Hi! I’m Lewis.

I’m a Power Platform Consultant at Microsoft Gold Partner, HybrIT Services, as well as a number of other things! I’m also a Microsoft MVP in the Business Applications which I’ve been fortunate enough to receive through my various community activity. I’m the Operations Secretary and Lead for I.T. at Maxwell Swim Club, a Co-Chair for #NHSEmpower – More than applause, a user group leader and more!

Check out my appearance on #LessCodeMorePower with host Dona Sarkar below to see my work around a low-code solution for The Hazeley Academy whilst I was still an A-Level (High School) student, to aide resolving the issue of classroom emergencies.

Here’s a little bit about me and an insight into the start of my journey with the Microsoft stack and Power Platform!

Maxwell Swim Club

The start of my learning around Microsoft 365 as a wider platform commenced when I deployed Microsoft 365 and Teams for my local performance swimming clubs staff base as an upgrade to their email solution. I managed to turn around basic tenancy configuration and 25 user onboards within 24 hours, and began educating the club’s coach and volunteer base on streamlining administration processes using the new available tools.

Since, I have continued to manage the clubs IT platforms and implementation whilst occupying the role of Volunteer Operations Secretary. I have developed multiple Power Platform solutions for Maxwell including a trials and admissions management platform which includes facilities for coaching staff to provide trial session feedback, as well as a simple workforce management solution and more.

Less relevant to my tech journey – I was also a swimmer at Maxwell until 2018, when I became a coach. I’ve since finished my regular coaching sessions and now just provide coaching cover to Maxwell when necessary.

5 Dimensions Trust

After continuing to manage my swimming club’s Microsoft 365 tenancy, alongside my role as the lead for IT at my swimming club I began to engage in a range of Microsoft 365 related roles at my Sixth Form’s Multi-Academy Trust, the 5 Dimensions Trust. I started out by engaging in volunteering for the trusts tutoring program, Acceler8. This progressed into me becoming a Junior Power Platform Developer at the trust.

At the trust, I worked with 2 teams to build and deploy Power Platform and SharePoint solutions. I worked with the leadership team at Acceler8 Education, where I led the design, development and deployment of a Power Platform solution which a number of elements within the Power Platform, to provide a bespoke solution for managing student data and automation of administration processes such as automatically generating attendance registers and sending parents notification of upcoming sessions and absences.

Further to my work for Acceler8, I worked as part of the Digital Innovation team at the trust to develop and deploy Power Platform solutions bespoke to the educational needs of the 5DT schools. In this team I worked with Microsoft 365 enthusiasts and MIEE’s to provide better solutions to students and staff and both The Hazeley Academy and Shenley Brook End School. With over 10 solutions deployed in less than 1 year, some include a modern SharePoint communications platform and VLE to provide better availability to learning resources to the trusts students, incorporated into an easy to use platform, Microsoft Teams, via Viva Connections, a classroom emergency alerting solution, and Leave and Training request solutions.

HybrIT Services

I joined HybrIT Services part-time in April of 2022 whilst still studying for my A-Levels.

HybrIT is an IT Solutions Consultancy and Managed Services Provider, delivering business outcomes using cutting edge technical solutions. You can read more about HybrIT by heading to HybrIT.co.uk or get in touch if you’re looking into obtaining IT solutions or would like some consultancy.

Since joining HybrIT as an internal developer, I have gone through personal and skill based development to see me become a Power Platform consultant, where today I work with our customers to deliver a number of different solutions to fit our customers needs. Whilst my main role is no longer to primarily develop our internal systems, alongside the customer work I carry out, I also take an element of ownership of our internal Power Platform solutions as well as the governance and administration of our internal Power Platform and Dynamics 365 environments.

If you’d like some help with Power Platform at your organisation, let me know!