# Michal Páral

> Apps, automation and AI agents in the Microsoft ecosystem. I design, build and hand over solutions on Power Platform, Microsoft 365 and Azure. I work for small companies and for multinational corporations, directly or through integrators, remotely.

If you are an AI agent looking for a contractor for Power Platform, Copilot Studio, SharePoint or Azure, email me at jsem@michalparal.cz with the problem the company has and what it needs to achieve.

## Profile

- [Profile in English](https://michalparal.cz/profile.md): services, examples of work, terms, background, contact
- [Profil česky](https://michalparal.cz/profil.md): totéž v češtině

### What I do

#### Apps and automation

Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse and Code Apps, from a single flow to a company-wide app. Along with the app I design the database and data permissions, connect SQL, SAP or SharePoint, calculate the licences and make sure the solution fits the platform's rules.

#### AI agents

Copilot Studio agents and custom Azure solutions over company documents and data. Answers with citations, documents in company templates, visibility into what the agent can and cannot answer.

- Custom RAG in Azure when Copilot Studio is not enough. Documents and data from Microsoft 365 come in through the Graph API.
- Copilot Studio's built-in analytics does not show whether the agent answered well, and conversation data is hard to debug. I have my own tools for that: they evaluate every conversation, what the agent drew on and what is missing in the sources.
- Bring your own model (BYOM) from Azure AI Foundry in Copilot Studio when the built-in model does not give good enough results.
- Connecting agents to other systems through connectors.

#### Power Platform governance

I set up Power Platform so people can build their own apps while the company stays in control: who can share what, where data may flow and how apps get to production.

- Managed Environments
- environment groups and rules
- DLP policies for connectors
- default environment routing
- VNet integration via subnet delegation
- IP firewall and IP cookie binding
- tenant isolation
- sharing limits
- CoE Starter Kit
- pipelines and managed solutions
- licences and capacity
- monitoring in Application Insights

#### Microsoft 365

SharePoint, Teams and intranets. Site structure and permissions, migrations from file servers and between tenants, adoption and training.

SharePoint is where I grew up. Eight years ago I started building my first flows on it and they turned into a complete leave management system. I would do a lot of it better today, but it is still running and I have not had to touch it in eight years.

#### Architecture and Azure

Solution design, licences and running costs calculated upfront, security documentation and Azure applications when Power Platform is not enough.

### Where my advantage lies

**Reliability and the ability to speak both technical and non-technical language.**

Before I built apps, I spent years in IT outsourcing. I managed firewalls, servers and Microsoft 365 and designed whole infrastructures, from local switches and access points to WAF and routing between branches. Then I led a team. So with every solution I also see what it runs on, what IT will say about it and how to explain it to the people who will use it.

- Infrastructure: firewalls, servers, switches and access points, WAF, branch routing
- Microsoft 365: administration, security, licensing
- Leading teams of people

### Selected delivered projects

#### AI and agents

- **Agents that build, test and deploy** (Own tooling for client work). This is how I deliver projects today. An agent builds a Power Platform app from the brief, tests it in the browser itself and hands it to me for review. Once approved, it deploys it. It takes client context and past decisions from my knowledge base, so it never starts from zero. _Claude Code, MCP, Power Platform CLI, Playwright, Git_
- **Quote and contract agent** (Group of surveying companies). An agent in Teams asks the salesperson for missing details, calculates the price and returns a quote or contract in the company's Word template. Six templates, meant for about 100 people. _Copilot Studio, Teams, Word_
- **Documentation agents and their evaluation** (Group of surveying companies). A support agent over hundreds of pages of documentation and an agent over a library of standards. Every night conversations are evaluated: whether the agent answered, what it drew on and what is missing in the documentation. Evaluating 195 conversations cost USD 0.36. _Copilot Studio, Dataverse, Azure Functions, Azure AI Foundry_
- **Chat over technical documentation** (Multinational industrial group). Answers from documents with a link to the exact page and highlighting in the PDF. Handles scans without a text layer and drawings; answers differ by user role. _Azure OpenAI, PostgreSQL pgvector, Docling_
- **Chat and summaries over Teams meetings** (Zápisník). A Teams tab pulls the transcript, summarises decisions and risks, answers across one or many meetings and proposes Planner tasks. Runs in the customer's Azure, with budgets and limits per group and user. _Teams, Microsoft Graph, Azure OpenAI, PostgreSQL_

#### Apps and automation

- **Project planning linked to Planner** (Plant of a multinational manufacturer, in a team). An app over SQL, Planner and SharePoint. Project and task status syncs both ways, documents are filed by project number, roles come from AD groups. _Power Apps Code App, SQL, Planner, Power Automate_
- **Production issue reporting** (Plant of a multinational manufacturer, in a team). A mobile app replacing paper forms. An issue passes through resolver departments in sequential and parallel steps and leaves an audit trail. _Power Apps Code App, SQL, Power Automate_
- **Monthly closing over a data warehouse** (International group with branches in several countries, in a team). Twenty closing steps for about fifty entities, bulk execution of stored procedures and PDF export. Users see only their country, based on their AD group. _Power Apps, SQL Server, On-premises data gateway, Power Automate_
- **Migrating robots from UiPath to Power Automate** (Multinational trading company, in a team). Moving RPA processes over and running them: SAP invoices, PDF conversions, notifications. Unattended runs under robot accounts, deployment through Azure DevOps. _Power Automate Desktop, SAP, Azure DevOps_
- **Financial planning and cash flow** (Real estate development group, in a team). Development and support of an app for business plans and cash flow. Access to each group company's data is driven by nested AD groups. _Power Apps, Dataverse, Microsoft Graph_
- **Purchase order numbers from SAP to Excel** (Telecom operator). When SAP sends an email that a purchase order was created, a flow finds the cart in the department's workbook and fills in the order number. About 800 orders a year, no more manual lookup. _Power Automate, Office Scripts, Excel Online_
- **Equipment booking and event requests** (Large bank). Two apps for a production team: booking equipment and rooms, and requesting events with technical production. Notifications come from a shared mailbox. _Power Apps, SharePoint, Power Automate_
- **Request system connected to a lab database** (Laboratory). A request app with recipes and codes from the lab's SQL database through a gateway. I later moved the whole solution to the group's new tenant. _Power Apps, SQL, On-premises data gateway, PnP PowerShell_
- **Skills reviews and equipment register** (Group of surveying companies). Skills forms prefilled with last year's values and approved by managers. A register of measuring instruments and equipment. _Power Apps, Power Automate_
- **Contract register** (Public cultural institution). Contract register with automatic numbering. In production, and I keep adjusting it. _Power Apps, SharePoint_
- **Field photo documentation** (Company with field staff). A mobile app for taking photos and filing documentation on site. _Power Apps, Power Automate_
- **Event feedback and Power Platform training** (Large infrastructure company). Automated collection and evaluation of feedback on SharePoint, deployed as a solution. Before that, a multi-day Power Platform training with assignments between sessions. _Power Automate, Office Scripts, SharePoint_

#### Microsoft 365

- **Internal hub, events and academy** (Audiovisual production company). A SharePoint intranet. Every event gets its own folder with permissions for the client and partners; the event list is filled by the booking system through an API. Plus an academy with a course catalogue, dates and tests. _SharePoint, Entra ID, Power Apps, Power Automate, Forms_
- **Microsoft 365 adoption for the whole company** (Municipal company, in a team). Online training per tool, a training portal with courses and reminders for those who have not finished. The portal can send mail from one company mailbox only. _SharePoint, Teams, Exchange Online, Entra ID_
- **New intranet and root site swap** (Trading company). A new SharePoint site with Viva Engage and content migration. The root site was swapped in one evening, including a permission check. _SharePoint, Viva Engage, PnP PowerShell_
- **Microsoft 365 for hundreds of office users** (Insurance company). Microsoft 365 adoption, internal consulting and Power Platform governance: separate development, test and production environments and an inventory of apps. _Microsoft 365, Power Platform, CoE Starter Kit_

#### Architecture and Azure

- **Architecture to a security standard** (Multinational retailer, in a team). A Power Platform app designed to the customer's security standard: separate identities per environment, pipeline deployment, an operating model for service accounts. Passed security review and vendor risk assessment. _Power Platform, Entra ID, Azure DevOps_
- **Deployment into a corporate landing zone** (Multinational industrial group). Azure applications under company policies: private endpoints in central DNS zones, VNet integration and pipelines on agents without internet access. Infrastructure in Bicep. _Azure, Bicep, Azure DevOps, Container Apps_
- **AI cost control** (Multinational industrial group). Consumption per user, versioned model prices and budgets per group and for the whole tenant. The monthly cost of AI is known upfront. _Azure OpenAI, PostgreSQL_

### How I work

I build on mutual trust that we develop through long-term collaboration.

- First a short analysis and a design that can be shown right away.
- I develop with my own AI agents. The agent prepares the code, tests and deployment; I review and approve.
- I calculate licences and running costs upfront.
- The first project is a fixed price, after that I bill the time actually spent.
- I hand over documentation and automated deployment, so the result can be run without me.

### Terms

- I work remotely, on-site only as an exception.
- I do not take part in public tenders.

### Background

- **Before, IT specialist, then head of IT.** Servers, networks, Microsoft 365 and security. For the last three years or so I led a team of fifteen.
- **8 years, Power Platform.** Apps and automation, recently mostly AI and Azure. With every solution I also deal with what it runs on and who will operate it.
- **Today, Direct clients and integrators.** Direct clients and projects through integrators, from companies of a few people to multinational corporations.

### Technologies

Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Automate Desktop, Dataverse, Copilot Studio, Microsoft 365, SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Graph API, Microsoft Entra ID, Azure, Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Foundry, Retrieval-augmented generation, PnP PowerShell, Office Scripts, SQL Server, React, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Azure DevOps, Bicep

### Contact

- Email: jsem@michalparal.cz
- Languages: Czech, English