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Using Sharepoint, Teams, and the Power Platform to Collaborate During the Coronavirus Crisis
Chelsea Sauder • Mar 10, 2020
In honor of International Day of Awesomeness 2020, we want to applaud Ryan Cunningham, Director PM, PowerApps at Microsoft, for taking the initiative to leverage cloud technology in disseminating information and increasing workplace collaboration during the development of COVID-19.
Combining the capabilities of Power Apps, Power Automate, Teams, and SharePoint, Ryan and his team, created a Crisis Communication app that is accessible thru the web, mobile, and teams platform. The purpose of the app is to allow the coordination of critical business information to a highly mobile workforce in the event of a rapidly evolving situation such as the Coronavirus.
Key features of the Crisis Communication App include:
- Track employee status (ex. Working from home) and make requests as needed
- Push alerts for company specific news and updates regarding the crisis
- Manage and locate emergency contacts quickly
- Provide helpful links from reputable sources
Microsoft has published free instructions for businesses to quickly deploy their own version of the Crisis Communication app. To fully utilize the default template,
Microsoft has granted temporary access to the premium Power Apps Push Notifications feature to all Power Apps users for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis.
Install the Crisis Communication App
If your organization wants to respond immediately to COVID-19 contact TexasPGB
and we will quickly incorporate the Crisis Communication app into your organization.
This template inspired by the coronavirus, can be used as a launchpad for companies to develop their own rapid response system with the Microsoft solutions they already use. Whether it’s a health emergency or a natural disaster, businesses can quickly create a no-code rapid response system
using Microsoft collaboration tools and the Power Platform.
Below are tips for how to use Office365 and the Power Platform to develop a comprehensive emergency response system for your organization:
- Stay Focused: Keep information and functions focused on the specific situation. Cluttering the application with unrelated business information takes away the impact and potential adoption rate.
- Prioritize How and When Alerts are Sent: Use Power Automate to send notifications to employees via email, teams, and text message based on the priority of the alert. For example, if an office is experiencing an unexpected closure due to a natural disaster that alert would merit both email and text notification to affected staff.
- Enable Crisis Follow-Up for Employees: User PowerApps or Forms to collect information from team members directly affected by the crisis such as a flooded home. Companies can quickly identify employees in need of additional resources or support.
- Monitor Key Business Statuses in PowerBI: Use PowerApps to allow employees and managers to report critical statuses such as working from home, quarantined, location out of power, location closed, etc. This information can be incorporated into a PowerBI report to show the impact on key business statuses including employees unavailable, map of affected areas, potential projects affected due to status of assigned employees.
The potential connectivity and low-code nature of Power Apps with Office365 makes it a clear choice to support an organization’s emergency response system. Our team of PowerApp developers can help organizations create scalable and cost-effective rapid response apps.
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