Data collating & collaboration

Dirk Diggler · 20 Dec 2022 at 16:06

Just looking for suggestions if possible - our team uses Excel to store and collaborate information, simple project stuff like is X required, part #, job ID, progress status etc..

It all feels a bit dated, and I'm thinking there must be a slicker process like a UI with a form to fill with all the options and then a display UI that can be filtered etc.

What are you all using for handling data like this that's available in the MS Office suite of software? Is Excel still the go to app for stuff like this and I'm maybe trying to reinvent the wheel?

Semple · 20 Dec 2022 at 16:09

See this is where I think companies overcomplicate things for the sake of overcomplicating things. We moved all our project tracking stuff over to Jira and that's an absolute pain to use.

Rroff · 20 Dec 2022 at 16:10

Unfortunately I'm well out of date on it now but often MS Access and/or a proper database system is the better solution for this kind of stuff. Back in the day I used to work for a company producing database solutions for this kind of stuff for businesses, more often than not simply building something in Access due to the realities of most businesses back then - but definitely not a field I've much relevant knowledge in these days.

EDIT: For ad hoc stuff we still tend to use Excel a lot at work - in reality few businesses have an operating model you can encompass with one system especially without a responsive dev team on site.

sigma · 20 Dec 2022 at 16:12

You could use an Issue Tracker App template in MS Power Apps.

Dirk Diggler · 20 Dec 2022 at 16:16

sigma said:
You could use an Issue Tracker App template in MS Power Apps.

Interesting, I'll get a look.

And to the other 2 replies, yes I may well be overcomplicating something that works fine already - so thanks for pointing that out as it's definitely relevant.

sigma · 20 Dec 2022 at 16:17

Dirk Diggler said:
Interesting, I'll get a look.

And to the other 2 replies, yes I may well be overcomplicating something that works fine already - so thanks for pointing that out as it's definitely relevant.

Even a fancy SharePoint list will get you msot of the way there. Apps have handy forms etc as well though.

sigma · 20 Dec 2022 at 16:20

Rroff said:
Unfortunately I'm well out of date on it now but often MS Access and/or a proper database system is the better solution for this kind of stuff. Back in the day I used to work for a company producing database solutions for this kind of stuff for businesses, more often than not simply building something in Access due to the realities of most businesses back then - but definitely not a field I've much relevant knowledge in these days.

EDIT: For ad hoc stuff we still tend to use Excel a lot at work - in reality few businesses have an operating model you can encompass with one system especially without a responsive dev team on site.

Ultimately they're all still just databases with front ends on them.

Regarding your latter point this is where MS have spotted a gap that they are trying to fill with Power Apps and Flows because most places already have MS products of some sort. Where they are annoying though is the licensing/fee aspect.

dlockers · 20 Dec 2022 at 16:22

sigma said:
Ultimately they're all still just databases with front ends on them.

Regarding your latter point this is where MS have spotted a gap that they are trying to fill with Power Apps and Flows because most places already have MS products of some sort. Where they are annoying though is the licensing/fee aspect.

Also MS recognised that firms were starting to get a bit ****** off their most valuable asset was in Tom, Dick and Harry's spreadsheet and impossible to monitor and/or monetise. PowrApps is tricking folk (in a good way) to work with their data online where HQ can control it/see it/understand it. Genius move tbh.

PowerApps is the definite answer. Don't be famous for implementing some centralised junker of a spreadsheet on a NAS drive that ****** everyone off.

Rroff · 20 Dec 2022 at 16:30

sigma said:
Regarding your latter point this is where MS have spotted a gap that they are trying to fill with Power Apps and Flows because most places already have MS products of some sort. Where they are annoying though is the licensing/fee aspect.

We've recently been adopting Power Apps at work - but I can't say I'm overly enthusiastic - though a lot of that is due to the approach of the development team(s) involved which seem too removed from the actual everyday process - I could vastly improve the experience in probably literally minutes. Far too much time is spent navigating to and from information without a decent quick access implementation or having to swap to and from applets to get information required for one, etc. (which is also extra work for people who don't know how to use copy and paste which is a surprisingly high number - I see far too many people laboriously writing down and re-entering information).

sigma · 20 Dec 2022 at 16:33

Rroff said:
We've recently been adopting Power Apps at work - but I can't say I'm overly enthusiastic - though a lot of that is due to the approach of the development team(s) involved which seem too removed from the actual everyday process - I could vastly improve the experience in probably literally minutes. Far too much time is spent navigating to and from information without a decent quick access implementation or having to swap to and from applets to get information required for one, etc.

Yeah they're not as straight forward to build as MS will have you know and they're still only as good as the people building them, as you're finding out.

If they're not replicating the everyday process as best as possible then can't you push back? Don't accept.

Rroff · 20 Dec 2022 at 16:35

sigma said:
If they're not replicating the everyday process as best as possible then can't your push back?

In theory, in practise (in general but also at work) I find increasingly if you aren't saying what developers want to hear you get ignored or at best something about how they know it is a problem and will look into it but nothing ever happens.

EDIT: Or like one of my colleagues just found where trying to give feedback they were directed to speak to someone, who directed them to a form to fill out, which at the end just directed them to a few options of different contact details?!? which when you contacted just got a reply of telling you to fill out the form... LOL

sigma · 20 Dec 2022 at 16:41

Rroff said:
In theory, in practise (in general but also at work) I find increasingly if you aren't saying what developers want to hear you get ignored or at best something about how they know it is a problem and will look into it but nothing ever happens.

Can you bypass the Devs and go to the project sponsor? Are you having to sign anything off? Projects/teams like this are so annoying.

Rroff · 20 Dec 2022 at 16:43

sigma said:
Can you bypass the Devs and go to the project sponsor? Are you having to sign anything off? Projects/teams like this are so annoying.

Just was talking about that and edited in my post above with one of my colleague's experience recently.

EDIT: Just checking out the form and I see what was going on - the first bit of the form, for any kind of feedback, is a multi-page generic questionnaire about how you find different aspects of the site, etc., then at the end you can file a custom feedback - which then just tries to direct you to which it thinks is the relevant team I assume based on keywords :s

Previously I've just passed on suggestions via my boss, which seems to go nowhere even if I get a reply from IT.

mattx4 · 20 Dec 2022 at 18:10

dLockers said:
Also MS recognised that firms were starting to get a bit ****** off their most valuable asset was in Tom, Dick and Harry's spreadsheet and impossible to monitor and/or monetise. PowrApps is tricking folk (in a good way) to work with their data online where HQ can control it/see it/understand it. Genius move tbh.

PowerApps is the definite answer. Don't be famous for implementing some centralised junker of a spreadsheet on a NAS drive that ****** everyone off.

Agreed great use case for Power Apps here

I've been seeing a big increase in companies interested in low/code no code tools recently with the idea of moving towards more of a citizen developer model to alleviate some of those IT business user pain points

dowie · 20 Dec 2022 at 18:30

Dirk Diggler said:
Just looking for suggestions if possible - our team uses Excel to store and collaborate information, simple project stuff like is X required, part #, job ID, progress status etc..

It all feels a bit dated, and I'm thinking there must be a slicker process like a UI with a form to fill with all the options and then a display UI that can be filtered etc.

What are you all using for handling data like this that's available in the MS Office suite of software?

A database?

I mean it's not a big list of applications in MS office but there is a database application called Microsoft Access and databases are often used for storing information like that, with things like IDs etc.. associated with a collection of items. You can certainly use a UI too.

If that's insufficient then there is other free database software available, get someone competent to put something together, knock up a GUI etc.. may require a bit of coding depending on what you need and/or choose.

Dirk Diggler · 20 Dec 2022 at 20:50

mattx4 said:
Agreed great use case for Power Apps here

I've been seeing a big increase in companies interested in low/code no code tools recently with the idea of moving towards more of a citizen developer model to alleviate some of those IT business user pain points

So, how do I use Power Apps to handle data like this? Which app in particular?

sigma · 20 Dec 2022 at 21:30

Dirk Diggler said:
So, how do I use Power Apps to handle data like this? Which app in particular?

Watch some YouTube videos showing you what PowerApps can do. It's a standalone program that you can use to build an app by pulling in data from multiple sources. It does typically need a bit of coding if you want to do fancy stuff.

mattx4 · 20 Dec 2022 at 21:45

Dirk Diggler said:
So, how do I use Power Apps to handle data like this? Which app in particular?

Power Apps is a stand alone tool. That's where you create the UI, logic and connect to the data source.

Get started with Power Apps canvas apps - Training

Learn how Power Apps can make your business more efficient and streamline your processes.

learn.microsoft.com

Or as already mentioned plenty of YouTube vids that will walk you through a basic build