Top 9 Reasons to Use Power Apps

 Once upon a time, we lived in a world where only pro developers could be involved in the actual making of a so-called app. This was the traditional model of development work. You would come up with a genius business idea to effectively optimize your operations and enhance productivity through a simple idea. That idea was then pushed or outsourced to a development team who then followed a very “waterfall” type approach to design, develop, test, and then release your idea by the time you are 85 years of age. Not only was the process dreadfully long but the solution that was designed was vastly different from the idea that you originally envisioned, only $75,000 more expensive. The risk was all on you.

Let’s come to present day 2020 which according to many is truly the worst year ever – global economic recession, stock markets crashing, Black Lives Matter protests, major wildfires throughout the world, Kobe Bryant dying, and did I mention the COVID-19 pandemic? But for the technology enthusiast there was light at the end of the tunnel – Power Platform – a powerful set of applications that enables you to analyze data, build solutions, automate processes, and create virtual agents.

Power Apps is part of the Power Platform family along with Power BI, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents. Here is a list of some of the many capabilities and possible uses of Power Apps:

1. No Code Required

With Power Apps, you can quickly create a usable version of your app to solve business challenges with low/no-code, affordable price, and relatively quick turn around.

2. Automation

Apps built using Power Apps provide business logic and workflows that transform manual processes and automate them.

3. Cross-Functional Experience

Power Apps are designed to be responsive and can seamlessly operate in any browser, mobile device, or laptop.

4. Data Connectors and Extensions

As a Power Apps user, you can allow interaction with data and meta data, apply business logic, create custom connectors, and integrate with external data. In fact, there are over 275+ built-in data connectors readily available that you can leverage, allowing you to build apps with your data.

5. Share Your App

You can run the apps you create and share them with other users so they can use the app in their browser, phone, or laptop.

6. Common Data Service (CDS)

Power Apps uses the CDS to store and secure data which enables you to build apps using Power Apps and CDS directly against your business data. For instance, if you have a Dynamics 365 CRM or ERP solution, you can directly use that data across Power Apps without any custom integrations required.

7. Office 365 Integration

Power Apps is also integrated with your Microsoft Office 365. You can use the data in your SharePoint or data that you have on an Excel spreadsheet and update the data across the different applications in real time. This means you can always rely on your data, as it is always up to date and available when you need it. The Office integration also makes it seamless to adopt because it uses a familiar user interface that you are already accustomed to. For instance, if you use Microsoft Teams, there are out-of-the-box tabs you can include on your Team channels that allow you to use Power Apps and interact with the data.

8. Time is of the Essence

Speed is fundamental. In the technologically advanced world we live in, having something at your fingertips a month later is too late. Using Power Apps you can quickly develop useful and meaningful apps that are functional and serve their purpose. Power Apps has drag and drop capabilities allowing you to add buttons, images, data tables, text, data connectors, and labels rapidly.

9. Ease of Use

It has never been easier in the history of building apps than it is now to create, share, and use an app. You could build an app while sitting in your home office, on the way to the grocery store, or waiting to pick up your kids at school. You can create apps using the mobile app, a browser app, or your own desktop app.

If you want to stay relevant in the progressive world we live in, get a head start by using Power Apps.