Microsoft MVP and Power Platform Architect Sara Lagerquist’s take on the Power Platform

There’s no denying that building partnerships is critical to business growth. Due to the size of the Microsoft product ecosystem and the speed of innovation, businesses must specialize in order to provide the highest quality of services. The DynamicsSmartz Partner Program enables partners to share their expertise in specific Microsoft product areas with other partners to help each other develop the best possible customer experience and services.

In our segment Influencer Insights, we invite leading industry experts to talk about new technological trends, P2P relationships, and Microsoft Business Solutions. In today’s chapter, we will speak with Sara Lagerquist on how to leverage the true potential of the Power Platform.

Let Us Quickly Get To Our Expert’s Point Of View.

Question 1- What according to you are some of the top Microsoft technology trends to watch out for in 2022?

Well, my eyes are mostly aimed at Power Platform-related tech, and within that area, I’d say Automation and AI are what Microsoft is pushing the most and have been for a while too. I think it’s about making people's lives more efficient and excluding as much manual work as possible. The low-code tools that now have Image to App (preview) and AI-suggested Power Fx formulas really suggest where the effort is put.

Question 2: What are some opportunities you would be looking at this year?

Right now, I see more and more customers coming to us wanting support to start building apps themselves. They turn to us for guidance, best practices, tips, and tricks, and obviously not making costly mistakes. We do a lot of projects now where we build together with our customers to help them evolve the knowledge they need to maintain and continue their own application journeys.

Question 3: Would you like to share some tips on Dynamics 365 implementation/migration?

Start by exploring if Power Platform would be a better fit than a Dynamics first-party app. Set the ground rules early on what the purpose is and what outcome you expect, if you don’t do that early on you will probably make wrong design choices that can be costly. My CEO Kathrine Hogseth always talks about “cutting the elephant into pieces”, and I like that expression. It’s about actually dividing what needs to be done into a bigger plan and starting small and harvesting the value of that as soon as it’s done instead of making “Big bang”-implementations.

Question 4: What is the potential for Microsoft Partners in Sweden?

I think there is huge potential for Partners, I think the main issue is recruiting knowledgeable people who can actually do the work.

Question 5: A piece of advice that you’d like to share with our readers?

Live now, not later. Life is short and can take very unexpected turns. I recently went through treatment for breast cancer and it changed my perspective on life completely. I work less now and focus on what makes me happy. If you find something that makes you happy that you enjoy, think about how you could spend more time doing so. Try to figure out how you get more happy time and less of the other time. I really enjoy my job and I make sure the 6h/day I work are spent with the most fun projects, thanks to a very understanding employer.

Get to Know Our Influencer

What is the best event that you attended recently? What were your key takeaways?

I spoke at Scottish Summit at the beginning of June and it was such a well-organized event. They really focused on accessibility and inclusiveness and overall just did a wonderful job with the whole event. My key takeaways are mostly inspiration for an event I’m organizing myself: Nordic Summit. It’s on the 24th of September in Stockholm. 

What’s your success mantra?

Do things that you enjoy! If you don’t enjoy your job you will not be good at it. If you don’t enjoy your job, change jobs.