What is Microsoft Power APPS?
Microsoft Power Apps is a digitalization tool. It will allow you to create applications that will replace your forms and processes through a Web / Mobile interface for users with Microsoft Development Service.
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How much does the Power Apps solution cost?
Power Apps standard is included with Office 365 enterprise (E1 – E5) licenses, so there are no additional costs for Microsoft users. In its standard version, you can use data from SharePoint (SharePoint lists) or OneDrive (Excel file) to feed your applications.
To use the Microsoft Dataverse or SQL databases in your applications, a higher version will be required.
What are the benefits of Power Apps ?
This solution offers many advantages, I have chosen to extract my top 5 advantages to present them to you:
1) No additional cost
Microsoft Power Apps is included in enterprise licenses ( E1-E5 ) with the standard version. This version allows you to build applications with “ SharePoint list ” or “Excel online ” type sources . Not to mention that you can create “Collections” which are temporary databases for your applications.
There are other types of connection that will require a paid version such as SQL Server, Dataverses , My SQL, PostgreSQL etc.
Personally, I only use the " SharePoint List" connection and the "Collections" to create my applications. This is good enough to start using Power Apps
2) You remain in the information system. ( IF )
Depending on the size of your company, you will encounter a recurring blockage in digitalization, it is the question of the Information System ( IS ) . Here are some examples of frequently asked questions on the subject:
- – Will your tool communicate with our IS? (interoperability)
- – Where is the data stored ? (GDPR)
- – Is your tool secure? ( Cyber-security )
The advantage with Power Apps is that the tool is integrated into your company's Microsoft package. Therefore, it is automatically validated by your IS insofar as there is an agreement between Microsoft and your company.
In addition, Power Apps is a solution that offers a wide choice of connection in its standard version such as:
Excel Online , SharePoint, One Drive, One Note, Outlook, Your company's Microsoft directory, Teams.
Thus, you can easily connect your applications to your daily tools with SharePoint Development Chicago.
3) The flexibility of the tool
The application building interface is comparable to Power Point. You have a white zone and it is up to you to define the position of each of the elements.
Additionally, each element has a set of properties that are customizable.
You can thus create very specific applications adapted to each of the needs or specificities of your organization.
4) The speed of creation
Thanks to its simplified design interface, Power Apps makes it possible to create applications quickly. To give you an order of magnitude, I need on average between 2 and 5 days for standard applications with a little Workflow ( Power Automate) .
A complex application takes me on average 10 days and more depending on the complexity of the requests. These times are very short compared to traditional " From Scratch" development.
To achieve these processing times, a certain mastery of the tool is necessary. When you start it will necessarily take longer.
5) Offline mode
This is a very important point for me, because it is an obstacle often mentioned in digitalization. We often hear:
I can't digitize, because I don't have an internet network on site and I'm not going to put a WIFI terminal everywhere!
Power Apps includes in its standard version temporary “Collections” databases that allow the implementation of an application that works without any internet network!
I do my measurements / readings / findings on site with my application in offline mode. When I return to the agency / office I connect to the Internet to synchronize the data on the Web.