Building the Marra Centre of Excellence 

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle 

What is a Marra Centre of Excellence and why have we created one? 

A Centre of Excellence means many things, to many people, is it the CoE Starter Kit? Is it a concept centered by excellence? Is it like-minded people following similar ambition? Or is it the nucleus of sustainable innovation and governance? For us at Marra, it is all of that and so much more.  

All these factors played a significant part in the creation of our Centre of Excellence model. It wasn’t about just finding the right tool for the job or providing a “how to guide” it was about connection, collaboration and engagement with people and the Power Platform community.  

Creating a flexible and secure model  

Our Centre of Excellence model balances key business levers such as governance and innovation alongside each other, to ensure that creativity is encouraged to flourish, alongside appropriate protective guardrails to ensure safe usage of the platform. The Marra Centre of Excellence model is exceptionally flexible, to ensure at every stage there is enough governance, providing the ability to remain agile, but in a safe and secure manner. This allows nurturing of the technology platform, whilst ensuring that the guardrails are not too onerous, preventing organic innovation. 

The role of research was key 

It was important for us to research, review and take inspiration from different lenses of a Centre of Excellence to ensure our Centre of Excellence was understood, by all. It wasn’t a reinvention, a new concept, or a copy of something before, it needed to be relevant, applicable, and most importantly executable, for all.  

Supporting existing Power Platform customers  

The major benefit of having the Marra Centre of Excellence set up in this way is that the focus can be on specific areas depending upon the needs of the organisation. Businesses will have varying needs across the themes and topics and that’s where our Centre of Excellence Model and our Centre of Excellence Maturity Model and Assessment can really help identify those. 

Whether you are looking at venturing into the transformative world of Power Platform, whether you are just starting your Power Platform journey or are already well on your way to Power Platform greatness… we can help with the now, the next and the future.   

So, as Aristotle states… if we truly are what we repeatedly do, a Centre of Excellence is not an act but a habit we can continue to nourish, evolve, and organically grow, together. 

Want to know more about how we did it, what our Centre of Excellence Model contains and how to get started with a Maturity Assessment? Get in touch!

Written by Steph Thompson, Principal Consultant