Power Apps: Low-code apps for your business

The ability to be productive is more important than ever in today’s business world. The digital transformation that is taking place around us should not be ignored. Power Apps is part of the new technologies and applications that emerge every day, promising to make our business more efficient. How do you really know if it’s worth it?

In this post we will answer this, analyze Power Apps and the possibilities it offers, which will determine if it is up to the task.

What is Power Apps?

Power Apps is a low code tool, very simple, designed to develop custom applications without the need for programming knowledge.

This Microsoft tool allows you to create mobile, web or desktop applications and is useful for organizations of any size.

It is part of the Microsoft Power Platform, which also contains Power BI and Flow. These three tools provide a comprehensive solution for software development focused on the specific needs of each entity.

Thanks to a drag & drop interface, Power Apps is designed so that anyone can generate an app quickly and easily, regardless of their technical knowledge.

The benefits of Power Apps

The benefits of using Power Apps are numerous, but there are a few key advantages that make it stand out among other professional automation platforms:

Low code

As mentioned above, one of the biggest advantages of Power Apps is that it doesn’t require extensive programming skills to use. This makes it an ideal choice for companies that want to automate tasks and improve productivity without needing to invest in training their employees in coding.

Data integration

Another great advantage of Power Apps is its ease of integration with other Microsoft products and services . This includes Office 365, SharePoint, Dynamics 365 among others.
Data integration enables businesses to use Power Apps to mechanize their workflows and improve their performance.

Power Apps, for example, can be used to automate tasks, integrate data from various sources, and create tailored reports. All of these features help organizations save time and money by streamlining their workflows.

Improved productivity

The main advantage of Power Apps is that it allows our company to improve its overall productivity. By automating processes, you free up employees’ time to focus on more valuable work.

Also, by using the Microsoft 365 suite, companies are able to optimize their workflow.

As part of the Microsoft Power platform, Power Apps offers a complete professional solution. For example, you can generate quotes and invoices automatically based on customer data stored in a CRM system.

How Power Apps works

Power Apps offers a new way to build mobile apps. It is a cloud service that allows you to program software for any device, such as smartphones, tablets and computers.

You need an Office 365 account to use Power Apps. Once registered, we access Power Apps through the Office 365 portal. Now we can get a new app or import an existing one.

After producing our app, it is possible to add data sources, such as SharePoint, Office 365 or OneDrive for Business. Also connect external data sources, such as Dropbox, Twitter or Slack.

Once we’ve included the data sources, it’s time to start adding screens and controls to the program.

Once we have incorporated the screens and controls into the application, we can preview it to evaluate its appearance and operation on different devices. When we are satisfied with our app, we just have to publish it so that others can use it.

There are three ways to create apps.

1. Canvas allows us to create an application simply by dragging and dropping different elements, just as we design a mind map, an article for a blog in WordPress or a slide in PowerPoint.
2. With Model Driven, the resulting apps are less adaptable, but can incorporate more diverse components, such as forms, charts, dashboards, and more.
3. If we opt for Portals, we can program a website with different permissions and roles for users outside the organization.

Power Apps success stories

Power Apps appeared in 2015, so it is a relatively new product, but since then it is used by large corporations and has already reaped several success stories.

Coca-Cola used Power Apps to spread a custom app to manage vending machines. This alternative allowed Coca-Cola to monitor and manage its vending machines remotely from a single dashboard.

Delta Airlines created an app using Power Apps to track aircraft maintenance. The app allowed Delta to track aircraft maintenance in real time, helping to reduce delays and cancellations.

In conclusion, Power Apps is an ideal solution for companies that need to develop custom applications quickly and simply or to extend and automate existing processes.

It frees us from countless mechanical and repetitive tasks, allows us to integrate data and improves our productivity, all without having to rely on time-consuming IT departments or expensive consultants, which involve heavy investments.

Power Apps also integrates with the Microsoft 365 suite, giving organizations more possibilities to improve their workflow.

It offers an unparalleled combination of simplicity and powerful features that help save time and money.

Power Apps can help improve the efficiency and results of our business.