Establishing a Centre of Excellence
Creating control, clarity, and confidence as your CRM and Power Platform scale
A Centre of Excellence provides the structure organisations need to scale Dynamics 365 and Power Platform without losing control, coherence, or confidence.
When designed well, it clarifies who decides, how change is prioritised, and how risk is managed over time. When designed poorly, it becomes an administrative layer that slows delivery and frustrates teams.
We help organisations design Centres of Excellence that support good decisions, sustainable delivery, and long-term value.
Discuss Your Centre Of Excellence
Why Centres of Excellence matter
As CRM and Power Platform usage grows, complexity follows.
Without a clear operating model, organisations typically experience:
- Inconsistent design and configuration decisions
- Duplication of solutions and growing technical debt
- Unclear ownership and accountability
- Escalating support and licensing costs
- Increasing security, compliance, and data risks
These issues are rarely caused by technology. They are symptoms of unclear governance and decision-making.
A Centre of Excellence addresses this by providing structure without unnecessary bureaucracy.
What a Centre of Excellence should actually do
A Centre of Excellence is not a committee and not a collection of tools. It is an operating model.
At its core, it should:
- Define clear decision rights for design, prioritisation, and investment
- Establish guardrails that protect quality while enabling progress
- Provide visibility across demand, change, cost, and platform health
- Align executives, delivery teams, and users around shared standards
- Reduce risk without slowing the organisation down
The focus is not control for its own sake. It is enabling good decisions at scale.
Discuss Your Centre Of Excellence
Finding the right balance
Too little governance leads to fragmentation and risk. Too much governance creates bottlenecks and disengagement.
An effective Centre of Excellence strikes a deliberate balance. It protects the organisation while still enabling innovation, speed, and ownership in the business.
That balance looks different depending on size, maturity, and ambition. There is no single template that works everywhere.
Tools support a Centre of Excellence. They do not create one.
Microsoft provides a Power Platform Centre of Excellence Starter Kit (CoE Starter Kit) to help organisations gain visibility into how the platform is being used.
Gill Walker compares the CoE Starter Kit to a noodle meal – good, but much better with water
The Microsoft Power Platform Centre of Excellence Starter Kit can support organisations by:
- Understanding usage and adoption
- Monitoring environments, apps, and flows
- Identifying cost and compliance risks
Used well, it is a useful supporting capability.
Used on its own, it is incomplete.
A Centre of Excellence only works when roles, decision authority, operating rhythms, and leadership are clearly defined. Without that foundation, tools become dashboards rather than drivers of better outcomes.
Our approach
We help organisations design Centres of Excellence that work in practice, not just on paper.
Our work typically includes:
- Assessing existing governance, decision flows, and pain points
- Defining a fit-for-purpose operating model and decision framework
- Clarifying roles, responsibilities, and escalation paths
- Establishing practical standards and design principles
- Supporting implementation, enablement, and ongoing evolution
Whether you are establishing a Centre of Excellence for the first time or resetting an existing one, our focus is always on clarity, confidence, and sustainability.
When this is most valuable
A Centre of Excellence is particularly valuable when:
- Dynamics 365 or Power Platform adoption is accelerating
- Multiple teams or partners are making changes
- Governance exists but is not working in practice
- Leaders are concerned about cost, risk, or long-term viability
- A programme is transitioning from project delivery to business-as-usual
Outcomes leaders care about
Done well, a Centre of Excellence delivers:
- Better decisions, made faster
- Reduced delivery risk and rework
- Improved confidence in the platform
- Clear accountability without micromanagement
- A foundation for sustainable growth