⏱ 4 minutes to read

Written by Donald Nixon

Low Code is easy. Power Platform has democratised application building to the point where anyone can create meaningful solutions, but building an app does not equal improved business process.

Without governance and systems thinking, low code development just amplifies wasted effort. Your budgets are tight and the last thing you need is to spend money fixing processes you just “optimised”.  

Successful businesses don’t just hand low-code tools to internal teams, they bring in partners who use them to create real process improvement and deliver outcomes.

Microsoft Power Platform allows citizen developers, users in the business who live and breathe the process, to create fast solutions to “improve” their processes. On the surface this looks like an elegant solution, after all they are the ones who know their processes like the backs of their hands.

Reality has shown that business led application developments often fall into familiar pitfalls. Workarounds get embedded into the main process, solutions don’t scale, and users end up frustrated with the new system.

This is where bringing in a partner makes sense, someone that can objectively question the process and use their knowledge of the technology to design and implement solutions that genuinely deliver on the promise.

Let’s look at 3 common arguments for having the business automate their processes and where those arguments fall apart.
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1) “Low code is easy, so our team can handle it”

‍On the surface automating a process using Microsoft Power Platform seems simple, especially so in the age of CoPilot where you can use natural language to tell the AI what you want to build and voila it appears in front of you fully built.

The problem is that none of the platform pitfalls are addressed, error handling is non-existent, hidden dependencies are not included, and the underlying process is not adjusted. These cheap, fast builds lead to future rework of the same process, manual overrides, and accelerated inefficiencies.

A trusted partner with an objective eye will start by analysing the process, eliminating redundant steps, questioning existing workarounds, and seek out opportunities for improvement before even making the first mouse click.  


2) “We know our processes better than anyone else”
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‍One should hope that you know your processes better than anyone else, but this leads to a status quo bias and functional fixedness where it is hard to conceptualise another way of operating.

A good partner will have knowledge of your sector and experience with multiple clients and will be able to use that knowledge to work with your team to break the shackles, challenge unnecessary process steps, identify bottlenecks that are just accepted as normal and deliver an updated process that may not even need a new technology solution.


3. “We will end up with shadow IT, especially if the business hires a partner directly”
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‍Shadow IT arises where there is unmet demand, and there due to the nature of these tools there is a risk of this occurring whether an external party is involved or not.  

A good partner organisation will work alongside the internal IT team within their governance and can assist with setting up a framework where it is easy to deliver credible solutions fast while maintaining security standards and demonstrating tangible business value under IT control.

Great partners become an extension of your IT team, accelerating genuine process improvement delivering outcomes that internal teams rarely achieve alone.

Need a Power Platform partner?
Whether you need to create apps, automate processes, harness your data, or enhance productivity with Copilot, Nodero works alongside your IT team to deliver scalable, secure Power Platform solutions.