Explore how Microsoft Power Platform apps work together
Power Platform can add value to any business by helping you to act, automate, and analyze. Act by building custom apps in Power Apps, automate processes based on the data you collect in Power Automate, and analyze the data you collected in Power BI.
Consider a business that has IT equipment for general use. Currently, equipment check-out is conducted by visiting the IT office, checking if the product is available, then writing your name with the equipment type in a notebook. Employees might have to visit IT several times before equipment becomes available. They must drop their tasks to personally check on the equipment status or collect it for the employee. Sometimes employees hold onto the equipment for longer than they intend, and IT personnel spend time tracking it down. In addition, important equipment information such as serial numbers and warranty details are kept somewhere else in the IT office. How can Power Platform improve this process?
Power Apps allows you to build an app that has all equipment listed, the status of that equipment, and important details like instructions for use. With their phone or tablet, employees check out the available equipment then walk to IT at a specified pickup time, where the equipment is ready along with all the necessary notes. Power Automate reads when equipment needs to be returned and sends reminder emails to the employees. Users see when equipment is booked through the app and request check-out for a future date. Power BI takes all the data generated from the app and analyzes it to help your IT leaders understand what equipment is used most often and by whom. These insights help you decide if you need to purchase extra equipment, if some users or departments need dedicated equipment, and when your equipment reached the end of its usefulness.
This is only one common scenario in which Power Platform can transform the way businesses operate.
To expand on this a little more, let’s look at another example. Consider a real estate company that has a team of agents who work in the field meeting with potential sellers and showing properties to buyers. In addition to the company's agents, they have a team of managers who are there to support their agents.
The real estate company's agents need to have the following capabilities:
Quickly search for active property listings while in the field.
Easily intake new properties when working with new sellers.
Capture property details, snap pictures, and schedule open houses as needed.
The real estate company's managers need to have the following capabilities:
Easily see which properties are currently listed.
Ensure that property inspections are conducted as needed.
Access important details such as how many offers were made on a property and manage any incoming offers.
Easily identify similar properties in the area.
Analyze the current landscape of properties they’re selling, and drive business decisions based on those actions.
The real estate company uses core Microsoft 365 apps:
Microsoft Outlook is their primary email application.
Real estate agents spend a large portion of their day working in Microsoft Teams.
Let’s see how Power Platform creates a tailored solution for the real estate company employees, providing tools that help them with their various needs.
Create a solution in Power Platform
Now that you see a few different examples, consider your own business and what processes take up valuable time that burden customers or employees. How can you use Microsoft Power Platform to improve them?