Table of Contents
If you’re a CIO running Microsoft Fabric, you’ve already done the hard part. The data foundation is in place, with OneLake holding the data and governance flowing through Purview. What’s left is the question every business leader keeps asking: when do we get the apps?
Business applications on Microsoft Fabric are the planning, forecasting, and operational tools that sit on top of the data foundation. They’re the layer where users actually act on data instead of just looking at it. Finance teams forecast in them, supply chain teams plan with them, and HR teams use them to model headcount and compensation. Turning Fabric into that layer is where most CIOs are spending time in 2026.
Here’s how to think about it.
What Sits Above Fabric’s Foundation
A dashboard shows data. An app lets people act on it. Most of the operational value sits in the second layer.
Fabric covers a lot natively. OneLake handles storage. The Lakehouse and Warehouse provide analytics, and Power BI sits on top for reporting. Microsoft’s Fabric Extensibility Toolkit supports custom workloads built into the platform, and Microsoft’s Fabric Plan capability previews native EPM and CPM functions inside Fabric IQ.
All of that sits at the platform layer. The application layer above it is different. It’s where domain logic lives, including the planning models, approval workflows, multi-user editing, ERP integrations, and configurable UX that turn data into the apps people actually use.
Why Custom Development Isn’t the Practical Choice for Most Teams
There are two ways to deliver business apps that run on Fabric.
Option 1: Build Custom on Fabric
Custom development uses the Fabric Extensibility Toolkit, User Data Functions, and direct integration with the data layer. It works well when an application is unique to the organization, or when in-house engineering is part of how IT operates. Microsoft’s tooling has improved meaningfully over the past year, and for the right team, the path is real.
For most teams, though, custom isn’t practical.
FP&A, S&OP, workforce planning, scenario modeling, and the dozens of operational apps a typical organization needs are well-understood categories. Building each one from primitives takes quarters per app and creates engineering debt that competes with every other IT priority. Configuring a customizable applications platform that already covers these categories takes weeks per app. That’s the math most enterprises run, and most land on the same answer.
There’s also an opportunity-cost argument here. Engineering teams that spend two quarters building a custom forecasting app aren’t shipping the AI agent, the integration with the new acquisition, or any of the other things only the in-house team can do. A configurable platform frees that capacity for the work that actually requires it.
Option 2: Use a Customizable Applications Platform
A customizable applications platform extends Fabric with pre-built apps and configuration tooling. It inherits Fabric’s governance, identity, and storage, and the apps come pre-built for the categories most enterprises actually need. Configuring an app takes weeks instead of quarters, and it doesn’t pull engineering capacity away from the work only IT can do.
That’s the math most enterprises run, and most land on the same answer. Acterys is one of the platforms in this category, and Microsoft selected it over 25 competitors to embed in Microsoft Dynamics.
What Acterys Augmented Business Applications Cover
Acterys ships its application portfolio under the Augmented Business Applications product line. The breadth is the point. A single platform covers finance, supply chain, workforce, and industry-specific apps without re-architecting the stack each time.
A representative sample of what comes pre-built or configurable:
Function or Industry | Example Apps in the Acterys Portfolio |
Finance and FP&A | Budgeting and forecasting, scenario planning, financial close and consolidation, cash flow forecasting |
Supply Chain and S&OP | Demand planning, inventory optimization, distribution network performance, procurement planning |
Workforce and HR | Headcount planning, recruitment optimization, employee performance tracking |
Sales and Marketing | Sales pipeline forecasting, customer lifetime value analytics, campaign performance tracking |
Healthcare | Medication inventory and demand forecasting, patient scheduling and resource optimization |
Retail and FMCG | Demand planning, dynamic pricing and promotions management, retail execution |
Financial Services | Fraud detection and risk management, portfolio analytics, customer creditworthiness analysis |
Transportation and Logistics | Fleet optimization and route planning, last-mile delivery management, warehouse optimization |
Manufacturing | Production capacity planning, machine utilization analysis, supply chain risk management |
Government and Public Sector | Public budget allocation and tracking, citizen service request resolution, emergency response planning |
Each entry is a real app category with established workflows and clear ROI. The breadth matters because the alternative for most CIOs is procuring a separate SaaS product for every one of them and managing the integration and audit overhead that comes with running ten different vendor stacks.
How Acterys Extends Fabric for Business Apps
Acterys runs inside Microsoft Power BI, Excel, and Fabric. Instead of asking finance and operations teams to learn a new planning portal, it adds the planning capability to the tools they’re already using.
Power BI and Excel-Native Experience
Acterys ships nine Power BI visuals: Matrix, Smart XL, Table Edit, Variance, Reporting, Comments, Visual Planning, Copy, and Gantt. Together with the native Excel Add-in, they turn Power BI reports and Excel spreadsheets into planning front-ends.
Users plan and forecast directly inside reports, with every input writing back to the Fabric data layer in real time. There’s no context-switching to a separate planning tool, which is the single biggest reason adoption tends to be faster than with standalone planning platforms.
Pre-Built Models and 1-Click ERP Connectors
Time-to-value is where this approach pays off. Acterys includes pre-built models for P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, workforce, and consolidation, with 1-click connectors to SAP, Oracle NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Workday, ADP, Xero, and QuickBooks. Combined with Rapid Results Packs and configurable templates, organizations typically get their first production app live in days rather than the weeks or quarters custom builds usually need.
A finance team can have a working FP&A app integrated with the live ERP in a week or two, then move on to S&OP or workforce planning without re-architecting anything underneath. That’s the difference between a platform investment that amortizes across the application portfolio and a custom build that amortizes against just one app.
Configuration, Not Code
If business users can’t adjust planning models themselves, IT becomes the bottleneck. The Acterys Modeller is a drag-and-drop environment for building and configuring models without writing code.
Business users adjust forecasts and scenario logic directly. IT keeps governance and identity controls intact through the Fabric foundation underneath. This is what makes the customizable platform approach scale across functions without becoming an IT bottleneck of its own. When a department asks for a new app, the answer is a configuration sprint rather than another six-month engineering engagement.
The Engine Underneath
Underneath the visuals and the Modeller is the planning engine. It handles concurrent users at scale, approval workflows, multi-level commenting, and full audit trails. Acterys operates under SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, and the planning engine inherits that governance model. For finance and operations teams used to wrestling with spreadsheet sprawl during planning cycles, this is the layer that makes governed multi-user planning work without the controls feeling like overhead.
Identity flows through Microsoft Entra ID. Governance applies through Microsoft Purview. Data lives in OneLake. From an IT perspective, there’s no separate SaaS stack to secure or manage on the side.
One Foundation, Many Applications
Microsoft Fabric handles the data platform. Acterys extends it with the application layer that turns Fabric into the apps your teams actually use day to day. Together, they deliver a path from data foundation to working FP&A, S&OP, workforce, and industry-specific apps without forcing CIOs to choose between custom development quarters and SaaS sprawl.
If you’re weighing how to deliver the next round of business apps on Fabric, get in touch with the Acterys team to see how the platform works in production.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you actually build apps on Microsoft Fabric, or is it just for analytics?
You can build both. Fabric’s Extensibility Toolkit and User Data Functions let teams build custom workloads directly on the data layer, and platforms like Acterys extend that with pre-built apps you configure instead of code. Most enterprises end up using both for different needs.
What kinds of business apps work best on Fabric?
FP&A, S&OP, workforce planning, scenario modeling, and financial close are the most common categories, but the platform also handles industry-specific use cases like fleet optimization, demand planning, fraud detection, and patient scheduling. If the app needs concurrent multi-user editing, governed writeback, or pre-built ERP integration, it’s a good fit.
How do you extend Microsoft Fabric for business needs?
Two paths. Custom development uses the Fabric Extensibility Toolkit and User Data Functions, with the IT team building and maintaining each app. A customizable applications platform like Acterys extends Fabric with pre-built apps you configure, deploying business apps in days rather than the quarters typical of custom builds.
What’s the difference between a Power BI report and a business app on Fabric?
Reports show data and are optimized for analysis. Business apps combine analytics with domain logic, multi-user concurrent editing, approval workflows, pre-built integrations, and a configurable UX for a specific function. Reports help users understand data; apps help them act on it.
Is Acterys a replacement for Microsoft Fabric?
No. Acterys runs on Microsoft Fabric and extends it with a customizable applications platform. Identity flows through Microsoft Entra ID, governance through Microsoft Purview, and data lives in OneLake. The two work together: Fabric provides the data platform, Acterys provides the application layer.
