Microsoft 365 + Power Platform Possibilities · The art of the possible
PalmStat ERP × Microsoft Cloud · what's already wired and what we can light up.
Edition 1 · May 2026 · Ratecard valid 90 days
Connectors
12 live
36 candidates assessed
Identity
Native M365 SSO
Azure AD-ready JWT in v1
Automation library
720+ templates
Pre-built Power Automate flows compatible
Investment tiers
R 8.5k · 18k · 45k
Per month per tier · Platinum from R 95k
01 · Foundation
What's already wired in v1
Before any new spend, here's what is live in PalmStat ERP today — the plumbing for the M365 plays below is already in place.
✓
Azure AD-ready JWT (drop-in M365 SSO)
Auth layer issues JWTs compatible with Microsoft Entra ID — flip a switch and Palm staff sign in with their Outlook account, no new password.
✓
Microsoft Graph mail connector
Active push-to-email queue. Every report, GRN PDF and ops alert already routes via Graph — same channel that powers Outlook auto-CC.
✓
Hosted in Azure-friendly cloud
Current EC2 stack is a 2-day swap to Azure VM (or Azure App Service). No re-architecture — same containers, new region.
✓
SQL backend (RDS or Azure SQL · either works)
Database layer is provider-agnostic. Synapse pipelines, Power BI direct-query and Dataverse virtual tables all work out of the box.
02 · Quick wins
12 Power Platform integrations · ready to light up
Each card below is a discrete, scoped engagement. Effort estimates are calendar weeks of TW build time — Palm operations carry on uninterrupted while we deliver in parallel.
PB
Power BIExecutive dashboards
5 executive dashboards on the Palm operational data warehouse — CEO, Ops, Finance, Sales and Floor views with live drill-down.
2–3 weeks
PA
Power AutomateEmail approvals
Auto-route every tally for sign-off via Teams approval cards — supervisor approves on phone, ERP locks the batch.
3 days
PA
Power AutomateXero sync
Every GRN posts straight to Xero supplier ledger — bookkeeper’s GRN-to-bill capture goes to zero clicks.
1 week
TM
Slack / TeamsOperational alerts
Low-stock and machine-breakdown alerts piped to the right Teams channel in real time — no one wakes up to a 6am surprise.
2 days
PA
Power AppsMobile shop-floor
Supervisor companion app: scan a job card, log a breakdown, sign a tally, capture photo evidence — all from a phone on the floor.
3 weeks
PA
Power AppsExecutive briefing
Cross-floor live dashboards embedded in Teams — CEO opens the Teams app and sees today’s yield, downtime, dispatch in one screen.
2 weeks
SP
SharePointDocument archive
7-year retention archive of every GRN, FGRN, tally and delivery note — SARS-aligned, indexed, searchable.
1 week
OD
OneDrivePhoto evidence
Scanner photos auto-saved to a per-shift folder — QC trail and audit evidence without anyone touching a copy/paste.
3 days
OL
OutlookCalendar invites for shifts
Auto-create Outlook calendar events for shift rosters, planned maintenance windows, customer collections.
1 week
TM
TeamsCustomer onboarding bot
Teams chat bot for new-customer queries — price lists, lead times, spec sheets answered without sales-desk friction.
2 weeks
GR
Microsoft GraphAuto-CC ops on email reports
Every outbound report quietly CC’s the ops mailbox so a paper trail exists without anyone remembering to BCC.
Already in v1
AD
Azure AD B2BCustomer self-service
Extend in Phase 4: invite Palm customers to view their own dispatch status, statements and stock allocations — zero help-desk tickets.
4 weeks
03 · Advanced
8 Azure AI / ML integrations · the deeper plays
When the operational basics are humming, these are the differentiators — the things competitors can’t match without three years of platform work.
AI
Azure OpenAINatural-language ops
Ask the dashboard in plain English: "show me yesterday’s worst-performing machine" — chart appears, no SQL, no waiting for a data analyst.
3 weeks
AV
Azure VisionQC photo analysis
Detect print defects, smudges and registration errors automatically from the QC photos — flag the operator before a full pallet reaches dispatch.
3–4 weeks
ML
Azure ML StudioPredictive maintenance
Train models on machine breakdown history. Predict the next failure 48–72 hours out, schedule the technician before the line stops.
5–6 weeks
SY
Azure SynapseOperational data lake
A single data lake fed from PalmStat ERP, Xero, machine telemetry and orders — the engine that powers every BI and AI ask above.
4 weeks
IO
Azure IoT HubMachine telemetry
Real-time pipeline from each press, slitter and folder — speed, run state, temperature, output count. Foundation for the digital twin.
5 weeks
CS
Azure Cognitive SearchFulltext index
Search across every GRN, tally, delivery note, supplier invoice. Type a job number, find every document in 200ms.
2 weeks
FR
Azure Form RecognizerAuto-parse invoices
Supplier invoices and delivery notes scanned and parsed straight into Xero — receipt mailbox-to-bill-capture in under 5 minutes, with zero typing.
2 weeks
AD
Azure Anomaly DetectorYield watchdog
Continuously baseline yield per machine and product. Flag unusual drops the moment they happen — before a whole shift is wasted.
2 weeks
04 · Optional · Biggest play
Dynamics 365 sync · PalmStat ERP as the operational core, D365 as the GL
If Palm wants to step up to a Microsoft-native financial backbone without ripping out the operational nerve we just built, here’s how the two coexist.
How it fits together
Two systems, one source of truth, zero double-capture