Microsoft PowerApps templates are the answers to today’s busy person, regardless of what makes your life busy. Perhaps your company visitors are late for meetings because your front desk check-in process is tedious. Maybe you never know who will be in the office because time off requests aren’t tracked and get lost in email.
Imagine having an app for that, and that, and that. If you are looking to take your company to the next level in the digital age, PowerApps are the answer.
In this blog post, you’ll discover everything you need to know about how Microsoft PowerApps templates can simplify your app creation.
What Are Microsoft PowerApps Templates?
Microsoft PowerApps templates are templates you use in the Microsoft program called Microsoft PowerApps. Microsoft PowerApps is precisely what it sounds like, a software that helps you make powerful apps that help drive business efficiency and productivity.
Gone are the days when only big companies could afford app development for in-house functionality. Today you can make an app to helps an individual, a team, or your entire company.
Check out this amazing introduction to PowerApps. Once you have the basics down, you can begin to consider some of the specifics related to the official PowerApps templates available.
Now the average power user can create a basic app for…whatever they need, whenever they need it. Many products offer app development and app templates, but if you already know Microsoft, this is the new wave of your future.
It’s working for everyone from growing businesses to full-scale enterprises. It can even help non-profits grow in the new digital era.
How to Start App Building
You will need to have the Microsoft Suite installed on your desktop, or at least have a license to Microsoft Office 365. You will find this useful for licensing purposes, but any data that you have on any Microsoft product is easily transferred into your PowerApps. So if you have your calendar in Outlook you can utilize the information in an app design scenario. You can also organize data, for example, employees paid time off, to organize a team.
Once you have that license, download the PowerApps Studio from the Microsoft Store. Sign in to your Hotmail or Outlook account, and you are into the dashboard of the PowerApps Studio. You a likely already have some ideas for an app you think would help, so now you just have to import that data source into your Studio. Know where that data is, but first, you are going to pick your templates.
Choose Your Own Templates
No matter what you want to make an app for, Powerapps has a template for you.
From cost calculators to employee leave, there is a template for that. Each template can be customized in color and design.
Or you can build your own on what is known as a canvas template, which is akin to the “blank canvas” an artist would start out with. The Microsoft PowerApps system is designed for folks that don’t have a lot of website building experience.
The point of this software is to help you innovate your day into an efficient well-oiled machine. Yes, there are many app platforms out there. But this one begins where others end, especially when it comes to templates.
Importing Data
You likely already know what you want your app for, and where to get that information. You can now choose to download that data into your PowerApps templates and begin using your app.
The data sources you will use likely already exist. You can transfer anything to your PowerApps suite, whether it’s from Microsoft, Google, or even Twitter. For more complex scenarios, building a common data service to bring all of your data into a single source for use by PowerApps, Flow and Power BI – known as the Power Platform.
PowerApps makes it easy to connect all of your data, no matter where it is. SharePoint is another popular tool and is now becoming more easily integrated into PowerApps, for example.
Here’s a handy guide strictly to help you use SharePoint Online with your Microsoft PowerApps template.
If you use other apps such as Slack you can import data from there as well.
You will work with your template and your data to bring your app to working use.
Now that you have the basics down, you’ll become quickly hooked and want to start using many of the other templates available to make an app.
Winning PowerApps Template Examples
There are a number of success stories of the most successful PowerApps templates at work.
PowerApps was originally developed to make app use easier at the small grassroots level. It was designed for the “mom and pops” business owner that couldn’t afford to pour big capital into app development.
It can not only help you become more organized but efficiency and organization in any company help them to make more money.
One business known as IPS did just that, using PowerApps to turn their business into a $230 million dollar machine for motor repair. Today they have over 1,000 employees and over 20 branches across North America.
And they have PowerApps templates for that.
IPS used the Customer Portal component of PowerApps to streamline customers over every single one of their twenty branches in North America.
Whether you are a startup looking to put some initial process in place or an established organization looking to develop a paperless process, you can use PowerApps to improve your productivity. You can even merge SharePoint with Paypal to let your app manage all incoming and outgoing Paypal payments!
Non-Profit Success Story
PowerApps have recently been used with non-profits as well. Every penny a non-profit makes is to go to the people or places they are trying to help.
Not many non-profits have money or human resources to manage app development and management. One non-profit known as National Trust has over 775 miles of coastline to manage and more than 500 historic locations to manage.
They now manage over 137 million USD of revenue to help nature and coastal projects. And they use PowerApps templates for that.
The National Trust group app is being used to unify their process and drive their fundraising and conservation objectives. Imagine having access to over 500 historic locations at your fingertips in an app.
PowerApps is now adding a Non-Profit Operations Toolkit to help you if that is where you are taking your app. This will get introduced in October 2019.
Kinds of PowerApps and Templates
There are two kinds of templates to choose from here. You have canvas apps and model-driven apps.
Canvas apps are the kind that enables you to start from a blank slate, or a blank canvas, and design your app exactly how you envision it. Here you can create anything from an expense report to a help desk app for your business.
Model-driven apps will allow you to design an architecture that works for your data and meets the needs of your organization. This is where your creativity and business needs come together for improved efficiency.
In addition to canvas and model-driven templates, you can now use SharePoint integration software to bring SharePoint data into your app.
Templates for Internal Business
Whether you have two employees or two thousand, you need them organized well. Even the most organized employer is going to need a system.
PowerApps templates help you with that. You can use them for internal purposes for a number of reasons, and decide who sees them. A Cost Estimator Template is available and so are Expenses. But you can also have calendars available, or an employee leave portal, or even one where you can keep track of health and insurance benefits or payroll.
You can also find templates for the people outside of your business that you serve, such as your customers, vendors, or business visitors or clients.
Customer Portal Templates
Another common way to make your business more efficient is using PowerApps to create an app for your customers. Anyone in your work life that you need to talk to on a regular basis can send all of their communications through your app.
Whether they are sending you reviews or complaints, requests or some thanks, give them an app for that. You can even add in some online chat representatives to help your customers any time of day, as you have likely seen when visiting websites online.
Your business improves the second you decide to let your customers know that you are available 24/7.
PowerApps has just recently announced its PowerApps Portals where you can launch your own form of customer portals for your business.
Use the templates, or start your own customer portal on a blank canvas. If you’re new to this, the PowerApps templates for customer portals will blow you away.
IPS from the example above was able to use PowerApps in-house to meet the needs of its customers across all of their locations in North America.
New Power Apps Templates Introduced All the Time
Once you start with PowerApps you will be hooked and will want a template for everything in your life. PowerApps is constantly adding new templates to help you do just that. One is known as the Alumnus, and you can use it to manage any organization that you are in. This helps you manage groups into graduating classes or profiles.
If you are a member of a group that changes over every year, the Alumnus template is good for that. Another new template is the contest registration template. This is just what it sounds like and use the tablet layout in PowerApps templates. You can launch a contest for your customers, and store all of the information right in the app.
Other business templates that have been added include templates for managing invoices and even a Knowledge Base type template. Teach all of your employees how to do their job right with a pool of Tips using a Powerapps template. Need to get all of your employees on the same page in a time-sensitive way?
Use the Tips template and keep updating job flow, workflows, and schedules all in one place. PowerApps is adding templates all the time.
Download Microsoft PowerApps Templates Today
If you already own your own Microsoft license, you are halfway there to get your own app. Gone are the days when apps were only developed by big companies.
Microsoft PowerApps templates make it easy for anyone to have any kind of “app” for any kind of “that.”
Open PowerApps, single-click “New App,” and you’ll see “App Templates” in the second row. Choose it for Phone, tablet or however you plan on using it.
You get to decide, and there are PowerApps templates for everything. And, it works.
One company alone improved its ROI by 362 percent while reducing its development costs by 70 percent. It’s improved their overall efficiency by 15 percent.
Imagine getting an ROI on your budget by 362 percent. Maybe not doable, but the efficiency corner is appealing to all markets and for all purposes.
Download your Microsoft PowerApps templates today. Before you do, check out this complete Microsoft PowerApps guide today and you’ll have your very first, very own app by close of business today!
