Power Apps in a COVID World: Key Benefits of PaaS Today
In the face of current circumstances, organizations everywhere have had to improvise, adapt, and overcome. In this newly hazardous landscape, Microsoft Power Apps has emerged as a vital tool in an organization’s survival kit, allowing you to harness the big benefits of PaaS: “Platform as a Service”.
Making mobile apps possible for everyone
Microsoft’s Power Apps development platform allows you to create and deploy mobile apps much faster and easier than before, with minimal coding required. Using a simple drag-and-drop interface and pre-built templates, businesses can now make their own enterprise applications and accelerate digital transformation.
This Platform as a Service (PaaS) from Microsoft provides you with the tools you need to create exactly the right technology solutions for you—all as an easy-to-use, cost-effective service. You may already be using the cloud to store your data, or cloud-based productivity tools like Microsoft 365. The Power Platform is part of that ecosystem and is the next step in using cloud computing to improve how your business operates.
According to Microsoft, the Power Platform can cut app development costs by 74% and improve line-of-business employee productivity by more than three hours a week. Compelling stats, we think you’ll agree. However, you might say to me, “Does my business really need a mobile app? And why right now?”
Power Apps to the rescue
Flexibility is key to surviving the business world of 2020. One of the most visible manifestations of this has been remote working, collaboration, and coordination. Businesses that can pivot to working anywhere quickly and smoothly and support it effectively, are also able to protect productivity. Others have struggled with this, and their business continuity has suffered as a result. But connected organizations thrive.
That’s where Power Apps can help: ensuring everyone can keep working and reaching colleagues and customers via whatever means necessary. In this case, line-of-business apps to help employees keep doing their jobs, customer-facing apps to support their interactions with you, and a digital infrastructure that means the show can go on despite new distances between people and challenges we all face.
The Power Platform, with its ease of use and low time to deployment, is the leading method for businesses to seize the benefits of PaaS. Big claim? We’ll show you what we mean.
How T-Mobile powered through the end of the world
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the USA, the nation’s largest wireless carrier faced the same challenge as everyone else: how do we keep business going at a time of social distancing and “shelter in place”?
T-Mobile needed to ensure they could maintain a retail environment that was safe and also well-informed and staffed. They set to work with Power Apps and within just 24 hours had an early version of their new COVID-19 Employee Roster Mobile App. After another day of finalizing functionality and ironing out the creases, it was ready to go live.
In only a few days, T-Mobile had used Microsoft’s low-code Power Platform to create a new, professional-grade solution to manage staff schedules and availability, ensure safety and monitor in-store situations, and maintain business continuity in unprecedented circumstances. That’s the real value of Power Apps in action: putting power in the hands of businesses (not just highly-skilled developers) and empowering them to make the things they need—and fast.
If you want to learn more about T-Mobile’s triumph through adversity, Microsoft has a very detailed article that tells you all about it. It’s a great story. And there are plenty more out there, from small and medium-sized businesses to FTSE 100 giants like Schlumberger, the world’s largest energy service company.
Putting power in your hands, too
Microsoft is keen to help all kinds of organizations harness the Power Platform at a time when, as they say, “the world needs great solutions”. Way back at the start of the crisis, they unveiled a new Power Apps application template designed to help businesses ride out the storm. It helps organizations to manage employees and keep them informed and can even draw in the latest information from local government or the World Health Organization (WHO).
And that’s only the start. Power Apps isn’t just a band-aid or a life-raft—it will be a way to seize new opportunities, innovate, and take your business forward long after the current challenges have passed. This tool isn’t going back in the box post-COVID; it’s here to stay.
Ready to seize the benefits of PaaS with Power Apps?
Sounds like something your organization would be interested in? Worksighted are happy to explore the possibilities with you. As a Microsoft Partner with years of experience, we can help you make the most of Power Apps, future-proofing your business and ensuring you have everything you need to succeed—whatever happens.
If you’d like to learn more about Microsoft Power Apps, and more Platform as a Service benefits, get in touch with the team at Worksighted today.
Worksighted Team
We are a team of over-enthusiastic people, ready to help our clients utilize technology to spur growth! We love technology and come to work every day eager to solve problems and find ways to impact our clients.
