Microsoft's Low Code / No Code Tools for Small to Medium Enterprises

Discover Microsoft's Low Code/No Code apps designed for small and medium-sized businesses. Learn how these tools empower you to create custom applications.

In this blog, we are going to see, how to create Low Code / No Code Apps with your existing Office 365 / Microsoft 365 licenses.

If your organization already has any of the below licenses, you can make use of Microsoft’s Low Code / No Code platform to create useful apps for your organization.

• Office 365 E1 / E3 / E5
• Microsoft 365 E3 / E5 / F3

PowerApps

Canvas apps in Power Apps can be built using standard connectors, which allow you to connect to various data sources like Excel sheets stored in SharePoint/OneDrive, Microsoft Lists, SharePoint Lists / Libraries, etc.

Below list of Apps that can be created using the Canvas App.

1. Task Management App
2. Employee Onboarding App
3. Timesheet App
4. Inventory Management App
5. Survey and Feedback app
6. Assessment App

Power Automate

In any organization, there would be areas that need automation. Here are a few areas where automation is needed.

1. Content approvals
2. Document management (archival)
3. Data synchronization
4. Automatic Reminders and Notifications

Copilot Studio

Chatbot can be created using Copilot Studio that can targeted to fetch data from your organization’s FAQ page or Knowledge base.

Microsoft Forms

There are scenarios to collect some basic information from the employees within an organization or public. Microsoft Forms will be a suitable option for those scenarios, few examples are given below.

1. Surveys and Feedback
2. Quizzes and Assessments
3. HR Employee Feedback
4. Onboarding Experience
5. Performance Evaluation

Limitations

There are limitations while using the PowerApps, Power Automate, and Copilot Studio using the above-mentioned Office 365 / Microsoft 365 licenses, they are,

1. No Premium Connectors
   • You won’t have access to premium connectors (e.g., Salesforce, Dataverse) in your canvas apps.
   • Stick to standard connectors available with those above licenses.
2. No Custom Connectors
   • Creating custom connectors is not possible with those above licenses.
   • You’ll need a different license for custom connectors.
3. No Model-Driven Apps
   • The above licenses don’t allow you to build model-driven apps.
   • These licenses focus on canvas apps and basic productivity tools.

Hope this blog has given you an overview of utilizing the Office 365/ Microsoft 365 licenses effectively.