Power Inventory: Enterprise Asset App

Key insights

• Overview: The video demonstrates building an Enterprise Software Asset App using Microsoft Power Apps.
  It introduces a low-code approach to create a custom software and IT asset inventory for enterprises.
• Wireframe: The presenter sketches a quick Wireframe in Microsoft Whiteboard to define layout and get stakeholder sign-off.
  Wireframing early helps clarify requirements and speeds up development.
• Data sources: The app starts with SharePoint as the data backend and can pivot to Dataverse later.
  This lets teams prototype quickly and scale to a managed data platform when ready.
• Design approach: The build uses a single-screen design with alternating container visibility to switch views, plus controls like search, forms, and save buttons.
  That simplifies navigation and keeps the app responsive on different devices.
• Core features: The solution targets Asset Management and license tracking with automation for saves, searches, and item updates.
  Integration with Microsoft 365 tools enables centralized inventory, compliance checks, and easier audits.
• Practical notes & next steps: The video covers using Office365Users as a People Picker, updating properties, converting inputs to labels, and using RemoveIf for deletions.
  Expect follow-up parts that expand features and refine enterprise readiness.

In a recent instructive YouTube video, Andrew Hess of MySPQuestions begins a multipart walkthrough showing how to build an enterprise-grade software asset and inventory app using the Power Inventory App and Microsoft Power Apps. The video focuses on the foundational steps, including wireframing, basic screen construction, and connecting a data source, so the audience can see a working prototype take shape. Overall, the presentation targets IT teams and citizen developers who want a pragmatic starting point for asset management inside the Microsoft ecosystem.

Wireframing and Early Design Choices

To start, Hess draws a wireframe in minutes with Microsoft Whiteboard, demonstrating how a quick sketch clarifies user flows and screen elements. This approach highlights the value of visual planning because stakeholders can review and sign off before any code or app logic is built. As a result, teams reduce rework and align priorities early in the project lifecycle.

Moreover, Hess’s decision to show a one-screen app with visibility toggles simplifies the initial build and keeps scope manageable for a demo. At the same time, a single-screen layout trades off scalability for speed, meaning that future parts must address navigation, modularization, and maintainability. Therefore, designers should balance immediate usability with a plan for iterative growth.

Data Source Selection: SharePoint vs Dataverse

In the video, Hess configures the app to use SharePoint as the data source while noting the potential to pivot to Dataverse later, which presents an important architectural choice. SharePoint fits organizations that want quick setup and low-cost storage, but it has limits related to large lists, delegation, and complex relations. Conversely, Dataverse adds enterprise-grade relational features, security roles, and better performance for large datasets, although it increases licensing and administration overhead.

Thus, choosing between these platforms involves tradeoffs around cost, governance, and performance, and teams should consider current needs versus future scale. For instance, smaller departments may start on SharePoint to prototype rapidly, and then transition to Dataverse as data complexity grows. Planning for migration early reduces rework and helps align with an organization’s governance model.

Practical App-Building Steps Demonstrated

Hess walks viewers through concrete steps: drawing the UI, adding tables, configuring visibility on forms, and implementing a search bar to streamline discovery. He also configures buttons with emojis and demonstrates the use of the Office365Users connector to add a people picker, which shows how Microsoft 365 services integrate with low-code apps. These actions illustrate how simple controls and connectors can rapidly produce a functional prototype for asset tracking.

The video covers form behavior as well, including renaming fields, setting update properties, and converting text input into labels to control data presentation. Hess even writes a first row and shows how to remove items with a RemoveIf pattern, giving practical formulas viewers can reuse. Therefore, the demo provides not only high-level concepts but also actionable formulas and patterns for everyday tasks.

Tradeoffs, Challenges, and Governance

While low-code tools accelerate development, the video implicitly raises broader concerns around governance, security, and data quality that teams must address as they scale. For example, low-code apps may encourage fast feature delivery, yet unmanaged growth can create shadow IT and complicate access controls across the Power Platform. Organizations should balance fast iteration with clear policies, environment segmentation, and lifecycle controls to maintain compliance.

Performance and offline support present additional challenges, especially when inventory lists grow to thousands of items or when devices operate in disconnected scenarios. Hence, architects should weigh delegable queries, pagination strategies, and local caching patterns when choosing data sources and designing screens. Likewise, considerations around licensing, audit trails, and integration with procurement systems will influence long-term viability.

Next Steps and Practical Implications

Hess promises follow-up parts that will expand features, improve the app’s readiness for enterprise use, and likely address many scalability concerns introduced here. Consequently, viewers should treat this first episode as a starter kit: it validates core ideas and offers reproducible patterns, yet it does not cover every enterprise requirement. As a result, teams planning production deployments should map requirements, perform load testing, and define governance before rolling the app broadly.

In summary, the video provides a useful and accessible introduction to building an asset management app with the Power Inventory App and Microsoft Power Apps, balancing speed of delivery with practical tradeoffs. As organizations consider adopting these methods, they must weigh short-term agility against long-term governance, performance, and integration needs to ensure a sustainable solution.

Keywords

enterprise software asset management, Power Inventory App, software asset tracking, Power Apps inventory solution, software license management, IT asset inventory Power Platform, enterprise IT asset tracking, software asset app deployment