Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that pre-covid processes aren’t going to cut it anymore. With hybrid working models being here to stay even post-pandemic, it’s time for organisations to let go of paper processes and forms. Process automation is no longer a thing of the future, and your business has the opportunity to thrive by embracing the technologies of today. How can you benefit from automating your paper-based processes? Let me count the ways.

ONE: Let’s start with a greater good factor. If you’re an organisation operating on earth and you want it to stay that way, you should be concerned about how your operation impacts the environment. Every year, we see over 30 million acres of forests destroyed for the paper and pulp industry. By digitising your paper-based processes, you’re saving water, trees and natural habitats at the same time.

TWO: Time is money, that’s a well-known fact. But if you’re still depending on paper processes, you’re probably paying for employees to do tedious and time-consuming tasks like printing or cabinet filing when their efforts could be better utilised on higher-value tasks. Some things are just better left to technology so you can make the most of your available talent. Not only will going digital increase the productivity of your employees but it will also improve your efficiency and quality.

THREE: Keeping your customers happy is very important in the business world. Automating your paper-based processes also means that their interactions with you become much easier. The lessened administrative burden on your employees will probably give them more time to prepare for and interact with your customers creating a better environment in your organisation.

You can see how all those advantages can make you a more successful business in the end. But what’s the best way to digitise your paper processes and embrace automation? Short answer, applications. Just like the famous saying, “There’s an app for that,” these days it’s possible to create an app to do almost anything to replace your legacy and manual processes.

Nevertheless, right now, the challenge companies worldwide are facing with regard to app development is the lack of developers. According to a Forrester Q1 Digital Process Automation Survey, 86% of organisations are currently struggling to find talent with the ability to create apps. With IT teams experiencing a 5x faster demand for apps, even organisations with the right talent can’t cope with the amount of application creation needed to solve their business problems as 65% have reported an application development backlog.

If only there was a way for your employees with no knowledge of code to create applications that would be beneficial to your business operations. Wait, there is!

Readers, please meet Microsoft Power Apps!

Having understood the struggles that organisations go through to digitally transform, Microsoft has created their Microsoft Power Platform with four key products to help you develop solutions for your digital problems. One of those products is Microsoft Power Apps that creates a low code/no code platform for you to easily customise applications for any of your business needs.

Low code platforms are the easiest way for your business to overcome the current developer shortage. In the same Forrester survey, 69% of organisations have attested that low code platforms can accelerate digital innovation and transformation. With Microsoft Power Apps, you aren’t just getting a platform to develop applications, it also comes with connectors to connect your data from multiple data sources for you to create connected applications.

The platform can help you create various types of apps to fit the needs of your end-users, with options to stick to a preconfigured template or do it entirely your way. Whether you want to start from scratch with their canvas apps, use data from the Microsoft Dataverse with model-driven apps or build websites with portals, the choice is up to you. Even better, Artificial Intelligence is within your grasp without the need for you to write a single line of code.

In short, Power Apps can help your business dramatically lower the cost, complexity, and time of software development, so you can build powerful and complex apps using natural language.

Let’s take a look at Pos Aviation, a ground services provider that needed to find a solution to help them cope with their rapid growth. Pos Aviation deals with aviation logistics which is no easy feat as they must coordinate a network of multiple teams across nine international airports. With Microsoft Power Apps, they were able to employ solutions that transformed the way they operated. By creating an app that extended from Microsoft Teams, they were able to cut the time it would take to report short shipments to airlines from 3 hours to simply 10 minutes. Performance report analysis is also a very important part of Pos Aviation’s operations and now with the use of Power BI, it no longer takes hours of number crunching. These changes allowed Pos Aviation to provide improved experiences to its airline customers.

You too can transform your business processes to better satisfy your customers. Click here to learn more about Microsoft Power Apps.

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