Introducing Microsoft Dataflex, a new low-code data platform for Microsoft Teams

Charles Lamanna, CVP, Low Code Application Platform, Tuesday, July 21, 2020

The COVID-19 crisis has rapidly changed the way we live and work, and many organizations have shifted to remote work or are implementing a hybrid remote work approach as they reopen physical locations. To support this shift to hybrid remote work, we continue to improve the Microsoft Power Platform integration with Microsoft Teams to enable our customers to tailor Microsoft 365 to their needs and empower everyone to be a developer using low-code tools.

Today, we are announcing the release of Microsoft Dataflex. Microsoft Dataflex delivers a built-in, low-code data platform for Teams, and provides relational data storage, rich data types, enterprise grade governance, and one-click solution deployment. Microsoft Dataflex enables everyone to easily build and deploy apps and intelligent chatbots in Teams with Microsoft Power Apps and Microsoft Power Virtual Agents. Microsoft Dataflex is built atop the Common Data Service, which reached general availability four years ago. Since that time, the Common Data Service added over 1,000 features and introduced support for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Apps. We are pleased to announce that the Common Data Service has now been renamed to Microsoft Dataflex Pro as part of this announcement.

Microsoft Teams and Power Platform is shaping the future of work with low-code apps to run the business. The new functionality enables users to easily build applications and bots directly within Teams, empowering business users to rapidly respond to changing business needs and create custom solutions. With the addition of Microsoft Dataflex, Teams users now have key business data at their fingertips to build new apps that address real business problems—all without ever leaving Teams.

The powerful combination of the Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Dataflex enables:

An integrated experience for your custom apps inside Teams

Avoid wasting time by switching between multiple services and apps with one fully integrated experience. Creators can build, deploy, share, use, and administer Power Apps solutions from within Teams. Responsive app layouts native to Teams provide a streamlined experience across web, tablets, and mobile. With the ability to create and share custom templates, Teams users, Microsoft partners, and IT departments can create and share app templates across the entire company. Automate your Teams processes with Power Automate for Office 365 over your Microsoft Dataflex data for an end to end experience.

Quickly build and deploy apps and bots inside Teams

With both the Power Apps App Studio and the Power Virtual Agents Portal embedded in Teams, users can now easily and quickly build apps and bots with drag and drop simplicity in Teams without switching applications.

With this built-in data platform and an easy-to-use editable data table, there is no need to connect to storage. All users can now easily create custom data tables that are Teams and scenario specific. Optimize your Teams processes, drive greater collaboration, and improve efficiency with a built-in low code platform and low-code data storage.

Easily share and administer custom solutions through Teams

With an environment for each Team and no limit on the number of applications, Microsoft Dataflex enables a simplified sharing model for Teams owners and members, all with immediate access to the data. Rely on built-in security and governance that works and was proven through the Microsoft Dataflex Pro (formerly Common Data Service). Dataflex provides access and security roles granted automatically through teams membership, but customizable by Teams owners. Easily create and share chatbots with one-click deployment using your organization’s subject matter expertise and Microsoft Dataflex data.

An example of the power of Dataflex Pro can be seen with Rockwell Automation. Rockwell Automation is a worldwide leader in industrial automation and information, providing automation solutions to a broad range of industries such as energy, mining, food and beverage, and automotive, in over 80 countries:

“As part of Rockwell’s digital transformation, we are focused on transforming everyone across the organization into engineers who can leverage technology to automate and simplify their jobs. We look at the Power Platform as a highway to turn all 23,000 employees into engineers. Microsoft Dataflex Pro is the data backbone that enables people to store their data in a scalable and secure environment dynamically.”—Chris Wagner, Analytics Architect, Rockwell Automation

Additionally, customers can start to realize immediate value by leveraging pre-built Power Platform solutions for Teams that build atop Microsoft Dataflex. These solutions include Asset and Area Inspections, which can be customized to support inspections across multiple domains, create tasks for outstanding issues, and view long-term trends of commonly identified issues. These can be assets managed by organizations in banks, government agencies, or for spaces managed by retail stores, warehouses, hotels, and hospitals. Another solution that comes out of the box is Employee Ideas, which empowers team managers to engage all team members to submit ideas. Ideas can be organized by theme via campaigns, and all team members get to vote on the best ideas.

Learn more about Microsoft Dataflex today, and read the updates on Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents, and the Microsoft Teams blog.