Use core components

The Center of Excellence (CoE) Starter Kit provides a set of core components to help you start building a Center of Excellence (CoE). The components sync your resources into tables and build administrative apps on top of them to help you get more visibility into the apps, flows, and makers in your environment. For example, the Manage Permissions app helps with administrative tasks related to permission management.

Learn how to get started in Set up inventory components. Watch an overview on how to use the core components solution.

Inventory components

The core components solution contains tables, security roles, flows, and apps.

Tables

Tenant objects

The sync flows of the CoE Starter Kit sync your tenant resources to the following Dataverse tables. All tables provide information about created by or created on and modified by or modified on, plus resource-specific information.

• AiBuilderModel is an AI Builder model.

• Business Process Flow is a business process flow.

• CoE Connection Reference is the linking table for the many-to-many relationships among connectors (PowerApps Connector) and cloud flows (Flows) or apps (PowerApps App). This reference isn't currently available for data export architecture.

• Desktop Flow is a desktop flow.

• Environment is the Environment object, which contains apps, flows, and connectors.

• Flow is the cloud flow in the tenant.

• PowerApps App is an app, such as a canvas, model driven, or other type of app.

• PowerApps Connector is a standard or custom connector.

• Power Pages Site is a Power Page Site.

• Power Platform Solution is a solution.

• Microsoft Copilot Studio is a bot in Copilot Studio.

• Microsoft Copilot Studio Component is a Copilot Studio component, such as a topic.

• Microsoft Copilot Studio Component Flow Lookup is a flow triggered as part of Copilot Studio.

Users

There are several concepts of users in the inventory.

• Connection Reference Identity stores a list of a single instance of all user connections for each environment.

• Environment Security Role Permission is a permission to an environment. Including the user, the security role, the environment, and other properties.

• Maker is a user who creates an object, such as an app, flow, custom connector, or other item.

• Power Platform User is a user an app is shared with.

• Power Platform User Role represents the role a Microsoft Power Platform user has for a specific app. This role has a one-to-many relationship with the Power Platform User and PowerApps App tables. The following information is available for each role:

  • App
  • Microsoft Power Platform user
  • Role name (Owner, CanEdit, CanView)
  • Friendly role name (Owner, Co-Owner, Viewer)

• Microsoft Copilot Studio represents a bot (or agent) in Microsoft Copilot Studio. The following information is available for each bot:

  • Display name
  • ID
  • Created on
  • Owner
  • Modified on
  • Last launched on
  • Total number of sessions
  • Number of components (rollup)
  • Number of flows (rollup)
  • Status
  • Environment
  • Is bot orphaned (yes/no)

• Microsoft Copilot Studio Component represents a Microsoft Copilot Studio component, such as a topic. The following information is available for each bot component:

  • Name
  • ID
  • Component created on
  • Description
  • Display name
  • Environment
  • Modified on
  • State
  • Type (topic, table)
  • Uses flow (yes/no)

• Microsoft Copilot Studio Component Flow Lookup represents a flow triggered as part of Microsoft Copilot Studio. The following information is available for each bot component flow:

  • Name
  • ID
  • Created on/by

• Desktop Flow represents a desktop flow. The following information is available for each desktop flow:

  • Display name
  • ID
  • Created on
  • Owner
  • Modified on
  • Desktop flow type (Power Automate Desktop, Selenium IDE)
  • Status
  • Environment
  • Is desktop flow orphaned (yes/no)

• RPA Session represents a desktop flow session. The following information is available for each bot:

  • ID
  • Desktop Flow
  • Status Code
  • Started On
  • Completed On
  • Error Code
  • Error Message

Inventory management features

These tables store information about usage for management.

• Data Policy Drafts is a draft data policy that you're working through in the DLP Impact Analysis app.

• DLP Impact Analysis is an instance violating a draft data policy that you're working through with a Maker in the DLP Impact Analysis app.

• Environment Business Area is the owning business area of an environment, if cross-charging is required.

• Flow Action Detail is the set of actions that occur in a cloud flow. This table has a many-to-one link with the Flow table.

Solution management

These tables are used to manage the CoE solution itself.

• CoE Solution Metadata stores metadata in table format about flows and apps that are part of the CoE Starter Kit. The CoE Admin Command Center uses this metadata.

• Command Center Config stores bookmark information for the Bookmarks page of the CoE Admin Command Center.

• Customized Email stores metadata about emails sent from flows in the Core Solution. Admins use this metadata to tailor emails without adding unmanaged layers on the flows.

• Setup Wizard State metadata shows the current state of the user in the Setup Wizard. The solution uses this metadata to guide users through the steps.

• Sync Flow Errors shows the daily occurrence of sync flow errors to provide a summary email to an admin. Each sync flow error includes the following information:

  • Flow instance URL
  • Environment
  • Created on

• Tenant Security Roles are all the security roles in the tenant. Use this table to determine which ones you want to gather.

Security roles

These security roles only grant permissions to the custom tables but not to the environment as a whole. If you want users to view apps and flows in the environment, grant them access individually to each object. You can add them to another security role (SR) like System Admin or Environment Maker. Learn more in Security roles and privileges.

• Power Platform Admin SR grants full access to create, read, write, and delete operations on the custom tables.

• Power Platform Maker SR grants read and write access to the custom tables, such as environments or apps.

• Power Platform User SR grants read-only access to resources in the custom tables.

Flows

Apps

The following section describes the main apps.

CoE Setup and Upgrade Wizard

The CoE Setup and Upgrade Wizard is used by admins to set up and upgrade their CoE installs. Launch this app after each clean install or upgrade.

Use this app to:

• Ensure you fill or expose all new environment variables.
• Ensure you turn on all new flows in the correct order.
• Choose between settings the kit offers for solution management.

Permission: Intended to be used only by the admin identity that owns the kit install.

Prerequisite: This CoE solution is installed or upgraded before you boot. The app doesn't assist with the upgrade of components, only the configuration afterwards.

CoE Admin Command Center

CoE Admin Command Center is an app admins use to manage their CoE Starter Kit implementation.

Use this app to:

• Launch CoE Starter Kit apps and other bookmarks.
• Review CoE Starter Kit service health by checking sync flows that recently failed.
• Manage the cloud flows used within the kit.
• Update environment variables used in the CoE Starter Kit.
• View Microsoft 365 Message center news related to Power Platform.
• Download the latest CoE Starter Kit version and raise support tickets with the team.
• Launch learning paths to learn more about Microsoft Power Platform.
• Launch the latest posts of the Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and Microsoft Copilot Studio blogs.
• Configure email subject and body text for emails sent through the CoE Starter Kit.

Prerequisite: This app uses Dataverse and other premium connectors. A premium license is required for every app user.

When you first launch the app, you might have to establish a connection for HTTP with Microsoft Entra ID (preauthorized), and set Base Resource URL and Microsoft Entra Resource URI (Application ID URI) to https://graph.microsoft.com for commercial tenants. If your tenant is in GCC, GCC High, or DoD, check your service root endpoint for Microsoft Graph.

DLP Impact Analysis

DLP Impact Analysis is an app that allows you to experiment with changes to policy configurations. You can get a list of canvas apps and cloud flows impacted by those changes.

Use this app to:

• Make draft data policies with changes.
• See what effect each change has on existing canvas apps and cloud flows.
• Mitigate risk by contacting and working with makers.

Learn more in Data policies.

Permission: Intended for use only by admins. Requires Power Platform Service Admin or user accounts with admin permissions. Share this app with your CoE admins.

Manage Permissions

Manage Permissions is an app that admins use to manage various permissions across the tenant.

With this app, you can change permissions for:

• Canvas app ownership
• Cloud flow ownership
• Security roles in tenant environments
• Connections across the tenant

Permission: Intended for use only by admins. Requires Power Platform Service Admin or user accounts with admin permissions. Share this app with your CoE admins.

Power Platform Admin View

Power Platform Admin View is a model-driven app that provides an interface to browse items in Dataverse custom tables. The app gives you access to views and forms for the custom tables in the solution.

Use this app to:

• Get a quick overview of resources in your tenant.
• Learn about your makers, connectors, apps, and flows.
• Find out to whom the apps are shared.
• Add more information, such as notes and risk assessments, to your resources.
• Set approved capacity for environments, and see capacity and add-on information per environment.
• Complete app audits.
• Manage capacity alerts.
• Set app and flow permissions for individual resources.

Permission: Intended for use only by admins. Requires Power Platform Service Admin or user accounts with admin permissions. Share this app with your CoE admins.

Use this app to see with whom an app is shared, what roles (editor or viewer) the users have, and for groups. You can check the size of the group.

Use this app to manage permissions for apps and flows by selecting Manage Permissions from the command bar.

Use this app to email app owners and app users by selecting Email Users from the command bar.

Power BI dashboard

With Power BI reports, you can get a holistic view of Dataverse data. You can understand visualizations and insights for Environment, PowerApps App, Flow, Connector, Connection Reference, Maker, and Audit Log tables.

Follow the setup instructions to set up the Power BI dashboard. Learn more in Gain insights into Power Platform adoption with the CoE Power BI dashboard.

Environment Request management components

Watch a walk-through of how the environment and DLP request process works.

Environment Request tables

• Environment Creation Request is a request that non-admins submit to create a new environment. This request has a many-to-many relationship with the Maker and PowerApps Connector tables.

• DLP Impact Analysis is an instance of an object that violates a draft data policy.

• DLP Policy is a data policy you can offer to makers for selection in an environment request.

• DLP Policy Change Request is a request to change the definition of an existing data policy in the tenant.

Environment Request flows

Environment Request apps

Environment Request apps help you manage and streamline environment requests.

CoE Admin Environment Request

Admins use the CoE Admin Environment Request app as an interface to view and approve or reject requests to create or modify Power Platform development resources. The app supports Environment Creation Requests and logs changes to data policies in the DLP Policy Change Request table.

Use this app to:

• View all Environment Creation Requests in detail.
• Approve or reject Environment Creation Requests.
• Check if connectors are blocked or restricted by existing or modified data policies. Modifications you make in the app update those policies.

Permission: Intended for use only by admins. Requires Power Platform Service Admin or user accounts with admin permissions. Share this app with your CoE admins.

Prerequisite: This app uses Dataverse. End users must have a Per User license. The app must be assigned a Per App license, or the environment must be covered by pay-as-you-go.

CoE Maker Command Center

The CoE Maker Command Center is an app designed to help makers interact with their Power Platform Admin, including submitting requests for Power Platform resources (such as Environment Creation Requests).

Use this app to:

• See apps shared with the makers by the Power Platform admin.
• Submit new Environment Creation Requests.
• View existing requests in any state submitted by that user. Here you can find an expiration timeline and link to the live environments.

Permission: Share the app with all authorized makers or the entire organization, depending on which users you want to allow Environment ownership. Requires the Power Platform Maker SR (security role) to use the Dataverse tables.

Prerequisite: This app uses Dataverse. End users must have a Per User license. The app must be assigned a Per App license, or the environment must be covered by pay-as-you-go.

Other core components

This section covers other core components in the CoE Starter Kit.

Other tables

App Catalog Feedback represents feedback gathered for an app.

Other flows

Other apps

App Catalog provides visibility into some apps in the organization. Admins can choose which apps to highlight provided the apps meet admin requirements and are intended to be shared broadly.

When you first open the App Catalog, it doesn't display any apps. The Power Apps App table includes a field called In App Catalog, which is a Boolean (two-option) field. Setting the value to Yes adds the app to the catalog. To publish an app to the App Catalog, follow the app auditing process in the Power Platform Admin View app.

Permission: As soon as you use this process, you can share the App Catalog with the entire organization.

Prerequisite: This app uses Dataverse. If you install this solution in a production environment, either:

• End users require a Per User license
• The app needs to be assigned a Per App license
• The environment needs to be covered by pay-as-you-go