Power Apps Governance & Managed Services

Frequently asked questions about Power Apps Governance

• What is Power Platform governance?

  Power Apps / Power Platform governance covers all the guardrails an organisation uses to run Power Apps, Power Automate and Copilot agents safely: environment strategy, DLP policies, the native governance experiences in the Power Platform Admin Center (previously covered by the CoE Starter Kit), role and permission concepts, and Application Lifecycle Management (ALM). This applies to self-built citizen-developer apps as well as professional third-party solutions such as Altus PPM and Projectum xPM – the goal is to enable innovation without losing control over data, cost and compliance.

• Does governance also apply to professional third-party apps like Altus PPM and Projectum xPM?

  Yes. Governance is not only about self-built citizen-developer apps, but equally about professional, business-critical third-party solutions on the Power Platform – such as Altus PPM and Projectum xPM. They also run in your environments, use connectors and licenses, and belong in your inventory, environment strategy, DLP policies, Managed Environments and ALM. On request we operate and monitor them as part of the managed service.

• How do we govern AI agents and AI tools accessing Dataverse?

  AI is now a core part of the Power Platform – from Copilot and Copilot Studio agents inside your apps to external AI tools such as Microsoft Scout or Cowork that access Dataverse data via interfaces (e.g. the Model Context Protocol, MCP). This needs governance too: which agents and tools are approved, which data and tables may they read or write, which connectors and which authentication are allowed? We anchor AI usage in environment strategy, DLP policies (incl. connector classification), Managed Environments, role-based Dataverse permissions and monitoring – so AI can be used productively without sensitive data leaking out of control.

• Is Power BI part of Power Platform governance?

  For day-to-day operations, usually not as a must-have: inventory, usage/adoption, monitoring and AI-assisted recommendations now come natively from the Power Platform Admin Center – including the new agentic capabilities. A dedicated Power BI dashboard is worth it when you need more than the native 28-day analytics: long-term trends across quarters/years, breakdowns by department, cost center or region (by enriching with org data), or fully customizable management reporting. At the same time, Power BI is itself part of governance: we govern workspaces, datasets/semantic models, row-level security (RLS), sensitivity and sharing – including the reports in Altus PPM and Projectum xPM – so only authorised people see the respective data.

• Do we need governance even with only a few Power Apps?

  Yes. Risks appear from just a few productive apps: undocumented dependencies, missing DLP policies and unclear ownership. An early, lean governance setup is far cheaper than cleaning up sprawl later.

• What is the difference between environment strategy and DLP policies?

  The environment strategy governs who may develop where (Dev/Test/Prod). DLP (Data Loss Prevention) policies govern which connectors may exchange data with each other. Together they form the foundation of any Power Platform governance.

• How does Microsoft Purview fit into Power Platform governance?

  Microsoft Purview extends Power Platform governance with enterprise-wide data classification, sensitivity labels, DLP and audit/compliance – beyond Dataverse and Power BI. Where compliance requirements are higher, we integrate Purview into your governance concept so that protection and traceability work consistently across the whole platform.

• What happens to the Microsoft CoE Starter Kit?

  Microsoft no longer actively maintains the Center of Excellence (CoE) Starter Kit – there are no more new features, bug fixes or security patches. Its core capabilities are moving into the Power Platform Admin Center as native in-product experiences: Inventory, Usage, Monitor and Actions, on a foundation of Managed Environments, DLP policies and the Security Hub. If you still run the CoE Starter Kit in production, you should set up a migration plan towards the Admin Center – which is exactly where we help. Background: Power Platform Governance 2026: From CoE to the Admin Center.

• What does ALM mean for the Power Platform?

  Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) describes how apps move safely from development through testing into production – via managed solutions and pipelines, with versioning and auditable approvals.

• Does our data stay in our own environment?

  Yes. Governance and the managed service run entirely within your own Microsoft 365 environment. Data residency is in the DACH region (e.g. Frankfurt, Berlin, Vienna, Zurich, Geneva).

• Does Holert also offer ongoing operations?

  Yes. As a specialised boutique consultancy and Microsoft partner we can take over ongoing operations as a managed service: monitoring, support, updates and reporting per SLA – including regular optimisation recommendations.