Client story Crafting a Modern Solution for Time Off Requests
With a rapidly expanding workforce, one company decided it was time to update its outdated vacation request portal, but it would need help developing a modern solution.
By Insight Editor / 15 May 2020 / Topics: Microsoft 365 Application development Modern workplace
Facts at a glance
Client industry:
Defense contractor
Size of company:
Global enterprise
Challenge:
The company needed a technology partner who could help it improve its vacation request process for employees.
Solution:
Insight proposed the creation of a modern, mobile vacation request platform. Our technicians planned to leverage Microsoft® PowerApps®, Power Automate® and Power BI® to deliver a robust executive dashboard capable of approval delegation.
Results:
- Rapid deployment of a modern vacation request solution
- Improved user experience with mobile app
- Sunset of expensive legacy systems
- Implemented process automation, resulting in significant cost savings
Solution area:
Insight’s Connected Workforce solutions are a suite of end-user compute offerings designed to simplify IT management while improving connectivity and collaboration.
With a growing workforce of more than 13,000 employees, one company decided it was time to update its outdated vacation policy, which no longer served the needs of its modern workforce.
While the company’s Human Resources (HR) department successfully defined a more flexible vacation policy, they needed help wrapping it in a technology platform that would also be more accessible for employees.
Different people, different needs
The company had a number of complex requirements they wanted to fulfill, as well as a compressed timeline to contend with. Knowing this, they decided to work with Insight to get the job done right.
The client wanted to build a time-off request portal that would support multiple user groups. Among these would be three groups with different needs:
- Employees needing to check vacation balances and enter time off requests
- Managers needing to monitor and approve requests submitted by their subordinates
- Leadership needing to track and report on data trends related to time off requests
Agile development enables a modern solution
At the time Insight came onboard to help, the client’s HR department was still finalizing the details for the new vacation policy. To meet the rapidly approaching deadline, Insight’s developers would need to pivot quickly to accommodate any policy changes the HR team requested. That meant an agile development process would be essential for success.
Throughout the project, Insight maintained regular communications with the client’s HR leaders to ensure both parties stayed in lock-step. As the vacation policy developed, the most important requirements became:
- An interactive calendar employees could use to pick desired time-off dates
- An interactive, color-coded calendar displaying total time off for an entire team
- Managerial permissions to set a limit on the number of time-off requests granted on the same day
- Managerial permissions to approve time-off requests for any employee within the hierarchy of their direct reports
- Managerial permissions to delegate approvals to any employee in the company
In order to meet these requirements, Insight leveraged a combination of Microsoft® Office 365®, PowerApps®, Power Automate® and Power BI® to rapidly design and implement the right solution. The Power platform provided the perfect toolset to meet all of the requirements for this solution.
By relying on a trusted partner and adopting an agile approach, the client was able to provide immediate feedback while the project was in development. This allowed for incredible speed and flexibility.
Getting creative when the need arises
Since the company had already deployed Office 365 for its North American employees, Microsoft’s low-code Power platform was a good solution for its needs. However, the client was still in the process of migrating mailboxes to Exchange Online. This unfortunately meant that some key Power apps features would not be available during this project.
Rather than letting this bump in the road impact the overall timeline for the project, the Insight team decided to get creative. The team leveraged Power Automate in combination with Azure® automation to MacGyver a unique workaround. Thanks to a little creative spirit and ingenuity from their Insight technicians, the client was able to avoid any delays caused by mailbox migration — a critical factor for success when working under such a tight deadline.
Making a successful launch
With tight timelines and more than a few complications to contend with, ensuring a successful launch of this new vacation policy and accompanying time-off request platform was no easy task. Luckily, Insight’s technicians and project managers managed to pull it off, even devoting hours over the holidays to move the project forward.
With the launch of this new platform, the client’s employees and managers now have the ability to easily request and approve time off anywhere. Even factory floor workers who don’t have access to company desktops are able to use this mobile solution.
For managers, complex rules in the background make it easy to not only submit time, but also approve it, knowing that the team will always have proper coverage. Plus, those with managerial permissions are able to see an entire team’s vacation schedule all at once, making it easier to delegate approvals if needed.
Thanks to this new system, entering and approving vacation requests has never been easier. While the project was complex and timelines were tight, the client now has a robust and flexible vacation policy and mobile app to serve its modern workforce.
