Most of the SMEs that come to us arrive with the same problem: data locked in Excel spreadsheets, approvals travelling by email and manual processes eating up hours every week. The good news is that Microsoft has spent years building a direct answer to that problem: Power Platform. The bad news that nobody mentions is that, without a clear roadmap, it is easy to start badly and end up with a collection of applications nobody uses.
In this article we explain what Power Platform is, what it can do for a company with 10 to 150 employees, what it actually costs in 2025-2026 and how to establish a sensible entry point. If you are looking for someone to implement it with you, you will find the link to the corresponding service at the end.
What is Microsoft Power Platform and what does it include?
Power Platform is the umbrella under which Microsoft groups four complementary products:
- Power Apps: a low-code development environment for creating mobile and web applications without traditional programming. An SME can build a warehouse inspection app, a purchase-request portal or a customer-registration form in days, not months.
- Power Automate: a flow automation tool (RPA and cloud flows). It connects Microsoft 365, Dynamics, SAP, Salesforce and more than 1,000 connectors so that repetitive tasks happen automatically.
- Power BI: a business-intelligence platform for building interactive dashboards with data from ERPs, CRMs, Excel or proprietary databases.
- Power Pages: creation of secure web portals aimed at customers or suppliers, without conventional web development.
All four products share the same corporate database (Microsoft Dataverse), the same access controls and the same security layer of the Microsoft 365 tenant. This matters: they are not isolated tools but an integrated platform that complements what the SME already has if it uses Teams, Outlook or SharePoint.
In May 2025, Forrester Consulting recognised Microsoft as the absolute leader in its Forrester Wave™ for Low-Code Platforms for Professional Developers, Q2 2025 report, placing it first in both strategy and current offering. Gartner, for its part, has included Power Apps in the leaders' quadrant for enterprise low-code platforms for seven consecutive years (2025 edition). These are not marketing figures: they reflect that the platform has matured enough for an SME to adopt it with confidence.
Why it makes sense for an SME (and when it does not)
Power Platform makes sense when the SME is already in the Microsoft ecosystem (Microsoft 365 Business or Enterprise) and has repeatable manual processes currently handled with Excel, email or paper. The three scenarios with the fastest return on investment are:
- Digitising forms and approvals: holiday requests, budget validations, supplier onboarding. The process moves from email + Excel to a traceable flow with automatic notifications and a historical record.
- Operational data visibility: a company with data in its ERP, CRM and shared spreadsheets that wants an executive dashboard without hiring a full-time data analyst.
- Field inspections and data capture: maintenance, construction, logistics or distribution companies where operatives work off-site and need to record information from a mobile phone without paper.
When it is not the optimal solution: if the SME has no Microsoft products at all, if it needs an application with very complex logic or highly specific integrations without an available connector, or if the process to be digitalised is so unique that it requires custom development. In those cases, the process automation team at Summum Sistemas will evaluate with you which technology fits best.
What Power Apps can do in an SME: concrete examples
Manufacturing and production
A manufacturing company implements a Power App linked to its ERP (Dynamics 365 Business Central or Odoo) so that shop-floor operators can record the progress of production orders from tablets on the line. The production manager sees deviations from the estimated time in real time without waiting for the daily report. The result is a reduction in imputation errors and traceability that was previously impossible without a cost-prohibitive Manufacturing Execution System (MES).
Logistics and distribution
A distribution company creates an app for its delivery drivers to capture the recipient's signature on their mobile and attach a photo of the delivery note. That data goes directly to SharePoint, the invoicing clerk is notified, and the delivery note is closed in the ERP without manual intervention. A process that previously took two days (collecting the paper, scanning it, filing it) becomes instantaneous.
Construction and site management
A developer or contractor uses Power Apps to manage incident tracking on site: the site manager records the incident from a mobile phone with an attached photo, the system automatically assigns it to the responsible subcontractor via Power Automate, which sends a notification email and sets a resolution deadline. The site manager sees the status of all open incidents in a Power BI dashboard without the need for calls or intermediate meetings.
Professional services and administration
A consultancy or service company automates travel-expense requests and approvals: the employee fills in a form in Teams, the Power Automate flow sends it to the manager for approval, and once approved it is recorded in accounting. What was a five-step process with back-and-forth emails becomes a two-minute flow.
Power Automate: the layer that ties everything together
If Power Apps creates the interface where people interact, Power Automate is the engine that moves data between systems. It has two main modes:
- Cloud flows: automations triggered by events (an email received, a form submitted, a new record in a SharePoint sheet) that execute actions in other systems. They do not require the computer to be switched on.
- Desktop flows (RPA): automation of desktop applications that have no available API. Useful for legacy systems such as older accounting software or public-administration web portals that do not allow direct integration.
Since April 2025, Microsoft tightened licence compliance for premium flows (those using paid connectors or Dataverse). Basic flows between Microsoft 365 applications remain available at no additional cost for any user in the tenant.
Power BI: dashboards without a data consultant
Power BI is the component most SMEs adopt first because the return is immediate and visible. A managing director who previously waited for the monthly ERP report now has a dashboard that updates daily with the KPIs that matter: turnover by customer, margin by product, outstanding collection days, warehouse stock.
Power BI Desktop is free for individual use. The Pro version ($14/user/month since April 2025) allows sharing reports with the team within the Microsoft 365 tenant. The Premium Per User version unlocks frequent updates, advanced AI and large-scale publishing.
The most relevant figure: Forrester estimated in its Total Economic Impact of Power Apps report (2024) that companies using Power Platform develop new applications three times faster than with traditional development and reduce development costs by around 40%. These are large-company figures, but the savings pattern is proportional in SMEs.
Power Platform licences in 2026: what an SME needs to know
The Power Platform licensing model changed significantly between late 2025 and early 2026. Here is the practical summary for a Spanish SME:
| Product | Approximate cost (2025-2026) | What it includes | When it is sufficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Power Apps (included in M365) | No additional cost | Standard connectors, no Dataverse | Basic internal use with SharePoint or Teams data |
| Power Apps Premium | ~$20/user/month | Dataverse, premium connectors, model-driven apps | Apps connected to an ERP, CRM or proprietary database |
| Power Automate Premium | ~$15/user/month | Unlimited flows, attended RPA, Process Mining | Automations with external systems or desktop RPA |
| Power BI Pro | ~$14/user/month | Share reports within the tenant | Dashboards shared with the management team |
| Pay-As-You-Go (Azure) | ~$10/active user/app/month | Billing by actual usage | Pilot projects or apps with occasional users |
Important note: the Per App plan at $5/user/app/month was discontinued for most channels from January 2026 onwards (it is only maintained for existing EA customers and was restored in the CSP channel in April 2026). SMEs starting now should plan with the Premium per-user model or Pay-As-You-Go.
The practical key: if your company already pays for Microsoft 365 Business Standard or higher, you have access to the standard capabilities of Power Apps and Power Automate at no additional cost. The step up to Premium is only necessary when you need to connect to external systems (your ERP, your CRM, a SQL database) or use Dataverse as the central data store.
How an SME should get started with Power Platform
The most frequent mistake is trying to digitalise everything at once. The strategy that works in SMEs of between 10 and 150 employees is the «high-impact pilot case»:
- Identify the most painful process: the one that consumes the most time or generates the most errors. It is usually an approval, a manual report or a paper-based data capture.
- Build a minimum viable solution in Power Apps or Automate that solves that specific process. It does not need to be perfect; it needs to work and be used.
- Measure before and after in terms of time or errors eliminated. That data justifies the investment in licences and the next project.
- Extend progressively by connecting more processes, more users and more data sources.
At Summum Sistemas we have been accompanying SMEs in the digitalisation of their operations since 2007. Our process automation service includes the preliminary analysis, Power Platform implementation and training for the team that will maintain it. We do not sell licences: we design the solution and leave the client autonomous to grow on top of it.
Power Platform versus other low-code options on the market
It is legitimate to ask whether alternatives exist. The answer is yes, although the fit depends on each company's context:
| Platform | Key strength | When it makes sense over Power Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Power Platform | Native integration with Microsoft 365 and Dynamics | SMEs in the Microsoft ecosystem (the majority in Spain) |
| Salesforce (Flow + App Builder) | CRM and sales automation | When the core CRM is Salesforce |
| Zoho Creator | Low price, integrated Zoho suite | SMEs on a very tight budget without Microsoft |
| n8n / Make (automation) | Technical flexibility, self-hosting possible | Advanced automation needed outside the Microsoft environment |
| Custom development | Full control, no platform limitations | Highly specific processes that do not fit low-code tools |
For the vast majority of Spanish SMEs already using Microsoft 365, Power Platform wins on integration, support and total cost. For flow automation that goes beyond the Microsoft ecosystem, our colleagues at Summum IA work with n8n and other advanced automation platforms — a common combination is Power Platform for internal processes and n8n for integrations with external systems or APIs without an official connector.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to know how to program to use Power Platform?
Not for the fundamentals. Power Apps and Power Automate are designed so that business people without programming knowledge can build functional solutions. There is a proprietary formula language (Power Fx, similar to Excel) and the possibility of writing custom code for advanced cases, but 80% of SME projects are solved with the visual interface and pre-defined connectors. Training so-called «citizen developers» — employees without a technical profile who create their own tools — is one of the cornerstones of the platform's value proposition.
Does Power Platform work with my current ERP (Sage, Odoo, A3, etc.)?
It depends on the ERP. Dynamics 365 and Business Central integrate natively and deeply. For Odoo, SAP, Sage 200 and others there are available connectors, or you can use the ERP's REST API if it has one. For older systems without an API, Power Automate offers the desktop RPA (robotic process automation) route, which automates the graphical interface of the programme as if it were a human user. Before starting any project, we audit the available integrations so as not to create expectations that cannot then be met.
What happens to the data I put into Power Platform? Is it secure?
Data is hosted in the company's own Microsoft 365 tenant, subject to Microsoft's Data Processing Agreement (DPA) and GDPR regulations. Microsoft is certified under ISO 27001, ISO 27018 and the National Security Framework (ENS) at High level for its cloud services. Dataverse, the native Power Platform database, allows access roles to be defined at row and column level. That said, the correct configuration of permissions and data classification is the responsibility of the tenant administrator: an implementation without governance can open unintended access. That is why we always recommend including a security review and a role design before putting the solution into production.
How long does it take to see a return on investment?
In well-scoped projects — an approval process, a field inspection app, a sales dashboard — the return is seen in weeks, not months. The most common case is eliminating between two and four hours of manual work per employee per week in the automated process. Multiplied by the number of people who took part in the process, this usually pays back the cost of licences and consultancy within three to six months. For broader projects with multiple integrated processes, the typical ROI horizon is six to twelve months.