Leveraging the right technology and solutions is imperative to improve your business operations. Although, lacking the adequate resources to satisfy your needs might halt any ideas to realise such goals. Now, this is where the Microsoft Power Platform as a tool can be helpful to develop and build business solutions set out to analyse data, build solutions, automate processes, and create virtual agents.
To learn more on the Power Platform, read on as we delve into Power Apps in Part 1 of this series.
What is Microsoft Power Apps?
Power Apps is part of the Power Platform family along with Power BI, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents. As part of Microsoft’s entry into the world of low code development platforms, Microsoft Power Apps is a development platform for mobile and tablet/web business apps. This enables users to build custom apps to accommodate their business needs and transform their processes. Thus, allowing them to be more productive with their data, as well as serve as an alternative to off-the-shelf solutions.
If you are a Microsoft user and aren’t already using Power Apps, then you’re missing out on some amazing benefits. Here’s a little glimpse of the top 5 business benefits of Microsoft Power Apps and how it can boost productivity and efficiency in your organization.
1.Simplified App Development
The biggest value add of Power Apps is the low-code approach to app development. The development is based on the web in the Power Apps studio, make.powerapps.com. This is much in likeness to other Microsoft applications and so, if users are familiar with the latter and/or are equipped with the basics of computer programming, this reduces the learning curve significantly.
The interface is largely drag and drop, and many properties are configured through the formula field. As a matter of fact, the indispensable gain that one achieves from this low-code approach is that this minimizes overall development efforts and time so much so that it is much faster to create, implement and deploy a Power App compared to other traditional development methods.
2. Extensive Data Management
Data is part and parcel of most apps, including Power Apps. As a platform it has over 250 connectors to just about every data source needed. Crucial to being a Microsoft solution is that it is fully capable to integrate with other Microsoft tools where your stored business data is located. Though, the possibilities to integrations extend to countless other software. For on-premises integration, a simple data gateway that acts as a bridge is needed. Furthermore, for those applications without an existing connector, this can be developed, bought externally, or developed through an intermediate staging database (like Azure SQL).
3. Manageable Security and Access Control
Lack of security is the number one threat of businesses which undergo digital transformation. Establishing who has access to your work becomes paramount and should not be overlooked. For a user to have access to a Power App you owe, s/he would need to be granted access. This is done through the Azure Active Directory (AAD) where users and roles can be assigned using your current Office 365 logins and groups. Such security access, data loss prevention and network policies can easily be configured within AAD without any coding. Even connectors can be enabled or disabled here.
4.Work Smoothly Across Devices
Power Apps can be accessed on any desktop, tablet, or handheld device. This easily connects you to your employees and has them contribute to the running of the organization irrespective of their location. Businesses can also leverage device capabilities like GPS, camera, and signatures to their benefit when using Power Apps on them.
5. Cost Effective
Traditional app development approaches can prove to be costly as well as time-consuming in comparison to Power Apps. In view to the adoption of a low-code approach, the time dedicated to developing Power Apps can be kept to a minimum and so, prove cost effective.
Microsoft Power Apps provide a great way to create quick and easy to use business level apps for your company. If you want to explore more or are ready to benefit from Microsoft Power Apps, just know that KaapiSoft is here to help you.