Skills development can be tailored just for you

There is no doubt that technology is changing business. Across the MEA region the adoption of cloud solutions, AI technologies, and automation is driving more efficient, agile, and competitive businesses than we’ve ever seen before.

But not all businesses are ready to go fully digital at this stage, and not all people want to become IT experts, or learn how to code. Just as new technology is driving greater personalization and tailored products for customers, the same approach can and should be adopted for skills development and tech implementation.

In an interview with Quartz, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spoke about some of the new features on Microsoft’s Power Platform, including the ability for PowerApps to leverage off of AI capabilities for features like language detection or to read handwritten texts, among others.

Technology like the Power Platform allows individuals of any tech background to gain critical insight into their organization (using Power BI), or to build entirely new applications designed to meet the specific challenges or goals they and their business face without needing to know how to code.

Employees can also use new features like Power Automate and Power Virtual Agent. Power Automate allows for the automation of business functions without the need for heavy back-end coding or algorithms. And with Power Virtual Agent, conversational bots can be created that offer support to employees. And again, no coding is required to achieve this.

With the constant need for employees to skill and reskill themselves to find new ways of adding value to their company, I am encouraged by this. Employees throughout the region, including those with little or no tech experience, can now go out and build the tools they and their business need to succeed.

In the interview, Satya compared the benefit of the Power Platform to Excel. He said: “Once Excel was introduced, a lot of people were able to build spreadsheets and become numerical and analytical. Think about all the white-collar-ish jobs that were created because of Excel, because people could then sort of do that type of work—we want the same thing to happen with low-code/no-code.”

Using Power BI to leverage your business intelligence

A large, established bank operating in multiple countries across the region will have very different requirements than a start-up or an SME. And the same is true for individuals. Not everyone will need to be able to code or build a website.

What employees need is for technology to empower them to make informed, data-driven decisions. The Power BI solution is a great way to achieve this and requires no prior knowledge of data analytics. Using company data the platform automatically builds dashboards and visualizations, so that anyone within the company can access and use the data to drive better decision making.

Stylo, a leading female footwear and accessories brand in Pakistan, is using Power BI to gain better insights into its business intelligence.

The company has used Microsoft’s solutions for over 10 years, and has now migrated onto the cloud, using Office 365 to remove the complexity of on-premises systems management. Through Office 365, Stylo employees can now communicate and collaborate more easily, with daily tasks managed and configured. Microsoft also helped the company implement a secure and remotely accessible data hub, providing control and insights to its 2,500 employees, across 72 cities in Pakistan, empowering them to identify and use business insights to drive better performance.

How to give your employees the Power

Microsoft has always believed that people can do incredible things if technology is accessible to them. That is why we created the Microsoft’s Cloud Society, which offers a variety of different cloud training services on a single platform, for free. Courses are available for people of different levels, from beginners to more advanced users, meaning that anyone can use the platform to upskill themselves, even if they have no previous technology background.

What some people may not know is that the Cloud Society has courses specifically on building business apps through the PowerApps service.

I believe that by giving people the right knowledge and tools, amazing personal and business opportunities will be unlocked. I encourage businesses and individuals throughout the MEA region to seize the initiative and start building the future they desire.