By Insight Editor / 14 May 2020 / Topics: Application development Microsoft 365 Modern workplace
Facts at a glance
Client industry:
Supermarket chain
Size of company:
National enterprise
Challenge:
The client’s legacy task management system was outdated and inefficient.
Solution:
Using their existing Microsoft Office 365 licensing, we crafted a modern, mobile-enabled task management platform featuring automated processes and an easy-to-view executive dashboard.
Results:
- Successful deployment of modern task management platform
- Increased productivity with mobile app
- Client was able to decommission its expensive legacy system
- Cost savings from process automation
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.
For years, employees in the central office had to distribute tasks through an expensive, browser-only, subscription-based system that was far too complex for their needs. The existing task management system was slow, inefficient and difficult to use. Tasks were often missed or wrongly assigned, with very little visibility into real-time status.
Workers in the central office wanted a simple system and needed something that would allow them to assign tasks to individual departments within each store. They wanted a universal solution that would work on desktop computers, Zebra® mobile devices and would work with a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy.
Looking for a solution that would enable easier and faster task management, the company came to Insight. After examining the client’s current solution and engaging in extensive discussions with their IT team and solution stakeholders, we recommended a complete system overhaul.
To achieve the client’s complete wish list, our solution had to deliver on the following requirements:
We knew the Microsoft® Power platform would be the best toolset to meet all of these requirements. Therefore, we planned to leverage the client’s current Microsoft Office 365® investment to deliver a fully cloud-based solution using Power Apps®, Power Automate® and Power BI®.
Since they had already invested in Office 365 the Power platform was a natural fit for the client’s needs. Because of their transparency and ease-of-use, we identified SharePoint® lists as the best solution to hold all of the resulting data.
By leveraging the quick-build capabilities of Power Apps, the Insight team was able to mock-up screens and define the full experience very rapidly. Using the extensive business intelligence capabilities of Power Automate, the team was able to design complex workflows that could easily create up to 950,000 tasks per month.
In addition to meeting all the requirements on their wish list, the new platform enabled corporate personnel to create sophisticated visualizations in Power BI. Being able to visualize the SharePoint list task data was an enormous benefit for the client.
With the new system in place and completely cloud-enabled, the client was able to decommission their legacy system, which comprised of several applications and services. In so doing, they were able to save on hardware, operational and licensing costs.
The client has also noticed increased productivity across stores and departments. Thanks to the mobile app, store managers are now able to see tasks as they’re assigned. With this, they can now immediately act on tasks as they do their walks throughout the store.
In the past, report creation was a manual and burdensome process. With this new solution, the client has an executive dashboard at their disposal. Leadership can now see real-time reports for all tasks across stores by region or type. Across all departments, locations and levels of leadership, task management just got a whole lot easier.
Innovating is the only way to stay relevant in today’s uber-competitive market. Our unique approach and deep knowledge put you on the path to true innovation.
Discover reports, stories and industry trends to help you innovate for the future.
