6 Common Microsoft Power Apps Use Cases

6 Common Microsoft Power Apps Use Cases

In our previous blog, we discussed how Microsoft Power Apps can be used to help close feature gaps in your ERP solution. In this post, we’ll address how customers often get started using Power Apps.

Many customers start with creating applications to address a nuisance they’re trying to resolve. Below are some common use cases of how Power Apps can improve organizational processes and efficiency:

  • Data Input/Entry – Streamline data entry and reduce input errors by building forms and applications that can reference data in your ERP
  • Document Upload – Using the camera and hardware on mobile devices to scan documents  – and with the addition of machine learning on the backend and AI – relevant information can be extrapolated off documents to be uploaded into Dynamics 365, SharePoint, Excel, or other SaaS solutions
  • Office Reservation – With people today going in and out of offices, Power Apps can be set up to reserve meeting and conference room spaces
  • Employee/Customer Portals – If employees or customers need to securely interact with business applications remotely, you can enable that with Microsoft Power App portals
  • Paid Time Off (PTO) Apps – Simplify employees requesting paid time off, tracking approvals, and seeing how many PTO days they have available
  • Barcode Scanning – With mobile applications in PowerApps, you can access hardware on your cell phone or tablet and use the camera on the device to scan barcodes – or with the addition of AI – it can scan and recognize objects based off of shape and a database on the back-end for managing inventory

As a Microsoft partner, we work with our customers to identify what is the problem they’re trying to solve, what is the solution, and what are the steps to get to the solution. We’ll then work hand-in-hand with customers to show how the app is developed, how to interact with that app, and how to add features with that app in the future.

Reach out to get started with Microsoft Power Apps and easily build applications to improve your organizational productivity and efficiency.

Close ERP Gaps with Microsoft Power Apps

Close ERP Gaps with Microsoft Power Apps

Say your ERP solution is fulfilling 80-90% of your organizational needs but there’s still that “one thing”, that one feature that everybody – whether it’s the end-user or customer – wishes they had an application for to make performing a task or their job easier.

If this sounds familiar, what you’re facing is commonly known as “The App Gap”. The traditional answer to closing the App Gap is custom application development, but that requires front and back end developers, DevOps, and an infrastructure to host the application. In short, it can be expensive and time-consuming.

As organizations recognize the need to fill the App Gap, they are looking to low-code/no-code technology. According to Gartner as much as 70% of applications will be developed using low-code/no-code, including AI by 2025.

With Microsoft Power Platform and Power Apps, you can fill the App Gap and solve business issues without needing to know programming. Power Apps uses low-code/no-code application development to build powerful applications with little to no need of previous application development knowledge. It easily connects to other software or SaaS and integrates with Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Teams, and is accessible via the web and mobile devices.

Contact us today to learn more about how Power Apps enables businesses to turn ideas into organizational solutions.

Power BI: The Bridge between Data and Decisions

Power BI: The Bridge between Data and Decisions

Part of the Microsoft Power Platform toolset, Microsoft PowerBI is a cloud-based platform for self-service and enterprise business intelligence.

Microsoft Power BI combines an intuitive user experience with intelligent data visualizations and allows organizations to transform, shape and merge their data – from multiple systems or data sources – into compelling and interactive reports to provide greater depth of data insight.

With today’s unpredictable markets, organizations need to prioritize a data-driven and think more carefully about decisions being made at all levels. By leveraging Power BI businesses can:

  • Have a unified view of all business data imported from any source online or on-premises, with a library of over 500+ connectors
  • Analyze and visualize data through interactive reports and dashboards that can be drilled down into
  • Securely access reports from any location on any device
  • Streamline collaboration and easily share information across the organization within Microsoft productivity tools like Team and SharePoint
  • Make informed data-driven business decisions with confidence

Ready to maximize the value of your technology investments and turn your data into meaningful insights that impact your bottom line? Reach out today for a consultation or demo of Power BI’s capabilities.

Why Do I Need a Business Intelligence Solution?

Why Do I Need a Business Intelligence Solution?

With the amount of data stored by companies growing exponentially, business intelligence (BI) grows ever more important as organizations need to translate that data to meaningful insights that will support future growth and strategies.

As BI technology has advanced, deployment, licensing, and support options have made it more accessible for organizations of all sizes. Virtually every business can benefit from BI. Specific issues or scenarios that are good indicators a BI discussion should take place include:

  • The need to integrate data from multiple business applications or data sources
  • Lack of visibility into the company’s operations, finances, and other areas
  • The need to access relevant business data quickly and efficiently
  • Increasing volume of users requiring and accessing information and more end-users requiring analytical capabilities
  • Rapid company growth or a recent or pending merger/acquisition
  • Introduction of new products
  • Upgrades within the IT environment

There are several benefits a BI solution offers to an organization regardless of size:

 

Share information efficiently and effectively across your organization

BI makes it easy for everyone – from decision-makers to functional teams – to access and analyze up-to-date information anytime, anywhere.  Everyone throughout the company can make better decisions, faster.

 

Empower your people

Providing employees with access to analytical data that is readily available and understandable allows them to work more effectively and support the overall business strategy.

 

Simplify collaboration and improve alignment with a single source for accurate financial and operational information

Having a single, central location allows you to monitor your key performance indicators (KPIs), access reports, analyze your data, and share documents. Functional areas can align to articulate strategies, set objectives, and monitor the organization’s performance so you can make better informed and timely strategic decisions.

 

Deliver meaningful analysis and reporting

Readily track and analyze KPIs against key business goals to gain a better understanding of how your business is performing today and not when it’s too late to impact performance.

 

Have a solution with the scalability and flexibility to grow and change as your organization does

Most companies still have their valuable data stored in services or massive Excel spreadsheets. While Excel has many useful features it doesn’t scale to your business, but it doesn’t scale to your business and compiling data from multiple, disparate databases is time-consuming and is prone to errors.

With Microsoft’s Power BI – a cloud-based, self-service business intelligence solution – you have a tool that can scale and grow with your business. It allows you to consolidate and analyze data from different sources, combining them into reports and dashboards to illuminate what’s happening in your business.

If you’re familiar with Excel, then the BI learning curve is a snap. Contact us to learn more about Power BI and how it can unlock silos in your business and bring your data together to deliver meaningful insights and drive impactful business decisions.