Different companies have different business goals and, thus, different software needs. An out-of-the-box software solution — even one with solid customization options — is unlikely to meet a company’s every need. Custom apps and plug-ins are a great way to fill the gaps.
Custom apps have traditionally involved a pretty big lift on the part of the company developing them. Even “simple” apps meant to accomplish a single basic task have required sophisticated programming knowledge. As a result, companies have often had to choose between pouring resources into developing apps or trying to get by with the software they already have.
However, things have changed in recent years. As Forrester reports, “low-code” app development “is now fully mainstream.” Companies have access to solutions that allow them to be more capable and agile developers. And according to that same Forrester report, Microsoft’s Power Platform is the best solution on the market: “Reference customers were universally positive on the quality of the toolset and its integration with both their dev shops and the Microsoft stack, describing the platform as ‘natural,’ ‘perfect,’ and ‘seamless.’”
In other words, the Power Platform makes it easy to build Power Apps that fit within — and help modernize — your company’s current tech stack.
With Power Apps, you can create tailored applications that automate routine tasks like data entry, inventory management and scheduling. These kinds of tasks can be monotonous, tiring and even depressing. And in the past, the startup costs for developing such apps may have made grinning and bearing it the preferable option. However, a low- or no-code Power App for just about any tedious task can be developed quickly and with no additional investment, which reduces manual effort on the part of your team and reduces errors; after all, the human brain can only handle so much repetition before it starts to slip. Software suffers no such fatigue.
The apps you develop will also integrate cleanly with platforms like Office 365 and Dynamics 365, which means streamlined work processes and smooth data flow.
In the early days of mobile apps, developing software that worked equally well on desktop and on mobile devices was yet another major challenge. They often required separate development tracks. Power Apps make it easy to develop mobile apps and even package your existing Power Apps into a mobile version.
As a result, your frontline employees can use your custom-developed apps to do their jobs and access whatever information they need on the go. And when your people can efficiently get things done wherever they are, they can improve their overall productivity while spending less time in the office. Work-life balance makes people happier, and happy people tend to get a lot more work done. Power Apps can be one big piece in the puzzle to striking a productivity-boosting balance.
Power Apps can be developed for use by anyone in any department across your company and not just for automating rote tasks. For example, your HR department could build a Power App to track employee goals and help conduct performance assessments, integrating with Microsoft Dataverse to store and analyze data relevant to their work. You could even design an app to let employees update their progress and get real-time feedback from managers, streamlining the goal setting (and goal-achieving) process.
You can also develop Power Apps to perform image processing functions so that quality assurance workers can, for example, inspect products and document issues. Or you could develop an app to help your sales reps easily extract and input data from intake forms into your ERP solution, getting the ball rolling on leads much more quickly.
Power Platform provides a major opportunity, although it’ll take some initial effort to implement it properly. At Enavate, our team of Microsoft experts knows how you can get the most out of Power Platform’s expansive offerings. To learn more about how we can help you start developing low-code, low-cost custom Power Apps, contact us today.