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Showing posts from January, 2020

Replacing Microsoft InfoPath with Power Apps

Source:  https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/infopath/ by James Townsend Microsoft has offered a number of forms automation products over the years, and the most long running was InfoPath which was released as part of Office 2003.  InfoPath is a powerful and flexible product that stores user data in XML while offering form features such as rules, data validation, scripting, and integration with SharePoint.  The popularity of SharePoint resulted in many organizations standardizing on InfoPath for forms, especially internal forms which are hosted on an intranet such as employee reviews, leave and payment requests, and human resources forms. Microsoft has discontinued InfoPath, with mainstream support ending July 13th, 2021, and extended support ending July 14th, 2026. Microsoft has named Power Apps as the successor to InfoPath .  Power Apps has much in common with InfoPath.  Both products include integration with SharePoint.  Both are geared toward the citizen developer and do

Plug-and-Play Grant Management Software

Today I received an email inquiry regarding InfoStrat's Grants Manager Plus solution. The customer was looking for a plug-and-play grant management system.  I assume this meant that the system would require little configuration or customization. I am not aware of any grant management system which could be called plug-and-play.  The reason is that a grantor usually has a number of business rules that they want the grant management system to automate, such as these: Eligibility determination for applicants.  Grant applications are often restricted to certain organizations or individuals, and the system should capture the eligibility rules and limit the number of applications which will not be eligible. Application forms . Many grant application forms are lengthy and may include branching or conditional fields.   Application review processes . The review process can vary from one program to another.  It may require multiple review steps and be handled by individuals or com

InfoStrat Internal Training Topics

This week my company InfoStrat hosted internal training delivered by our consultants to share what they have recently learned in our software development and devops specialties. We are going to turn many of these into blog posts on the InfoStrat TechBlog .  Here is our list of topics: Project Management Standardization Creating Virtual Assiat Bot with Dynamics 365 Connection Understanding Logic Apps Migrating File Attachments to SharePoint with Flow Communication Skills and Online Collaboration Telephony Integration with Dynamics - Robo-dialing and Text Messages Updating Records by Fetch in Dynamics / Power Apps Canvas Apps UX Usability Enhancements for SharePoint Lists SQL Server ETL Techniques and Automation Approaches Intro to .NET Core for .NET Developers It's great to be part of a company where we share so much innovation with one another.  Many came away from the sessions with new ideas for future projects.