You may have seen reference to the Microsoft Power Platform Center of Excellence Kit - Power Platform | Microsoft Learn and wondered if this was suitable for your business. You might have also seen various comments or posts by the Power CAT team on LinkedIn. But who are they and why should we review the CoE?
Who are Power CAT and do they have claws?
As I understand it the Power CAT team is a small part of the Microsoft engineering team that is available to work directly with enterprise customers. Specifically, they are the Power Customer Advisory Team (hence known as 'Power CAT' for short).
They work with a select group of key enterprise customers and in their own words "do whatever it takes to ensure their success with Power Platform". However, their advice and guidance aren't kept only for those lucky few customers, they share their guidance through their dedicated website (https://microsoft.github.io/powercat/) and many blogs.
You can digest the output of the Power CAT team through its guidance materials, as shown above and also through its the dedicated YouTube channel [Although some more videos would be nice]: https://www.youtube.com/@powercat8566
Can I Talk to the Power CAT team even though I am not in the 'select' few?
Yes - the Power CAT team have regular open forums for customers and partners a like to learn and ask questions about the toolsets they are sharing - such as the Automation Kit for Power Platform, CoE Starter Kit, Creator Kit and ALM Accelerator. Don't expect a free 1-1 session to answer your organisations every question, but do your homework before attending, be prepared to ask questions about existing features and maybe suggest new features you'd like to see.
So, what is the Power Platform CoE Starter Kit?
It's a collection of components and tools that are designed to help organisations begin developing a strategy for adopting and supporting the Microsoft Power Platform the various apps/platforms that it contains.
Spend 5mins of your time watching this overview on YouTube : Center of Excellence Starter Kit - Overview (youtube.com)
The end game is that as an organisation you have a plan on how you will cover the bases mentioned below in a clear, coherent and effective way.
