O365: Make Life Simple. Grab Data on the Go.
See also - Other Office 365 Posts
Earlier Office 365 posts have pointed towards simple ways to make SharePoint List and SharePoint Library data containers, simple ways to populate these with data that is useful to business and simple ways to filter that data for useful output commination like invoices and reports.
Reading back through those posts it becomes obvious that the more data you collect, the more you can do with it. This is probably best highlighted in the CRM example, where all communication between company representatives and individual customers is captured and used across the business.
The great thing about modern technology is that even when visiting a customer the person representing the business can access the same data that is available when sitting at a computer in the office.
In addition, updates can be made to the data without a return to the office being necessary.
Accounting
The same can be said of accounts and expenses records. Hotel, meal and fuel receipts can be filed direct from a smart phone instead of filing, indexing and storing all of those annoying bits of paper that have tied us down in the past.
Introducing Power Apps
Accessing and updating data through Teams and ASPX pages is great and can accommodate most business needs, but sometimes data update through a smart phone is not as easy as it could be. Buttons and links are small and a field worker in a hurry may find it necessary to spend more time in order to be accurate.
To overcome this you can easily deploy a Power App that will deliver a simple smart phone screen, with large buttons, that will file the data directly to the SharePoint List.
The above screen shots display a simple Power App generated from a SharePoint List called Contacts for an Android or IoS phone.
The left screen displays all the customers in the list, these are searchable and sortable and the screen incorporates a find function.
Clicking the right arrow next to a customer name displays the details for that customer.
A new customer can be added or detail can be updated provided that the user has the necessary permissions.
Generating a Power App.
This is the really good bit about Office 365. You hardly have to do anything at all.
On a PC, launch the SharePoint List
and click the menu item to launch Power Apps.
Name the App and allow Power Apps a few minutes to build. Once done test the operation and then share it with users.
You can either email the share or launch it into Teams as a Organisational App.
The App can be used from a PC as well as from a phone, so the user interface is the same for both field and desk workers.
Wide Ranging Uses
You can do the same with any SharePoint List, so the range of potential uses is almost endless.
The above images show an inventory control app that can be updated from a tablet or phone in the store room.
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