Inventory Management with Microsoft Power Apps

MAFU-SHERPA started handling its inventory like many startups: with an elaborate spreadsheet that tracked items, vendors, inventory levels, safety stock and reorder points. As its number of stock keeping units grew, however, it became increasingly difficult and error-prone to manage inventory and handle stocktaking this way, especially from the shop floor. They needed a business app that was flexible and low-cost at the same time.

MAFU-SHERPA agreed with CERTAINCE on the implementation of a bar code scanner to read items off inventory shelves, reassign stock to projects and save inventory changes. As MAFU-SHERPA was not ready to implement a full-scale ERP at this point, they wanted this app to feed this information right back into relevant tables (initially Excel). They also wanted this app to be flexible and low-cost at the same time. CERTAINCE achieved all this by developing an Inventory Management App on Microsoft’s low-code platform Power Apps. This app was promptly integrated into MAFU-SHERPA’s processes with simple documentation. Over the course of the following weeks, the app was extended to accommodate more functional requirements.

Because it was built as a simple yet extensible low-code app on Power Apps, the solution was much cheaper to build and run than competitive commercial software, and it has reduced the workload for the staff that handles stocktaking. It has also facilitated the assembly process by making information more available.