In today’s competitive business landscape, organizations are continually seeking innovative ways to enhance productivity and efficiency. SharePoint, Microsoft’s collaboration platform, has long been a trusted ally in this endeavor. However, customizing SharePoint to align with specific business needs has often been a complex and time-consuming process. Fortunately, QuickApps has emerged as a revolutionary solution helping organizations to simplify SharePoint customizations. In this blog, we will compare manual SharePoint customizations and customizations with QuickApps and explore how the latter can significantly boost your SharePoint experience and maximize your Return on Investment (ROI).

Manual SharePoint Customizations: A Time-Consuming Approach

Manual SharePoint customizations refer to the traditional approach of using custom code or third-party development tools to modify SharePoint’s native functionality, design, and user experience. While this approach provides a high degree of flexibility and allows developers to create any customization imaginable, it can take anywhere from several weeks to several months, depending on the complexity of the requirements. Moreover, many organizations experience delays in implementing crucial changes due to the protracted development process. Some drawbacks of the manual SharePoint customizations include:

• Time Consuming: Writing custom codes for SharePoint customizations can be time consuming, particularly for complex requirements. This often leads to longer development cycles and delays in implementing crucial changes.
• High Development Costs: Developing custom solutions often involves hiring skilled SharePoint developers, which can significantly increase the overall project cost.
• Maintenance and Upgrades: Manual customizations can become cumbersome to maintain, especially when SharePoint undergoes updates or upgrades. Each new update may require additional coding and testing to ensure compatibility.
• Technical Expertise Required: Developing custom solutions requires a strong understanding of SharePoint’s architecture, which may not be readily available within every organization. This creates barriers for business users, they must depend on developers to roll out concepts.
• Mismatched Expectations: When a SharePoint custom solution is built by the developers, there is a high probability of mismatched expectations. After months of coding effort, when the solution is finally ready, the business users find the custom solution does not meet their expectations and this leads to further reworks.

No-code SharePoint Customizations with QuickApps

AgreeYa’s QuickApps is an award-winning suite of solution that revolutionizes SharePoint customization with its ‘No-code’ approach. It comprises various SharePoint webapps that empower business users to quickly and easily develop and modify complex applications on a SharePoint environment, whether On-premises or Online. Here are some key features of QuickApps that make it a powerful tool:

• Rapid Customization: With QuickApps, users can customize SharePoint up to 80% faster than traditional manual methods. Its point-and-click configuration enables business users to create tailored applications without relying on developers.
• Pre-built Features: Offers a wide range of pre-built templates, which can be configured and used to meet specific customization requirements without getting into development.
• Data Export: Simplifies data exporting by allowing users to export list view data into formats like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, PDF, or CSV. This enhances data sharing and reporting capabilities.
• Enhanced List Management: Enables users to establish parent-child relationships in a two-level hierarchical list view, apply complex filters, and sort data efficiently. Additionally, QuickApps supports unlimited grouping and point-and-click data roll-up across multiple lists.
• Pre-built Charts: Allows creation of visually compelling SharePoint charts and dashboards that include dynamic filtering, drill-down reporting, and a rich user experience. QuickApps’ charting solutions are ideal for various BI and dashboard scenarios.
• Build Dynamic Forms: Enables creation, viewing and editing of external data in a form and saves space with the use of tabs. QuickApps’ form web app helps connect data from SharePoint and external systems and extend SharePoint’s capabilities beyond what is natively possible.
• Intuitive Collaborative Application Markup Language (CAML) Filtering: Provides point-and-click CAML filtering editors for list items and folders, making data filtering and retrieval a breeze.

Benefits of QuickApps over Manual Customizations:

• Cost effective: By eliminating the need for extensive coding and developer involvement, QuickApps significantly reduces customization costs, making it an attractive option for businesses with limited budgets.
• Increased Productivity: QuickApps accelerates customization timelines, enabling businesses to implement changes quickly and efficiently. This translates to improved productivity and faster responses to changing business needs.
• User Empowerment: With its user-friendly interface, QuickApps empowers business users to take charge of customizations, reducing dependence on IT and promoting self-sufficiency.
• Easy Maintenance and Upgrades: Since QuickApps operates within SharePoint’s framework, it seamlessly adapts to SharePoint updates, ensuring smooth maintenance and upgrades.

Maximize SharePoint Return on Investment (ROI) With QuickApps

SharePoint customizations are instrumental in optimizing the value of SharePoint and driving business growth. While manual customizations offer unparalleled flexibility, QuickApps opens a new realm of possibilities by revolutionizing how customizations are executed. Adopt QuickApps to maximize SharePoint ROI and build applications or SharePoint process automation to improve your organization’s productivity. Partner with us today!

Enterprises extensively use Microsoft SharePoint for content management, document management, and harnessing collective knowledge. Launched in 2001, SharePoint is a centralized and secure platform that empowers employees to work collaboratively and efficiently. It is available to users in two versions – SharePoint Online and SharePoint Server (On-premises). SharePoint on-premises is installed on customers’ IT infrastructure and receives fewer updates. In contrast, SharePoint Online is a 100% SaaS offering packaged with a Microsoft 365 (M365) subscription and is the future of the product.

Microsoft periodically releases software updates for SharePoint Online, adding capabilities that modern users need. One of the core capabilities of SharePoint Online is its ability to store and manage documents and other types of content in a centralized location. Users can create, edit, and share documents, presentations, and other files and control access using permissions and versioning features. It also offers powerful collaboration features, such as team and communication sites, where team members can collaborate on projects and share information.

Despite all the amazing capabilities, SharePoint has limitations when it comes to automating complex business processes. While SharePoint’s out-of-the-box functionalities cover the primary business needs of businesses, it can be challenging to utilize the platform to the fullest to meet an organization’s specific process automation needs. That’s where AgreeYa QuickApps comes in.

Overcome SharePoint Limitations with QuickApps

QuickApps is an innovative ‘No-code’ solution with pre-built templates and 21 powerful web apps that help users rapidly implement SharePoint process automation. It enables users to quickly and easily create forms, workflows, dashboards, and reports that meet specific business needs without writing a single line of code. It offers a range of features, including:

• Forms and Templates: QuickApps provides a range of pre-built forms that can be customized to meet specific SharePoint process automation requirements. With QuickApps, users can create forms for feedback, surveys, and more. Users can also use templates to create custom sites, lists, and libraries.
• Dashboards and Reports: QuickApps provides various tools to create custom dashboards and reports that allow users to analyze data and gain insights into the business. With QuickApps, users can create interactive charts, graphs, and tables to visualize data and identify trends quickly.
• Custom Web Parts: QuickApps provides a range of custom web parts that can be used to add functionality and customize the SharePoint environment. With QuickApps, users can add custom navigation menus, search boxes, calendars, and more.

By integrating QuickApps with the SharePoint Online environment, users can increase productivity and streamline business processes by automating tasks and workflows, reducing manual data entry, and improving data accuracy.

Benefits of leveraging QuickApps for Process Automation

QuickApps can transform the SharePoint Online experience with its innovative features. It enables organizations to push the boundaries of SharePoint and maximize the potential of a robust platform without compromising security and compliance. Some of the most prevalent advantages of QuickApps include:

• Empower Business Users: Allows business users to automate new processes or modify existing ones on SharePoint without relying on IT or SharePoint development resources. Business users (non-programmers) can quickly build or customize complex business applications on SharePoint Online or on-premises up to 80% faster using simple point-and-click configuration instead of writing long lines of code.
• Improve Deliveries: Enables organizations to shorten the process automation creation cycle using ready-to-use templates. Templates can be utilized to rapidly create applications such as new employee onboarding, sales reporting, helpdesk, project management, and CRM.
• Short Learning Curve: Empowers business users (non-programmers) to build SharePoint solutions and automate processes quickly by leveraging easy-to-use web apps, pre-built templates, and built-in video tutorials.
• Better Build: Helps extend native capabilities of SharePoint applications by delivering advanced functionalities. As an example, users can include tabular forms to save screen space, implement parent-child relationships to ensure reliable data entry and hide/show when logic governs what data users can see.

Use Cases of SharePoint Process Automation with QuickApps

SharePoint workflow automation is being used extensively across various departments and processes. Below we have enlisted some standard business processes that organizations can automate on SharePoint with QuickApps.

• Employee Onboarding: The onboarding process is a critical part of an employee’s journey and plays a significant role in job satisfaction and retention. However, the manual process can be cumbersome and time-consuming, often leading to delays and errors. QuickApps’s rich assortment of web apps and point-and-click configuration enable business users to automate employee onboarding processes on SharePoint quickly. The end-to-end automation process starts with a new employee filling out an onboarding form with personal details, family details, and mandatory documents. Once the HR team approves, the onboarding process starts, and the new employee is provided with all the necessary information, including their training schedule. The HR dashboard offers a quick reference to the count of new joiners, training status, etc.
• Roster Management System: Managing work schedules is critical for organizations with shift workers, and manually managing rosters can be daunting. QuickApps can be leveraged to build a powerful roster management system on SharePoint, reducing costs and maximizing the platform’s ROI. The system includes roster creation, review, approval, dashboard, present & absent report, and defaulters report. This enables managers, admins, and HR to manage shifts and people more efficiently, providing all the necessary insights to ensure seamless operations.
• IT Ticketing System: IT support ticketing systems are essential for organizations to ensure their operations run smoothly. A SharePoint-based ticketing system provides several benefits, including advanced search, familiarity with the use, easy customization, automated workflow, and maximization of SharePoint ROI. Building a ticketing system on SharePoint with QuickApps is a cost-effective solution as it provides seamless integration with existing systems. With QuickApps, enterprises can implement several features to automate the ticketing system end-to-end, such as approvals, delegations, notifications, email alerts, and escalations of requests.

Maximize SharePoint Online Investments with QuickApps

QuickApps is a powerful tool helping organizations enhance their SharePoint Online experience by adding more functionality and customization options. By integrating QuickApps into the SharePoint environment, users can increase productivity, streamline business processes, improve data accuracy, and create custom solutions that meet the organization’s specific needs.

Amit Gupta

Associate Director – Product Development

Amit Gupta plays a key role in incubating and establishing best SharePoint practices at AgreeYa. He is closely associated with the Product Development and Delivery team and works to find new solutions based on Microsoft technology and optimize performance and responsiveness for our clients. He can be reached at amit.g@agreeya.com

The Purchase Order (PO) process is vital to business success. The lack of a proper, efficient, and accurate purchase ordering process can lead to difficulties in managing and timely disbursal of POs, unnecessary errors, and wastage of time & resource hours. On the other hand, an efficient Purchase Order Processing system helps organizations meet their process requirements with few resources, no errors, and without unwanted delays.

Most organizations are looking to reduce their supply chain costs in the present scenario. Organizations with large operations create thousands of purchase orders annually. Each of these purchase orders leads to extra expenses for the organization. With automation, organizations can cut significant PO processing expenses, which can be re-routed to other business growth areas. Before moving any further into this topic, let us take deep dive into the Purchase Order Process.

What is Purchase Order Process?

A Purchase Order (PO) is an official business document sent by an organization to its external supplier/s (vendor/s) confirming the intention to buy certain goods or services. The document contains all information about the purchase. After the supplier approves the purchase order, it becomes a legal document binding the organization and the supplier. PO process is an essential part of the procurement lifecycle. The process commences whenever a department/individual raises a request for material, and the approver approves the order. The vital elements in the Purchase Order Process workflow are mentioned below:

At first glance, the purchase order process might seem simple and linear. However, organizations can add many steps into the mix, based on the scale of operations. When done manually, the process can be hard to manage, cause unnecessary delays, be prone to errors, and require substantial manual efforts. Therefore, automating the PO process is imperative for organizations to run successful operations.

Manual vs. Automated Purchase Orders Processing

A manual Purchase Order Process involves the conventional ways of using emails and spreadsheets, which is a long, time-consuming, and error-prone process. Some of the drawbacks of manual purchase order processing are:

• Slow order processing, as all the data is entered and validated manually.
• Manual verification of all the records takes a longer time.
• Human intervention at different stages of processing makes the process error-prone.
• Employee dependency at the workplace.

On the contrary, automating the PO process can help cut down on delays in procurement and the costs associated with it. Some of its discernable benefits are as follows:

• The system can indicate whenever the inventory reaches a lower level and automatically generate procurement requests.
• Reduced dependency on employees and chances of manual errors.
• Enhanced efficiency in PO management, with no lost or delayed Pos.
• The entire process becomes faster and more efficient.
• Prevents fraud during the Purchase Order Processing, as the digital system cross-verifies invoices and requests against the original purchase orders generated.

Automating the Purchase Order process ensures transparency in the system and data accuracy. Thus, it helps in building better relationships between buyers and vendors.

Processes that can be Automated

The purchase order process includes many steps leading up to each other. Some of the steps can be automated, while others can’t. Typical stages of a purchase order process flow that organizations can automate include:

• Purchase Orders Creation based on existing inventories
• Inviting Quotations from multiple vendors
• Identifying the most suitable vendors
• Sending the finalized POs for approval
• Raising an invoice for payment processing after the order is received
• Refiling the inventories in the system
• Closure of the purchase order process

Why Automate Purchase Order Processing on SharePoint Online?

An automated Purchase Order Processing System delivers various benefits to organizations, including faster PO processing, enhanced supplier relationships, cost savings, and liberating internal staff from mundane tasks. As a very flexible platform, SharePoint enables organizations to build automated systems to streamline and enhance their business processes. SharePoint allows seamless integration with existing line of business (LOB) applications. Consequently, organizations already leveraging SharePoint as their Intranet, Document, and Content Management solution can build an automated SharePoint-based Purchase Order Processing System to deliver a familiar system for users and maximize technology ROI. Following such a route, organizations can avoid the high costs associated with purchasing a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) product. Other benefits of automating purchase order processing on SharePoint online include:

• Data Repository: Most of the data required to build a robust Purchase Order Processing System might already be available in SharePoint. Data from other systems can be easily integrated with the platform. Additionally, users can submit their orders through various channels (phone, email, web, SharePoint, and Microsoft 365), which can further be assigned to the appropriate departments for fulfillment.
• Customization: SharePoint is a highly customizable platform. Organizations leveraging SharePoint can quickly build a purchase order system and customize it according to their business requirements. Users can create purchase request forms, assign administrative roles, set up multi-level approval flow, and classify purchase orders based on departments, vendors, location, type, cost, etc.
• Seamless Communication: With many features and capabilities, SharePoint ensures seamless communication and collaboration among different departments. Whenever a user raises a purchase request through the SharePoint-based Purchase Order Processing System, employees of the concerned department get notified. Similarly, the order requestee gets notified whenever the order is ready.
• Interactive Dashboard: SharePoint dashboards enable organizations to view all pertinent data related to the PO process. Decision-makers can view the history of purchase requests per department, the percentage of approvals and denials, and track the status of orders. SharePoint dashboards make it simpler to view and work with data from several sources by showcasing the data in a visually appealing format that is easy to interpret.
• Integration with External Systems: SharePoint can be easily integrated with third-party systems and LOB applications used by different departments such as admin, finance, accounts, and IT infrastructure.

Build Purchase Order Processing System on SharePoint with QuickApps?

QuickApps is an innovative ‘No-code’ solution with a set of pre-built templates and 21 powerful web apps that help business users to rapidly automate business processes on SharePoint and Microsoft 365. Leveraging QuickApps, organizations can seamlessly build a robust automated Purchase Order Processing System on SharePoint without any coding and save up to 80% of development time. Business users can leverage the below web parts to create a Purchase Order Processing System:

• qListView: Combines data from multiple lists over multiple sites and site collections.
• qChartView: Creates 3D graphs and charts with data from databases.
• qCalendarView: Organizes all schedules into one view, including data from non-SharePoint calendar lists.
• qSIChartView: Summarizes data with interactive 3-D charts.
• qMediaView: Arranges pictures, videos, and audio files from different sites, site collections, and web applications into a centralized list, slide show, or gallery.
• qSIListForm: Enables users to create, read, and edit external data in a form.
• qDiscussionView: Shows the topic and responses of multiple discussion lists in a single tree view and previews selected items in a preview panel.
• qDynamicLayout: Displays multiple web apps on a page efficiently using tabs to maximize screen real estate.

Talk to your experts today to get started with Purchase Order Processing System development on SharePoint. Procurement professionals can quickly process purchase orders, monitor transactions, minimize financial risk, and control cash flow by automating the PO process.

Amit Gupta

Associate Director – Product Development

Amit Gupta plays a key role in incubating and establishing best SharePoint practices at AgreeYa. He is closely associated with the Product Development and Delivery team and works to find new solutions based on Microsoft technology and optimize performance and responsiveness for our clients. He can be reached at amit.g@agreeya.com

Conventionally, the field of sales was intuition driven. But today, it is all about numbers, numbers, and more numbers! Sales professionals rely on the voluminous data to glean insights, strategize for the future, and make better decisions. But every action fails if the data is not real-time, accurate, and not presented in a way that helps professionals to achieve their goals. Therefore, sales dashboards are imperative for organizations to run successful sales operations.

What Is a Sales Dashboard?

A sales dashboard is a visual representation of data that shows how an organization’s sales department is performing, highlighting the areas which need attention, and showing scope for improvement. It provides analytical insight that can help stakeholders and managers to control sales KPIs and monitor them in one central place while assisting the teams in reaching sales goals through detailed analyses of sales performance, cycle lengths, and sales funnels. Leveraging sales dashboards, organizations can understand the current health of their business and strategize to future-proof their business and increase revenue.

Why should organizations leverage SharePoint to create a Sales Dashboard?

A SharePoint-based Sales Dashboard delivers organizations with detailed sales reports, scorecards, and widgets that are accessible from the web. A SharePoint-based sales dashboard can help sales professionals visualize the voluminous data they have and get analytical insights that can help them make better sales strategies and improve decision-making. Some qualitative business benefits of such dashboards are:

#1: Accessibility of data at a centralized location

Unstructured data spread across different platforms is of no use to any department. SharePoint-based sales dashboards ensure that all the data is aggregated from different sites and site collections and presented at a centralized location.

#2: Improved decision making

Having accurate and up-to-date sales data in one place enables sales professionals to make informed decisions easily. Leveraging an impactful sales dashboard, sales managers can analyze how their teams are performing in different demographics, check out the sales, identify the areas lacking, predict market demands and improve decision-making.

#3: Accurate and faster reporting

Generating sales reports manually can be time-consuming and cumbersome, especially when employees do not have all the data in one place. By leveraging SharePoint-based sales dashboards, sales professionals can generate reports faster. Employees get notified in real-time as new data is available, ensuring the reports generated are up to date.

#4: Reduces human errors

With so many tasks at hand, humans are bound to make mistakes sometimes. But with a sales dashboard, sales professionals have real-time visibility into all processes and the data that drives them. This means fewer human errors, less time spent trying to put together the right information, and more time for solving problems that matter.

#5: Seamless Customization

One advantage of the SharePoint-based sales dashboard is that it can be customized and tailored according to organizations’ needs. Leveraging No-code SharePoint solutions, organizations can aggregate, filter, and display data on the dashboard based on their specific requirements at any point in time.

#6: Maximization of Technology Investment

Most organizations continue to leverage SharePoint solely for Content management and Intranet. As a flexible platform, SharePoint delivers organizations with many options. With a SharePoint-based sales dashboard, organizations can attain more than utilize SharePoint for Intranet and collaboration. It enables them a chance to automate a business-critical process without the need for purchasing a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) product.

Sales Dashboard creation made easy with QuickApps

QuickApps is part of AgreeYa’s award-winning suite of solutions that simplifies customization and process automation on SharePoint. It is an innovative ‘No-code’ solution with a set of pre-built templates and 21 powerful web apps that help sales professionals aggregate data from multiple sources and analyze and visualize the data in the form of compelling lists, tables, charts, and more. Leveraging QuickApps, sales professionals can seamlessly build sales dashboards on SharePoint, visualize data, and generate reports rapidly, enabling improved decision-making. Some of its popular web apps are:

• qListView: Combines data from multiple lists over multiple sites and site collections
• qChartView: Creates 3D graphs and charts with data from databases.
• qCalendarView: Organizes all your schedules into one view, including data from non-SharePoint calendar lists.
• qSIChartView: Compellingly summarize your data with our interactive 3-D charts.
• qMediaView: Organize pictures, videos, and audio files from different sites, site collections, and web applications into a centralized list, slide show, or gallery
• qSIListForm: Create, read, and edit external data in a form.

Take QuickApps 30-day free trial to empower your sales team, helping them streamline sales reporting and realize the true value of data

Amit Gupta

Associate Director – Product Development

Amit Gupta plays a key role in incubating and establishing best SharePoint practices at AgreeYa. He is closely associated with the Product Development and Delivery team and works to find new solutions based on Microsoft technology and optimize performance and responsiveness for our clients. He can be reached at amit.g@agreeya.com

By 2025, 70% of new applications developed by enterprises will use No/Low-code technologies.

– Gartner

No/Low-code development platforms have seen tremendous growth since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the arrival of the Great Resignation. The simple point-and-click configuration of these tools replaces traditional development practices, enabling non-developers to contribute to application development and build applications faster. It empowers technical and non-technical professionals in an organization to develop applications without writing long lines of code.

Gartner believes that “while No/Low-code application development is not new, a confluence of digital disruptions, hyper-automation, and the rise of composable business has led to an influx of tools and rising demand.” Modern-day organizations are adopting such tools to address some of the most daunting business challenges – primarily the need to digitize operations, manage customers’ and employees’ changing requirements, and boost efficiency at the workplace, all the while considering the shortage of developers. Therefore, we have come up with some of the most anticipated No/Low-code trends for 2023 that can give organizations a competitive edge.

Major No/Low-code Trends to Watch out for in 2023

1: Ensuring the Security of Applications built with No/Low-Code Tools

Businesses can empower their users to independently develop business applications and rapidly automate processes with No/Low-code development tools. However, ease of development shouldn’t compromise organizational data security. As business users are allowed to develop, governance of apps built leveraging such platforms has become essential in the existing threat-scape. In 2023, IT departments will have to be more vigilant in maintaining the security posture of No/Low-code apps and have a governance plan in place. For organizations integrating their existing business applications with third-party No/Low-code tools, it is crucial to implement cyber security best practices (such as training the workforce on maintaining data security in a work setting).

2: Rapid Application Development will be the Norm

Between 2018 – 2023, more than 500 million apps will be created. That’s more than the previous 40 years combined.

– IDC

Over the last few years, rapid app development has progressed from a competitive advantage to an industry norm. However, in haste to create apps and simplify their processes, organizations should not let user experience take a backseat. The creation of easy-to-use and visually appealing apps is the next frontier for No/Low-code app development. While platforms with point-and-click configuration mitigate the usual shortcomings of the app development process and deliver cost-effectiveness, UI/UX experts need to ratify the developed apps.

3: IoT Systems & No/Low-code will Unite

According to Forbes, the number of cellular IoT connections is expected to reach 3.5 billion in 2023 and will surpass 25.4 billion in 2030.

Physical devices like mobile phones, laptops, tablets, scanners, smart watches, smart televisions, and others have become important data contributors. These devices accumulate a lot of data by working in real-life scenarios. In-depth analysis of such data can help an organization better serve its customers and grow business. However, the data can only be beneficial when it is visualized and analyzed properly. Leveraging No/Low-code tools, organizations can aggregate the data from multiple sources, structure it and visualize it graphically and glean analytical insights. These analytical insights can help business users in making faster and better decisions.

4: No/Low-code platforms will simplify Business Processes Automation

According to a Research & Markets study, by 2024, No/Low-code application development will be the root of more than 66% of application development, including approval and request applications. Over the years, organizations have started leveraging No/Low-code platforms to automate complex business processes and seamlessly change workflows. As these platforms are easy to adopt, integrate with existing IT infrastructure and APIs, and deliver faster results, they are considered one of the most critical business process automation investments.

5: No/Low-code will Enhance AI Products

According to the latest survey, the market for global Artificial Intelligence healthcare products is expected to hit $187 billion by 2030. In 2023, No/Low-code application development platforms will contribute heavily towards the proliferation of intelligent systems. Businesses will adopt AI technologies more extensively in their operations, and No/Low-code platforms will enable quick reporting and visualizations.

No/Low-Code Development Is Going to Be at The Core of Businesses In 2023

No/Low-code platforms will continue to grow in 2023. However, the extent of its influence would depend on an organization’s approach and the application/s in question. Leading organizations can capitalize on the emerging opportunities for No/Low-code applications by connecting with the leading industry experts. As a Global Systems Integrator, AgreeYa has been helping organizations worldwide to transform their operations with its stack of No and Low code offerings. Our offerings enable organizations to automate workflows quickly, empower business users to streamline tasks and maximize ROI. Contact us to learn more.

Amit Gupta

Associate Director – Product Development

Amit Gupta plays a key role in incubating and establishing best SharePoint practices at AgreeYa. He is closely associated with the Product Development and Delivery team and works to find new solutions based on Microsoft technology and optimize performance and responsiveness for our clients. He can be reached at amit.g@agreeya.com

Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO & Chairman, during his recent Microsoft Ignite 2022 keynote speech, mentioned that it is now time for organizations to move beyond digital resilience and build their “digital perseverance” capabilities. By doing so, organizations will be better equipped to meet the evolving requirements of the time. It is evident that being nimble and agile is the modus operandi for businesses today as they must react to market changes and fulfill new workplace expectations. Progress towards this vision is often thwarted due to the limited technical infrastructure, resources, and time required to build solutions from scratch.

For organizations leveraging SharePoint (on-premises or cloud), this progression towards “digital perseverance” and modernization of operations is often impeded by their traditional development approaches. Applications are a big part of SharePoint’s appeal. However, even today, many organizations rely on the traditional coding approach to create new applications and customizations on SharePoint. This is a complicated process consuming much time, effort, and money and requiring multiple rounds of iteration. No-code application development solutions deliver a mechanism for organizations to build apps and automate processes on SharePoint on-premises and online without any coding.

Organizations that utilize modern web apps can empower business users to build applications and simplify their work. It can enable organizations to maximize their SharePoint investment and deliver a modern workplace experience to employees. Moreover, businesses adopting the No-code approach to SharePoint custom app development can promptly stay ahead of the curve by addressing their business requirements. Even though the No-code SharePoint development trend, utilizing Web Apps, has existed for some time now, many organizations are still hesitant. So, we thought of helping our readers understand the value of web apps and some of their most discernable benefits.

What Is a Web App?

Custom web apps are small, easy-to-use, stand-alone business apps that empower organizations to perform tasks or address specific business requirements beyond the capabilities of their existing application. Users can integrate these apps with their existing business application to customize it or to interact with the database to retrieve and display information whenever required.

Benefits of Custom Web Apps for SharePoint for Modern Business

As the demand for SharePoint-based business applications is constantly growing, the pressure on SharePoint developers and IT departments is increasing. To mitigate these challenges, businesses across industries have started embracing custom web apps and unlocking the benefits below.

• Round-the-Clock Accessibility: Today’s workforce demands flexibility – to work anytime from any corner of the world – and seamless access to real-time data to operate efficiently and perform crucial actions. Custom web apps make that possible through their 24X7 accessibility. Leveraging web apps, users can quickly access business-critical data from SharePoint sites and site collections, glean insights, and take necessary actions anytime.
• Increased Efficiency: Traditional business processes, such as managing and accessing data manually through spreadsheets or documents, are exhaustive, error-prone, and ineffective. They impede scale, waste precious man-hours, and create inefficiencies that derail performance and profitability. Web apps help significantly increase process efficiency and business performance as they allow the automation of repetitive yet business-critical processes and avoid plenty of human errors. Additionally, by leveraging web apps, organizations can manage their data at a centralized location, retrieve it quickly, and visualize it in the form of tables, charts, and graphs whenever required for better visibility across different business segments.
• Easy-to-Customize: Adopting off-the-shelf software can be tricky for organizations as they are complicated to use. Custom web apps, as the name suggests, are easily customizable according to the business requirements. Custom web apps are code-free, meaning no complex coding is required to customize the applications. Business users or citizen developers can quickly build or customize complex business applications up to 80% faster using simple point-and-click configuration instead of custom coding.
• Short Learning Curve: Generally, software or application development requires complex coding. As custom web apps are a No-code solution, users (even non-technical) can build business applications much faster without long hours of complex coding.
• Easy Integration: Custom web apps bring data together from all your LOB applications that are ODBC compliant. It can connect to multiple external sources like SQL Server, Oracle, Web Services, etc., without manually copying the data. Therefore, organizations can quickly adapt and implement custom web apps with their existing legacy applications and IT infrastructure to maximize ROI.
• Quick Installation: Custom SharePoint web apps are installed on one of the web front-end servers. It does not have to be installed on all the servers in the SharePoint farm.

Maximize Your Technology Investments with QuickApps

Leveraging SharePoint solely as document management and an Intranet platform is not enough to optimize your SharePoint investment. QuickApps, as a No-code solution, enables organizations to swiftly develop use case-specific web applications in SharePoint that can help organizations gain a competitive advantage. Download the 30 days free trial to see the innovative solution in action. You can also download the Trial version from Microsoft Appsource.

Amit Gupta

Associate Director – Product Development

Amit Gupta plays a key role in incubating and establishing best SharePoint practices at AgreeYa. He is closely associated with the Product Development and Delivery team and works to find new solutions based on Microsoft technology and optimize performance and responsiveness for our clients. He can be reached at amit.g@agreeya.com

Over the past few years, organizations have realized the potential of data and its impact on businesses. Effective use of data enables businesses to deliver better customer and employee experiences; improves productivity, boosts innovation, drives sustainable growth, and gives them a competitive edge. According to Accenture’s Business Futures research, 88 percent of C-suite respondents believe that forward-looking data is key to their success.

Organizations leveraging SharePoint Online as their primary document and content management can utilize the data stored in the platform to transform their operations. SharePoint Online enables organizations to utilize third-party SharePoint application development tools to create impactful dashboards. These dashboards enable the management and the employees to glean essential insights from the data in real-time and access it anytime anywhere. It also empowers them to make critical business decisions based on analytical insights while staying in sync with corporate strategy.

Adopting a data-led decision-making approach is essential in today’s competitive market. It enables organizations to get ahead of changing customer trends and market volatility by boosting speed and agility. However, despite all the obvious benefits many organizations are struggling with data visualization on SharePoint Online. Improper or ineffective visualization of voluminous data stored in a SharePoint environment is one main reasons organizations fail to get the most out of their data.

What is Data Visualization?

Data visualization is defined as the graphical representation of data in a visually appealing and comprehensible format. The representation intends to show complex sets of data straightforwardly so that the stakeholders can get the insights they require from the data at a glance. It gives stakeholders an upper hand in today’s evolving industrial landscape, giving them clarity, increasing engagement, and improving decision-making with narrowed information. The importance of data visualization is not only for the employees, but it also helps the organizational leaders to:

• Identify new opportunities
• Stay on top of deliveries
• Prevent risks
• Improve operations
• Serve customers better

What are the challenges of data visualization on SharePoint Online?

The voluminous data generated in an organization usually lies in an unstructured format at different locations. It can be stored in various SharePoint sites, site collections, web applications, and external software. The presence of unstructured data scattered across multiple locations buries data insights under complex organizational structures. Some other significant data visualization challenges are:

1: Lack of data visualization literacy

Misrepresenting data using the wrong chart types will do more harm than good. There are numerous representation options available for users to showcase the data, such as tables, charts, graphs, etc. However, a major challenge for most data analysts is understanding what type of visual format should be used to present a specific data type.

2: Excessive simplification of data

At times, to enhance the look and feel of the visualized data, users try to simplify the data sets and pick up the information they feel is necessary for the leadership. This might facilitate data visualization, but the chances of critical data points being left out of consideration increase exponentially. The leadership might not get all the information they require for effective decision-making, which ultimately beats the overall purpose of data visualization.

3: Balancing visual appeal with accuracy

Visual appeal in the context of data visualization is a worthy goal to pursue, but balancing it with critical information and accuracy can be hard to achieve. This is also one of the most common reasons why users fail to visualize and make use of their data to improve business outcomes.

While there are several tools available in the market for data visualization, a No-code SharePoint Online app development solution helps organizations create engaging and impressive dashboards rapidly without writing a single line of code or IT dependence. It empowers the users to create visualizations based on their understanding of a specific process.

Leverage QuickApps to visualization data on SharePoint Online

QuickApps is an innovative No-code platform that enables business users to customize their SharePoint environment and visualize data seamlessly. It comes with a suite of 21 powerful web apps that make it easier for users to aggregate data from multiple sources and present it in an impactful format without needing custom coding. Some of its popular QuickApps web apps that help in data aggregation and visualization are:

qListView

qListView enables the users to view, group, and filter the SharePoint data in relevant and meaningful ways without writing a single line of code. Users can roll up information from multiple SharePoint lists, sites, site collections, and web applications. Features include:

• Customizes the look and feel using pre-packaged skins or by creating a custom skin.
• Exports aggregated data into Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, PDF, or CSV formats.
• Configures parent-child relationships in a two-level hierarchical list view.
• Creates complex filters and sort list view data in meaningful ways.
• Delivers unlimited grouping capabilities.
• Enables point-and-click roll-up of data in multiple lists.

qChartView

qChartView allows users to quickly create visually compelling SharePoint charts and dashboards with features such as dynamic filtering, drill-down reporting, and a rich user experience. Given that there is no native chart web app in SharePoint, QuickApps’ chart solution is ideal for BI and dashboard scenarios. Its features include:

• Aggregates chart data from across multiple SharePoint lists, sites, site collections, and web applications.
• Customizes chart elements, such as fonts, labels, backgrounds, canvas, logos, and tool tips.
• Delivers an assortment of 40-plus chart types to satisfy a wide range of visual, BI, and dashboard requirements.
• Filters values from other QuickApps web apps that allow for powerful dashboard capabilities.

qCalendarView

qCalendarView combines all calendars into one view, including data from non-calendar lists. Differentiating features of the web app include:

• Rolls up multiple calendars across different sites into a single view.
• Configures event color-coding based on a SharePoint list name.
• Enables users to drag and drop an event to another time slot in the calendar and change the end time of an event by dragging the bottom of the event up or down.
• Allows users to delete an event or an instance of a recurring event by simply clicking the red “X” icon on the selected event

QuickApps, when integrated with SharePoint Online, immensely improve the capability of business executives and other knowledge workers to represent data with impactful visualizations. Take QuickApps’ 30-day free trial to overcome your SharePoint data aggregation and visualization challenges and realize the true value of data.

Amit Gupta

Associate Director – Product Development

Amit Gupta plays a key role in incubating and establishing best SharePoint practices at AgreeYa. He is closely associated with the Product Development and Delivery team and works to find new solutions based on Microsoft technology and optimize performance and responsiveness for our clients. He can be reached at amit.g@agreeya.com

According to a comprehensive study by Deputy, managers spend 3.14 hours per week creating spreadsheets of employee schedules, which translates to about 20% of a manager’s time at work.

Over the past few years, there has been a tremendous change in the way organizations operate. Businesses are embracing new technologies to meet the new workplace norms and adjust to the market realities in the post-COVID world. Mundane manual processes are being automated at an amazing speed across functions. One such area which requires automation is the Roster Management process.

According to research, managers spend a tremendous amount of their creative time in manually creating shift schedules for their employees. Automation can help managers save all this time and enable them to focus on other business-critical aspects. With that being said, let’s understand more about Roster Management.  

What is Roster Management?

Roster management is the process of managing employee shift schedules – clock-in and clock-out timings, operational hours, and leaves. It ensures the availability of employees according to their preferences at any time they are required while preventing burnout. A Roster Management system empowers an organization to keep track of the duration for which the employees work, assign employees to specific tasks, and generate reports on employee productivity and efficiency.

What are the benefits of Automating Roster Management?

Roster management ensures that an organization uses its workforce and other resources optimally to deliver consistent results, maximize employee productivity, and boost overall employee satisfaction. An efficient Roster Management System enables automation of the process and delivers various benefits:

• Increases Efficiency: Enables managers to make the best use of their valuable resources and ensure the right employees are assigned to work on the right tasks at the right time.
• Improves Productivity: Allows employees to plan better, manage their work-life balance, and give their undivided attention to work whenever required, as they have the rosters beforehand.
• Reduces Costs: Helps managers to utilize their staff more efficiently and the administration department can maximize utilization of the infrastructure and resources.
• Enables Better Planning: Delivers a clear idea about the resources available in real-time. Thus, it improves planning within an organization.
• Increases Employee Satisfaction & Retention: Empowers employees to give their hundred percent and enjoy their work. Automation allows them to schedule their work better and maintain a good work-life balance.

What is the need for a Roster Management System?

A system that seamlessly automates the Roster Management process is essential for organizations that operate in various shifts to match the business requirements. In the present hybrid working scenario, a Roster Management system enables an organization to track employee working hours, view in-office and work from home schedules, assign employees to specific tasks or projects, and generate reports on employee hours and project completion.

Additionally, having a roster management system allows organizations to stay compliant with the new employee scheduling laws regulated in several states — including Oregon, New York, California, and even some provinces in Canada. These new laws require employers to provide the employee shift schedule two weeks in advance, and an efficient Roster Management System helps organizations make employee rosters ahead of time.

Why build a Roster Management System on SharePoint?

While there are many Roster Management Systems available in the market, off-the-shelf products will add to the operational costs. Organizations leveraging SharePoint as their Document Management and Collaboration engine can leverage the platform to build a powerful Roster Management System. Such an approach enables the maximization of SharePoint ROI and reduces costs.

Leverage QuickApps to Build a SharePoint-based Roster Management System

QuickApps is a No-code application development and Business Process Automation solution enabling organizations to automate various manual processes on SharePoint. Its suite of powerful web apps can be leveraged to build a Roster Management System and manage the work schedules seamlessly. The product enables organizations to implement a SharePoint-based Roster Management System with features such as Roster Creation, Roster Review, Roster Approval, Roster Dashboard, Present People Report, Absent People Report, and Defaulters People Report. The system delivers Managers, Admin, and HR with all the requisite insights to manage shifts and people better.

Ready for Smart Employee Scheduling? A robust Roster Management System is a win-win for both the employer and the employees. It streamlines how employers build employees’ shift schedules and makes schedule communication effortless and instantaneous. QuickApps enables organizations to build a Roster Management System to track employee information, track hours worked, eliminate missed shifts, and avoid last-minute shift cancellations. CONTACT US to learn more.

Amit Gupta

Associate Director – Product Development

Amit Gupta plays a key role in incubating and establishing best SharePoint practices at AgreeYa. He is closely associated with the Product Development and Delivery team and works to find new solutions based on Microsoft technology and optimize performance and responsiveness for our clients. He can be reached at amit.g@agreeya.com

The collective sum of the world’s data will grow to 175 zettabytes by 2025, with a compounded annual growth rate of 61 percent.

– IDC

Today, the volume of data produced in an organization has grown incrementally. It is stored in various formats across their SharePoint Servers and Farms. When analyzed properly, this data can help organizations to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their existing business processes, giving them a competitive advantage over others. However, converting data available in SharePoint into insightful reports is not an easy job. It requires both time and effort from the business user, and has huge dependencies from the IT department. Such roadblocks often deter organizations from leveraging SharePoint data to transform their operations.   

Below we have enlisted some of the most common data aggregation and visualization challenges faced by SharePoint business users and how web apps can help in data analysis.

Common Challenges of SharePoint Online Data Aggregation

1. The amount of data being collected

Data-driven decision-making is the norm of the times. New data analytics technologies simplify the process of deriving actionable insights from business data. As the most popular document management and collaboration platform, SharePoint Online holds terabytes of business-critical information that can have a huge impact on profitability and growth. However, organizations are often overwhelmed with the voluminous structured and unstructured data collected in their SharePoint environment. Consequently, the data analysts or IT engineers are often overwhelmed with customization requests to fetch SharePoint data into a single report. This is one of the reasons why requests for data can’t be delivered on time. SharePoint Online web apps enable business users to create impactful reports with voluminous data without any coding.

2. Aggregation of data from multiple sources

Organizations using SharePoint as their organization’s information hub have data stored across multiple SharePoint sites and site collections. Additionally, because SharePoint is easy to integrate with third-party data management systems, the data can be stored in them too. However, to analyze the data and get accurate insights, real-time data need to be aggregated from various systems and locations. Organizations that do not have a data aggregation strategy in place, risk developing bottlenecks that can disrupt data analysis while also slowing the productivity levels, wasting time and money while also causing frustrations for the top-level decision-makers. Products with System Integration (SI) web apps allow the business users to easily bring together data from multiple third-party systems.

3. Interpretation and visualization of data accurately

Having bulk of data available is not what makes an organization data-driven. Organizations need proper tools and strategies in place to make sense of their data and then present it to the decision-makers in a visually appealing format. However, this becomes a challenge when the data present is in large volumes, different formats, and at different locations. SharePoint web apps help business users to view, group, and filter data available in different lists and farms.

4. Real-time availability of accurate and updated data

When the information is stored in disparate systems, it is hard to keep all of them updated in real-time. However, for data analysis to be effective and accurate, its quintessential that all data aggregated is up to date, then only the insights will be reliable. Organizations that do not have solutions integrated with their SharePoint environment to support real-time data updates, face issues with data redundancy, quality and governance. SharePoint web apps can help organizations keep their data updated.

5. Lack of support from other departments

Data siloes are a leading challenge for organizations. While every department is creating a huge volume of business-critical data, it can’t be brought together to create a comprehensive report. As a result, the stakeholders or managers are unable to view a holistic report to make data-driven business decisions. For an organization to reap maximum value from their SharePoint data, all departments need to collaborate. With SharePoint web apps in pace, organizations can bring together data across multiple locations and systems together seamlessly.

How No-Code web apps help in Data Aggregation?

No-code solutions for SharePoint deliver a suite of web apps that empower business users to bring together data and create visually stunning reports without any IT dependence. Users with business knowledge can leverage such solutions to simplify data aggregation and reporting. Leveraging web apps, organizations can significantly reduce the costs and complexities involved in SharePoint data reporting. Powerful web apps for SharePoint help business users to aggregate, customize and represent data in compelling 3D charts, list views, graphs, etc. by leveraging data from multiple lists, calendars, discussion forums, and more such avenues.

Using QuickApps for Data Aggregation

QuickApps is an innovative ‘No-Code’ solution with a set of pre-built templates and 21 powerful web apps available for SharePoint on-premises and SharePoint Online. Leveraging these QuickApps’ No-code web apps, organizations can create visually appealing reports utilizing data from multiple sources within SharePoint. Users can build powerful reports in minutes, without the need for custom coding, based on SharePoint content, Microsoft SQL databases, business connectivity services, and third-party data sources. Some of its popular web apps that helps in data aggregation and visualization are:

• qListView: Combines data from multiple lists, even across sites, site collections and web applications.
• qChartView: Creates compelling 3D Charts with data fetched from multiple lists across sites, site collections, and web applications.
• qCalendarView: Syndicates all calendars into one view, including data from non-calendar lists.
• qExcelView: Displays data in Microsoft Excel based on criteria passed from qListView, even when that data is not shown in the qListView.
• qDiscussionView: Shows the topic and responses of multiple discussion lists in a single tree view and preview selected items in a preview panel.
• qSIChartView: Display external data in compelling 3-D charts
• qSIListView: Display external data in a SharePoint list
• qSIListForm: Create, view, and edit external data in a form

Take QuickApps 30-days free trial to overcome your SharePoint data aggregation and reporting challenges and realize the true value of data.

Amit Gupta

Associate Director – Product Development

Amit Gupta plays a key role in incubating and establishing best SharePoint practices at AgreeYa. He is closely associated with the Product Development and Delivery team and works to find new solutions based on Microsoft technology and optimize performance and responsiveness for our clients. He can be reached at amit.g@agreeya.com

More than 250,000 organizations use SharePoint, including over 85% of Fortune 500 companies who use SharePoint Online as part of Office 365.

– Microsoft

Over the years, SharePoint has become the most popular choice of collaboration and document management system. SharePoint is today used by over 190 million employees across the globe to ensure productivity at the workplace and remove collaboration bottlenecks. Furthermore, 75% of corporate Intranets built in the last five years leveraged SharePoint! Organizations are utilizing the platform to store, access, and manage their data at a centralized location. In addition to facilitating better collaboration, SharePoint reduces the need to share files via email and duplicate files while increasing employee engagement.

However, leveraging SharePoint as a document management and storage platform is not enough to maximize the technology investment. As a very flexible platform, SharePoint allows organizations to build apps and automate processes helping them stay ahead of the curve. But most of these initiatives hit a roadblock due to over-dependence on IT and SharePoint development resources. Most of the planned SharePoint innovations never see the light of the day, while others are released when the business needs have evolved.  

Accelerate SharePoint Development with QuickApps

As an award-winning SharePoint app development and automation solution, QuickApps empowers business users to build impactful SharePoint solutions without a single line of code. This innovative solution delivers 21 powerful web apps, pre-built templates, and point-and-click configuration to enable rapid development of SharePoint apps, customizations, and process automation. QuickApps helps slash development time by up to 80%, delivers significant cost savings, and helps launch apps on time to tackle the business-critical challenges. The solution is available for SharePoint On-premise and SharePoint Online (Microsoft 365).  

Benefits of AgreeYa’s QuickApps

QuickApps can transform the SharePoint experience with its innovative features. It enables organizations to move beyond SharePoint’s out-of-the-box limitations and maximize the potential of the powerful platform without compromising on security and compliance. Other benefits of QuickApps include: 

• Empower Business Users: QuickApps empowers business users to create new or change existing business applications on SharePoint without dependency on IT or SharePoint development resources. Business users (who don’t code) can quickly build or customize complex business applications on SharePoint On-premise or Online up to 80% faster using simple point-and-click configuration instead of writing long lines of codes.
• Improve Deliveries: Leveraging QuickApps, businesses can shorten SharePoint application development cycles using readymade templates to deliver applications such as new employee onboarding, sales reporting, helpdesk, project management, and CRM that are easily supported, maintained, and extended.
• Short Learning Curve: With QuickApps, even non-technical users can quickly build better SharePoint solutions with easy-to-use web apps, pre-defined templates, and built-in video tutorials.
• Better Build: Our solution helps in extending applications beyond native capabilities and exceeding user expectations by delivering advanced functionality, including tabular forms to save screen space, parent-child relationships to ensure reliable data entry, and hide/show when logic to govern what data users can see.
• Easy Integration: QuickApps web apps bring data together from all your LOB applications that are ODBC compliant. It can connect to multiple external sources like SQL Server, Oracle, Web Services, etc., without manually copying the data in SharePoint. Therefore, organizations can quickly adapt and implement QuickApps with their existing legacy applications and IT infrastructure to maximize ROI.
• Robust Solution: The solution allows businesses to deliver code-free business applications that are easy to support, maintain, and upgrade. It supports app development and process automation across all versions of SharePoint, including SharePoint 2013, SharePoint 2016, SharePoint 2019, and SharePoint Online.
• Industry Proven: For more than two decades, QuickApps has been enabling some of the leading enterprises across industries and geographies to simplify the development, maintenance, and upgrade of SharePoint applications. It is presently used by more than 75,000 users.

QuickApps’ Suite of Web Apps for SharePoint

QuickApps’ award-winning suite of web apps can be leveraged by organizations to build applications that tackle their exact business requirements. Below we have enlisted 21 web apps that comprise QuickApps’ multi-purpose set of web apps that enables users to build custom applications without code.

Maximize Your SharePoint Investments with QuickApps

Leveraging SharePoint solely as document management and an Intranet platform is not enough to optimize your SharePoint investment. QuickApps, as a No-code solution, enables organizations to swiftly develop use case-specific applications that can help organizations gain a competitive advantage.

Download the 30 DAYS FREE TRIAL to see the innovative solution in action. You can also download the TRIAL VERSION FROM MICROSOFT APPSOURCE.

Amit Gupta

Associate Director – Product Development

Amit Gupta plays a key role in incubating and establishing best SharePoint practices at AgreeYa. He is closely associated with the Product Development and Delivery team and works to find new solutions based on Microsoft technology and optimize performance and responsiveness for our clients. He can be reached at amit.g@agreeya.com