Improving Productivity with Business Apps

One of the fastest growing areas within Microsoft’s many different productivity solutions has been PowerApps and Flow, helping to expand the concept of the “citizen developer” within the enterprise through the creation of Business Apps. By providing templates that end users can leverage to build custom software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, and the ability to build simple workflow applications with if-then scenarios, Microsoft may be formally ushering in the era of the Business App — and it’s having a huge impact within the community, and within customer environments, helping to deliver more personalized and granular solutions.

In this month’s CollabTalk tweetjam, we will be discussing “The Rise of the Business App” and all of the tools usually associated with the “citizen developer” role, including PowerApps, Microsoft Flow, PowerBI, Microsoft Forms, and Modern Lists, as well as older technologies that are still finding their way into some environments, such as SharePoint Designer, Access, and InfoPath. Join us on Thursday, March 29th at 8am Pacific / 4pm CET via Twitter and the #CollabTalk hashtag using your favorite Twitter dashboard (Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Buffer, etc) to take part in the dialog. Come join in on yet another great online discussion!

These online discussions are open to anyone — you do not have to be on the panel to participate. This month’s tweetjam is being sponsored by tyGraph.

If you have never participated in one of these tweetjams, it’s pretty simple: anyone can jump in and share their thoughts, or just lurk in the wings and absorb the wisdom of the crowd. Either way, it’ll be a TON of content to consume in a single hour. You can follow the live session using the Twitter UI of your choice. How it works is that I’ll post a series of questions every few minutes, and people will respond to Q1, Q2, Q3 and so forth with A1, A2, A3, always including the #CollabTalk and #SPC18 hashtags with their answers. Feel free to reply as often (or as little) as you’d like, ask your own follow up questions, share relevant links, re-tweet others, and engage with the audience.

The questions we will discuss during this month’s tweetjam include:

1. How do you define business apps? How would you describe them to customers?
2. What has been the impact of PowerApps, Flow, Forms, PowerBI and Modern Lists to your business?
3.  What are the scenarios where business apps have the potential to provide the greatest value?
4. Where are the gaps within Microsoft’s current business app strategy and offerings?
5. Is hybrid a factor in your business app planning and development?
6. What do people need to know about business apps? What advice/resources can you recommend for a business app newbie?
7. How could Microsoft improve on their current business app tools and offerings?

Our panel this month is still expanding, but confirmed so far are the following:

• Chris McNulty (@cmcnulty2000), senior product manager for SharePoint at Microsoft
• Aaron Rimmer (@aaronlrimmer), director of OneDrive at Microsoft
• Christina Torok (@christoroktech), product manager for Microsoft Stream at Microsoft
• Wayne Lewis (@lewiswf1), senior partner marketing manager for Microsoft 365 at Microsoft
• Brendan Griffin (@brendankarl), solution architect at Microsoft
• Jamal Washington (@), product marketing manager at Microsoft
• Chris Bortlik (@cbortlik), collaboration solution architect at Microsoft
• Sebastien Levert (@sebastienlevert), Office365 MVP and specialist in Azure, SharePoint, and O365
• Ryan Schouten (@ShrPntKnight) Office Servers & Services MVP, senior SharePoint architect and evangelist at ZAACT
• Ed Senez (@edsenez), president at UnlimitedViz and TyGraph
• Seb Matthews (@sebmatthews), consultant, entrepreneur, evangelist, freemason, world traveler
• Jared Shockley (@jshoq), senior systems engineer with SESIT at Microsoft
• Mike Oryszak (next_connect), managing director at B&R Business Solutions
• Wes Preston (@idubbs), SharePoint MVP, evangelist,  and owner at TrecStone
• Maarten Visser (@mvisser), founder and product manager at Meetroo, business architect at Connected Services
• Brian Culver (@SPbrianculver), SharePoint MCM and founder, president of Expert Point Solution
• Nikkia Carter (@carterMcGServ), ceo at CMW LLC and tech speaker
• Erica Toelle (@ericatoelle), evangelist at Record Point
• Juan Carlos Gonzalez Martin (@jcgm1978), SharePoint MVP, co-director of the magazine CompartiMOSS, consultant and solution architect at LKS
• Tobiasz Koprowski (@KoprowskiT), Data Platform MVP, independent consultant
• Vlad Catrinescu (@vladcatrinescu),SharePoint and Office 365 MVP, speaker, and author
• David Drever (@DavidMDrever), SharePoint MVP and SharePoint services lead at Solvera Solutions
• Mack Sigman (@mack_sigman), senior director for professional services at Coras, chairman of FEDSPUG
• Jeremy Thake (@jthake), vp of product technology at Hyperfish
• Kipp Sorenson (@kbes), SharePoint consultant at Soren Innovations
• Randy Drisgill (@drisgill), SharePoint MVP and branding and design expert at Rackspace
• Heather Newman (@heddanewman), Office Servers & Services MVP and co-founder and cmo of ContentPanda
• Matt Wade (@thatmattwade), cloud services lead at H3 Solutions, founder of icansharepoint
• Rene Modery (@modery), Office 365 MVP, collaboration and SharePoint applications manager
• David Leveille (@crushnetworks), president of Crush Networks, Inc.
• Barb Levisay (@blevisay),  contributing editor at Redmond Channel Partner magazine
• Jeff Shuey (@jshuey), founder and managing director at NuNalu, president of IAMCP Seattle
• Dean Swann (@sdeanswann), social collaborator, growth hacker and product manager for UnlimitedViz
• Alistair Pugin (@alistairpugin), SharePoint MVP and productivity evangelist at Britehouse
• Stacy Deere-Strole (@sldeere), SharePoint MVP and owner of Focal Point Solutions
• Max Fritz (@TheCloudSherpa), identity management, Office 365, AzureAD, and SharePoint expert at Now Micro
• Sascha Fredrich (@saschaF80), IT consultant of Microsoft solutions at bei Bechtle AG
• Jason Kaczor (@jjkaczor), Microsoft MVP, solutions architect and consultant for Ontario Public Service
• Eric Riz (@rizinsights), SharePoint MVP and ceo of Empty Cubicle
• Stefan Bauer (@StfBauer), Office Development MVP, information architect and UX consultant
• Raphael Delgado (@corasrapha), head of sales and channel management at Coras
• Hal Hostetler (@TVWizard), Microsoft MVP and senior field engineer and social media coordinator for Roland, Schorr & Tower
• Liz Sundet (@percusn), Microsoft MVP, platonic friend to ferns everywhere
• and your host, Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), Microsoft MVP, cmo at revealit.io, and the founder & ceo of CollabTalk LLC

Once again, anyone and everyone is invited to the online discussion. And thank you again to tyGraph for your support of this CollabTalk tweetjam! If you are interested in being a sponsor of a future tweetjam, please contact me at CollabTalk.com