Connecting the connectors: expanding reach and simplifying app creation

In the world of technology, it is the bridges we build that enable innovation to thrive and productivity to soar. The bridges between apps and services, collaboration and automation, data and decision-making. Today, we're thrilled to announce a bridge that enables Microsoft ISV partners to extend their services across a wider landscape – the convergence of the Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Power Platform connector ecosystem.

Microsoft Teams and Power Platform have become integral parts of many organizations' daily workflow. With the new convergence, ISVs can now build connectors that function seamlessly across both platforms. This enables you to bring your services directly to where users meet, communicate, collaborate, and automate, thereby enhancing their low-code solutions' potential.

By integrating with Microsoft Power Platform, soon you can utilize the newly announced Microsoft 365 Copilot functionality to enrich your connectors to leverage data and become actionable through Microsoft Power Automate flows. Bringing 1000+ connectors from Power Platform into Microsoft Teams provides a plethora of opportunities to build robust solutions that can grow in complexity while simplifying integration into external systems. You can tap into a vast array of data, apps, documents, calendar, chats, meetings, contacts, and more, including Dynamics 365 and Power Platform data stored in Dataverse. This enhancement not only allows you to reach a larger audience but also provides a richer, more integrated experience for your users.

The most significant advantage is the expansion of your potential customer base. By enabling connectors to function in Teams, you're gaining access to a marketplace that's significantly larger. You build once, and immediately, you've multiplied your reach.

This union simplifies the process of app creation. With standardization across the ecosystem, development becomes more straightforward, liberating ISVs to focus on the spark of innovation and on building better solutions.

ISV partners making connections

We believe this integration capability opens a world of possibilities for complex and robust solution development. To help visualize these possibilities, consider the story of Appfluence, the maker of Priority Matrix, a time management software application.

Using their connectors Priority Matrix has created a system that integrates Microsoft Forms and Teams. Form submissions become tasks in Priority Matrix, which can then assign the tasks and notify Teams about the submission.  Overdue tasks are moved to the first quadrant in Priority Matrix, signaling their urgency. And, importantly, if a significant task is deleted without completion, stakeholders are immediately notified via Teams.  Appfluence’s creative use of connectors exemplifies the kind of seamless integrations that are now possible with the convergence of Microsoft Teams and Power Platform. It's a taste of what can be achieved when we bridge collaboration and automation.  

In another example of successful connector integration, Autodesk, a global leader in software for designers and builders, has intricately woven connectors within Microsoft Teams and Power Platform with a solution that sends a notification to Teams each time a new Data Exchange is created, fostering real-time updates and collaboration. The solution also triggers Teams notifications based on specific parameter compliance checks during data extraction processes. 

Mailchimp, a global leader in email marketing and automation, is harnessing the power of connectors to boost their application's performance. Mailchimp uses connectors to synchronize Microsoft Form responders with their platform, streamlining the update of contact lists and then triggering notifications to specific Teams Groups or Channels when the synchronization occurs. This real-time communication feature ensures that all stakeholders are kept in the loop, fostering smoother workflows and better collaboration across teams.

Finally, Snowflake, a global leader in cloud data storage and services, is also leveraging connectors to enrich their offerings. By incorporating connector capabilities, Snowflake provides users with a means to verify if their Reader account has credits below a certain threshold, offering valuable real-time account management. The connector enables an API call to Snowflake with a Text Subject, and in response, users receive a sentiment score via a Teams notification. This feature underscores the interactive capabilities of connectors and shows how they can be used to drive user engagement and enhance the overall user experience.

Get started

Connectors present an opportunity for our ISV partners to leverage the capabilities of both platforms in a single connector. The results are simpler app creation, wider market reach, and enhanced user experience. Welcome to the exciting beginning of a broader effort to unify the Microsoft ecosystem.  Take the next steps.

• Learn about the publisher certification process
• Learn how to build connectors
• Visit the template collections site

Stay Connected

Thanks for reading to the end. There’s just one last thing. Join us in the new Microsoft Community Hub to converse, comment, and ask questions with other Dynamics 365 and Power Platform partners.