Microsoft Power Platform · Custom apps
As a Microsoft Power Apps partner, we build employee apps in days instead of months — canvas or model-driven, depending on the use case. When an Excel sheet is long since overwhelmed but a full custom software build would be too big, Power Apps sit in exactly that gap. We map your process cleanly without forcing you to hire a software department for it.
Functional scope
The platform covers a wide range: from the simple data-entry form to the complex field-service app with offline mode. Below are the five building blocks that play a role in almost every project.
Freely designed UIs, screen by screen, clicked together. Ideal when the look and feel should be specific but the data flow remains manageable — a shift booking, an inspection form, a mobile warehouse app. With pixel-perfect layout, gestures, camera access, geolocation, offline functionality.
The UI is generated automatically from the Dataverse data model: list views, detail forms, business process flows. The natural choice for CRM-style applications — application processing, asset management, service tickets — anything with many tables, relationships, and security roles.
Power Apps run natively on iOS and Android. Responsive layouts, native device features (camera, barcode scanner, GPS, push notifications), offline caching with sync on the next online slot. We know where the platform happily carries mobile-first apps — and where we switch to React Native.
Behind every Power App sits the Dataverse data model: tables, relational relationships, security at row and field level, plug-ins for server-side logic. The same model Microsoft Dynamics 365 sits on — which avoids duplicate maintenance.
SharePoint, Outlook, Teams, Excel, OneDrive — Microsoft standard. Plus Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, ServiceNow, Workday, GitHub, Jira, ZoomInfo. Custom connectors for your own REST APIs. Premium connectors require the dedicated Power Apps plans — that's a licensing point we walk through cleanly in the initial conversation.
Pre-built AI models for form recognition (receipts, invoices), object detection, sentiment analysis, language translation — usable directly in canvas apps and Power Automate. No data-science team required, but: model accuracy depends heavily on data volume. Before using it, we check whether AI Builder is sufficient or whether a custom model makes more sense.
Use cases
From our own projects — a small selection of task types where Power Apps reach the result noticeably faster than any classic software development.
Vacation requests, travel expenses, IT tickets, shift swaps, onboarding checklists. Every employee has the app on their phone, the manager gets the approval task in Teams or Outlook, the result flows into Dataverse or the ERP. The classic domain of the per-app plans.
Service technicians, auditors, inspectors: anyone who regularly visits customers on-site and captures data benefits from a tablet app with offline mode, photo attachments, GPS location, and signature. Live sync back to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service or Dataverse.
Applications, supplier inquiries, customer-service entries, data requests. Instead of a PDF with email attachment: a form that validates directly, checks required fields, uploads attachments — and lands in the right system, with audit trail.
Stock checks, audits, asset inventories, market-research surveys. A team with tablets, one app, one central database — without Excel back-and-forth, without manual consolidation. The result is immediately analyzable in Power BI.
What we deliver
Canvas or model-driven? Where does which logic live (app, flow, plug-in, custom connector)? How are test, stage, and production environments structured? These architectural decisions make the difference between an app that scales and one that becomes unmaintainable after the first year because of spaghetti logic.
We design the screen flow in Figma, validate it with the future users, then translate it into Power Apps screens. That saves the usual iteration of "we build, you see it for the first time after 6 weeks, everything has to be rebuilt."
The table structure beneath the app. Relationships, keys, cascading behavior, indexing — and the security logic (which role sees which row). We know the performance pitfalls with large datasets and design so the app still responds at 500,000 rows.
Roles, teams, business units, field-level security, hierarchical security. What can the field worker see, the service manager, the management? Clean security is the point we tackle first in a Power Apps project — anything without that foundation becomes brittle.
License cost
Three models drive your Microsoft bill:
Important: premium connectors (SAP, Salesforce, ServiceNow, custom HTTP APIs) are not included in standard Microsoft 365 licenses. Anyone who only needs Power Apps with SharePoint and Outlook usually gets by with the included license. But as soon as external systems are connected, you need a dedicated plan. A fully calculated variant with your user counts is in our License Cost Calculator.
Proof from practice
We don't just build Power Apps for clients — we run our own productized solutions on the platform, each one a model-driven example deployed in production:
That means: when you ask us whether the platform can carry a particular requirement, we answer from our own production experience — not from demo slides.
FAQ
Canvas apps give you free hand with UI design — you draw screen by screen as in PowerPoint. Model-driven apps generate the UI automatically from your Dataverse data model and are the natural choice for CRM-style applications with many tables and relationships.
No. Power Apps and Dataverse are available standalone. But if you're already using Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power Apps can sit on the same data model, which avoids duplicate maintenance.
Per-app plan from roughly €5 per user per app per month, per-user plan from roughly €20 per user per month for unlimited apps. Pay-as-you-go via Azure subscription for sporadic use. Premium connectors to SAP, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and custom HTTP APIs are only included in the dedicated Power Apps plans. A fully calculated variant: License Cost Calculator.
A lean canvas app with clear requirements is in production in 2–3 weeks. A model-driven app with an extensive data model, security concept, and integration to third-party systems typically takes 6–10 weeks. In the initial conversation we'll give you an honest assessment based on your requirements.
We offer maintenance in the Application Care model — a monthly service contract with a guaranteed hourly allotment and priority handling. Alternatively pay-per-hour without contract commitment. On request, we also hand over to internal citizen developers.
When the platform license cost becomes uneconomical for your user count, when the UI must be highly specific, or when you need full control over database, hosting, and performance. That's when our second pillar comes into play: Independent Engineering.
30-min initial conversation
Describe the project, and we'll give an honest assessment — effort, license cost, architecture options.
Accompanying services
Engineering projects rarely stand alone — license logic, architecture clarification, quality gates, knowledge transfer, and follow-on operations usually run in parallel. Below are the most common accompanying services we add via discovery spikes, fixed-price sprints, or application-care contracts.
Before · Architecture
Before implementation: tenant structure, data model, security concept, integration mapping. The result is an architecture document any engineering team can continue working with — even one other than us.
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Before · CSP
Which license bundles for which users, which add-on SKUs are necessary, where you're over- or under-licensed. Sourced as a Microsoft Licensing Partner — with the option to use CSP purely for control without margin maximization.
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During · Quality gate
Independent second opinion during an active implementation project — whether we run it or another partner does. CMMI-based quality gates, risk reviews, fixed price per gate.
During · Adoption
Not the classic 2-day workshop forgotten after a week — but a dynamic learning program over 4–6 weeks with initial training, application phases, and follow-up sessions. Training matrix for roles and topics.
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After · Operations
After go-live: a plannable application-care contract with a monthly flat rate, SLA-based. Includes releases, hotfixes, extensions, tenant hardening — and continuous accompaniment instead of mere ticket response.
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After · Knowledge
When the original developers are gone, the previous partner is no longer reachable, or the documentation is stale — reverse engineering of the existing solution with a documented result: code map, data model, customization inventory.
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Strategy background · arades topic page
Why we consistently build all our apps and recommendations on a single data foundation — and when the island solution is still the better answer. 2,500 words on architecture, migration paths, and honest boundaries.
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