PROJECTS NOTES HOME

Inventorization Power App

powerapp.png

Link - no link to powerapp

1 Intro

I noticed that there is no system whatsoever of where/when/how many things arrive to our IT office or how many we hand out to users or production or how many are being sent to other sites. So I created one.

2 The problem

Once in a while someone from Finances asks me: Who this computer belongs to? What inv.nr sticker does it have? Who has this phone, what are the phone numbers that PKC uses and SO ON.

I basically never have the answers, because there was no documentation.

Even a simple excel sheet with all this info written would have been better than a stack of paper sheets with user info that PKC collected over 5 or so years.

3 The solution

3.1 First attempt

I have been looking for a solution for almost a week. My first attempt was this - Check in / out Google Sheets, it worked quite well, I was about to present it to my Manager, but after 50scans I have figured out that it’s a paid app. Nope. On a closer look - it was quite clumpsy to use.

3.2 Second attempt

Okay, now I thought I found what I need. This excelent example that uses forms - Google QR Inventory I was sure will solve my problem, I just need to tweak it a little. I tweaked, I weaked.. 3 days, I keep tweaking.. it is too confusing with all these sheets that get created… + I keep updating my excel data sheet and I don’t see how this could work.. I need another solution.

3.3 Third and Final attempt

3.3.1 License

I am glad I did not give up after all this work. I was obsessed with a solution, no matter where I went I was googling about this inventorization app. I then found Google Apps Script thought okay, maybe I should look into that… then I came up Microsoft Power Apps and thought wait, is it included in my E3 license? Went to PKC o365 admin panel, found myself, assigned a the proper license and I can now start playing with Power apps.

3.3.2 Extremely Intuitive

I was shocked that one can create web and phone apps with Wordpress like interface. Many videos on YouTube of how it can be done… I have found one that resembled my case and followed it. Build Cloud Inventory Management App using power apps and SharePoint. 24hours of intense tweaking and redoing and I have finally made my app. It was quite simple and intuitive…

  • Now I can SCAN new inv.nr as well as serial numbers and add new items AS SOON AS they arrive to our office.
  • Whenever me or my colleague is handing out equipment from IT warehouse - they will scan the TTR number and fill out the info to whom, when the item will be given.
  • All of the information will be tracked in google list and achieved on our IT Team sharepoint, so whenever anyone from financses or my manager needs to review anything - they will be able to comfortably.

4 Conclusion

At first I wasn’t so happy doing “IT warehouse worker” job… after all I am here to get IT experience, now warehouse experience… BUT I found a way how I can implement my knowledge and my drive for learning new things and automating/making processes easier in this situation. I will continue doing the inventorization part of work, but now with an app that I have made. :)