This document introduces PowerApps and Microsoft Flow. It provides information on:
- PowerApps as an enterprise software service to connect, create, and share business apps. It works by connecting to data sources and automating workflows across services.
- Microsoft Flow which helps automate workflows across apps and services through visual logic flows without coding. It connects to many services and apps.
- Both tools provide ways to build mobile and web apps without extensive coding by connecting to business data and automating workflows through an intuitive user interface.
2. Nicolas Georgeault
Emergent Technologies Officer
and Technology Advisor
@Negotium Technologies
• Email/Yammer:
ngeorgeault@club-sharepoint.fr
• Twitter: @Ngeorgeault
• Blog: http://blog.georgeault.co /
http://www.itlounge.ca
• Slideshare:
http://www.slideshare.net/ngeorgeault
20 years of experience in IT
13 with SharePoint
6 as a SharePoint MVP
Co-author of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 et
2013 French books
16. Unified and Secured business database, of well-formed standard business entities
that can be deployed for use in your organization.
Breaking the silos between Enterprise Apps
Enable organizations to connect business data from applications with information
residing in Office 365 productivity platform
Why use entities?
Rich metadata
Easy to manage
Easy to share
Secure
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https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-
us/tutorials/data-platform-intro/
22. Get notifications Synchronize files Collect data Automate approvals
Microsoft Flow helps non-developers work smarter by automating workflows across apps
and services
24. Click-to-code for integrating
the systems you’re already
using… even custom APIs.
New services being added
every week!
https://flow.microsoft.com/manage/connections/available
28. With great power comes great responsibility
EAI & Hybrid
Authorisation
API / App jungle
K.I.S.S
29. Anyone can sign up for free
with their personal, work or
school email
Included for free with most*
Office 365 and Dynamics 365
application SKUs
Included for free with most* Office
365 and Dynamics 365 application
SKUs
Additional
plans for
standalone Flow
will also be
available with
Premium
Connectors and
15,000 runs per
month
Source: Microsoft
32. Special thanks for inspiration ;)
René Brauwers @ReneBrauwers
Maarten Visser @mvisser
36
Hinweis der Redaktion
[10]
quickly build and deliver solutions without writing code
easily extend capabilities for power users and take advantage of rich platform services with the full power of Azure
Rich framework that comes with hundreds of established entities and can be used across apps.
get more value out of the services you’re already using
Business APP GAP
Consumer apps are available a plenty, ranging from wine rating apps like vivino; gamified apps such as SWARM, Untapped and so on.
But ‘real’ business productivity apps are lagging behind,
Off course we have mobile apps which enhance mobile productivity such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, EverNote, OneNote, Skype for business etc.
But where are the real business apps, which unleash the power of the apps available within a enterprise. Unlocking that customer or product information stored in a legacy system somewhere.
So why do we have this gap; Microsoft states it has identified 3 reasons for this, being
TALENT, ACCESS AND AGILITY
TALENT
How many of you have tried writing / creating mobile business apps.
Creating mobile apps is hard, as we have to keep up with technology changes or new features. It needs to run on multiple platforms.
Taking this into account and the fact that there are not enough skilled mobile developers, it is not surprising that creating mobile business apps takes up time and thus money.
ACCESS
Data is spanned both on premise as well as in the cloud (stored in SaaS applications), accessing this data and integrating these systems is usually a challenge.
IT agility and app sharing. Mobile app distribution typically happens through app stores, or through mobile device management, governed by IT. This creates inherent friction in getting apps onto employee phones.
Making internal apps available outside the enterprise
* Side loading
* App stored
* Mobile Device Management
By the way Microsoft has a very compelling story regarding Mobile Device Management. Real differentiator. But that’s a story to tell another time
What are is Microsoft PowerApps?
PowerApps is Microsoft’s answer to address the business app gap
it does so by offering a platform including tooling to enable employees, developers, and integrators to create and share mobile business apps
These apps run on virtually any mobile platform,
Can connect to disparate data sources both spanning on-prem and cloud in a secure way.
When I first heard of PowerApps / Project Sienna, the first thing which popped up in my mind was Visual Studio Lightswitch.
Let’s have a closer look at the PowerApps Target Audience
Information Workers & Business optimisers
Familiar tooling - Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Access, SharePoint
“Slogan” : Create Mobile business apps with Clicks , ‘not Code’
Pro Developers / Integration Specialist
Familiar tooling – Visual Studio .Net , Azure Portal.
Familiar technology – .Net languages, Business Process Modelling, SOA, API design
“Slogan” : Do more with the things we are already used to
Clients connect through API’s, or an existing backend to different cloud and on premise systems.
App Service Environment
- Dedicated environment / Shared
- Virtual network support for better connectivity and security to on-prem system
Tons of OOB APIs ready to use
Expose your OWN API, hosted anywhere
AAD Authentication
Advanced User/Group based authorisation
API definition discovery
Free & Standard
limited data sources (however using http + swagger, custom API can be called)
Enterprise functionality can be mimicked, by being creative (but I doubt it will be cheaper or better)
Enterprise
Another benefit of a dedicated environment consists of the fact that no limits (throttling, number of messages etc) are imposed
Granular security, control APP permission with AAD
Manage all APIs – from on-premises to the cloud
Manage and Monitor API Access
Sample Application
Subcontractor onboaring
Current process is in SharePoint, where new contractors are registered.
APP to Approve / Reject an onboarding request.
SalesForce contractors app which will assign an account id if approved
Microsoft Flow is a SaaS service that helps business users work smarter by automating workflow across a growing number apps & services that they rely on.
The possible workflows span across a wide variety of possibilities, for example :
Get a notifications when a certain file is updated
Synchronize files by connecting your folders to keep data current,
Automatically collect and organize your business data
Streamline approvals and get instant alerts.
Microsoft Flow makes it possible to automate all of these scenarios and more.
Create more advanced integration scenarios with multiple steps, adding conditions between steps and the every expanding list of more advanced enterprise connectors.
Get a whole bunch of connectors OOTB to common SaaS Services, from O365 (Outlook, OneDrive) to collaborative svcs (Slack) to CRM svcs (Salesforce, Dynamics CRM)
Can support connections to custom APIs (Swagger end point definition)
URL for full list of connectors
User over 100+ templates (and growing) for common scenarios as a starting point to create your new workflow!
K.I.S.S
PowerApps is promising, and most definitely the more basic business apps can be realised fairly fast.
However we need to ask ourselves; do we want to build ‘Complex Business Apps‘, If so is PowerApps the right platform.
I reckon initially it will be used for the more basic business apps, which don’t do more than displaying information and allow non business critical mutations.
Nevertheless, nothing is stopping us to create complex business apps. However, if we do so; just keep in mind that doing it in the right way costs time and money.
If we go down the lane regarding complex business apps. I feel it will be our responsibility to ensure:
Authorisation
Lock down CRUD rights
API/APP Jungle
More apps / api’s almost all the same. Needs some Quality Control in place
Enforce a publish / release policy. Just to check compliance (security, dev standards)
EAI & Hybrid
Use patterns and tools we are familiar with (Service bus)
Based on my initial experience during I’ve noticed that PowerApps indeed is very powerful, however special thought needs to be put in regarding access rights (authorisation rules). Make sure that a user does not have too many, nor too less of rights