How Microsoft Power Apps can transform your business for peanuts
It seems like everyone is talking about Microsoft Power Apps right now, but what are they – and, more importantly, should you care?
Put simply, they are a powerful set of tools for building efficiency and automation into your organisation’s processes, eliminating
a lot of manual work at a lower cost than "traditional" methods.
What many people don’t realise is that you can build your entire Dynamics 365 stack using Power Apps – and at a fraction of the cost.
I think the best analogy for Power Apps is to think of them as building blocks, like pieces of Lego, each individually designed for a
particular function, such as manual data entry, paper forms and document generation.
But once the different blocks are connected, they become one powerful platform to support your business. It is the integration that
gives Power Apps the real power that is in their name.
There is a lot of talk about the apps being low-code, meaning that software engineers are not required to write code for each application,
which clearly reduces time and costs.
But using Model-driven Power Apps (as opposed to the more limited Canvas apps) is where an organisation can build the functionality
of a full Dynamics 365 roll-out and where we spend most of our time.
Canvas apps are small solutions for individual departments or tasks and can be created through drag-and-drop templates by anyone with
a keen interest in improving efficiency.
But with Model-driven Power Apps, an organisation can radically change how they operate their business at a fraction of the cost.
Bear in mind that a Dynamics 365 CRM licence currently costs £71.60 per user per month, while a Power Apps licence has been reduced
in cost (from 1st October 2021) by Microsoft to just £3.80 per user per month.
This is clearly highly attractive to small and medium sized businesses looking to automate and scale as they grow, while the key
is to understand and articulate what your organisation needs.
At Solutions Shared, we regularly run scoping sessions with organisations who are considering introducing Dynamics 365 for their
CRM, sales and internal processes, and building a Power Apps platform often emerges as the best solution.
We can then build out the platform, integrating key elements such as SharePoint, Excel, resource scheduling from Dynamics 365 Field
Service and others – all sitting on the Dataverse data platform to pull in all relevant data.
For more information on how Microsoft Power Apps can transform your organisation, contact us here.
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About the Author
John Clark
Founder | Microsoft Dynamics 365 & Power Platform Consultant, Solutions Shared Ltd