Introducing Power Apps

First, what is Power Apps?

Power Apps is a suite of tools that makes it very easy to design, build and deploy custom applications that meet your business needs. Using Power Apps you can simply take any existing data that is stored at different data sources (ranging from things like Excel to SharePoint and Office365) and unified under the Common Data Service (which is the underlying data platform for the Power Platform). As such, the app-building experience is significantly simplified with Power Apps allowing users to create "feature-rich applications" without writing any code.

With Power Apps you can:

• Build an app in minutes without any prior knowledge

• Connect your application to different cloud services (like Translator) or various data sources

• Deploy and share your apps instantly with friends with a mobile and desktop experience

Essentially Power Apps is an visual app builder that has removed the requirement for knowledge on software development for businesses to create their own solutions. With an interface similar to PowerPoint mixed with Excel, it provides familiar ground for Microsoft users to quickly get started without any confusion. Getting started is intuitive and frictionless - it's built for business users and empowers them to do as intended.

How Power Apps can help businesses

In this digital world, businesses are now having to quickly transition away from their traditional paper-based systems to digital systems. This process of digital transformation can be quite overwhelming for businesses, with no clear pathway on what steps to take to move towards a more efficient and autonomous structure. Power Apps exists as one piece of this puzzle - a platform that can provide businesses with the ability to create applications that meet their own needs. As the people within these businesses themselves know their problems best, they are able to recognise what components are necessary when creating this digital solution.

Examples of specific use cases

Equipment in the field

Take for example, when company reps are monitoring a process or doing some form of auditing. Typically they'll carry around a clipboard with a bunch of paperwork and some checklists to regulate their process and ensure that they're meeting all of their required tasks. This creates a endless stack of paper trails which continues to grow as the company progresses.

With stacks and stacks of paper continuing to generate, it makes it difficult workers to keep track of, maintain and get rid off as they take on a spectrum of different projects. Instead, a more efficient and modern solution involves running an app on a tablet which provides the same, if not more information and ways to interact with that information. For example, the ability to look up individual pieces of equipment, manage the inventory and order new parts that are low on stock. All this can be customised and iterated based on the user (in this case the company reps) and what needs they specifically have.

Restaurant employee management

At restaurants, employees might fill out their work schedules or vacation requests on a piece of paper that's taped to the wall and a pen that's lying around. This necessitates a newly printed paper shcedule that needs to be replaced after that period has expired (weekly, fortnightly, monthly) until the end of time and just creates more waste and confusion if any changes need to be made. With Power Apps you can have an application that runs on everyone's smartphone which they can fill out, providing consistency on what everyone is seeing and accessibility to the form at any time. Moreover, you can have additional features that use this information such as sending reminders for when shifts are about to start and end, or even create schedules for replacements.