Pulling It All Together
References
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/introduction-power-platform/4-pull-together
Although we live in a data driven world, your business can find it difficult to take advantage of the data you have access to. Sales, customer, and employee data should drive our business decisions, but where do we even start?
Microsoft Power Platforms can add value to any business by helping an individual to analyze act and automate. Act by building custom apps in Power Apps, automate processes based on the data you collect in Power Automate, and analyze the data you have 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 and the equipment name in a notebook. Employees may have to visit IT several times before equipment becomes available, and IT personnel must drop their tasks to check on equipment status or go to collect it for the employee.
Sometimes employees onto the equipment longer than they intend and an IT personnel spends time tracking it down. In addition, important equipment information such as serial number, warranty details, and instructions for use are kept somewhere in the IT office. How can Microsoft Power Platform improve this process?
Power Apps allows us to build an app that has all equipment listed, the status of that equipment, and even important details such as use instructions. This way employees can check out available equipment, walk to IT at a specified pickup time where the equipment will be ready, and even access the use instructions or flag an equipment mailfuction from their phone or tablet.
Power Automate can read when equipment needs to be returned and send out reminder emails, or even a warning that the equipment is late being checked in. Users can see when equipment is booked through the app and request check-out for a future date at which time Power Automate can send them a reminder to pick up the equipment and IT a reminder to have it ready.
Power BI can take all the data generated from the app and analyze it to help you understand what equipment is used most often and by whom. This way you can decide if you need other equipment, if some users or departments need dedicated equipment, and when your equipment has reached the end of its usefulness.
This is only one common scenario in which Microsoft Power Platform can transform the way businesses work. Consider your own business and what processes take up valuable time and are a burden to customers or employees. How can you leverage Microsoft Power Platform to improve these processes?