How to build an asset management tool...

[macca138]

Hi there, I'm brand new to the forum here. I head up a Facilities function for a multi-national company which has grown massively over the past few years. We have around 5,000 staff now around the world with majority based in a couple of countries. I've never been able to get budget signed off for a ready made solution to asset management tracking, so I'm thinking to build one for us using Sharepoint Lists, Flow and PowerApps, but I honestly have no idea where to start! Would anyone be willing to offer me direction/guidance on what to do? Maybe any reading materials or case studies? A step by step guide is probably going to be a step too far to expect, but anything anyone can advise would be hugely appreciated.

[LRVinNC]

I suggest using the guided learning to get familiar with PowerApps and Flow.  They are available under the Learn link on the top header of any community page.  Start small and simple and grow your application as your skills grow.  Start with one of the template apps which will create a working app that you can study to understand what makes it work.  In your case, you might want to use the Asset Checkout template as your learning platform.  To access it, sign in to web.powerapps.com, then click on Create and scroll down to find the app you want to create.  I would start with Canvas apps (your plan may or may not include model-driven apps).  

That's how I first learned Power Apps.   Also Google PowerApps Asset Management.  I saw some videos out there that might be of some use.  

Good luck and enjoy learning PowerApps!

[Shanescows]

hi @macca138 is this your first dance into PowerApps? What I recommend is you don't try to boil the ocean. Instead of diving into the deep end start with a small app and start learning the platform. As you become more familiar this app is absolutely doable. 

I am currently building an app like this and there are a lot of moving parts. My app is going to be about 60 hours and includes the purchasing component. Not too hard, just pretty big. 🙂 

You can do this. Just start small. 

[macca138]

Thank you @LRVinNC as this is my first venture into this I agree that probably best to start of small. Problem I have is going to be trying to find the time to work on this with all the day to day work that I have already. Definitely keen to have a stab at it as it would save us a small fortune than having to go and buy a ready made package.

[macca138]

Thanks @Shanescows this is definitely my first dance with PowerApps! 🙂 I had my first proper play with Flow only last week! The possibilities for this seem really positive, so hopefully I can figure it out and make something useful. May well come back to you for more advice/help if I may? Especially if you're building something similar! 🙂

[LRVinNC]

@macca138 By the way, @Shanescows has some fantastic videos that will help you learn PowerApps.  Take a look at his Youtube channel and the topics he covers and as you work through your learning, see if he has a video on that topic.  You will find them very clear and they will boost your knowlege of the topic area significantly.  

[macca138]

Thank you @LRVinNC 🙂 Coincidentally I found @Shanescows videos on YouTube over the weekend when I was playing around with the idea of building a visitor logging system and was trying to figure out the 'search'/'filter' functionality. I have to say that @Shanescows is right about the delegaebles! 😄 I made some decent progress and managed to get the 'check-in' part for visitors to work, although 'check-out' is more tricky it seems. And even if I get that working, I can't seem to find any way where I can get visitor badges created and printed, which means I may have to go down the route of using a ready made software solution instead. It has been a great way to learn some of the specifics of PowerApps though, and I'm still keen on doing the asset management tool. Just need to design the structure first.

@Shanescows how are you structuring yours? Most asset management tools seem to suggest that you have a database of the assets and then assign people to them, rather than having a list of people and assigning assets to them. The trick for me is that we have multiple 'types' of assets, such as laptops, mobile phones, access cards etc and I'm not sure whether to just bundle them all into one list or is it worth trying to separate them out. One thing I want to be able to do is to trigger a leavers process simply and enable my team to check that all assets have been returned when we are notified that someone is leaving.

[LRVinNC]

Printing things out is the biggest deficiency of PowerApps right now, in my personal opinion.  Of course, when you consider it was created as a tool for mobile and tablet, that's not surprising.  I, however, use it 100% for desktop/laptop apps.  

When I need to print, I either use PowerBI to format the data or use Flow to format an HTML or CSV file.  There are ways around it, if you get creative.  One of my recent apps produces a rather elaborate Project Status report, generated with a press of a button in PowerApps, but printed via PwerApps.  The only issue (which is not a problem for me) is the data refresh for PowerBI is not realtime, but 8 times a day.  Flow, however, is realtime.  Just FYI

[ThomasDK]

Hi @macca138 ,

Did you manage to make the App? I have the exact same task and would love to see how you made it, if it is OK with you?

Br,

Thomas