PowerApps Case Studies : Its much more than just replacement of Infopath

From Simple spreadshits, timesheets and survey applications there are various use cases which can be built on PowerApps, or  we can say already built and used.  Those are published as PowerApps case studies by Microsoft.

When I started learning PowerApps, I came across the samples of PowerApps only based on SharePoint. Hence the first impression was is it substitute of Infopath. However when I went in depth, raised in various communities, started getting references of PowerApps based on various business applications other than SharePoint as well.

Hence trying to collect various case studies of the PowerApps – published by Microsoft. This would provide a general understanding about PowerApps usage in real scenarios.

• Manage Car bidding process,  Car auctions
• inspections reporting App – Heritage sites / ATMs etc
• Data Collection during large events
• Business process automation in transportation business
• Field worker daily activity aggregation and reporting app
• Medical representatives daily sales management, Reporting, tracking and coaching

Let us go through few scenarios where PowerApps can be applicable.

Scenario#1: Banks have to manage their ATMs spread across the cities/states etc. These ATMs are needed to be monitored and checked on regular basis.

Whenever ATMs get vandalized or damaged, it should be reported immediately and fixed. As a process, Banks schedule inspection audits for all ATMs. PowerApps solution help the inpsctors with a list of ATMs, they can find any specific ATM or find the ATMs near their location. Once located, they can start inspecting it.

During inspection, PowerApps solution provides a standard checklist mentioning various types of inspections such as

• inspect from outside
• inspect the signage
• inspect from inside

Inspectors can fill the checklist and log the issues in case any, found during the inspections. User can even take a picture about the actual issue and mention the notes about the same.

Above functionality is for field inspectors, this data can be saved in SharePoint or any other business application as per the  current application landscape. This data is further analyzed and  Based on the issue types and location, the issue is assigned to the service agent for resolution.

The service agent can see the issues in his app assigned to him,  can locate the ATM , fix the issue, can add notes and close the issue.

If we need any analysis about the issues , we can even use PowerBI and show the analysis on PowerApps. This analysis can help the bank in various ways such as to identify the areas where vandalism is more and take precautionary measures

Scenario#2: Banks have many visitors everyday, their appointments are to be managed.

Everyday bank has customers visiting for various services. Bankers/ Customer care representatives are to be assigned to these customers to address their requirements. This can be accomplished by PowerApps.  PowerApps can be integrated to Dynamics CRM where customer information is stored and as someone visits the bank,  customer case representative can see complete profile of the visitor. List of Bankers would be displayed with available slots and area of specialization.

Based on this information, the appropriate banker can be assigned to the  visitor and both would be informed about the appointment schedule and basic details. Visitor would receive SMS as well about the timing and reminder. Intimation would go to the banker as well. This would help banks to achieve higher  customer satisfaction when they visit to bank.

Various case studies listed above, show that PowerApps can be used in the areas where users are mobile only, moving, the data is to be collected from these users, the data is to be analyzed and maintained in some of the business application such as SharePoint or CRM etc. Again it may not be only PowerApps but it would be combination of PowerApps, PowerBI and Flow.

Microsoft is promoting PowerApps in a big way. For CRM developers, XRM might go away and PowerApps and CDS would be the platform for any customization or any custom verticals to be developed. In case you do not use any of the CRM OOB modules/entities, we might exclude CRM platform and directly go to the Powerapps and CDS platform.

With this post I hope , you got a clear understanding on the PowerApps use cases. Now we can take technical deep dive in the same in my further posts.

Happy Learning!!

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