This article introduces Microsoft Power Apps and describes how you can easily use Power Apps to create your own business applications to share with staff and customers.
Originally published in H2 2018 GPUG Magazine
So, Have You Heard About Power Apps?
Over the past couple of years, you may have heard talk about one of the exciting new product offerings from Microsoft called Power Apps.
So, what is Power Apps? Power Apps is a SaaS (software as a service) from Microsoft that was first introduced in 2015 and went live in 2017. It is integrated into the Microsoft Business Applications group. Other products incorporated into the Microsoft Business Applications group include Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power BI, and Microsoft Flow.
Power Apps provides advanced Users, administrators, and business analysts with the ability to create their own business applications that can be shared with staff and Customers. At this time, Power Apps is not designed to create applications that are sold to Users, but it can be utilized as an add-on feature for ISVs’ products.
The Power Apps development interface utilizes a rapid development methodology and WYSIWYG (what you see if what you get) editor. It can assist with the creation of applications for the web and devices for iOS, Android, and Windows—all with a single code base. Building the app is accomplished via a browser interface. Supported web browsers for development include IE11+, Edge, Firefox, and Chrome. Safari is not supported at this time.
The Power Apps Client must be installed on your selected devices before you can run any of the Power Apps you have created. The Power Apps Client manages the differences in the operating systems on various devices and allows you to create just one app and run it on different devices. Power Apps application works in the same fashion as Java or Containers.
What Can I Create?
The question should actually be this: What can’t I create?
Power Apps provides the User with the ability to build quick, simple, no-coding-required yet very informative apps, or you can create a very complex interactive app that connects to many different data connection points. With the utilization and inclusion of Flow and Power BI, you can develop apps that are truly enterprise in function.
Power Apps has the capacity to create its own data stores by utilizing CDS for Apps (Common Data Service for Apps), or you can connect to your data with any of more than 200 data connectors that are pre-built and ready for your use. If that was not enough, and you are unable to find a connector for the data you want to access, you can build your own Custom Data Connector. This makes it possible to connect to almost any existing data source.
Now, what business issues do we need to solve? How can Power Apps help remedy these issues?
If you consider the purpose of Power Apps, it’s development can be separated into two distinct areas.
The first area includes the reporting or composition of data. These apps focus on the presentation of up-to-date information by presenting data within the app from a back-end data source. Power Apps that promote this form of design include apps like:
- Catalog of Products – Current, detailed information is presented to the Customer including inventory levels and other important site-specific information that the Customer or sales force requires;
- Instructions – Replace the PDF or HTML of ”How to Do” something and transform this into a Power App. The underlying data is stored within the database file, so when you make a change, all staff/clients already have available the most up-to-date information. Think of your IT department needing a change management instructions manual to implement a task. The second area is the collection of data. These apps allow us to capture new data and/or change current data within a data connection point of the Power App. Power Apps that promote this form of design include:
- Expenses – Capture your expenses as you execute them. Power Apps can not only record information, but also take and attach photos. Enhance this feature with Microsoft Flow, and you can create an authorization stream for approvals.
- Asset Assessment – Create a simple app to perform a review of your asset conditions. By utilizing photos, you can include a current picture of the asset and record all the required information like date, time, reviewer, and other attributes you define.
A Great Marriage!
By creating a marriage of Power Apps and Microsoft Dynamics GP, your world can become so much more accessible and exciting.
Imagine your salesperson at a client’s location, able to not only show the client information such as their order history and their profile information, but your salesperson is now also capable of creating a new order, adjusting a current order, or updating their profile information. Your salesperson could also create their sales call notes and track them to the on-site visit. Need auditing for your salesperson’s visit? Add in a signature, photo, or some other means to verify the sales visit took place. Why not take it to the next level: Allow the Customer to access the app and have access to their own data (security considerations and business rules would need to be addressed). We not only have interconnected Dynamics GP into this solution, but also Microsoft Dynamics CRM or Salesforce.
How about those paper stock count pages from Dynamics GP: Are they not so ’80s?
Do your current processes require you to print the stock count reports, have the warehouse staff do their counts and record them on the paper reports, and then the inventory clerk or manager enters that paper recorded data into Dynamics GP?
Instead, create a time-saving (and paper-saving) PowerApp that provides you with the ability to easily complete your inventory stock counts on your mobile device, an app that knows what stock counts are open in Dynamics GP and allows the User to update the stock count for an item as it updates the stock count in Dynamics GP automatically.
Do you have barcodes on your inventory bins? Include a barcode scanner feature from your phone’s camera—yes, this is also possible! (I have developed this app and used it for my Power Apps Shootout at the Dynamics GP Tech Conference in Fargo in August.)
By utilizing the other business applications, PowerBI and Flow, you can create complex apps that will render Power BI tiles within the app, and by utilizing Flow, you can create workflows to your data collections done by the Power App’s application.
Also, for those into Power BI, you now can embed a Power App custom visual. This enables you to pass context-aware data to the Power App and update data in real time, but this is more for the Power BI people.
Sign Me Up!
To get started and to develop your own Power Apps, you just need to sign up with Microsoft at PowerApps.com. Once you create a Power Apps account, you are on your way to designing your own exciting apps!
To help get started, Microsoft has initially stimulated us to think of different solutions by providing
downloadable tutorials and interactive samples.
As with all Dynamics business applications, take the time to investigate which model best fits your specific requirements and identify associated projected costs to your organization. Don’t forget to integrate the savings garnered from duplicate/wasted personnel time, removing repetitive input errors, and of course, wasted paper! Power Apps are solutions that make life easier.