RafaelTardelli - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Engineer at NTT Security
Real User
Top 10
Great for making apps quickly, has helpful support, and integrates with Power BI
Pros and Cons
  • "I like the galleries, which are really powerful."
  • "In my experience, the solution's deployment can be tricky."

What is our primary use case?

The solution is for rapid application development software.

There is a specific environment, in part a platform of PowerApps, in which you can just deploy the solutions and then you share the link with the users and they are able to open them using iPads or mobile devices, or even a computer.

We have been working to build a maintenance events app for assets, it's an app to manage and show all the assets that have been working or down for maintenance in an operation, inside one bigger mining company. They have many trucks and many other, let's say, machines in the operation and sometimes they have to put these machines just through a maintenance mode, to see what's happening, or to change some part specifically, or even if the machine is having some kind of issue. That's due to the fact that if it's down, they have to manage how long it's down and what was the part that was the issue, the cause of the issue. They have to change the parts and everything's very costly in terms of money for the company when we have one specific asset that's down.

Previously, they were using a board in a room, just to manage all these statuses.  Instead of this, now we have one specific app that is working in live modes in almost real-time. Just getting the data from the services and showing it on a big board in PowerApps can show what's happened, what's the status, and what's the reason for the issue. This app allows for adding some comments. It's a collaborative app where many people can just go there and add comments and notes about what's happening with the machine.

What is most valuable?

There are many things there that I like about the solution. I like the galleries, which are really powerful. I like the way that we can build forms very quickly. 

In terms of timing to develop, PowerApps is very fast. We can integrate with Power BI. You can just show the Power BI report embedded in PowerApps, and it works really nicely.

What needs improvement?

In my experience, the solution's deployment can be tricky.

In my experience, it was not good as it was giving errors around the tables and I couldn't find what was happening. I had to break it down into different solutions - one solution containing all the tables and the second solution containing the application, plus the power domain that I had for this particular application. It's something that's not good, in terms of the way that things work. 

When I added Power Automate into the solution, for some reason it disappeared from my Power Automate page, as it was added inside the solution. It was very, very weird. It may be a bug. 

There's a primary interface and integration feature and we build some HL processes there. However, suddenly after adding this part, and automating the solution to deploy it, it was just not available for me anymore and I had to go inside the solution and open the MS files from there instead of the usual place where all the Power Automates are created. It was like a bug and also. In terms of the issues that I have with the solution feature inside PowerApps, I didn't like it. I've seen this too complicated. It's something that Microsoft has to improve.

The speed and performance could be better. PowerApps sometimes gets stuck, gets slow and I don't have any reason for why it's happening. Suddenly you are trying to see the rows on your screen and you just have a wait to get the results back, then there's nothing happening. These things look like an environmental issue, however, I don't know if it's something about the localization or something else.

We'd like our option in terms of licensing that can be paid by the app and not by users. That could be something good. Just the way that they charge the license, it's too much. There are not many options. They could give a little bit more flexibility to choose in terms of options for a license.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for six months. 

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's stable, however, sometimes it is slow.

There are no issues about the connection falling. Just, when you are using it, suddenly the page is broken. There is no issue yet, sometimes it gets a little bit frozen and you're waiting a little bit more time to gather results. The table is not a big table with many, many rows, so why is it taking so long, so much time to get the answer back from the app? That's the main issue. There's a performance problem. It's not a stability question.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scalable if we're talking about the database, about data warehouse, however, not about PowerApps. PowerApps is not scalable. It's scalable, in the sense that the app you can share for many users, however, you have to pay by user. Scalability isn't really applicable.

We're still not running it fully. We're just prepared to start testing. 

How are customer service and support?

We've dealt with technical support in the past. 

We had some little situations where we couldn't get the help as we needed, however, that was a limitation in the tool - it was not an issue with them.

For the most part, they are really good.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

IN terms of the initial setup, we have to choose which kind of approach we are going to use in PowerApps, as PowerApps has different strings. You can choose PowerApps Canvas, or you can choose a driving app, and that's a little bit different. In my case, I chose a PowerApps combo as I needed a little bit more in terms of flexibility and in terms of how I build this topic they screen. 

In terms of the development, it's quick, really it's quick, however, it's not the fastest way to develop and there are some other solutions in the market that are faster in some ways. In terms of deployment, in my experience, when you're going to deploy perhaps an application, you have to build a solution and a solution and it's a little bit tricky. You have to add all the components to the solution and, after that, you have to export the solution and import the solution into the production environment. We have an environment for development and a second environment for production.

The application is deployed, however, it's not in use yet. They are just preparing to start testing the application and once they finalize the test, the app is going to go live.

After I passed over all these little issues that I had, it was quick to deploy. It was just a question of minutes. When we export the solution and import the solution back, it's easy. However, all the processes to be able to finally get over these issues and everything, it took me four weeks just to realize what was going on and handle it. 

What about the implementation team?

I was the one that deployed the solution. 

What was our ROI?

In terms of ROI,  I didn't see any. However, if you look at the cost of building an app, the coding costs would be much higher without this solution. You can save months of development time and the money needed to deploy the solution. In that sense, the ROI is awesome. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The licensing is restrictive and can get expensive as you have to pay per user, not per app. It's a range of users. For example, if you go above 50 users, you need to pay more. 

If you compare it with competitors like Google, they are more expensive than Google. Google has another option that's a PowerApps competitor called AppSheets and AppSheets is cheaper than PowerApps.

What other advice do I have?

We are Microsoft partners. 

I'm using the latest version of the solution. 

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

There are some things that need improvement in some ways to make the tool better. However, it's very powerful and it's very fast to deploy something. It's great.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Senior Business Intelligence Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 20
Low code requirements and good integration; customization should be simplified
Pros and Cons
  • "Ability to generate QR codes and scan barcodes."
  • "Customization is somewhat complicated."

What is our primary use case?

We are user integrators and partners with Microsoft. 

What is most valuable?

One of the valuable features of PowerApps is the ability to generate QR codes and scan barcodes, as well as take an image. Integration is good; the solution is low code and easy to deploy. It's great that you need to create a unique verification, it's a feature that helps a lot. 

What needs improvement?

We had issues with the syntax during the build. Writing quotes could be simplified. Customization, in general, is somewhat complicated.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for a couple of months. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

As with most Microsoft products, it's scalable. We recently deployed in a company in Burundi where they have 50 users. It requires two, sometimes three people for maintenance. Once the solution is set up, there's not much required. We'd like to scale nationwide but it ultimately depends on the cost. 

How are customer service and support?

I haven't had contact with Microsoft support regarding this product. 

How was the initial setup?

I think for the first-time user, the initial setup takes more time. Other tools like Automate are easier to deploy. PowerApps requires so many things to click and customize, it's really detailed. Building the system takes a little bit more practice than with other solutions. The deployment was done in-house and we had a couple of people working on it. The implementation took about a week. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is quite expensive because if you have, say, 100,000 users or more, that can add up. Licensing works on a tier system but I don't have the details. 

What other advice do I have?

Building is the simple part of this product, it's the costing that needs to be checked. It can often be overlooked when you build a solution. 

I rate this solution seven out of 10. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
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Microsoft Power Apps
April 2024
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Oracle eBS Solution Architect at Raiffeisen Bank International AG
Real User
Top 20
Straightforward implementation, high level support, but stability could improve
Pros and Cons
  • "Overall the solution is reliable."
  • "The scalability of the solution could improve."

What is our primary use case?

We are using Microsoft Power Apps for data collection and processing for small intergroup business applications for our internal needs. 

What is most valuable?

Overall the solution is reliable.

What needs improvement?

The scalability of the solution could improve.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Power Apps for approximately two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of the solution has been good in our usage.

I rate the stability of Microsoft Power Apps a seven out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have approximately 1,000 people using the solution. There are some applications that we will increase the usage of. However, this depends on the use case.

The scalability of the solution depends on the use case of the application being used.

How are customer service and support?

We have a dedicated support team at Microsoft Power Apps for our needs.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I previously used IBM Lotus.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Microsoft Power Apps is straightforward. The implementation depends on the complexity of the application being deployed. It can range from one week to one month. I have not implemented an application that has taken longer than half a year.

What about the implementation team?

We have a team that does the implementation of the solution, such as a delivery manager.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Our enterprise contract with Microsoft Power Apps includes the application feature platform in our subscription package, so we are not incurring any extra expenses. All of our other subscriptions are also part of our license agreement.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this platform to others if they have a dedicated internal team with the appropriate experience.

I rate Microsoft Power Apps seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Sr. Technical Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 10
Integrates well, simple to install, but the workflow automation needs enrichment
Pros and Cons
  • "It offers integration with several Microsoft products, including SharePoint and Outlook, in my opinion, is a huge plus."
  • "In terms of workflow automation, I believe that capabilities for creating the entire business process are required, or, at the very least, the option to model the business process, define complex business events, handle them, and route them to appropriate business stakeholders."

What is our primary use case?

We use Microsoft PowerApps for very small use cases. For example, conducting internal surveys, or say some of the key business stakeholders want day-to-day reporting. Using PowerApps, we are creating such reports for those executives.

We connected PowerApps to the relational database, which generates the report. 

Also for contract review and approval of these types of use cases. Those are, in my opinion, very simple use cases. There are no complex rules or decision-making processes, which is why PowerApps was designed.

What is most valuable?

It offers integration with several Microsoft products, including SharePoint and Outlook, in my opinion, is a huge plus. 

It can also integrate with Microsoft SQL servers, which makes it easy, and you can send reports and create business applications from it.

What needs improvement?

In terms of workflow automation, I believe that capabilities for creating the entire business process are required, or, at the very least, the option to model the business process, define complex business events, handle them, and route them to appropriate business stakeholders.

Those, I believe, are the critical areas that require improvement. 

For the time being, it is only an application development platform. I am not counting a business processing management platform, only working on capabilities with business process management.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is extremely stable. 

The apps that we created were not particularly complex. We did not thoroughly test PowerApps to determine their true capabilities. It was similar to tactical applications built as part of the POC to ensure what capabilities of the PowerApps could be used.

It was not used for any critical business application.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I believe it should be scalable. 

However, in our organization, we only have approximately 15 to 20 people who are currently using it.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. It does not take long.

Maintenance is minimal. It is only one or two people who keep it running.

What other advice do I have?

I believe it simply depends on the complexity of the business process. If you are serious about implementing a complex business process, I believe you should use a platform like Appian or Pega.

In terms of low code automation, I believe those two platforms are quite mature. They also develop capabilities such as robotic process automation and process mining. That's where the most value is because business users don't just want one thing; they want several things at the same time.

I believe it is preferable to use a platform that is robust in nature. Appian and Pega, in my opinion, would be better for them. However, if you only have a simple application that does not require much scaling, I believe you can use PowerApps, such as a simple three or four screens or forms. That should suffice for Microsoft PowerApps, in my opinion.

We are Microsoft partners and resellers.

I would rate Microsoft PowerApps a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
WilliamBowers - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at Vertical Symmetry
Real User
Mature, fast development, allows you to build sophisticated business logic
Pros and Cons
  • "When compared with Microsoft Power Automate, it is a bit more mature, and we're able to build things pretty rapidly."

    What is our primary use case?

    Microsoft Power Automate is primarily used to update some legacy systems for our client, as well as government compliance systems and web-based reporting systems that don't have APIs. Microsoft PowerApps has the same use case. It's the front end and is the part that is interacting with the client and interacting with the collected data.

    What is most valuable?

    We really like Microsoft PowerApps. When compared with Microsoft Power Automate, it is a bit more mature, and we're able to build things pretty rapidly.

    It's a different paradigm to build around, and it's a different programming paradigm. It's more like Excel in that you build formulas and pieces, but we've been able to build some fairly sophisticated business logic inside of it. As a result, we believe that is much more mature. I'd say that's around an eight, eight and a half, out of ten.

    What needs improvement?

    I believe, Microsoft PowerApps is still in its early stages. I believe it is far more mature and integrated. I would say the programming language, because the drag and drop, low code, no code, its nice to get started, but you really want to be able to work as a programmer with an IDE and real code, and we've been able to start to do that a little bit and integrate a lot of JavaScript with RPA, with Power Apps I haven't been able to do that. I believe there is a way to do it by putting the data into Git. I just haven't used it yet, and haven't needed to.

    As it's a cloud-based app, the development environment has some really nice parts and some that are a little clunky, but overall, I'd say it's a good product.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    We have been using Microsoft PowerApps a bit longer than we have been using Microsoft Power Automate.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    We haven't fully launched a product yet, but I will say that development is quick and we can make changes quickly. I can't speak to the app's scalability just yet.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    I've only used it through an RPA. We either did it for many years, or we did it by hand with JavaScript. We would use some tools to actually grab for web-based things, not desktop-based. We wrote tools that would allow us to take control of the website and then modify it on the fly while automating these processes.

    We did it all with secure JavaScript, which is a lot of work and custom code, and it's difficult to maintain, so having a tool like an RPA tool, where we can take that business logic, put it in there, and then somebody who knows the stuff can come around after us and go, okay, I see what they did there, would be great.

    We believe we have exploited the tool and pushed it to its limits, and we are still learning about its strengths and weaknesses. It definitely has room for improvement, but when I give it a seven, I mean it's functional. I can get the job done, but it's far from ideal.

    When I say Java, what I mean is that when we were doing automation, we were primarily working on web automation. My phone is dying, so that's why I cut off.

    We would write a lot of JavaScript code to automate, automate, and update these external websites that didn't have APIs, that we would read from. We are now reading from spreadsheets and updating data for them, then retrieving data from the results, and this simplified things significantly.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    We wanted to see what people were doing with UiPath. I'm not really using it yet. I've looked into it a little bit, but it just hasn't been a driver for this project yet.

    What other advice do I have?

    I am just using the product. I evaluated a problem and a solution set for a client, and I just evaluated these tools and said, despite their youth, these tools look like they are good. We looked at UiPath, but the price tag was expensive for a nonprofit, so money was an issue. We had a very limited budget from a grant, so we had to work with a toolset that wasn't on par with the Fortune 500. So far, we're pleased with the solution, and it's working. There are days when it is frustrating, but I've been doing this for 40 years and there are always challenges with tools. We do not have a relationship with Microsoft.

    I would rate Microsoft PowerApps an eight out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Public Cloud
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Vice President - Information Systems at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Real User
    Easy to create and deploy apps, but needs more RPA capabilities
    Pros and Cons
    • "The initial setup is very simple."
    • "There are occasional performance challenges."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use the solution as part of Dynamics 365 Online. Within that, we use Power Apps and we've integrated something on the on-prem database.

    The app is located within Dynamics 365 Online. It draws data from an on-prem data source. We use it to perform certain actions in Teams, so we have Dynamics 365 and Teams integration.

    We've created an email reader using Power Apps.

    What is most valuable?

    The solution is pretty easy to create and deploy apps.

    You don't need a very high level of technical knowledge. Of course, you do need some level of technical knowledge, however, a normal developer can easily learn and deploy Power Apps.

    The initial setup is very simple.

    The solution scales well. 

    What needs improvement?

    They need a bit of RPA functionalities. There are other competitive products such as ServiceNow and Automation Anywhere. They offer exhaustive functionalities. Power Apps as a platform maybe need some ready-made templates that could be deployed. That would help.

    There are occasional performance challenges. 

    The product could do some integrations with third-party providers. That can be still expanded. They do have a decent number of integrations and connectors available, however many of those connectors only offer the basic functionalities. I'd like to see better, wider connectivity.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've used the solution for six to eight months at this point. It's been less than a year.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    In general, the product works fine. That said, there are occasional challenges in performance and when you actually have Power Apps working with other products on Power Platform, such as the Power Automate, et cetera. By and large, however, it's pretty stable. 

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    We have about 300 users on the solution currently. We do have approximately 700 plus users on Dynamics 365, however, not all of them are using Power Apps.

    The solution is pretty easy to scale. 

    We pretty much use this solution on a daily basis. It's used a lot.

    How are customer service and support?

    We reached out to technical support just once where Power Automate wasn't actually triggering an event. Apart from that one ticket, it's been working fine. We haven't really dealt with technical support too much.

    We have normal support. We don't have Premier Support. Of course, the response time was about average when we used them. In the end, the issue was something to do with the core product, so they have actually had to take it up with the product engineering team at Microsoft as well.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    I'm aware of ServiceNow and Automation Anywhere. 

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is very straightforward and simple. It's not complex or difficult. 

    There was some background development involved during the deployment process. 

    The is no maintenance required.

    What about the implementation team?

    We did not need any outside assistance from consultants or integrators. We handled it in-house ourselves.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    The pricing is pretty good. Microsoft offers very good value for money.

    Apart from the licensing, storage is actually the costliest part. One needs to actually look at how to optimize the use of storage as ultimately it's on the cloud. It's part of the Dataverse storage now, with Dynamics 365, Power Apps, et cetera. That bit of the offering is the costliest part.

    The product license and platform licensing are good. That's definitely value for money compared to some of the other vendors. Microsoft is placed well. It's just the storage, as I said, that's costly. 

    What other advice do I have?

    We are customers and end-users.

    We are using the cloud version, and therefore we are going with whatever is the latest available functionality.

    At least for the regular day-to-day work, one can build very useful apps with minimal investment. One can start fast. The only thing is, you need to have people actually experiment on this. Other than that, it's a good platform.

    Currently, I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten right now, as there's continuous improvement that's happening and, once that happens, in the future, I will likely be rated even higher.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Public Cloud

    If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

    Microsoft Azure
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Digital Transformation Project Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 5,001-10,000 employees
    Real User
    Useful application making platforms, good performance, and excellent support
    Pros and Cons
    • "The most valuable feature of this solution is the Model-driven or Canvas application-making platforms. The power of the two gives us exactly what we are looking for."
    • "In an upcoming release, I would like to see custom APIs, better integration with other solutions, and more connectors available."

    What is our primary use case?

    This is a low-code solution that I am using for making applications.

    What is most valuable?

    The most valuable feature of this solution is the Model-driven or Canvas application-making platforms. The power of the two gives us exactly what we are looking for.

    What needs improvement?

    In an upcoming release, I would like to see custom APIs, better integration with other solutions, and more connectors available.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using this solution for approximately eight months.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The solution is stable.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    We have plans to scale the solution in the future and it is very scalable.

    We have approximately 35 people users using the solution in my organization and we plan to increase that number to 75.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    The customer service has been very responsive and has always given us the help we required. Alternatively, there is a large PowerApps community that can help anyone find a solution for their problems. The overall support is excellent.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup was easy, we had no problems. 

    We have a small team that does the maintenance of the solution.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    I pay nine dollars monthly for the subscription to this solution and the price of the is reasonable.

    What other advice do I have?

    My advice to others is to review their use case and if it fits then I would recommend they try this solution.

    I rate Microsoft PowerApps a ten out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Private Cloud
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Divakar Sarma - PeerSpot reviewer
    Architect/Manager at Deloitte
    Real User
    Top 5
    Custom app building solution used for workflow automation that offers free licences for POCs
    Pros and Cons
    • "Power Automate has been the most valuable feature."
    • "The set up of the solution could be simpler."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use this solution for workflow automation.

    What is most valuable?

    Power Automate has been the most valuable feature. 

    What needs improvement?

    The set up of the solution could be simpler. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    We have been using this solution for three years. 

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    I would rate the stability of this solution an eight out of ten. 

    How are customer service and support?

    The customer support for this solution could be faster. 

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    Positive

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is fairly straightforward. I would rate it a seven out of ten. 

    The whole life cycle takes two months to develop, test, implement and deploy.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    It is possible to make use of free licences for the sake of a POC. 

    What other advice do I have?

    Overall, I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. 

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Microsoft Power Apps Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: April 2024
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Microsoft Power Apps Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.