across the board, with Power Platform sharing the limelight with Dynamics 365, Azure, Office, and other services. Along with general updates to the business intelligence platform, Microsoft also unveiled a few updates for the services that are part of it.
For starters, Power Apps mobile apps are now in preview for Android and iOS. This means that customers will now be able to distribute their applications through low-code solutions. On top of that, Power Apps gets paid per-app licensing through an Azure subscription, removing the need for developers to acquire pre-paid licenses before they can deploy their Power Apps to users. The capability – now in preview – essentially allows developers to deliver applications faster, while not having to predict licensing requirements in advance.
Meanwhile, on the Power Automate front, changes are brewing in the form of enhancements to the tools that enable end-to-end automation of enterprise solutions. The following updates have been noted:
- Azure Virtual Desktop starter kit, now in preview, helps organizations more easily manage Robotic Process Automation (RPA) workloads. With the new starter kit, users can integrate with existing Azure Virtual Desktop deployments and automatically power on virtual machines (VMs) to scale RPA workloads faster. This helps optimize infrastructure costs and reduce overall wait times for flow executions in Power Automate.
- Several usability updates have been made with RPA in Power Automate for desktop. It’s now easier to start your first automation with a simplified recorder that spans the web and desktop on a single platform. Additionally, Power Automate for desktop is now accessible from the Windows 11 Start menu.
- To support the management and controls of these new features, there is now advanced governance support on desktop streams so administrators can set data loss prevention (DLP) policies that notify users. manufacturers when creating flows that may violate their organization’s compliance standards.
Process mining in Power Automate was also noticed; Used through Process Advisor, this service provides direct insights into business process optimization, generating analytics and process maps. The feature is now in preview.
And finally, Power Virtual Agents has received updates to improve the creation, functionality and development of AI-powered chatbots. These include feedback for merge bot development, bots still in use, and bots used as Microsoft Bot Framework skills. Other improvements include a preview of proactive messaging in Microsoft Teams, bot sharing via security groups moving to GA, and bot interactions in Teams channels – coming soon.
