Knowing the key features and functions of Power Apps and Power Automate are critical to optimizing your business’ use of the Microsoft Power Platform as a whole. In a previous article, we highlighted the importance of Microsoft Dataverse for laying a foundation of data that optimizes the functionality of all other applications within the Microsoft Power Platform. Once this foundation of consolidated data is established, the next step is maximizing the potential of the Power Apps and Power Automate applications.
Microsoft’s no-code/low-code approach is essential in highlighting the value of Power Apps and Power Automate: these applications provide your employees with a high level of functionality that has traditionally been accessible only to professional coders and developers.
This article will tell you all you need to know to maximize the potential of Power Apps and Power Automate. First, we explore why Power Apps and Power Automate are essential for your business, and then we will highlight the key features of these applications that will bring you one step closer to optimizing the totality of your Microsoft Power Platform.
Why are Power Apps and Power Automate Essential?
Simply put, Power Apps and Power Automate are a dynamic duo that make life easier for your employees. Power Apps gives your employees agency in designing the exact data-driven applications that your business needs, and Power Automate takes care of all the repetitive administrative tasks along the way. If these applications are properly used in tandem within the Microsoft Power Platform, your employees will always be able to complete any task efficiently, while automated processes ensure that all data is up to date and accessible, ready to be in the right person’s hands at the right time.
What is Power Apps?
This Forrester Total Economic Impact Study highlights that Power Apps decreases the average cost of app development by 74%. In addition to its cost-saving benefits, Power Apps empowers your workforce, enabling the development of employee-built applications that are uniquely tailored to the needs of your business and your employees. Providing a plethora of customization and interoperability between applications, Power Apps allows you to make applications completely your own, down to every detail in its UX/UI design. Here are some key features of Power Apps you should know:
Integration with Microsoft Dataverse Through Connectors
This is where consolidating and updating your data to Microsoft Dataverse pays dividends. Power Apps can be integrated to operate with any specific piece of data stored in Dataverse. By implementing connectors with Power Apps, you can develop applications that retrieve and upload specific data sets to and from Dataverse in a completely automated process. The benefit of these connectors is two-fold:
- The connectors increase the efficiency of Power Apps by only retrieving the data it requires to function.
- Power Apps integration with Dataverse ensures that uploaded data is always stored in the right place, keeping your Dataverse organized and accessible to your employees.
AI-Driven Visualizations
Through integrations with Power BI in the Microsoft Power Platform, Power Apps can include custom visualizations of data created by Power BI’s AI-software. As we have mentioned in a previous article on the power of data visualization, studies have shown that data visualization vastly increases creativity in a project’s ideation process. By implementing visuals in your Power Apps, employees will have a clearer understanding of your business’ objectives and of how they can assist with completing those objectives.
Creating Portals for External Users
Portals in Power Apps can be developed, integrating with other applications, including Azure AD, LinkedIn, and Microsoft Account. This feature ensures that external users can access your Power Apps on a case-by-case basis, heightening your application’s security and confidentiality by granting accessibility to only the Power Apps functions needed by the external user.
What is Power Automate?
Power Automate helps streamline your workflows and synchronize your data with optimized efficiency. Power Automate will take care of repetitive clerical tasks through a completely paperless process, ensuring that your data is always up-to-date and ready to be integrated with the functions of all applications in the Microsoft Power Platform. Forrester’s analysis shows that Power Automate can saves $1.41 million over three years. Here are some key features of Power Automate:
Supply Chain Mapping
Power Automate can solve your business’ supply chain mapping challenges. As we have said in a past article, process automation can help you navigate any supply chain disruption. Power Automate will sustain your supply chain while also saving you time and resources. This automated process means your employees will not have to spend time solving supply chain issues; they can remain focused on the task at hand without worrying about supply chain disruptions in the future.
Automated Correspondence
Power Automate can be integrated with other applications within the Microsoft Power Platform and beyond. This automated process optimizes the time that certain emails or messages are sent according to specific criteria (e.g. time zone, occupation, and other data-driven insights).
Power Automate’s Process Advisor
If you are finding it difficult to pinpoint exactly where automation can save you time and money, Power Automate’s Process Advisor provides built-in analytics and insights to help you get a clearer understanding of your process maps and workflows within your business. Here, the importance of your Dataverse is proven once again. In addition to helping you get a better understanding of your business’ workflows, Power Automate’s Process Advisor also uses its AI software to analyze your business data, highlighting inefficiencies and suggesting how you can optimize certain processes.
The low-code potential of Microsoft Power Apps and Power Automate are seemingly endless, empowering employees while also optimizing processes through AI-driven analytics. These features will help you get started in optimizing Power Apps and Power Automate, but to unlock the full potential of these applications—along with the Microsoft Power Platform at large—you may want to consult with a certified professional.
As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Elantis’ team of experts will take the time to understand the needs of your business and will help you design applications through Microsoft Power Platform that are specifically tailored to those needs. Contact us today to find out how Power Apps and Power Automate can boost your efficiency while saving you time and money.
