What is a Centre of Enablement?
A Power Platform Centre of Enablement (CoEn) is focused on empowering individuals and teams to use Power Platform to its full potential. It typically interchanges with The CoE but differs through less focus on stringency and more so on adoption and usage. A CoEn implementation typically focuses on:
- Training and resources to enable employees to develop their Power Platform skill levels with certifications rolled out
- Cross functional collaboration and knowledge sharing
- Promotion of success stories, use cases and challenges solved with the platform
- Culture of encouraging innovation, higher risk and creativity with the platform with the consequence of higher usage and breaking into new use cases
- Coaching, mentoring and a super-user infrastructure in place
Whilst this bottom-up CoEn approach fosters innovation, is also requires advocacy and support from Central IT for it to be a success - with this platform it’s important to have the necessary regulation in place for compliant usage that is well set up for the long-term benefit of the organisation.
Making informed choices: weighing the benefits of CoE and CoEn for optimal no-code technology implementation
Both the CoE and CoEn have a place in organisations scaling up their usage of no-code technology, with differing focus and benefits.
CoE has an increased emphasis on governance and compliance (that can often restrain employees from finding a higher value realisation from the platform).
Meanwhile the CoEn fosters empowerment and autonomic usage, resulting in its growth in popularity – despite its requirements for Central IT support sponsorship to ensure successful implementation.
Both can co-exist side by side, and each organisation is different depending on industry constraints, leadership preference and overall company vision.
There are many factors to consider, and a smart implementation provides the pathway for both short and long-term success with Power Platform.
A properly established COE/N plays a critical role in ensuring overall governance and security but can (and should) also be a key enabler to unlocking the full value of Microsoft No Code technology.