Re: Vehicle Management

HeatherGLong · ‎07-20-2023

Is there an app template for vehicle management that exists in the government space?

My office has more than 400 assets that require tracking - this includes maintenance, status of asset (operational / assigned / non-operational), location of asset, and costs related to the asset. Assets include vehicles, hard and soft sided tent systems, mobile ICUs, mobile pharmacies, and various types of trailers.

Some assets are primary movers while some are system components. The 400+ assets are located throughout the country.

We have built some home-grown solutions through Microsoft Forms --> Automate --> PowerBI to be able to see the vehicle location / assignment / cost but the solution is cumbersome and requires the driver to do a lot of clicking. Currently, drivers must submit zipcodes of their starting and ending locations in order to be mapped; we have no way to do this based on GPS location or automatic information.

Drivers must also submit different reports for each asset type assigned. Ideally, the driver could submit one report for all assets assigned to an operation - primary movers, component parts/systems, etc. - without having to submit multiple reports. Right now, that is not possible through MS Forms because of limitations with the branching.

Drivers are also responsible for submitting purchases for fuel or supplies so that cost per vehicle is tracked as well.

Leadership wants to see a map of assets, breakdowns of assigned/non-assigned assets, costs by asset and type of asset by quarter/year as well as type of cost, number of times an asset has been assigned to various incident types, etc.

Is there something out there that already exists that can be adopted to meet these needs?

jwillisrosemsft · ‎07-21-2023

Hey Heather,

This sounds like a great use case for Power Platform. Do you know your Microsoft rep by chance? I would recommend reaching out to them for help. If not, you can PM me your email and we can talk more about this offline.

Best,

Jamie

HeatherGLong · ‎07-24-2023

Will PM you (as soon as I figure out how)! Thank you.

HeatherGLong · ‎08-17-2023

Jamie - sent you an email but never received a response.

jwillisrosemsft · ‎08-17-2023

Doh! I apologize. I thought PMs were a thing on this platform, but maybe they aren't. Let me work on my side to get in touch with the right people.

HeatherGLong · ‎08-17-2023

They are; I sent you a PM about 3 weeks ago. Looking forward to connecting.

jwillisrosemsft · ‎08-17-2023

Sorry Heather! Totally my fault. Didn't realize I had PM off:

Feel free to resend.

FocusRach · ‎08-22-2023

Hi @HeatherGLong,

I see that a Microsoft Rep is already working with you. I do want to offer some insight to what I see on the GCC high side. It's not the same as the DOD but it may be close and worth testing on your end.

This is NOT a pre-packaged solution, but you may be able to use these features/considerations to tweak a solution and get you closer to where you want to be.

Helpful Connector - Bing Maps connectors are displaying in Power Automate and Power Apps. This does not mean they are 100% operational, but are worth testing. I created an app to log my throwing distance overtime and it was really helpful. This was in a commercial instance, but if that works the same in GCC high/DoD, it may be of help in this situation because of the ZIP codes and routing requirements.

Add Bing Maps in Power Apps

Add Bing Maps in Power Automate

App Templates - There is a Template in Power Apps for Asset Management. That might be a great place to start. It is a model drive app, so licensing adjustments may be required. It could serve as a template for a Canvas App.
Datasources - For consideration, different data sources have different capabilities/limitations. For instance, if you are planning to use SharePoint Online, you may run into delegation issues, depending on the functions used. With a SQL database, you can leverage different Views on the database/table side to avoid delegation issues. I've also created a demo in GCC high where you can connect to a SQL Database, add new data, and refresh to see the results of your new data on charts. You can do this with SharePoint online as well, but according to other online sources, it's not as fast/efficient as SQL. I'm sure that all depends on many factors such as database size, security model needs, and more
Power Apps/Power BI - You can add a single Power BI Chart in Power Apps. I say single, because you can't add an entire dashboard. You can also add a Power App in a Power BI report. I did this to leverage the PowerApps Text Search/Html highlight ability that Power BI did not offer. This also might allow you to create a OneStop Shop for employees/management. There is also the Power BI Apps that can link many different URLs, reports, apps, and more in one location for users as well!
Offline Capability - I've heard there is an offline capability for Power Apps. I don't know if this is available in GCC high/DoD, but if it's something you believe would be helpful, it might be worth asking about.

The more we ask from Microsoft, the more they know what we need from the Gcc High/DoD side. I hope some of this information is helpful.

I'm glad you made your post and I wish you the best in your Power Platform Endeavors!