Why I did NOT recommend Microsoft Power Apps to a customer
Recently a customer asked me to help them migrate a safety checklist process from a paper-based process to an online process. The customer had tradespeople working onsite and needed to provide the management with confirmation of basic checks as to safety work done.
My first thought as to the best solution was to implement a Power App where the tradespeople use a tablet device to capture safety check results. However, in this circumstance that was not an appropriate solution.
After spending time with the customer, I gained an understanding of the following challenges.
The business objective for capturing safety checks was for regulation purposes only. This information will be saved and only ever needed if the customer was audited by safety authorities. The process or data is not used for any other part of the business.
The cost of building Power App for this purpose alone could not be justified.
As a result, the solution was to create a SharePoint Document library. The library will contain Word documents that will be shared with the Tradespeople. The tradespeople will use Word Online to complete the document checklists.
The customer was very happy with that outcome and may consider the implementation of Power Apps in the future.
The lesson from this story is to ensure you understand the scope and costs of the problem. Ensure you provide the most appropriate solution for the current requirements whilst thinking about potential growth.
