What are Microsoft Power Automate and Power Apps?
Microsoft Power Automate use cases: As a component of the Microsoft Power Platform suite, Power Apps provides a user environment for companies to create customized mobile and web applications without the need for coding methods. By utilizing designed templates that smoothly integrate with different data outlets, Power Apps facilitates the swift development of personalized business applications. Whether you opt for made templates or choose to craft your app from the ground up you have the flexibility to easily construct applications tailored to specific needs.
Power Automate is a tool, for automating workflows that aim to simplify business processes by handling time consuming tasks. Like Power Apps does offer automation templates that assist in creating and streamlining workflows seamlessly.
Advantages of Power Automate and Power Apps
With the help of Power Apps and Power Automate, non-profit organizations may update their operations on a single platform and enjoy additional advantages like:
- Cut costs: Business operations without additional licensing expenses.
- No Coding Necessary: Creating apps is easy with Power Apps as it offers templates or the choice to start from scratch; its drag and drop functions and pre designed automation templates, in Power Automate make app development straightforward.
- Rapid Development: Get your business applications up. Running quickly. In a matter of days instead of waiting for months. All based on the complexity involved. Make the most of your team’s skills to create and customize apps that suit your organization’s requirements perfectly.
- 350+ App Connectors: Integrate smoothly with over 350 app connectors, including Microsoft 365 applications and various third party data sources.
- Automated Data Security: Ensure the protection of your nonprofits data by incorporating data security measures.
- Industry-Wide Compatibility: Suitable for companies of all sizes. Can be tailored to meet the needs of startups well, as large global corporations.
Power Automate and Power Apps for Nonprofit Use Cases
How have Power Apps and Power Automate influenced the not-for-profit sector operations and outreach efforts positively? Here are some practical instances demonstrating how these tools have empowered profit organizations to improve their services, for both their beneficiaries and staff members:
1) Automate the volunteer onboarding and offboarding procedures.
Volunteers are crucial to the functioning of an organization. Their efforts are key to accomplishing the organizations goals and objectives effectively and efficiently.
With Power Apps and Power Automate, you have the ability to effortlessly collect volunteer information either by entry or by connecting with a CRM system to simplify the onboarding and offboarding procedures. As the application functions in the cloud environment. volunteer coordinators can effectively oversee access from any place securely. eradicating the necessity for a VPN and ensuring that remote work is smooth and safe.
2) Make shift requests simpler.
How can you make it easier to ask for assistance from your group of part time workers or volunteers easily and efficiently? Think about the effort of spending 10 hours sorting out shift requests among SMS groups on your phone just to assign tasks effectively. The repetitive and time consuming aspect of this job can be quite frustrating since you’d prefer to concentrate on making a difference through your cause.
Just picture this. An app, in Microsoft Teams where all shift requests can be easily managed and set up in a weeks’ time frame, that’s exactly what we put into action for ATSICHS Brisbane using Power Apps within their Microsoft 365 package they already had in place. Thanks to Power Apps efficiency and user friendly interface for managing shift requests effortlessly. Now shifts are processed within minutes than dragging out for hours! Within the six months they handled close to 1000 shifts and continued with an average of ten shift requests daily the following year. Resulting in a significant return on investment.
3) Make grant administration more efficient.
Being a not-for-profit entity involves handling grants, which is crucial but can also be quite intricate, in your day to day activities. It can be tough to manage every aspect of the process from granting funds to closing out and auditing after the award has been given out.
Using Microsoft Power Apps and Power Automate makes managing grants simple – just fill in fields. Click buttons! You can create funding pools that cater to entities from different countries; each entity can allocate funds in its local currency effortlessly. Each grant can have its approval process tailored to its needs and performance can be monitored using app reports. This helps ensure that resources are allocated wisely to initiatives that bring value and have been approved.
4) Automate the routing of support desk tickets.
Many big non-profit organizations frequently team up with suppliers to manage their internal helpdesk inquiries efficiently. To achieve this goal effectively involves using platforms to log helpdesk requests and then carefully assigning each request to the right supplier for IT support.
Using Power Apps and Power Automate makes the triage process more efficient, by employing automated logic to direct support tickets to the appropriate vendor support team swiftly for more handling of employee queries. This automated process helps alleviate the burden on IT resources and ensures responses to support requests.
5) On-the-go expense approval and filing.
Keeping track of expenses can feel like a chore, due to the need for documentation and storing paper receipts in a manner. Make it easier by designing a smartphone app dedicated to tracking expenses using templates, on Power Apps platform.
Using this expense tracker allows you to easily submit your expense claims right, from your phone by taking a photo of your receipt and sending out an approval notification afterward. There’s an automated process running behind the scenes that allows reviewers to go through and approve expenses smoothly. Moreover, you have the option to connect the expense tracker with your ERP or SharePoint, for processing.
6) Handle coaching requests from volunteers and staff.
To improve the quality of services provided to the nonprofit’s beneficiaries of your organization, by volunteer’s guidance and support from team members is crucial. It is essential to create a method for handling requests, for coaching in order to meet the skills development requirements of your volunteers effectively.
A case management application developed in Power Apps can bring about an impact here! Utilizing it as a coaching tool allows for organization and tracking of coaching requests; assigning experienced staff to supervise the coaching process; monitoring progress; and marking completion upon reaching the coaching objectives.
7) Handle contracts with ease.
Nonprofit organizations heavily rely on contributions from donors and grants from sources to maintain their activities successfully; effective contract management plays a crucial role in their operations sustainability. Streamlining duties such as creating contracts, managing approval processes and tracking deadlines in relation to milestones can greatly lessen the burden on nonprofit teams.
An app called Contracts Hub powered by Power Apps and utilizing a SharePoint backend can enhance your contract management procedures effectively. This software facilitates the handling of contract attachments and important metadata while also providing reminders for dates and other essential tasks. Its high level of customization allows legal and administrative teams to have a view of every contract’s lifespan.
8) Manage the spread of different project sites, Teams, or SharePoint.
If your not for profit organization is already using Microsoft SharePoint and Teams and you find that employees tend to create teams or project sites for every initiative they take on without a proper structure, in place to manage this process effectively it could result in content overload which may make IT management and governance more complex.
An Automation Manager solution, built on Power Apps and is linked with SharePoint and Teams can simplify this procedure effectively. With a user request tool staff members are able to pick from team site models. Once the IT administrator gives the light to the request the team sites get set up automatically—removing the necessity for IT to oversee SharePoint lists or for users to construct unregulated Teams sites.
9) Integrate AI with contemporary policy management.
Your not for profit organization needs to implement its policies to ensure adherence, to regulations and minimize for maintaining reputation. This entails not having well documented protocols but also regularly assessing and overseeing their implementation.
By using the Policy Hub app, the Power Apps platform effectively streamlines this procedure for you. This adaptable application provides a summary of your company’s policies such as those that’re past due, current being reviewed and tasks that require immediate attention. Equipped with AI technology, the Policy Hub app comes with a chatbot linked to your policy database giving employees information and context as they interact with policy revisions.
Use Power Platform to address your specific business process automation requirements.
The examples of how Power Apps and Power Automate can enhance not for profit operations provided in this blog only scratch the surface of the opportunities for modernization, in this sector using low code technology like this one! With its to use features and quick setup process you can make the most of your teams’ skills to streamline your operations and meet your automation requirements effectively.
If you want to explore the Power Platform whether it’s for a chat or trying out a small project or an initial idea. We’re here to support you with that journey! Having experienced Power Platform developers from a trusted Microsoft partner such as Professional Advantage can really make a difference in reaching your objectives and making progress towards your goals.