Power Apps is a fantastic development platform. It is used by many businesses to help them come up with their own software solutions, helping them to run more efficiently.

Create mobile or web applications easily, quickly and more cost-efficient than ever before with the help of Power Apps from Microsoft. Power Apps is integratable with other platforms and apps, both Microsoft and other third-party platforms, making it a useful tool for many reasons.

You do not need to be a developer to make use of the powerful features of Power Apps, so read on in this blog post to understand Microsoft Power Apps in more detail and reach new capabilities for your business.

 

What Are Microsoft Power Apps?

PowerApps by Microsoft is a suite of apps, connectors, services and data platforms. It provides a rapid development environment and custom apps can be built for business needs.

If you have a licence for Office 365 then PowerApps is included. It fundamentally helps ‘citizen developers’ reach capabilities that used to be only reached by high-tech tools and a lot of knowledge and skill in software development. It enables low to no code custom creation and can be used to develop mobile and web applications.

With PowerApps you can build apps and share them on the popular Microsoft suites including Microsoft Dynamics, SharePoint, Microsoft Office and other Microsoft apps too. These can be created quickly to help connect business data.

If you are still unsure how to use PowerApps, then the good news is that it is pretty easy to learn. You can create your own powerful low-code applications as long as you have the right ideas when it comes to structuring.

 

The Purpose of PowerApps

The purpose of PowerApps is to create new applications with new capabilities without having the experience or expertise in coding. Microsoft Power App showcases a useful drag-and-drop feature that allows users to create their applications easily and quickly.

Non-technical teams can use power apps as well as usual developers. Power Apps have connections with third-party applications as well as Microsoft-based ones. These include the likes of; OneDrive, Google Docs, Dropbox, and Oracle.

 

The Features of Microsoft PowerApps

Find out some of the most beneficial and powerful features that Microsoft PowerApps hold, all of which can be found down below.

 

Easy Integration

One of the great things about PowerApps is the ability to integrate with other services and apps like OneDrive, SharePoint etc.

 

User-Friendly

Power Apps is totally user-friendly, allowing you to build an app easily without the experience of software development.

You can either develop by drag-and-drop feature, this is known as the canvas approach, essentially dropping elements of your design onto a ‘canvas’. Alternatively, there is a model-driven approach whereby the layout of your app is determined and you will add your desired components to them.

 

Cloud Connection

You can connect your app to cloud services with Power Apps. Dropbox and Google Drive and Docs are examples of connectivity via the cloud network.

 

Cost-Effective

Power Apps allows you to develop your own solutions which is extremely useful if you are on a budget. Companies may choose to do things this way and it may make more sense to them, instead of hiring developers to create a software solution for your business, which can be costly.

 

Common Data Service

Common Data Service, or CDS is the layer of data between input data that powers your applications. In Power Apps CDS allows you to store your data securely whilst building rich apps.

 

Power Platform for Power Apps

Microsoft Power Platform contains many different tools and applications. The most commonly used ones are Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Virtual Agent and Flow. These services can manage the data of any enterprise process.

Power Apps - modify the data and build apps quickly, easily and with less code. Can be used for web, iOS and Android devices. Power Automate - this is used to automate data Power BI - is used to display and analyse data in real-time. It is an interactive tool. Virtual Agent - create virtual intelligent bots. Flow - offers powerful workflow automation with the no-code approach with easy integration and can also automate data.

 

Microsoft Power Apps Limitations

Like with every app and everything, there are going to be pros and cons. With Power Apps, a potential downside is that you can retrieve 500 items maximum by default. This is extendable thankfully, up to 2000, however, the performance reduces because of this.

There can be only one person working on the development of an application on Power Apps if operating using a canvas application model. This could prove to be a downside for businesses that wish to work collaboratively on different devices or from different locations on the same project.

JavaScript integration is not available or possible in Power Apps forms. As this is a well-known scripting language for web pages as well as non-browser environments. This can be a big limitation for many that wish to use it with Power Apps.

One last point on the potential limitations of Power Apps is that they cannot be shared with anyone externally outside of your organisation. It is only to be used for your business purposes.

 

Blacklight Software Can Help

Blacklight Software should be your software expert of choice. We specialise in the integration of many different systems and aim to save your business time, money and make things more efficient for you and your customers.

We have an in-house team of developers and we specialise in Microsoft solutions. We have been a recognised Microsoft Gold Partner since the year 2010.

At Blacklight Software, we will use our vast experience and knowledge of the Microsoft technology stack to enhance your organisation for a more efficient and collaborative workplace.

Our services and expertise include the likes of; Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Azure and .NET Development, therefore we are more than capable of making your digital transformation come to life.

Get in contact with us today and we can discuss your options with us based on your goals in more detail. You can reach us by calling 01924 640350 or going onto the ‘Contact’ section on our website.