A canvas app that takes twenty seconds to open isn't slow. It's an architecture decision that expired.
We rebuild enterprise Power Platform estates that outgrew the way they were first built — and leave behind governance your team can actually run.
Cold start, same business app
measured, n=7Real timings from a migrated production app at a 2,000-user firm.
What an estate looks like when it has outgrown citizen development
None of these are app problems. They're what happens when a platform grows one request at a time and nobody owns the foundation underneath it.
- Apps open slowly enough that people keep a spreadsheet as a workaround.
- Nobody can say which environment a change was made in, or by whom.
- Deployment means someone exporting a solution by hand on a Friday.
- Formula logic lives in one person's head and they've moved teams.
- Connectors reach production data with no policy governing them.
- Dataverse security roles accumulated until nobody will touch them.
- Two apps do the same thing because the first one was undocumented.
- Every new request takes longer than the last one did.
Four engagements
All hands-on. The person who designs the architecture is the person who writes the code — there is no delivery team between the two.
Canvas to code apps
Rebuild business-critical canvas apps as Power Apps code apps in React and TypeScript on the Power Apps SDK. Faster cold starts, real source control, and a codebase a normal developer can read.
Power Apps SDK, PAC CLI, React, TypeScript, Vite, component architecture, connector migration
Governance and ALM
Environment strategy, solution packaging, and deployment pipelines, plus the Dataverse security model and data-loss-prevention policies that keep the estate supportable while it grows.
Dev/Test/Prod environments, solution layering, DLP policies, security roles, PowerShell & PAC automation, capacity and licensing
Workflow and integration
Multi-level approvals, employee lifecycle automation, and the integrations that make them work against systems that were never designed to talk to each other.
Power Automate, Dataverse, SharePoint Online, SQL Server, Microsoft Graph, custom connectors, REST
Reporting that gets opened
Power BI models built on reconciled data with measures someone can defend in a meeting, not a dashboard that mirrors a spreadsheet nobody trusts.
semantic models, DAX, row-level security, star schemas, multi-source integration
Seven production apps, moved off canvas in a year
An AmLaw 100 firm with roughly 2,000 users had a Power Platform estate that grew app by app. Code apps reached general availability in February 2026. We migrated the first one six weeks later.
The migration was the visible half. The other half was the ALM practice built underneath it: environments, solution packaging, version control, and a pipeline every one of those apps now deploys through. AI-assisted development did much of the first-pass work; an architect reviewed every change before it merged.
How an engagement runs
Assessment first, always. Sometimes it ends there, with a written recommendation not to rebuild anything.
Assess what is actually there
Inventory the apps, flows, connectors, and environments. Measure load times and failure rates rather than accepting reputations. Identify what is load-bearing and what nobody has opened in a year.
Stabilise the foundation
Environment strategy, solution structure, source control, and a deployment pipeline. This comes before any rebuild, so whatever ships next is deployable and reversible.
Rebuild in priority order
Start with the app whose slowness costs the most hours, not the easiest one. A visible win early buys the room to do the rest properly.
Hand it over in writing
Documentation, standards, and working sessions with your internal team. The goal is that the next change does not require a call to us.
Stack
- Power Platform
- Power Apps (code apps, canvas, model-driven), Power Apps SDK, PAC CLI, Power Automate, Dataverse, Copilot Studio, Power Pages, Power BI, Power Fx, DAX
- Languages
- TypeScript, React, Vite, JavaScript, Python, SQL, PowerShell
- Data and integration
- SQL Server, SharePoint Online, Microsoft 365, Exchange Online, Microsoft Graph, REST and custom connectors
- Delivery
- Application lifecycle management, environment strategy, CI/CD pipelines, AI-assisted development with architect review
Questions we get early
Does everything have to become a code app?
No, and usually it shouldn't. Code apps have real limits today — no mobile or Windows app support, no embedding inside canvas or model-driven apps, no solution packager. Apps that need those stay where they are. We'll tell you which is which before you spend anything.
Our estate has no documentation. Is that a problem?
It's the normal starting condition. The assessment exists precisely because nobody can answer questions about an estate that grew organically. Undocumented isn't the same as unsalvageable.
Can you work alongside our internal team?
That's the intended shape. Most engagements include reviewing what your citizen developers build and setting the standards they build against, so capability stays in the building after the contract ends.
How do you engage commercially?
Remote, US clients, on corp-to-corp or 1099 terms through the LLC, with full coverage of US Eastern business hours. Assessment work is fixed-fee. Delivery is hourly or milestone-based, whichever suits your procurement.
Tell us what's slow, undocumented, or untouchable.
Send a short description of the estate and what prompted the question. You'll get an honest read on whether it's worth rebuilding — including when the answer is no.
darwin@northgateplatform.com