There’s an app for that. At least, that’s what we’ve been told. Still, with 1.95 million apps available across platforms, there isn’t always one that does exactly what we’re looking for. This is why several businesses turn to PowerApps, part of the Power Platform, to find the solution they’re looking for. We’ve got 8 Power App ideas to get you started.
Businesses are finding it no longer convenient to have their employees utilize 10+ different work platforms just to get the job done. Not to mention, employees are not motivated to take on these time-sucking tasks either.
PowerApps is an intelligent way to enhance your business’s productivity, organize projects, engage customers, or do whatever you can dream up.
If you’re ready to create the perfect app solution for your business but aren’t sure how PowerApps can help, read on for more information.
What is PowerApps?
Before we dive into what PowerApps can do, you must understand what PowerApps is. Say you’ve finally decided on an app idea, whether it be for in-house or the public. Immediately some questions or going to follow:
- How will you design the interface you want?
- What kind of team are you going to need to pull this off?
- Do you need another team to collaborate your app’s backend with other platforms?
- Are the design process, engineering, and testing going to take ages?
- How are you supposed to get your app on all the right devices once it’s finally created?
Fortunately, PowerApps can help you answer all of the above. While you will want an app developer to help you polish the whole thing off, PowerApps makes app design and testing easy. Its user-friendly platform is designed to help you quickly identify what you want the app to do and how you want it to communicate with other devices. From there it’s as simple as adding in a few credentials and letting the magic happen.
The Benefits of PowerApps
There are several benefits when it comes to using PowerApps. First and foremost is its flexibility. PowerApps can be integrated with a number of the platforms you’re already using in your business, and the list continues to grow. This means you can mix and match platforms more efficiently for you and your team.
The software behind PowerApps also makes the design process one that anyone can be a part of. Regarding the front-end UX, you’ll have your say in what goes where saving you time and money on working with a developer on the design process.
Finally, PowerApps takes the guesswork out of how you’ll share your finished app with the public. It makes uploading to app stores incredibly simple and creates apps that work across all devices. This means you’ll spend less time in the testing stage and more time enjoying your app.
How It Works
The first step in working with PowerApps is to isolate the problem you’re trying to fill. Look at the current workflow or your customer’s experience and strategize on an app that can fill a void you’re facing.
Can’t think of anything right now? Don’t worry, we’ll explore some ideas for using Microsoft PowerApps next.
From here, you may want to sit down with your team to understand how the app will look. Take time to consider the UX and get detailed on where you’ll place your call to actions and any controls.
PowerApps gives you two options on how to go about building your app, you can start with Canvas Apps or a Model-Driven App.
Canvas apps allow you more customization and control in designing your user experience while model-driven apps base the app design on a pre-existing structure.
Once you have your design where you want it, choose the platform you wish to link it to or the storage options the app needs.
Some additional details may need to be handled by your developer, but PowerApps will take most of the process.
Power App Idea 1: Make Data Entry a Breeze
If you’ve worked with CRMs like Salesforce or Dynamics before then you know that data entry can be a time-consuming process.
Sure, filling in individual profiles may seem fast, but when you multiply that by 80 or even 1,000 it’s easy to see where a good chunk of your employees’ hours go.
Not to mention…it’s not fun. Keeping employees motivated and excited about working with mundane tasks like data entry is a challenge in itself. Fortunately, you can create an app that bypasses all of this.
It’s as easy as building a system that your team can easily navigate and telling PowerApps how you want the data communicated from Salesforce.
This is more efficient and reduces the chance of errors that are likely to come with manual data entry.
Power App Idea 2: Enhance Your Customer’s Experience
No industry can’t benefit from creating a more engaging experience with its clientele. And brands are finally starting to notice.
This is why businesses incorporate UX into their marketing campaigns and how their consumers shop for their products.
Through PowerApps you can create a robust app that allows your customer to build a more engaging relationship with your brand. Let them shop, stay on top of events, or even receive alerts on upcoming product launches.
The key here is to get creative. Put yourself in the role of your customers or hold a research group and see where their experience is lacking. Then build your app around this need.
With the ease of PowerApps, you can even add to your app as time goes by and you collect more insight on your customer’s experience.
Power App Idea 3: Save Time on File Sharing
If your company manages several different departments, chances are files are everywhere. While you can use a file storage platform like OneDrive or Dropbox, that doesn’t help much when those files need to be shared outside of Microsoft Teams in Trello, Slack or emails.
Save time on communication and file sharing by creating a “one drop” app that shares files across several platforms in one go.
Since PowerApps works with many communication devices, you can easily create an app that shares files to all your departments in one upload.
This saves time on sharing and makes it easier to find the files you’re looking for at the drop of a hat!
This is particularly useful if your business regularly sends clients contracts or presents materials to potential customers.
Power App Idea 4: Upgrade Your Project Management Process
Talk to any business, and they’ll each have their project management system in place. More often than not they’ll use a hybrid of two or more of these platforms. Why is that? Because no one has created a project management system that does it all.
As a result, you’ll find yourself using Trello or Microsoft Planner for assigning tasks, Teams for communicating, Salesforce or Dynamics for holding client data, and so on. The worst part about this process is that you spend more time hopping from one platform to the next, and less time getting work done.
Let PowerApps – combined with Power Automate – handle this productivity labyrinth for you by creating a Swiss Army knife app. One place quickly pulls together your favorite features from each platform while communicating with them smoothly. That means one place to input and find the information you need for you and your team. That also means a whole lot less clutter on your smartphone.
Power App Idea 5: Celebrate Your Wins
Research has shown that employees are motivated when their wins receive just as much attention as their errors. This is particularly true in businesses that are sales-driven.
Unfortunately, when you’re running a business you don’t have the time to stay on top of every sale; nonetheless, take the time to celebrate it.
This sounds like a PowerApps opportunity. Keep your sales team motivated (and competitive) by creating an automated app that links your CRM platform to your sales team group.
This way an announcement will automatically be sent out every time a sale is made. You get to play the attentive and supportive employer role without having to steal time away from your other tasks.
Power App Idea 6: Never Miss a Beat
Did you send over that file? Did you upload that information? Do you have the PDF I asked for? These emails are not only time-consuming, but they are also annoying.
However, this may have become your status quo as it’s typically easier to send an email than to log in and search for the file. Your employees may also be too busy to stop and email you anytime a specific file has been uploaded. Save time (and give your employees breathing room) by creating a quick app that automatically sends you an email notification when a new file is uploaded to OneDrive or Dropbox.
This is particularly useful for real estate or other paperwork-heavy industries where you’ll need to know the moment a contract is in, but don’t want to overwhelm your clients. You can use this in reverse to keep clients updated that specific steps of their paperwork process have been completed without stopping to send out individual emails.
Power App Idea 7: Find What Works on Social Media
Remember the hashtags you used on that tweet three months ago? The one that got such a great response? Of course, you don’t. But you would if there was an app that helped you.
You can now use PowerApps to create an app that automatically saves the hashtags from your best-performing tweets onto Microsoft Planner. This is a great way to gain insight into what forms of content are performing well with your audience or to help guide your social media team.
The best part is, that it requires zero effort on your part. You continue to deliver what your audience is looking for without having to guess or repeatedly scroll through your feed.
Power App Idea 8: Fill the Missing Cog
Maybe you have several great app ideas but aren’t sure which app would make the most significant influence on your team. You want to enhance productivity and grow your team, but you’re unsure where to put that missing piece.
This is a great time to work with a PowerApps consultant with experience in getting the best results from custom-created business apps.
Your consultant will be able to get a clear view of your current business and functioning and can help you create the multi-tool app that’s the game-changer your team needs.
This means you won’t have to repeatedly create a new app for each department or switch from one app to another.
Your PowerApps consultant can also help ensure that you’re building an interface that’s easy to navigate and fun to engage with. After all, apps are supposed to be fun.
The Help You Need to Build the Ultimate Power App
PowerApps is an effective tool designed to help any type of business. However, the real fun of PowerApps is a collaboration with several different platforms in one spot.
Building the app of your dreams doesn’t have to be complicated. With the help of our PowerApps consulting services, you’ll have the guidance you need for a high-performing app.
Contact us today for more information on how we can help you with your app.
