Authentication  

Currently the SAP OData connector supports Basic, Anonymous, and API key authentication. We are working on additional authentication mechanisms to enhance the connector and expect to make this available as we approach general availability for the SAP OData connector this summer.  
The SAP OData Connector supports adding API headers in the request and works well with API Management solutions like Azure API Management or SAP API Management on the SAP Business Technology Platform. If your APIs are protected with API-Keys, you can add these keys to the SAP OData Connector in your cloud flow so that a verification in the API Management solution can be performed.  
If you have the necessary SAP licenses in place, this allows you to create Single Sign-On end-to-end solutions even today to access your SAP system in a secure way.  

Leveraging the on-premises data gateway 

In a lot of cases the SAP System (and the SAP OData services) are not accessible from the internet—and in turn are not accessible from Power Automate. To allow Power Automate to connect to these SAP OData services, you need to “proxy” / route them through the corporate firewall. Thanks to the on-premises data gateway you don’t need to make any changes to the firewall but can install the on-premises data gateway (see also, On-premises data gateway – Power BI | Microsoft Learn).  
Note: Unlike with the SAP ERP Connector (SAP ERP – Connectors | Microsoft Learn), you do not need to download and install the SAP .Net Connector. Installing the on-premises data gateway is all you need (but make sure to install the latest version). 
The steps needed are outlined below: 

• Download the On-premises data gateway from Install an on-premises data gateway | Microsoft Learn (The February 2024 release is needed) 
• When installing the on-premises gateway, make sure to install and configure it in the same region as your Power Automate environment.  

Once the data gateway is installed, you should see it in your Power Automate Environment  
Note: If you don’t see Gateways on the side panel, make sure to select on … More -> Discover all and pin Gateways to the side panel. 

 
At this point you are ready to create a new flow connecting to your SAP system through the on-premises data gateway. Create a new flow (as mentioned above) with a trigger of your choice and add the SAP OData query action. 

You will be asked to setup a connection to your SAP system. To connect to a system that is only available from within the company firewall (where the on-premises data gateway is installed), select your Data Gateway from the list: 

Provide the required information (but using the OData Base URI L from your local SAP System), e.g., https://mylocal.sap.system:50000/sap/opu/odata/iwbep/GWSAMPLE_BASIC/ 
Note: You can test this URL first internally https://mylocal.sap.system:50000/sap/opu/odata/iwbep/GWSAMPLE_BASIC/ and verify (e.g., with your Mobile device) that this URL is not accessible from outside of the intranet.  

You may now use the SAP OData Connector. Select the Entity that you are interested in, e.g., ProductSet, and run the flow as outlined below.  


If you have feedback, please go to https://aka.ms/sapodatafeedback  
SAP and Power Platform is an area of continued investment for Microsoft, to learn more, see these other useful resources:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/sapodata/  

https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/run-your-enterprise-on-power-platform-with-new-enterprise-application-templates/  

SAP Procurement template for Power Platform – Power Platform | Microsoft Learn 

Connect Power Platform to SAP on Azure – Training | Microsoft Learn 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/saperp/  

The post Introducing public preview of the SAP OData connector appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Admins will now receive user recommendations for Power Apps premium licenses based on usage within the organization. Recommendations will be refreshed every 30 days and will include users with Basic Power Apps licenses, active trials, or those who have already requested a license.

An admin will also be able to filter the list of recommendations by recommendation type (e.g. Trial) and will also be able to remove users from the list if they choose.

Once a user selection has been made, an admin can either assign these licenses directly or choose from a list of security groups that are enabled for Group-Based licensing in their organization. Note: Power Platform Admins can only assign licenses to security groups that they are an owner of.

For more information, check out our documentation. We value your feedback and input as we continue to enhance our capabilities. Thank you for choosing the Power Platform!

The post Power Platform admins can now assign licenses via Intelligent Recommendations – now in public preview! appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Once an admin has acted on a request, a notification email will be sent to the makers informing them of the status of their submitted request (approved/rejected). Makers are not required to request licenses prior to sharing.

Please note: Security groups and distribution lists are not currently supported to submit license requests.

To learn more about requesting licenses for other users, visit Request Power Apps licenses for your app users – Power Apps | Microsoft Learn

As a reminder, here is our blog on our prior related release, which allows end users to submit license requests. New: Request a Power Apps premium license from org admins | Microsoft Power Apps

Reminder for Admins: Managing license requests

An admin will be notified of all incoming licensing requests on the Microsoft 365 Admin Center home page (https://admin.microsoft.com)

Following the steps to completion, an admin will be able to approve or reject multiple user requests at once and include a message for their users.

An admin can also continue using their organizations’ custom license request process and configure the proper settings in Microsoft 365 Admin center.

To learn more about how an admin can manage all license requests and settings, please visit Manage license requests.

We look forward to hearing your feedback!

The post New: Makers can now proactively request Power Apps premium licenses for their users appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Power Apps is excited to share that users can now request a license from their admin – directly in product! If a user is trying to run an app that requires a license, they will see the option to ‘Request a license’, in addition to the buy a license or start a trial option (if eligible). Once a request is submitted, a confirmation message will appear at the top of the page saying the request was successfully sent to their admin.

A user can also request a license, during an active trial, using the banner at the top which will notify users of how many days they have remaining in the trial.

Once an admin as acted on a request, a confirmation email will be sent notifying users of the status of their request. Learn more here.

Managing license requests for Admins

An admin will be notified of all incoming licensing requests on the Microsoft 365 Home page.

Following the steps to completion, an admin will be able to approve or reject multiple requests at once and include a message for their users.

An admin can also continue using their organizations’ custom license request process and configure the proper settings in Microsoft 365 Admin center.

To learn more about how to manage all license requests and settings, please see the following documentation

We look forward to hearing your feedback!

The post New: Request a Power Apps premium license from org admins appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Johnson Controls, a world leader in building smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, has more than 100,000 employees that require training which needs to be scheduled, tracked, measured, and analyzed. They saved 3,610 hours on backend process management and increased training throughput by 400%. Let’s see how they used Power Platform to optimize their training program.

Missing mechanism to enable training at scale

There was no mechanism in place to share or aggregate information within systems or received from trainees. Manual intervention was the default reaction. Minor, but common, errors, such as misspellings, abbreviations, and incomplete responses, added to aggregation aggravation. This also had a direct impact on low NPS (Net Promoter Score) around training. Cody Hines, Training and Quality Data Systems Manager, recognized the gaps and need for a simpler, automated process to keep up with the growth and pace.  

Power Platform used to free up 3,610 hours of back-office processes 

Cody started utilizing Power Apps and Power Automate to create COBALT (Central Ops Buildings Administered Learning Tracker), an end-to-end system to deploy and track training.

COBALT consolidated all data into a single Microsoft SQL server on-premises database and connected to Power Platform using an on-premises data gateway. Courses, trainers, events, locations, and survey methods are standardized in relational fashion in a Power Apps app, allowing management of scheduling and participant rosters – eliminating manual data collection. Power Platform allowed for a seamless workflow was put in place to manage training initiations, scheduling, tracking, and survey responses.

The new process leverages Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI and Outlook while extending into SharePoint and Teams. COBALT now allows Johnson Controls to handle over 60 training events per month. Additionally, having integrated Power BI they now also have a central dashboard to track completion rates, drop rates, and NPS (Net Promoter Score) with accuracy and efficiency.  

The success of this new process has exceeded expectations. From better NPS ratings, scheduling, to roster completion lag – what previously required 4,870 hours was reduced to 1,160 hours, allowing employees to focus on more strategic tasks.

“Power platform has made it so easy to automate and manage processes and quantify business results that any time a new challenge comes to us, we all immediately ask how automation, reporting, and/or workflows can address it.”

– John Mendicino: Training and Quality Assurance Associate Director

Read more about how Microsoft Customer Story-Johnson Controls exceeds enterprise training expectations with scalable solution built on Power Platform

Find other “Do More With Less” stories

	Coca-Cola UNITED Coca-Cola Bottling Company United (Coca-Cola United), used Power Platform to (a) automate on-demand shipment requests – reducing order validation time from half a day to seconds, and (b) automate a complex multi-step SAP invoicing process to handle over 50,000 orders. Learn more
	Equinor Equinor, a forward thinking energy company based in Norway, delivered a solution by their DigTEAM and citizen developers with an estimated annual value of over 500 million NOK (approximately $49M USD). Learn more
	VITAS Healthcare VITAS Healthcare is nation’s largest single-source provider of end-of-life care delivering meaningful hospice and palliative care to its patients and their families across 14 states and the District of Columbia. VITAS has used a Power Platform solution called “Emmy” to process 2 million patient visits – equivalent to 92% of all patient visits. Learn more
	Rabobank Rabobank currently uses more than 2,500 Power Apps and Power Automate solutions. One of their solutions to support their company re-org process reduced processing time from three weeks to three minutes. Additionally, they use Power Virtual Agents for a personalized customer support experience, automating 40-50% of customer calls – equivalent to 60,000 to 80,000 calls per month. Learn more

Additional links

100+ Power Platform customer stories
70+ Power Platform customer story videos

The post Johnson Controls simplifies their infrastructure, saving 3,610 hours on training enablement appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Today we are pleased to announce the release of the modern Learn page in Power Apps! The new Learn experience has consolidated content from all Microsoft resources to help with your onboarding and upskilling journey.

The Overview tab of the new Learn page includes a dynamic banner at the top – to help keep you updated with the latest announcements, trending posts, and upcoming events!

This new experience also includes:

• Courses – giving our makers visibility into all Power Apps learning paths and courses

• Articles – stay up to date with our Power Apps blogs and customer success stories

• Community – discover all Power Apps user groups, networking events and community topics!

• Support – easy access to all Help and Support resources

Check it out at https://make.powerapps.com/learn! We look forward to your feedback on this new update.

The post Update: Release of Modern Learn page in Power Apps! appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Maker matching, available within the integrated virtual agent, connects new makers with other experienced makers, advisors, and internal community members who can help directly when you need it. The support bot also surfaces relevant internal resources and community channels to assist you with your app development process and promotes greater knowledge building across the internal maker community.

Maker matching is available in all Power Apps experiences: Maker portal, Studio and Modern app designer.

After opening the virtual agent, a maker will first be guided to Microsoft support guides and resources, after which maker matching will be enabled allowing them to access their organizations internal resources. 

Advisors can be nominated into the Advisor Program in one of two ways either admin nomination or the product itself will invite successful makers with a track record of great skills.

Once identified, Advisor nominees will be prompted to opt into the Advisor program in product. It is only after an Advisor has opted in that they are shown in the chat bot.  Advisors will be able to manage their availability as well as set their preferred communication method: Email or Teams.

Organization admins will be able to view and manage all identified advisors, as well as provide links to internal resources and help channels such as Teams or Yammer groups via the Power Platform Admin Center.  

Makers can now tap into their internal Power Apps community, get unblocked quickly, and build apps with confidence.  

Please see https://aka.ms/makermatch for more details on this new capability. We look forward to hearing your feedback!

The post Connect with other makers in your organization via maker matching, now in public preview! appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

• Usage analytics (Monthly/Daily/Weekly active usage)
• Total Installs by Tenant/Date/Geo
• Install Failures (Power Platform/D365 CE only)

Up until now ISV Studio showed telemetry for Customer Engagement apps but with this release, telemetry will also be available for Finance & Operations apps! With this telemetry ISVs can track & answer several questions for their organization such as:

• Are new features being adopted?
• Are vanity features being maintained that are no longer relevant or used?
• What does usage over time look like?
• Monitor trends for new releases.

For ISVs that have both CE and F&O apps, navigation between both offer types will be effortless.

F&O app pre-requisite

For Microsoft to show the above telemetry in ISV Studio for F&O apps, the following steps are required:

Step #1 – Update the SolutionID in with the ProductID of the offer in Partner Center. The ProductID  can be found in the URL in Partner Center. See screenshot below.

Step #2 – Update customers to have the latest version with above included. All customers must also be on F&O v10.0.16 or above for the telemetry to flow into ISV Studio

Once both steps above are completed ISVs can start seeing app telemetry in ISV Studio https://aka.ms/isvstudio.

Documentation
To learn more about ISV Studio visit https://aka.ms/isvstudiodocs   
Ideas
Do you have an idea for ISV Studio or for our overall Publishing experience? Submit your idea here. Be sure to upvote posted ideas to help us drive our roadmap! 
Questions? /Feedback
The ISV Studio Team is always on the lookout for your questions and feedback. Feel free to contact us either directly from ISV Studio or email us at ISVFeedback@microsoft.com. 

The post Product Update: F&O apps now available in ISV Studio! appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

• Usage analytics (Monthly/Daily/Weekly active usage)
• Total Installs by Tenant/Date/Geo
• Install Failures (Power Platform/D365 CE only)

Up until now ISV Studio showed telemetry for Customer Engagement apps but with this release, telemetry will also be available for Finance & Operations apps! With this telemetry ISVs can track & answer several questions for their organization such as:

• Are new features being adopted?
• Are vanity features being maintained that are no longer relevant or used?
• What does usage over time look like?
• Monitor trends for new releases.

For ISVs that have both CE and F&O apps, navigation between both offer types will be effortless.

F&O app pre-requisite

For Microsoft to show the above telemetry in ISV Studio for F&O apps, the following steps are required:

Step #1 – Update the SolutionID in with the ProductID of the offer in Partner Center. The ProductID  can be found in the URL in Partner Center. See screenshot below.

Step #2 – Update customers to have the latest version with above included. All customers must also be on F&O v10.0.16 or above for the telemetry to flow into ISV Studio

Once both steps above are completed ISVs can start seeing app telemetry in ISV Studio https://aka.ms/isvstudio.

Documentation
To learn more about ISV Studio visit https://aka.ms/isvstudiodocs   
Ideas
Do you have an idea for ISV Studio or for our overall Publishing experience? Submit your idea here. Be sure to upvote posted ideas to help us drive our roadmap! 
Questions? /Feedback
The ISV Studio Team is always on the lookout for your questions and feedback. Feel free to contact us either directly from ISV Studio or email us at ISVFeedback@microsoft.com. 

The post Product Update: F&O apps now available in ISV Studio! appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

ISV Studio not only allows our publishers to monitor the success of their app but can also be used to track an organizations’ sales, marketing, and adoption metrics. ISV Studio allows you to monitor the success of your apps by giving you visibility into:

• Usage analytics (Monthly/Weekly/Daily active usage)
• Total number of installs and failed installs by Tenant, Geo, Date and Version
• Installation failures log

We are expecting this new read-only access to make it easier for publishers to give more users in their organization access to this valuable telemetry, without granting access to Partner Center.

Note: Read only access can only be granted by the owner of the publisher account under which the app was published. Granting access to ISV Studio will not modify access or permission levels in Partner Center.

Learn more about how you can give users read-only access to ISV Studio at https://aka.ms/isvstudiodocs and sign-in to ISV Studio today! https://aka.ms/isvstudio
Questions?/Feedback

You can contact us from ISV Studio or email us directly at ISVFeedback@microsoft.com

The post New in ISV Studio: Read-only access! appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.