Microsoft’s Inside Track Team Leverages Power Platform for Content Management Overhaul
The Microsoft Digital Inside Track team has significantly streamlined its end-to-end content management processes. They achieved this through a strategic shift to the Microsoft Power Platform, demonstrating the capabilities of their citizen developers. Recognizing the limitations of an aging content management system, the team migrated from an older version of SharePoint to a robust, flexible Microsoft Power App built on a Microsoft Azure SQL back end. This new system integrates Microsoft Power Automate for workflow automation and Microsoft Power BI for reporting, enhancing efficiency and scalability.
The decision to modernize the legacy system was driven by performance limitations and the need for improved scalability and compliance. Tracey Peyton, a director of technical development supporting the Inside Track team who co-led the migration, highlighted the performance issues: “As the previous content management system got used more, it just couldn’t scale—it got slow, very slow. It was really a no-brainer to go to SQL for the back end and use Power Apps for the UI with Power Automate as the workflow because the scalability and interoperability is there.”
Running legacy systems usually bring considerable challenges, including performance and compliance bottlenecks. As needs changed, Microsoft Power Platform unlocked new opportunities for improved efficiency with their content publishing system. “After issues with the previous platform reached a peak, it became abundantly clear that it wasn’t performing how the content experience managers needed it to,” Peyton said. “The Inside Track team decided to make the leap, and the results did not disappoint.”
The Inside Track team is responsible for creating content that demonstrates how Microsoft utilizes its technologies and services internally. Peyton, with a background in web development since 1993, emphasized the substantial advantages of moving to Microsoft Power Platform, which includes Microsoft Power Apps, Microsoft Power Automate, and Microsoft Power BI, alongside Microsoft Azure SQL.
The Best of Both Worlds with Power Platform
The Microsoft Power Platform’s capacity to scale is boosted by its flexibility and capabilities, making it a system where both professional developers and citizen developers can effectively collaborate. Citizen development leverages internal talent and expertise, accelerates solution delivery, and encourages innovation. This approach helps organizations respond quickly to changing demands and tailor solutions to their specific needs. By automating repetitive tasks and streamlining workflows, low-code and no-code environments like Microsoft Power Platform can drastically increase developer and customer productivity. Employees can focus on higher-value activities as routine, time-consuming tasks are automated.
Peyton spearheaded the migration to Microsoft Power Platform, crediting its rapid learning curve and broad connectivity with other platforms. At the time of this blog post, premium subscriptions can connect to over 350 connectors. “Almost out of the box, anyone can start building a customized app—with the wide variety of connectors available and the ability to leverage data and functionality from other systems, it’s straightforward,” Peyton observed. “It gives you ease of access for citizen developers.”
Compliance, too, proves challenging for legacy systems. Lukas Velush, a senior business program manager on the Inside Track team, noted, “Policies change much quicker than tech requirements—our move to Microsoft Power Platform allowed us to respond to policy needs much more quickly.”
The team’s migration from the old to the new system involved:
- SharePoint data to Microsoft Azure SQL: Data was moved from SharePoint and Microsoft Excel to a SQL database. Most static data transferred smoothly, and Microsoft Power Automate was used to sync changes and transform data that needed attention on the new platform.
- Custom SharePoint UI to Microsoft Power Apps: To ease the transition for users, the team kept the new UI similar. When features didn’t translate, the team built alternatives using customized views and low-code solutions.
- Microsoft Power Automate for workflow: The team was already moving workflows to Microsoft Power Automate, and with the ability to invoke stored procedures in SQL, it gained greater flexibility for automation.
- Microsoft Power BI for dashboards: This was the most intensive part of the migration, requiring a rebuild of dashboards from scratch. The team transitioned to shared data sources to easily create multiple reports.
Flipping the Switch
The development of the new content management system took six months. The team explored how Microsoft Power Platform could meet business requirements without functional loss, which involved extensive prototyping. The final migration required only a few hours of downtime.
“When it was time to flip the switch, it was scary, and we were a little nervous at first,” Peyton said, explaining that they need not have worried—everything worked seamlessly. “I was really pleased with the increased performance—things were loading much quicker.”
Microsoft Power Platform provides professional developers like Peyton with the means to accelerate their project creation. Using Adobe Analytics and Microsoft Azure SQL with Microsoft Power Platform meant Peyton could link a SQL database with workflow, reporting, and a robust front end without extensive coding. “Whereas before we had to do some wild data transformations on the previous system (the older SharePoint), we were able to step back and say that we can do this with SQL,” Peyton noted. “Because of the interoperability of the Power Platform, we can move to managing data in native environments where you can get much more efficient processing.”
The Inside Track team encountered minor challenges. One involved the loss of certain features. Initially, data sheet views were unavailable; however, within hours, the team developed another Power App with the required access.
Peyton also highlighted the benefits in terms of agility and responsiveness to change. The new platform makes it easier to adjust the system in line with newer policies or compliance standards. “There’s such a breadth of interoperability,” Peyton said. “The system allows you to focus on what you need and offload what you don’t.”
Problem-Solving without Technical Burdens
Velush stated that Microsoft Power Platform “allows the people who know the business to solve business problems and not have to worry too much about technical problems.” From faster performance, easier customization, scalability, compliance, and appeal to both citizen and professional developers, Microsoft Power Platform has become the answer to a legacy system that the Inside Track team had outgrown.
Customized views in Power Apps, Power Automate, or Power BI offer many benefits to the Inside Track team and leadership teams. These custom views improve decision-making, increase visibility, and improve overall efficiency through tailored insights, efficient data access, personalization that matches a users needs to specific roles, and role-based access that is aligned with Microsoft’s Zero Trust security efforts. The new system improvements improved collaboration throughout Microsoft Digital.
Integrating new programs With the adjustments to views and dashboards in the new Power App, the team could quickly respond with custom tools and views that could handle the scale of content. These improvements allowed for efficient management of media promotions on social media platforms and updated older content reviewed by subject matter experts.
Reviews of the content portfolio took up valuable hours of the team’s time. Rapid changes at Microsoft and establishing a program to actively work with stories was almost a full-time job. “We were able to rapidly build a solution that helped with a specific business problem,” says Jenny Neill, a project manager on the developer team for Inside Track. “We needed to get our arms around a large set of content that hasn’t been looked at in a long time. We needed a different lens, and it was possible to develop the requirements in a new Power App and bolt it onto the existing data structure.”
The success of Microsoft Power Platform, according to Peyton, is ultimately due to the system’s seamless integration and Microsoft’s commitment to the “next level” of integration. “Over the last few years, Microsoft has made a great effort to refocus, ensuring they provide tools to developers so that they can interoperate with any environment; it doesn’t matter what you want to integrate with, regardless of platform,” Peyton said. “They’re giving developers the tools that they need to do what they need to do.”
Key Takeaways
- Consider scalability and interoperability: Prioritize these factors when modernizing legacy systems. Make sure the technology stack can handle increasing usage and integrate easily with other platforms.
- Empower citizen and pro developers: Utilize no-code or low-code platforms such as Microsoft Power Platform to allow collaboration between developers of different backgrounds. Individuals with varying skill sets can contribute more effectively.
- Prioritize compliance and policy responsiveness: Policies are always evolving. A modernization approach should be flexible to readily adapt to the ever-changing needs, and at the same time, keep compliance and data security in mind.
- Customize and adapt: Tailor solutions to the unique needs of different teams within your company. Modernization initiatives should accommodate the needs of departments and individual teams.
