Canada's National Ballet School · Microsoft 365 · Power Automate

Project
Arabesque

An end-to-end IT automation system for international student onboarding and offboarding — built on tools NBS already owns, deployable on day one.

Power Automate SharePoint Online Microsoft Forms Office 365 Outlook Low-Code Integration IT Asset Management
3
SharePoint systems built
2
Automated cloud flows
4
Email automations live
0
Vendor contracts required

The Challenge

A world-class institution
deserves invisible IT.

Canada's National Ballet School is one of North America's only institutions offering elite dance training, full academic programming, and on-campus residence — all in one place. International boarding students arrive every semester from around the world. Each one needs a Microsoft 365 account, a configured device, network access, and residence coordination. Without automation, that's a manual checklist for a team of two.

The Scale Problem

300+ staff, students, visiting choreographers, and international partners — all supported by a small IT team. Manual onboarding doesn't scale without breaking something important.

The Stakes Problem

This isn't a tech company. When something breaks the morning of a performance, or a student arrives and their account isn't ready, it matters in a way that a missed meeting notification never does.

The Tooling Problem

The solution shouldn't require a $40,000 enterprise platform or a vendor contract. NBS already pays for Microsoft 365. The tools to solve this are already in the building.

The International Variable

Students arrive from Japan, Brazil, South Korea, the UK — different time zones, language needs, arrival dates. The onboarding process needs to work without manual coordination every time.

The Solution

Three systems.
Two flows. Zero manual steps.

Project Arabesque is a Microsoft 365 IT Operations Hub built entirely on tools NBS already owns. No new software. No vendor contract. No training required for staff who submit requests.

ONBOARDING FLOW Microsoft Forms Student submits intake request Power Automate Cloud flow triggered automatically 📋 SharePoint Tracker 📧 Welcome Email → Student 🚨 IT Alert Checklist 🏷️ Asset Inventory Log OFFBOARDING FLOW SharePoint Item Departure logged by IT team Power Automate Offboarding flow triggered 🚨 IT Offboard Checklist 📧 Student Confirmation 📋 Offboarding Log Updated NBS IT Portal SharePoint 3 Lists Live Audit Trail

Phase 1 — Foundation

The NBS IT Portal

Three SharePoint lists form the operational backbone — a live onboarding tracker, an offboarding log, and a device asset inventory. Every student, every ticket, every device: one portal.

Student Onboarding Tracker with live data showing Yuki Tanaka from Japan and Alex Johnson from Bangladesh
Student Onboarding Tracker — NBS IT Portal · nirjala.sharepoint.com · Live test data: two international students (Japan, Bangladesh)
IT Asset Inventory list in SharePoint NBS IT Portal
IT Asset Inventory — device lifecycle tracking across campus hardware. Columns: Asset Tag, Device Type, Assigned To, Warranty Expiry, Status

Phase 2 — Automation

Two flows.
Every student, every time.

Flow 01
Student IT Onboarding
  1. Student or admin submits the NBS International Student IT Onboarding Request via Microsoft Forms
  2. Power Automate cloud flow triggers immediately — no manual action required
  3. Student record is created in the Student Onboarding Tracker SharePoint list with full intake data
  4. Personalized welcome email sent automatically to the student confirming their IT setup is underway
  5. IT team receives an action checklist email: Create M365 account · Assign device · Grant network access · Notify residence
NBS International Student IT Onboarding Request form with 7 fields
NBS International Student IT Onboarding Request — 7 fields, required validation, auto-routes to Power Automate on submission
Flow 02
Student IT Offboarding
  1. IT team logs departure in the Student Offboarding Log — triggers Power Automate automatically
  2. IT team receives a complete offboarding checklist: Disable M365 account · Reclaim license · Collect device · Archive data · Remove all system access
  3. Student receives a professional departure confirmation from the IT department
  4. Offboarding log is updated — full audit trail maintained for every student lifecycle event
NBS Student Departure Offboarding Power Automate flow configuration
NBS — Student Departure & Offboarding flow · Trigger: SharePoint item created in Student Off boarding Log · Site: nirjala.sharepoint.com/sites/NBSITPortal

Business Impact

What this actually saves.

Every manual onboarding takes an IT team member approximately 45 minutes end-to-end. Every offboarding, 30 minutes. With 20–30 international students per semester, that's significant time reclaimed — and zero steps missed.

45min
Saved per student onboarding — fully automated from form submission to IT alert
~20hr
Recovered per semester for a 25-student cohort — time better spent on infrastructure
100%
Audit trail coverage — every student lifecycle event logged in SharePoint automatically
$0
New software cost — built entirely on existing Microsoft 365 infrastructure
2
Live Power Automate flows tested and operational — onboarding and offboarding
3
SharePoint systems deployed — tracker, log, and asset inventory live in NBS IT Portal

Technical Stack

Built on what you already own.

No new vendors. No new licenses. Every component of Project Arabesque runs on Microsoft 365 — the same platform NBS already administers.

📋Microsoft Forms
⚡Power Automate
📂SharePoint Online
📧Office 365 Outlook
💬Microsoft Teams
☁️Microsoft 365 Cloud
🔒Entra ID (M365)
📊Low-Code / API Logic

Why This Matters

"A ballet dancer doesn't think about the network when she's streaming a rehearsal recording. A choreographer doesn't think about SharePoint when he's pulling up last season's production notes. They just need it to work. Quietly. Invisibly. Every time. That's what Project Arabesque is built for — so that what happens on stage looks effortless, because everything behind the curtain already is."

Md Rahat Islam Anik

Cloud Computing & Network Administration · George Brown College · May 2026