Empowering employees to digitize their workplace using low-code programming tools Using the example of the Microsoft Power Platform

Introduction

The labor market is facing unprecedented challenges in the 21st century. Many organizations are struggling to find and retain qualified workers, especially in sectors that require specialized skills and knowledge. One of the main factors contributing to this challenge is demographic change in developed countries. As populations age and birth rates decline, the supply of workers shrinks and the demand for services increases. This whitepaper will discuss how organizations can cope with the labor shortage and meet the needs of their customers and stakeholders by empowering their existing workforce to use low-code tools like the Microsoft Power Platform.

Benefits

The Microsoft Power Platform is a suite of low-code or no-code applications that enable anyone, regardless of their technical background, to build custom apps, workflows, chatbots, dashboards and reports that solve business problems and improve productivity. The platform consists of five main components: Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents, PowerPages, and Power BI. By using the Microsoft Power Platform, organizations can:

• Reduce dependency on IT resources and external vendors.
• Accelerate the development and deployment of solutions.
• Increase agility and flexibility of business processes.
• Improve collaboration and communication among teams.
• Boost innovation and creativity of employees.
• Enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Case Studies

The Microsoft Power Platform has been successfully implemented in different industries and sectors such as healthcare, education, manufacturing, retail, etc. Here are some more detailed and concrete examples*:

• In healthcare, a hospital used Power Apps to create a custom app that streamlined patient registration and reduced wait times. The app allowed patients to check-in using their mobile devices and provided real-time updates on their appointment status. This reduced the workload of administrative staff and improved the patient experience.
• In education, a school district used Power Automate to automate administrative tasks such as student enrollment and attendance tracking. The district created a flow that automatically updated student records based on data from various sources such as online forms and spreadsheets. This saved time for administrative staff and reduced errors in data entry.
• In manufacturing, a factory used Power BI to create dashboards that provided real-time insights into production metrics such as machine uptime, throughput, quality, and waste. The dashboards allowed managers to monitor performance in real-time and make data-driven decisions to improve efficiency.

These case studies demonstrate the specific challenges and solutions that each organization faced and the outcomes and impacts that they achieved.
*More details on successful implementation projects can be provided upon request

Empowerment of the workforce

One of the key concepts behind the Microsoft Power Platform is that of citizen developers. These are users who have little or no coding experience but can use low-code tools to create solutions that address their own or their team’s challenges. Citizen developers are not meant to replace professional developers, but rather to complement them and collaborate with them.

Professional developers can use the platform to create reusable components, templates, connectors, and governance policies that citizen developers can leverage in their own solutions. They can also extend the platform’s capabilities with Azure services, such as AI, IoT, or blockchain. This way, both groups can benefit from each other’s skills and expertise, and deliver faster and better outcomes [1].

The benefits of using the Microsoft Power Platform for employees are manifold. For example, users can:

• Gain insights from diverse data sources and make data-driven decisions with Power BI [2]. According to Gartner, Microsoft is a leader in the analytics and business intelligence platforms market [3].
• Automate repetitive tasks and streamline workflows with Power Automate [4]. A study by Forrester found that Power Automate can save organizations up to 3.9 million hours of employee time over three years [5].
• Build custom apps and websites that suit their specific needs and preferences with Power Apps and Power Pages [6]. A survey by IDC revealed that Power Apps can increase developer productivity by 74% and reduce app development costs by 38% [7].
• Handle routine inquiries at scale with conversational AI using Power Virtual Agents [8]. A report by Nucleus Research showed that Power Virtual Agents can deliver an average return on investment of 186% [9]

The Connection between Increased Digitization and Employee and Customer Satisfaction

The implementation of increased digitization, automated processes, and the use of tools such as the Microsoft Power Platform can lead to higher levels of employee satisfaction. This, in turn, can result in improved customer satisfaction. Research has shown that there is a positive correlation between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction [10] [11] [12]. When employees are content in their work environment, their interactions with customers tend to be more positive, leading to better customer experiences [11].

By utilizing tools provided by the Microsoft Power Platform to automate repetitive tasks, streamline processes, integrate data sources, improve collaboration among teams, and boost innovation among employees, organizations can enhance employee satisfaction. This can ultimately lead to improved customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

In conclusion, low-code toolkits like the Microsoft Power Platform empower organizations to solve the labor shortage by enabling their existing workforce to create solutions that enhance their efficiency, effectiveness and engagement. By using the platform’s tools such as Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and Power Virtual Agents, organizations can reduce dependency on IT resources and external vendors, accelerate development and deployment of solutions, increase agility and flexibility of business processes, improve collaboration and communication among their organizations which in turn leads to increased customer satisfaction.

Sources

[1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/guidance/coe/overview
[2] https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/
[3] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2021/02/16/microsoft-named-a-leader-in-the-2021-gartner-magic-quadrant-for-analytics-and-business-intelligence-platforms/
[4] https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/
[5] https://info.microsoft.com/ww-landing-The-Total-Economic-Impact-of-Power-Automate.html
[6] https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/
[7] https://info.microsoft.com/ww-landing-IDC-Business-Value-of-PowerApps.html
[8] https://powervirtualagents.microsoft.com/en-us/
[9] https://info.microsoft.com/ww-landing-Nucleus-Research-Power-Virtual-Agents.html
[10] https://hbr.org/2019/08/the-key-to-happy-customers-happy-employees
[11] https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashiraprossack1/2019/05/31/employee-satisfaction-customer-satisfaction/
[12] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278431908000790