Today VE3 is making its Power Platform Readiness Framework available to any organisation looking to accelerate their adoption of Microsoft Power Platform and Power Automate. The framework is free to download, designed to be completed independently, and built from the questions VE3 uses at the start of every Power Platform engagement.

It is not a sales document. It is a working tool: a structured questionnaire that gives any organisation a clear, evidenced picture of where it stands across the full breadth of Power Platform readiness, from licensing and governance through to RPA infrastructure and application lifecycle management.

Why We Built This and Why We Are Sharing It

Every Power Platform programme VE3 has worked on has started with the same set of questions. Not questions about which features to use or which processes to automate, but foundational questions about the organisation's readiness to build and sustain a governed Power Platform deployment at scale.

Which licensing model is genuinely cheapest for this usage profile? What DLP policies are in place, and do they cover the connectors the programme needs? Who owns the CoE, and has that been agreed before the first environment is created? Is there an on-premises data gateway requirement, and has the infrastructure been scoped? What happens to an app when its maker leaves?

These questions are not difficult to answer. They are difficult to remember to ask before the programme is already in motion. The Readiness Framework exists to make sure they are asked, verified, and recorded before a single pound is committed to build.

We share it openly because a better-prepared organisation makes for a faster, more successful programme, and because the framework itself is not where VE3 adds value. The value comes from turning the answers into a costed, risk-assessed, sequenced roadmap. Any organisation can complete the questionnaire. What VE3 adds is the interpretation.

What the Framework Covers

The framework works across 11 structured domains, each covering a distinct area of programme readiness.

1. Business Context covers use cases, priorities, and success criteria: the foundation that every subsequent domain decision should be tested against.

2. Tenant and Environment covers M365 configuration, existing environment structure, and DLP policy. This domain consistently surfaces the ungoverned default environment problem and the absence of a deliberate environment strategy.

3. Data and Integration covers source systems, APIs, data stores, and connector requirements. The data store decision, between Dataverse, SharePoint, and SQL, is one of the most consequential architecture choices in any Power Platform programme.

4. Security and Compliance covers InfoSec controls, GDPR obligations, Cyber Essentials requirements, and conditional access policy. In regulated environments, this domain determines architecture constraints that must be resolved before build begins.

5. Infrastructure and Network covers connectivity, endpoint requirements, and the on-premises data gateway dependency that is most frequently confirmed too late in the build cycle.

6. Governance covers CoE ownership, environment strategy, and ways of working. The absence of a named CoE owner before programme launch is the single most common governance failure in scaled Power Platform deployments.

7. Users and Adoption covers the maker model, training requirements, and change management approach.

8. Licensing and Budget covers current entitlements, the cost ownership model, and the basis on which licensing decisions will be made.

9. Power Automate Licensing covers the attended vs unattended RPA decision, per-user vs per-flow licensing, and the concurrency modelling that determines actual licence cost.

10. Existing RPA covers incumbent tools, migration scope, and the transition approach for organisations moving from Blue Prism, UiPath, or other RPA platforms.

11. ALM and DevOps covers pipeline design, source control, branching strategy, and the environment promotion process that determines how solutions move from development to production.

Each question in the framework includes a Decision Impact column explaining why the answer matters, what it influences downstream, and where the cost and architecture consequences sit. Gaps and TBC answers are findings in themselves: they identify exactly where to focus before build begins.

What the Framework Produces

The framework produces two things when completed. The first is a clear picture of organisational readiness: a domain-by-domain assessment of what is confirmed, what is unknown, and what needs to be resolved before the programme can proceed at pace.

The second is a structured basis for engagement. Organisations that share their completed framework with VE3 ahead of a discovery workshop accelerate the scoping process significantly. The workshop starts from verified answers rather than assumptions, and the output, a sequenced acceleration roadmap, a RAID log, a decision log, and a licensing cost model, reflects the organisation's actual context rather than a generic set of recommendations.

What a completed framework gives you

A domain-by-domain readiness picture across all 11 areas of programme risk.

A prioritised list of gaps and unknowns to resolve before build begins.

A structured basis for procurement specification or discovery workshop engagement.

Worked examples of the RAID log and decision log outputs a VE3 discovery produces.

Who It Is For

The framework was developed from VE3's work with Blue Light organisations and is available via Blue Light Commercial. It is also available for any public sector or enterprise organisation approaching a Power Platform programme, regardless of sector or scale.

It is designed for IT Directors and Heads of Digital who are planning a programme and want a structured way to assess readiness before committing budget. It is useful for procurement teams going to market for Power Platform or RPA services who need a specification grounded in verified organisational requirements. And it is valuable for any organisation that already has Power Platform in place and wants to assess whether its current deployment is as governed, scalable, and cost-efficient as it should be.

The Thought Leadership Series

Alongside the framework, VE3 has published a series of articles covering the decisions that most frequently determine whether a Power Platform programme accelerates or stalls. Each article is grounded in the framework domains and designed to be useful whether or not the reader has downloaded the framework itself.

1. Why Power Platform Programmes Stall Before They Start: The Hidden Assumptions That Cost You

2. Dataverse vs SharePoint vs SQL: How to Choose Your Power Platform Data Store

3. Building a Power Platform Centre of Excellence: What Ownership Really Means

4. The On-Premises Data Gateway: The Most Underestimated Dependency in Every Programme

5. Attended vs Unattended RPA: The Decision Most Organisations Get Wrong

6. Shadow IT and the Ungoverned Power Platform Environment Problem

The series will continue with articles covering M365 E3 and E5 entitlements, ALM pipeline design, and migration from incumbent RPA platforms.

Download the Framework

The Power Platform Readiness Framework is available to download now at power platform. It is free, available to complete independently, and designed for any organisation at any stage of their Power Platform journey.

For organisations that want VE3 to turn their completed assessment into a costed acceleration roadmap, our Power Platform team runs structured half-day discovery workshops that produce a sequenced delivery plan, RAID log, decision log, and licensing cost model.

About VE3

VE3 is a global technology and consulting partner specialising in enterprise AI, data, and digital transformation. A Microsoft Solutions Partner across multiple solution areas, the company works with public sector bodies, Blue Light organisations, and enterprise clients across financial services, healthcare, energy and utilities, and manufacturing. To discuss Power Platform, RPA, or the VE3 Readiness Framework, contact your VE3 representative or visit ve3.global.