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Where AI Meets Governance: How WHS Plastics Took Control of Power Platform

 
Sam Costley
Account Manager
Co-Author
 
Ross Hastie
Power Platform Consultant
Co-Author
 
Charley Dunmore
AI Workforce Specialist
Co-Author
 
Vinay Desai
Power Platform Consultant
Co-Author

Overview

WHS Plastics is a UK-based manufacturer operating across multiple sites, including Larkhall. With over 2,200 Microsoft 365 users in a hybrid setup, the business had adopted Power Platform organically, without the governance needed to scale securely.

Challenge

WHS Plastics had developed a large, ungoverned Power Platform estate:
•    8 environments, with 130+ cloud flows mainly in the default environment
•    Makers building production apps in unsupported locations
•    No Centre of Excellence (CoE) or formal governance
•    Limited visibility of usage, ownership, and connector risks

This created security, data loss, and shadow IT risks, with no structured application lifecycle in place.

WHS needed to maintain citizen developer agility while introducing governance, visibility, and a scalable low-code strategy.

“I was pleased with Bytes' approach. Sam Costley quickly assembled the right team and supported us from a financial perspective. Ross and the delivery team built the solution effectively to meet our requirements. Demonstrations were clear, and the handover documentation was excellent.”

Gavin Chapman, WHS Group IT Service and Delivery Manager

The Bytes Solution

Bytes delivered a multi-phase engagement to introduce governance, structure, and scalability:

  • Discovery & Health Check
    • Assessed the estate and delivered a risk and recommendations report
       
  • CoE Deployment
    • Implemented the Microsoft CoE Starter Kit in a dedicated environment
    • Deployed governance components and a Power BI dashboard for visibility
       
  • Governance Foundations
    • Introduced role-based security groups (Admin, Maker, User)
    • Improved oversight of environments, flows, and connectors
       
  • Governance Innovation
    • Built a Bronze CoE Governance Agent using Copilot Studio
    • Hosted in Azure with Microsoft Graph integration
    • Enabled conversational, read-only access to governance data
       
  • ALM & Pipelines
    • Implemented Power Platform Pipelines
    • Established a structured Dev → Test → Prod lifecycle
       
  • Enablement & Handover
    • Delivered workshops, runbooks, and knowledge transfer sessions

Benefits

WHS Plastics now has a secure, scalable Power Platform foundation:

  • Full visibility and control: CoE dashboard and inventory provide continuous oversight
  • Faster administration: Admins can query governance data in plain English via Copilot
  • Structured deployments: Pipelines replace ad-hoc releases with a controlled lifecycle
  • Safe citizen development: Makers build within clear guardrails and best practice
  • Future-ready platform: The Bronze agent supports future automation and expansion
  • Improved efficiency: IT spends less time managing risk and more enabling innovation
     

Ready to take control of your Power Platform?

Bytes helps you balance innovation with governance, giving you the visibility, structure, and security to scale with confidence. Start your Power Platform transformation today by contacting [email protected]

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