Have you ever struggled with choosing the best app between several that didn’t do exactly what you wanted? Maybe you’ve ended up paying for two cloud solution subscriptions because neither gave you all the features you wanted.

Most small or medium-sized businesses don’t venture into creating custom applications or cloud solutions for their workflow because they don’t think it’s something within reach. Either the cost would be too high, or the type of expertise needed is far beyond their team’s skillset.

But building custom business apps may be easier and more affordable than you think.

Microsoft’s Power Apps is a suite of tools created to bring the world of custom app creation from the desks of coders to the average user. These tools allow businesses to build “low-code” apps designed to solve challenges and allow quick creation of customized business apps.

Studies show that businesses that make full use of technology and are considered “digitally advanced” excel above those that lag behind when it comes to optimizing their tech.

Digitally advanced small businesses:

• Are 3x as likely to create jobs year over year
• Earn 2x as much revenue per employee
• Have nearly 4x as high year over year revenue growth

Whether you call it digitally advanced or just being able to do the things you want to with an application, using Microsoft Power Apps can help you get there.

How Does Power Apps Work?

Through Power Apps you can connect to your data that’s stored in an underlying platform or in a variety of online sources (like Office 365, SharePoint, Excel, etc.) and build apps that give you the power to use that data however you choose.

The best part about using the program is that you can build feature-rich business applications without needing to know a single line of code.

It’s similar to how websites used to require custom designers who understood how to write in HTML or CSS. Then WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors like WordPress came along, and now even novices can make stunning looking websites.

Power Apps does the same thing for business applications. It makes them much more accessible and simple to build for both web browser and mobile device accessibility.

Three Types of App Creation

You can create three different types of apps with MS Power Apps:

Canvas: An app that is created on a blank canvas and based upon user experience. It can be connected to 200 different data sources.

Model-driven: This app begins with a data model and builds up from there. This type of app automatically generates a great responsive UI.

Portal: This app is aimed at creating external-facing websites that allow visitors to sign in with a wide variety of identities.

Businesses using MS Power Apps see an average improvement of 15% in their process efficiencies in year three.

What Does a Custom App Look Like?

Custom business applications can be built for any type of business process you have. To get an idea of what you can do with one, here’s an example:

The company Confluent built a trademarked “Go Onboarding” app to create a custom onboarding experience for their employees and reduce the time it took for administrative tasks that had to be handled manually by their HR department.

Because they built the app themselves with Power Apps, they were able to inject their own personality and a sense of fun and adventure into the app, along with specific directions that are pertinent to their building (such as where to pick up your company laptop.)

Microsoft Power App Features

The features of Power Apps can be organized into 5 key areas of what the tool allows you to do.

Build Business Apps

Your team is easily able to build highly customized apps with sophisticated controls including cameras and location-based commands. The tool basically empowers anyone to build a tailored business application.

Automate Processes

Use your custom apps to automate workflows and guide users through specific processes.

Connect Data

Connecting with a Common Data Service can help you jumpstart the process. You can connect to over 200 different data sources for apps that are truly powerful and informative.

AI Builder

Get intelligent apps by using the AI builder that takes advantage of artificial intelligence. You can apply it to tasks such as form processing, object detection, and text classification.

Integrate with the Power Family

Power Apps can be used alone or along with other Microsoft tools like Power BI for business intelligence dashboards, Power Automate, or Power Virtual Agents.

Improve Your Business Processes by Designing Your Own Apps

Does creating your own dynamic business apps sound exciting? You don’t have to take that first step alone. Neuron Computers can help you plan for and create the applications that will make your business stand out.

Contact us today to learn more about Power Apps. Call 1-833-4-NEURON or reach out online.