Custom software takes months. Power Apps delivers in weeks. Here is when each is the right call.
6 min read · 1 September 2026
Most internal processes do not need a bespoke software project. They need a well-built app on a platform that already exists. Here is the honest comparison.
A custom build means requirements, development, testing and deployment, typically months, and a budget to match. It makes sense for complex, customer-facing products. For an internal leave form, it is overkill.
Approval bottlenecks cost more than patience. These six workflows show what Power Automate handles quietly in the background.
4 min read · 2 September 2026
Approvals are where work goes to wait. A request lands in an inbox, the approver opens it days later, and everyone downstream builds in a buffer because they know the process is slow. The cost shows up as late starts, last minute rushes and a running joke about chasing. Power Automate approval flows change all of that by carrying the request to the right person, chasing it when it stalls and keeping a full trail of every decision. Here are six examples that produce real time savings.
A Power Automate approval flow starts with a trigger: a form submission, a new SharePoint list item, an email. The flow then creates an approval request, sends it to one person or a whole group, and waits. When someone responds, the flow continues down one branch for approved and another for rejected, updating the source record and notifying everyone who needs to know. The point is that the process holds the memory, not the people. Nothing gets lost in an email thread, and anyone can see where a request sits at any moment. The approval itself stays in one place, so the question nobody likes answering, “who has it now?”, simply stops coming up.
Both sides have loud advocates and both oversimplify. Here is the honest comparison, with the cases where each approach wins.
4 min read · 2 September 2026
Every software conversation eventually arrives at the same fork: build it on a low code platform like the Power Platform, or hire developers to build it by hand. Both sides have loud advocates and both oversimplify. The honest answer is that the choice turns on a few practical questions: how fast you need it, who maintains it, and how unusual the job really is.
The difference is not quality, and it is not ambition. A well built Power Platform app and a well built custom app can look and behave alike to the people using them. The difference is where the logic lives. Low code platforms give you ready made building blocks: forms, data storage, connectors to other systems, access control. Custom development gives you a blank canvas with every line written for your exact problem. Low code trades a little freedom for speed. Custom trades time for total control.
Licensing is where Power Platform projects stumble, because the answer is never on one tidy page. Here is the plain language version.
4 min read · 2 September 2026
When a Power Platform project stalls, it is rarely the app that is the problem. It is the licensing conversation. Which licence covers this flow? Does the app need a licence for every user, or only for people who do more than view? The answers change the cost of the project, so they deserve attention before you commit. This guide keeps it plain, and where entitlements change, we point you to Microsoft’s own pages rather than guessing.
Many organisations already own more than they think. Most Microsoft 365 business and enterprise plans include a baseline of Power Platform capability, an amount of Power Automate usage and a form of Power Apps, so the first question is never what do we buy but what does our current plan already include. Exact inclusions shift between plans and over time, so treat any summary as a starting point and check Microsoft’s current plan pages for exact entitlement. A surprising number of first projects cost nothing extra at all.
The confusion is normal. Both tools come from the same platform and share the same licence pages, but they answer completely different questions.
4 min read · 2 September 2026
If you have asked whether your team should use Power Apps or Power BI, you are asking the right question in the wrong order. They are not rival products fighting for the same job. One builds tools your people use to do work. The other builds the pictures you look at to understand the work. Once that difference is clear, choosing becomes easy, and more often than not the answer is both.
Power Apps creates apps: forms, screens and buttons that replace spreadsheets, paper and chasing. Someone opens the app, enters data or starts an approval, and the record is saved to a shared data source. Power BI creates reports and dashboards: charts, tables and key figures that turn that data into a view leadership can read. The simple version is that Power Apps is where work happens, and Power BI is where you see what happened.