Microsoft Ignite 2017: Power to the People

​Microsoft Showcases No-Code Power Tools for Business Users

Unlike previous years, where much of the Microsoft Ignite Conference was oriented to developers and IT, this year the conference was well balanced, with a lot of great content for business power users. Someone must have informed Microsoft that not every customer has a team of developers sitting around or can afford to hire expensive consultants to implement business solutions.   

Instead, Microsoft focused considerable energy on the potential of empowering business users to create their own solutions using no-code tools. As a provider of no-code out-of-the-box solutions, we here at SP Marketplace applaud Microsoft for their work.  

However, just providing the tools doesn't mean users will end up with a good solution; you still have to know what you are doing when designing the solution. Nevertheless, providing the tools does lay the groundwork for small to medium businesses that don't have large IT resources to benefit by transforming their business with a Digital Workplace. 

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​Four key areas associated with building a solution offer new features and tools: 

1. Create a site or destination with SharePoint Communication Sites - Team Sites - that are connected by the newly announced Hub Sites. Using the SharePoint Modern User Interface, business users can now easily design engaging portals for news, information, and collaboration 
   
2. PowerApps can be used to create business applications quickly on top of SharePoint or other data sources. Its drag-and-drop form builder allows business power users to create mobile forms or other forms to capture data and initiate processes 
   
3. Flow allow users to easily create workflows. Integrated with PowerApps, directly with SharePoint lists and libraries or other Office 365 services like Outlook, Flow offers predefined templates, such as for approvals. It also offers an easy no-code approach to creating new workflows across Office 365 Services 
   
4. Power BI is a great tool for easily creating dashboards and reports that can be shared across the organizations. It lets business users to create incredibly rich visualizations of data in an easy-to-use, interactive format that can be viewed on any device 

It was clear at Ignite that Microsoft is investing heavily in the no-code power user approach, and we will see more and more capabilities coming to market. As we said above, just having the tools is not enough. In fact, giving powerful tools to inexperienced staff is potentially more dangerous than not giving any at all.   
 
Going forward, it's important to think about the type of resources, departments, and staff in your organization that could use these tools to rapidly create powerful business solutions. Rather than technical expertise, users now need business analysis understanding and some knowledge of application process design.  
 
The other option is to purchase next generation application templates that are built using the same power tools. This way you start with a best practices design and your staff will be able to tweak the templates to your business needs, both now and in the future. This approach provides the best of both worlds.    
 
There are a few next generation vendors, like SP Marketplace that take this approach. They offer an out-of-the-box set of solutions built just as you would using Power User tools, but in a best practices design that has been tested in over 1000 organizations around the world.    
 
You start with a well-designed application or portal, and are empowered to transform it to how you want with these powerful tools.   
 
Learn more about Microsoft's awesome power user tools at https://powerapps.microsoft.com.
​See examples of out-of-the-box business solution template at www.spmarketplace.com.