Centrica develops over 800 business solutions with Power Platform

Centrica company serves millions of UK consumers and businesses with the supply of electricity and gas, services and solutions through leading energy brands, including British Gas and Bord Gáis. In 2018, the company began developing solutions with Power Platform as part of its Microsoft 365 subscription. 

Early projects included simple but transformative apps. A good example is their tax timetable app developed by the finance team. Coordinating tax returns for three different tax regimes had been challenging, especially with much of the process managed over email. Within two months, the team developed an app which delivers automated reminders, ensuring all returns are filed properly and on time, thereby avoiding fines and risk.

Centrica also started using Power Apps to help cut dependencies on legacy apps. Roy Young, Senior Solution Architect at Centrica, explains, “We had some solutions built on other platforms that we needed to get out of data centers to conclude a big data-center exit project. Using the Microsoft Power Platform, we were able to successfully recreate those apps.” 

By 2019, over 300 apps had been created by makers at Centrica. “We have really embraced Microsoft Power Platform at Centrica,” adds James Boswell, Director, Design and Engineering. “It has helped us deliver valuable business benefits straight away.” 

Improved governance with a customized Center of Excellence 

As adoption of Power Platform grew, the company decided it was time to take a more managed approach to development and established a Center of Excellence (CoE). 

At the core of the CoE is an innovative ‘Front Door’ system built using Power Apps. The system helps maintain governance and quality standards across each Power Platform project. All makers start inside a default environment which provides access to basic Power Platform products and capabilities. As soon as a maker begins development of an app or flow, a tool built using Power Apps and Power Automate detects the activity and prompts the maker to register their solution inside another Power Apps application. This includes questions about business objectives and the type of environment and connectors required. There are also questions to uncover any financial, regulatory and business risks. 

The system uses this information to automatically calculate a risk score. If the project is deemed advanced or high risk, the maker gets invited to a review call with the Power Platform leadership team which includes both technical and business stakeholders. The team also checks to see if there’s an existing app for a similar use case that could be repurposed. If not, the maker is connected to the architectural group for more support.  “We carefully consider the details behind every project before giving it the green light,” says Young. “We're trying to allow people to build with minimal red tape, but we also need to consider governance measures that protect the business and our customers. It’s a careful balance.” 

Once a project is approved, makers are provided with environments for development, testing and production. Makers also have access to multiple training and support resources, including comprehensive self-help materials and best practices. For more hands-on support, makers can book time with a member of the CoE team. To further drive best practices, makers are equipped with the Power Apps Code Review Tool which reviews apps for efficiency and provides suggestions for improvement. 

To enhance the system, the team is adding new capabilities directly from the Power Platform Center of Excellence Kit.  “The pre-built apps and flows that come with the kit have greatly simplified everyday management of our Power Platform environment,” says Baviya Surendran, Office 365 DevOps Engineer at Centrica. 

Centrica has also established a Power Platform guild, which brings together key developers from across the organization to share best practices, discuss technical updates, and provide feedback on the governance process. For more advanced solutions, the COE team’s expert developers can step in and build solutions directly for employees. 

Scaling with Dataverse 

With an effective CoE and development process in place, use of Power Platform at Centrica grew to more than 800 apps across the company. Many of these apps were intended for enterprise-wide use. However, the basic Power Platform capabilities provided with the company’s Microsoft 365 subscription are not built to provide the governance controls needed for this scale of adoption.

Data management was also another factor to consider for Centrica. “We realized that we’d hit a bit of a crossroads,” says Young. “We could see that the business was using Power Apps to great effect. But we also saw that there were some future limitations in terms of using Microsoft SharePoint as the data source and not being able to connect to other business applications.”

It was at that point that Centrica made the decision to invest in premium Power Platform licensing, including Dataverse. “With Microsoft Dataverse, we got the security and scalability that we needed to build enterprise-ready solutions with Power Platform,” says Young. With a long wish list of apps ready to roll out on an enterprise-wide basis, the team quickly got down to work. 

Advanced enterprise apps 

One of the first solutions to be built on the new Dataverse platform was the company’s FlexFirst app. Built to support employees’ return to work during the COVID-19 pandemic, the app made it easier to book desks and meeting rooms. Integration with Power BI provided an interactive floor plan showing desk availability (similar to booking a seat on a plane). 

The app is also integrated with Centrica’s onsite security and access system. A booking on the app will trigger the system to enable an employee’s security pass on arrival and open car park barrier and office building doors. Once onsite, employees can use the mobile version of the app to sign into their desk via a simple QR code associated to the desk.  This helps to ensure that the correct desks are being used and was vital during the pandemic period when desk cleanliness was paramount. 

Most recently, the app was further enhanced to capture the user’s mode of transport into the office (e.g. walk, car, train). This data is used in conjunction with other data sources to build a detailed view of the company’s carbon footprint through office travel. There’s even is also a link in the app to the company’s catering provider so users can book food for meetings as required.

Azure Application Insights is used to monitor critical elements of the solution and generate incidents into their IT support system based on event logging. An Admin app was also developed for use by facilities/site management.  This allows the facilities team to manage elements of the app such as adjusting site capacity, print QR codes for desks, or adding maintenance alerts to booking pages for specific sites – all without developer support. 

Today, over 19,000 bookings are made by employees each month using the app, making it the highest-used Power Apps application in the company. “This was one of the apps that really convinced us to go down the Microsoft Dataverse route,” says Young.  

Strong business metrics 

Along with positive feedback from users, the success of Power Platform solutions at Centrica is also tracked through quantifiable business metrics. To do this, the team created a dashboard which linked to their Front Door development process to display and analyze makers specific metrics such as cost savings, productivity gains, and hours saved.  

The incoming metrics are indeed impressive. An app created to collect issues and ideas from call center agents, for example, was used to gather 1,100 submissions, resulting in over 70 enhancements to operations and customer service. Another app is being developed to help manage volunteering activity by employees – over 7,300 days of activity a year. In total, Centrica estimates that solutions using premium Power Platform licensing are estimated to save $4.4 million over 4 years compared to using traditional code and off-the-shelf products.  

Meanwhile, total Power Platform activity has accelerated year after year. Today, there are now over 15,000 active Power Platform users at Centrica, with over 330 makers who have developed more than 800 apps and 3,000 cloud flows. “General awareness of the Power Platform has exploded across Centrica. Employees have caught on to the fact that they can improve all kinds of business processes quickly and without the long development processes of the past,” says Young. 

A bright, AI-driven future 

As Centrica’s use of Power Platform continues to expand, makers are also exploring its new capabilities. With Microsoft Copilot Studio, the team has created a proof of concept for a custom copilot – a new generation of intelligent conversational experience that goes beyond traditional chatbots. After a successful test, the team is now considering next steps. Further use cases will be evaluated against the Copilot Studio in future.

The team is also evaluating Copilot in Power Apps – another AI-driven tool that makers can use to develop apps using natural language. As Young says, “We've explored Copilot in Power Apps and clearly see that it could save us significant time developing new apps and improving our existing Power Platform solutions.” 

There’s also a plan to expand the company’s development model through Managed Environments, starting with capabilities like the ability to limit how broadly users can share canvas apps. “We often see apps that were originally scoped for a small group of users and quickly grow to hundreds or even thousands of users. That can increase risk. Managed Environments could help us better manage that risk as we continue to scale.”

With strong training and governance in place, Centrica looks forward to even more success with Power Platform as it empowers makers of all levels across the company – both new and advanced developers. James Boswell shares this experience: “The other day I sat across the desk from someone in procurement and they were using Power Apps to automate an invoice approval process. I see pockets of value like this being delivered across the company with Power Platform. We look forward to seeing even more.”

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