{"id":16428,"date":"2021-09-20T08:00:48","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T15:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/power-apps\/hmgroup\/"},"modified":"2024-10-04T10:15:58","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T17:15:58","slug":"hmgroup","status":"publish","type":"power-apps","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/power-apps\/hmgroup\/","title":{"rendered":"H&M Group enables citizen development at scale with Microsoft Power Platform"},"content":{"rendered":"


H&M Group<\/a> is a Swedish multinational clothing-retail company with more than 5,000 stores in 78 countries and more than 53 online markets. A growing community of citizen developers has created thousands of Microsoft Power Platform solutions across the company. Employees from across the company quickly started building on the Power Platform \u2013 from clothing designers with no previous coding experience to code-first developers looking for a faster alternative to custom coding. To support development and maintain security and governance, H&M Group set up a \u201cCenter for Enablement\u201d using the Microsoft Power Platform Center of Excellence (CoE) Starter Kit.<\/p>\n

In this blog post we look at how they used the CoE Starter Kit<\/a> to establish robust governance practices and cultivate a thriving internal community of makers building Power Platform solutions across several departments. We\u2019ll also look at two Power Apps solutions built by citizen developers \u2013 an app used to track key activities and goals, and an app used to record flexible work hours and assist with enabling hybrid work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read the full case study here: https:\/\/aka.ms\/PowerPlatform\/HM<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\"Thumbnail<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Watch the MBAS 2021 presentation: https:\/\/aka.ms\/MBAS\/HM<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Business challenge<\/strong><\/h3>\n

After H&M Group deployed Microsoft 365, there was an acceleration in development of innovative solutions built by their citizen developers across the company, but challenges arose from the rapid rise of solutions. As the company approached 1,500 apps with over 30,000 users licensed on Power Platform, H&M Group realized that they needed a controlled approach to development with the platform. To foster the creativity of their citizen developers they needed to keep an open approach, but with some governance and control. That\u2019s when a plan to build a Power Platform Center for Enablement began to take shape.<\/p>\n\n\n

H&M’s Center for Enablement journey<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cWe knew we needed to put better controls in place to maintain security and governance, but at the same time we wanted to foster an environment where people could continue to build great solutions on the platform.\u201d<\/em><\/h4>\n\u2013 Helena Forsberg, Microsoft 365 Solution Architect, H&M Group<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The CoE at H&M Group was led by four employees with various levels of development experience but no prior experience in setting up a Power Platform CoE. Two of the team members were Helena Forsberg as the Microsoft 365 Solution Architect and Claes S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m as the Cross Delivery Coordinator at H&M Group. The team reviewed Power Platform guidance<\/a> from Microsoft and set up their CoE based on three core components: administration, governance, and tools & processes to help establish digital guardrails for Power Platform development. In addition, initiatives were put in place to educate and empower citizen developers and inspire new and future development. In alignment to this balanced approach, the team named their CoE the \u2018H&M Group Center for Enablement\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Infographic<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Using Microsoft Power Platform Center of Excellence Starter Kit<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

One of the tools from Microsoft that H&M Group used was the Center of Excellence (CoE) Starter Kit<\/a>. Included in the kit is a Power BI dashboard template that provided H&M Group with the needed information to identify potential risks. The initial telemetry provided the company with three key insights:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Apps were being developed with no Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies in place which is a company risk as their data could be accidently published externally such as on social media sites.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. An increase in the usage of premium connectors which, left uncontrolled, could lead to licensing cost overruns.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. High-usage apps that only had one owner. If the owner left the company, there was no one in place to provide support and maintenance.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n
    \"Screenshot<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    The Power BI dashboard template (sample data) that H&M Group uses for telemetry of their apps created by citizen developers across different countries.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Fortunately for H&M Group, none of these risks had yet posed any serious problem. Better yet, with its Center for Enablement plan, the company was on the right path to effectively address each one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Controlling access to Power Platform resources<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    H&M Group established a tiered structure of environments to manage access to apps, flows, and connections available to employees. Environments within the Power Platform can also be used to separate apps that may have different security requirements or target audiences. Appropriate security policies are implemented based on each employee\u2019s role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Infographic<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Diagram showing three-tiered environment structure. Employees start in the default Productivity environment and can request access to higher-level environments with more advanced connectors and tools.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    All employees start inside a default \u2018Productivity\u2019 environment. The team limited the environment to the standard connectors that come with a Microsoft 365 E5 license. These connectors satisfied most development needs for the apps being created by H&M Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The next tier is environments for more \u2018Important\u2019 apps that might require premium connectors to other data sources. Here, data loss prevention (DLP) policies are used to control which connectors can be used by which makers. H&M Group employees can request access to this environment using a form in SharePoint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The top tier is for \u2018Critical\u2019 environments, enabling development of apps requiring custom connectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The team was able to handle all configuration and deployment of environments and DLP policies in the Power Platform Admin Center \u2013 a straightforward process that was completed through a series of simple, click-through menus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    \u201cSetting up our security and governance structure and controls for Power Platform took us just two weeks to complete for all 30,000 users at the company.\u201d<\/em><\/h4>\n\u2013 Helena Forsberg, Microsoft 365 Solution Architect, H&M Group<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    Inspiring citizen developers<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    In addition to the security and governance controls, resources formed to help support citizen developers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n