Well I’m not sure what to really call it, but let’s just call it what it is, a “low-code no-code revolution”. For years, business transformation was at the direction of IT and executive leadership. Now, with Microsoft’s Power Platform, users with low to moderate technical skills can create applications, automate processes, and explore data on their own.
Creating applications typically required that users have technical or coding experience. With the introduction of Microsoft Power Platform, building applications and automating workflows is easier than ever before.
When PowerApps was introduced in January of 2017, Microsoft was promoting the idea of building simple business apps for mobile devices. The technology would enable users to build applications using a drag-and-drop interface and would offer the flexibility to customize the app.
We approached PowerApps and power automate with caution and assumed that the new technology would be “brittle” and certain functionality may be limited. We did discover that PowerApps applications we’re only shareable with internal users based on Microsoft licensing. Even with the limitations, we have discovered that there are a wide variety of applications for PowerApps and for many customers PowerApps will deliver exactly what they need.
Here are a few things that we really like about PowerApps:
Build Apps Quickly
As a firm that has deep-expertise in custom development and building .NET applications, we recognize that some apps take a great deal of time to build and deploy. PowerApps reduces the amount of time that it will take to get an app into production. PowerApp developers can build apps quickly and iterate based on user feedback in real time. The speed and efficiency in which we can publish an app and share it across an organization makes PowerApps a worthwhile consideration.
Leverage Your Investment in Microsoft 365
Because PowerApps is a Microsoft 365 application, it connects with data that resides in other applications in the Microsoft ecosystem like Microsoft SQL Server, OneDrive and SharePoint. We have helped customers leverage their investment in Microsoft 365 by introducing them to Microsoft PowerApps.
Take a Modern Workplace Approach to Building Business Efficiency
Automating and optimizing processes requires device flexibility. Microsoft PowerApps allows you to deploy an app to a mobile device. Once the app is downloaded, users can populate forms kick off workflows, and Interact with the app from wherever they are working. We have seen many applications for Microsoft PowerApps with field personnel, in manufacturing environments and in successfully enabling remote workers.
PowerApps is a useful and powerful application that will help organizations streamline processes and optimizes organizational efficiency. In addition, PowerApps will enable organizations to better leverage their business data. And, like other applications within the Microsoft 365 sweet, new features and more functionality are being introduced on a regular basis and the cloud application remains up-to-date.