PowerUp

Project description

Fontys University of Applied Sciences has asked PerusahaanIT to investigate which possibilities the applications within the Microsoft Power Platform offer with regard to the current set-up within the organization. The question arose because the project administration is currently realized in Excel, these Excel files are created and modified locally. Fontys projects are executed over multiple locations and centralizing this administration is the logical next step. Based on this centralization, it is easier to gain insight into the projects and their processes. The centralization is also important for keeping track of the hours worked on a project.

Context

Currently, Fontys employees experience problems with cooperation internally, but also between the various institutes within the Fontys organization in project administration. Project administration keeps track of the costs made for and during various projects. It provides insight into the hours made and materials used in a project . The current method of project administration poses too many challenges in terms of centralization, consolidation of information, hours used and settlements. Fontys Innovation Hub wants to solve these problems by means of a more standardized approach to project administration . Prior to this project, research was done by a third party into the current state of affairs and processes within the various institutions of Fontys. This research is used as a basis to set up the project.
The goal of this project, which lasted six months, was to formulate an advisory report in which a first move is made towards a Proof-of-Concept for automating and centralizing the project administration within Fontys. This document has been prepared to capture all relevant basic information and assumptions of the project. Its purpose is to define the project, to serve as a basis for its management and to enable the assessment of the success of the project.

Results

Before the specific software can be chosen, a longlist of applications has been created. In the longlist all possibilities of the PowerPlatform are included. In this way all options are known and can be crystallized with a shortlist. The longlist contains the following results:

PowerApps
With PowerApps it is possible to build applications in a low-code way. Little code is needed, everything can be made within the interface of PowerApps.

Power BI
A business Intelligence tool to collect, aggregate, report and visualize business data from various sources in a dashboard.

Power Automate
A workflow application that allows you to connect apps and services to automate tasks. With Power Automate it is possible to copy data from one app to another using a workflow.

Power Virtual Agents
With Power Virtual Agents it is possible to design chatbots that automatically answer questions from customers, employees or other visitors of a website or service.

The eventual winner of the shortlist was Power Automate who scored the highest when compared to the requirements. PowerApps was not far behind Power Automate but there were some requirements that PowerApps couldn’t fulfill. In the end, it was decided together with client to develop the Proof-of-Concept in Power Apps and Power Automate.
The Proof-of-Concept that was made by us will be shown in the presentation that you might have seen already.

Video