Accelerate App Development with Microsoft Power Platform

August 16, 2023

According to IDC, the world will face a shortage of 4 million developers by 2025. As the demand for software solutions continues to rise, organizations will grapple with bridging this skills gap.

Meanwhile, traditional development approaches are too time-consuming and resource intensive in today’s rapidly evolving technology landscape.

The emergence of low-code and no-code development platforms offers a promising solution that empowers businesses to accelerate application development and overcome the skills shortage.

What are No-Code and Low-Code, and Pro-Code Platforms?

No-code technologies allow people without coding skills to develop applications quickly using drag-and-drop tools, visual interfaces and pre-built components. But since no-code platforms are designed to simplify the coding process for business users, they don’t allow for high levels of customization.

Low-code platforms are ideal for developers who want flexibility but must launch applications fast. These platforms provide intuitive visual development interfaces similar to no-code environments. They require some coding skills, but the process is simplified to focus on configuring and extending the platform’s capabilities.

Both no-code and low-code platforms allow professional developers and business users to create, extend and customize applications.

Microsoft Power Platform is a collaborative and intuitive low-code platform that makes it easy for teams to create applications, chatbots and other solutions. It simplifies development while ensuring your applications meet all your security, governance and compliance requirements.

Adastra can get you up and running on Microsoft Power Platform in just five days so you can drive immediate value from the solution.

The Benefits of Low-Code and No-Code

Low-code and no-code platforms, such as Microsoft Power Platform, offer many benefits, including:

Improved collaborative problem solving

Low- and no-code platforms allow citizen developers—employees who don’t have professional development skills—to build applications. Since these platforms don’t require complex coding, employees can create apps quickly and cost-effectively.

These platforms also empower fusion teams of business users who are close to the problems to collaborate with developers. Stakeholders from across your organization can work in a central location that is convenient for everybody.

Teams can also keep all their project communications in a single location. For example, Microsoft Power Platform allows users to comment in the development environment instead of in separate email or collaboration tools. This feature ensures that developers don’t miss any comments or suggestions.

Develop apps faster and more cost-effectively

Developers traditionally use waterfall or agile models when building applications. Waterfall development is a sequential process where each step must be completed before the next step begins. In agile development, teams can work on different items simultaneously, resulting in faster output.

Low-code and no-code platforms use agile methodology to speed development processes so teams can quickly build solutions. Microsoft Power Platform provides a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) interface that allows users to experience the working app in just a few days.

No-code and low-code platforms lower costs by reducing the need for professional development resources and getting revenue-generating apps to market sooner.

Microsoft Power Apps is free with Office 365

If you already have a Microsoft Office 365 subscription, you can use a limited version of Power Apps for free. This version, called Seeded Power Apps, allows you to build applications with canvas apps and standard connectors. Taking advantage of this free service allows you to get comfortable with no-code tools before deciding if you want to invest in fully featured options.

3 Things You Can’t Overlook When Deploying No-Code and Low-Code Platforms

Low- and no-code platforms offer many benefits. To drive the most value from these platforms, you must consider the following:

User adoption

No-code and low-code platforms are just gaining traction, so your teams will need time to get comfortable with these new tools. New users may also need support from professional developers to help them get more out of their new capabilities.

Microsoft offers free educational resources to help users get up to speed.

Governance

Like other technology platforms, you must implement governance and best practices. Work closely with Microsoft Power Platform experts to ensure your deployments are properly architected, scalable, secure and aligned with your overall business goals.

Visibility 

It can be difficult to keep track of every app in your organization. Adastra’s Microsoft Power Platform services help you gain visibility into your organization’s usage. We can create a dashboard that shows you—at a glance—how many apps exist, who uses them and if they need support.

Microsoft Power Platform is automatically enabled, so you don’t need to install it on every endpoint. Your Office 365 users can access Microsoft Power Platform for free at any time.

Why Adastra for Microsoft Power Platform Deployments and Management?

Adasta can help you manage and scale Microsoft Power Platform across your organization. We’ll ensure your deployments meet your security and compliance requirements, align with your IT strategy, and help users work more efficiently.

Our 20+ years of data management experience and strong Microsoft partnerships give us the expertise to deploy Microsoft Power Platform successfully. We use our proven accelerators and frameworks to:

• Migrate your legacy reports to Power BI.
• Ensure security and governance over Microsoft Power Platform use.
• Identify which manual, time-intensive processes are candidates for Power Apps solutions.
• Drive transformational change by piloting interactive Power Apps.
• Train users to accelerate app development without professional development skills.

Ready to accelerate your app development?

Through our Solution in a Week program, we can implement Microsoft Power Platform on Azure in just 5 days. Contact us now to discover how we can help you streamline your deployment so you can launch revenue-generating apps faster.