Power Platform governance consultantLet makers build, without losing control of your tenant.
Environment strategy, DLP policies, the CoE Starter Kit and proper release management, sized for UK organisations of 20 to 500 staff. Start with a fixed-price Health Check.
Sound familiar?
Citizen development worked. Now nobody knows what is out there.
Power Platform makes it easy for anyone to build. Without a few guardrails, that success turns into risk.
Everything lives in the default environment
Hundreds of apps and flows sit side by side with no separation between experiments and the things the business runs on.
No idea what connects to what
Nobody can say which flows send data to personal accounts, third-party services or the open internet.
Makers have left, their flows have not
Automations owned by people who moved on fail quietly, or keep running with nobody watching.
Changes are made straight in production
Edits go live the moment someone saves. There is no test copy, no version history and no way back.
What you get
Practical governance, not a policy binder.
Each piece below is configured in your tenant and documented, so your admins can run it after we hand over.
Environment strategy
A simple model for development, test and production environments, who can create them and what each one is for.
DLP policies
Data loss prevention policies that separate business and non-business connectors and block the risky ones, tested before they go live.
Security roles
Dataverse security roles, teams and environment access set out by job, not by individual, so joiners and leavers are routine.
CoE Starter Kit
Installation and configuration of Microsoft's free Centre of Excellence Starter Kit, with the dashboards trimmed to what you will use.
Managed environments
Sharing limits, usage insights, maker welcome content and solution checker enforcement where your licensing supports it.
ALM with solutions and pipelines
Work packaged in solutions and promoted through Power Platform pipelines, so production only changes through a controlled release.
Maker enablement
A short maker guide, request process for new environments and premium connectors, and a place for makers to ask for help.
Ownerless flow clean-up
We find orphaned and failing apps and flows, reassign the ones that matter and retire the rest with a record of what was removed.
Power Platform Centre of Excellence
A Centre of Excellence sized for 20 to 500 staff, not a department.
A Power Platform Centre of Excellence (CoE) is the small set of people, policies and tools that keeps citizen development safe and useful. For most UK organisations we work with, that means a few part-time roles, a handful of policies and enough visibility to know what is running.
What a CoE is for
A CoE answers four questions: what is running in the tenant, who owns it, what data it touches, and which ideas deserve proper support. Without those answers, apps built by enthusiastic makers turn into risks when people leave, connectors leak data to personal services, and nobody can say whether the licences are paying for themselves.
Do you need the CoE Starter Kit?
Microsoft's free CoE Starter Kit adds inventory, ownership and usage dashboards, plus processes for maker onboarding and clean-up. It is worth installing once you have dozens of makers or hundreds of apps and flows. Smaller estates often get enough from the Power Platform admin centre and managed environments features. We tell you which applies before installing anything, and our article on what the CoE Starter Kit does and whether you need it covers the detail.
Where to start
The Health Check gives you the inventory and the risk list a CoE needs on day one. From there, a CoE is built in stages, matched to where you sit on the Power Platform governance maturity model. Our practical guide to setting up a CoE in the UK walks through the same steps. When makers need more than a guide, our Power Platform training for makers covers building inside the policies.
Platform admin
Usually someone in IT. Owns environments, DLP policies, licences and capacity. A few hours a week in most organisations.
CoE lead
Owns the backlog of requests, decides what gets built centrally and what makers can build themselves, and reports on value.
Maker champions
Experienced makers in the business who answer questions, review new apps and spot candidates for proper support.
How we set up a Power Platform CoE
- 01
Take an inventory
List every environment, app, flow, connector and owner, including ownerless and failing items, so decisions are based on facts.
- 02
Name the roles
Agree who is the platform admin, who leads the CoE and which makers act as champions. Part-time roles are normal.
- 03
Set the policies
DLP policies, an environment request process, naming conventions and a rule for when a solution must move to managed ALM.
- 04
Add visibility
Install the CoE Starter Kit core components, or rely on the admin centre and managed environments if your estate is small.
- 05
Support the makers
A short maker guide, a Teams channel for questions, and a simple route to ask for premium connectors or a new environment.
- 06
Review every quarter
Look at usage, failures, licence spend and new requests, then retire what nobody uses and invest in what works.
Power Platform ALM
ALM, pipelines and managed solutions: production only changes through a release.
Application lifecycle management (ALM) is how changes move from development to test to production. Done well, nobody edits a live app on a Friday afternoon, and every release can be traced and rolled back.
Solutions, managed and unmanaged
Every app, flow, table and agent that matters lives in a solution. You build in an unmanaged solution in development, then deploy it as a managed solution to test and production, where it cannot be edited directly. Connection references and environment variables mean the same solution points at the right SharePoint sites, mailboxes and keys in each environment, with nothing edited by hand after deployment.
Power Platform pipelines
For most organisations of 20 to 500 staff, Power Platform pipelines are the right release tool. They are built into the platform, let makers request a deployment, let an admin approve it, and keep a history of what went where. We set up the pipeline host, the development, test and production stages and the approval step, then train whoever will run releases.
Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions
If several developers work on the same solutions, or you need source control and automated checks, we use the Power Platform Build Tools for Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions instead. Solutions are unpacked into source control, solution checker runs on every change, and releases are approved in the same place as the rest of your software. Read how to deploy managed solutions into a Power Platform environment and our free guide to managing Power Platform environments.
| Approach | Fits | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Manual managed solution export and import | One or two makers, a handful of releases a year | Simple to start, but relies on someone remembering the steps and keeps no automatic history. |
| Power Platform pipelines | Most organisations of 20 to 500 staff | Built into Power Platform, with approvals and a deployment history. Target environments generally need to be managed environments; check current Microsoft requirements. |
| Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions | Several developers, source control and automated checks | Full source control, branching and automated solution checker runs, at the cost of more set-up and a team comfortable with DevOps. |
Every build we deliver ships this way.
New apps, flows and agents are handed over as managed solutions with environment variables and connection references, so your team or any other supplier can release changes safely after we finish.
Pricing
Start with a fixed-price Health Check.
Find out what you have, what is at risk and what to fix first. Implementation is then quoted as a fixed price from the findings.
Power Platform Health Check
An audit of your environments, flows and apps with a ranked list of risks and quick wins.
from£1,450
5 working days
- Environment, DLP policy and security role review
- Inventory of apps and flows, including ownerless and failing ones
- Connector and data exposure risks
- Prioritised action plan and a 60-minute walkthrough
Care Plan
Ongoing support, monitoring and small changes for the apps and flows you rely on.
from£495/month
Monthly, cancel with 30 days notice
- Monthly block of support hours, unused hours roll over one month
- Flow failure monitoring and fixes
- Small enhancements and licence changes
- Quarterly review call
The fee for a Licensing Review, Health Check or Automation Sprint is credited in full against a build that follows within 60 days.
All prices exclude VAT. Final fixed price confirmed in writing after a free scoping call.
How it works
From review to running guardrails.
Health Check
Five days of review across environments, DLP, roles, apps and flows, ending in a ranked list of risks and quick wins.
Agree the model
We agree an environment strategy, DLP policy set and ALM approach that fits your size. Small organisations need less than the textbook.
Put it in place
Policies, environments, CoE Starter Kit and pipelines configured in your tenant, with makers told what is changing and why.
Hand over and review
Runbook, admin walkthrough and a review after the first month to tune policies that caused friction.
Honest fit
Is governance work right for you now?
A good fit when
- Makers across the business are already building apps and flows
- You are about to scale Power Platform beyond one team
- Audit, security or IT has asked who can see what
- Important flows are owned by one person, or by nobody
Probably not the right tool when
- You have one or two apps and a single maker (a short call will cover it)
- You need a full Microsoft 365 security review beyond Power Platform
- You want a large CoE programme with a dedicated team on site
After governance
Then build with confidence.
This week
Free 20-minute call
You explain the problem. You get an honest view on whether Power Platform fits and a rough budget range.
Within 3 working days
Scope and fixed price
A one-page scope with deliverables, licensing implications, timeline and a fixed price in GBP.
Usually 1 to 6 weeks
Build in weekly sprints
Working software every week, demoed live in your tenant. You steer as it takes shape.
Go-live
Handover and warranty
Managed solution, documentation and a recorded walkthrough, plus a 30-day defect warranty.
FAQ
Governance questions
How long does it take to set up a Power Platform CoE?
For an organisation of 50 to 500 staff, a light Centre of Excellence (roles, DLP policies, environment strategy and visibility) usually takes a few weeks of elapsed time after the Health Check. A larger programme with a full maker community and training takes longer, and grows in stages.
Who should run a Power Platform Centre of Excellence?
Usually a part-time CoE lead from the business or IT, a platform admin who owns environments and policies, and a few experienced makers acting as champions. It works best when the business, not only IT, owns which problems get solved first.
What is the difference between managed and unmanaged solutions?
An unmanaged solution is the editable version you build in a development environment. A managed solution is the locked, versioned package you deploy to test and production. Deploying managed solutions means production cannot be edited directly, and you can upgrade or roll back cleanly.
What is a Power Platform Centre of Excellence?
It is a small set of people, policies and tools that keep citizen development safe and useful. In a 50 to 500 person organisation it is usually a part-time role or two, a few policies, and Microsoft's free CoE Starter Kit for visibility. It does not need to be a department.
Do we need the CoE Starter Kit?
Not always. If you have a handful of makers, the built-in Power Platform admin centre and managed environments features may be enough. The Starter Kit earns its place once you have dozens of makers or hundreds of apps and flows and need inventory, ownership and usage reporting.
Will DLP policies break our existing flows?
They can, which is why we run an impact analysis first. We list every flow and app that would be affected by a proposed policy, agree what to do about each one, and only then apply the policy. Makers get notice before anything changes.
What does the Health Check include?
A review of your environments, DLP policies, security roles, connectors, and an inventory of apps and flows including ownerless and failing ones. You get a prioritised action plan and a 60-minute walkthrough. The fee is credited against follow-on work within 60 days.
Do managed environments need extra licences?
Managed environments are generally available where the people using apps and flows in that environment hold premium Power Platform licences. Microsoft adjusts these rules, so we check your current licensing against Microsoft's latest guidance as part of the review.
We are a small organisation. Is governance overkill?
Light governance is not overkill. Separating production from experiments, blocking risky connectors and making sure every important flow has two owners takes days, not months, and prevents most of the problems we are asked to fix later.
Can you set up ALM if we have never used solutions?
Yes. We move important apps and flows into solutions, set up connection references and environment variables, and configure Power Platform pipelines so releases go from development to production in a controlled way. We train whoever will run releases after us.
Power Platform health check
The fixed-price review every CoE starts from.
Power Platform training
Maker enablement so new makers build inside the guardrails.
Licensing advice
Make sure governance features match the licences you hold.
Support & Rescue
Fix the inherited flows the Health Check uncovers.
Power Automate
Rebuild fragile flows properly inside solutions.
Find out what is running in your tenant.
A free 20-minute call to talk through your environments and makers. If a Health Check is not the right first step, we will say so.