CoE Starter Kit for Self-Serve Analytics: Full Preview

In 2019, Microsoft unveiled the Center of Excellence (CoE) Starter Kit, a suite of templates aimed at crafting a strategy for the adoption, maintenance, and support of Microsoft's Power Platform, especially Power Apps and Power Automate. Now Microsoft has evolved the CoE Starter Kit to utilize self-serve analytics for inventory and telemetry, enabling comprehensive insights.

The core function of the CoE Starter Kit is to collect and analyze data about your organization's usage of the Power Platform, assisting in its management, governance, and adoption. Previously, it used cloud flows with Power Platform admin connectors to accomplish this. However, with the launch of the 'Power Platform Admin Center' for exporting tenant’s inventory and usage data, a more proficient means of implementation is now at hand.

In line with these developments, Microsoft has revamped the architecture of the CoE Starter Kit to take full advantage of these enhancements. An experimental preview of the CoE Starter Kit using data from the Data Export feature for inventory and telemetry has been launched. With the Data Export feature, one can export the Power Platform inventory and usage data directly into Azure Data Lake Storage.

By utilizing the Power Platform data-flows, which are potent at transmuting and handling large data, the Data Export feature mitigates the throttling limits imposed by having extensive Power Platform resources. In addition to performance benefits, the Data Export feature provides useful data such as flow usage details and model-driven app usage that were previously unavailable.

The CoE Starter Kit consumes data from the Data Export feature using two mechanisms. First, 'Power BI' data-flows transform the data for reporting purposes. Second, Power Platform data-flows transform and write a small subset of data back to existing Dataverse tables used by CoE Starter Kit.

There will only be one version of the CoE Starter Kit, which supports both the old and new methods for collecting inventory and telemetry. To make the migration from cloud flows to Data Export seamless, Microsoft has developed a Setup Wizard to guide users through the process.

For more information about Power BI, you can check out here.

General Overview

The CoE Starter Kit devised by Microsoft is a powerful tool that assists organizations in the adoption, maintenance, and support of Microsoft's Power Platform. The Starter Kit empowers businesses to manage their Power Platform resources proficiently and avoid potential saturation of resources. It now employs the mechanics of the Data Export feature to handle large data with ease, providing detailed insights and aiding governance processes.

Read the full article Preview: Self-Serve Analytics Backed CoE Starter Kit

Learn about Preview: Self-Serve Analytics Backed CoE Starter Kit

In 2019, Microsoft released the Center of Excellence (CoE) Starter Kit, an innovative tool designed to assist companies in implementing and maintaining Microsoft Power Platform. As we proceed into this new era of self-serve analytics, we are thrilled to reveal that the CoE Starter Kit can now utilize data made available by these analytics to enhance inventory and telemetry capabilities.

The CoE Starter Kit primarily functions by collecting information about your organization's use of the Power Platform, thereby enabling better management, governance, and nurturing of its adoption. Key features include identifying top creators, highly shared and utilized applications, and high-capacity consuming environments. All this can be done with ease, thanks to the cloud flows and powerful admin connectors of Power Platforms that effortlessly crawl your tenant and store inventory and usage data. Now, with the ability to extract your tenant's inventory and usage from the Power Platform Admin Center, we have an optimized option to implement these processes.

We are also pleased to introduce the experimental preview of the CoE Starter Kit, which uses data provided by Data Export for inventory and telemetry. This allows businesses to export their inventory and usage data directly into Azure Data Lake Storage. The efficiency offered by this mechanism provided by the Power Platform Admin Center is exceptional.
Once the Data Export feature is set up, the CoE Starter Kit can use the data to power its dashboards, apps, and flows.

• Why should I try this out?

The CoE Starter Kit's usage with Data Export can decrease the high number of API calls and prevent throttling limits. This feature uses the capabilities of both Power Platform dataflows and the Power BI, leading to an increase in performance. The CoE Starter Kit combined with Data Export also provides much-needed data such as flow usage and model-driven app usage, which were unavailable before.

• How does the CoE Starter Kit consume data from the Data Export feature?

Two mechanisms are used for data consumption: Power Platform dataflows and Power BI dataflows. The former transforms the data and writes a small amount back to the existing Dataverse tables used by the apps and flows of the CoE Starter Kit. The latter prepares the data for reporting, and the output can be seen on the Power BI dashboard.

Will there be two versions of the CoE kit or will the version using cloud flows go away?

Lucky for you, there will only be one version of the CoE Starter Kit, supporting both mechanisms. Using the setup wizard, you can choose whichever mechanism suits your organization best.

• Can I migrate from using cloud flows to retrieve inventory to using Data Export?

Absolutely. You can make the seamless transition through the Setup Wizard. Just change your data source to Data Export and continue configuring the inventory components.

Before concluding, it's essential to note that the CoE Starter Kit is more than just a technical tool. It's an investment towards nurturing organic growth while maintaining governance and control. It stands as a powerful way for organizations to align their business goals rather than merely focusing on metrics and departmental outputs. Using the CoE Starter Kit, the stress over the technical aspect is minimized, allowing you to concentrate on the what and why of your business goals.

Lastly, while the components used to construct the CoE Starter Kit are fully supported, the kit itself offers sample implementations of these features. It's up to you to customize these components to meet the needs of your organization.

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