The Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft Power Apps

Cost Savings And Business Benefits Enabled By Power Apps

A Forrester Total Economic Impact Study Commissioned By Microsoft, July 2024

According to Forrester research, 89% of developers have spent at least some of their development time in the past 12 months on a low-code platform, and 79% use low-code, no-code, or digital process automation (DPA) solutions.1 These figures indicate not just high adoption, but also a willingness among developers to self-identify as “users.” Microsoft Power Apps aims to enable both professional and citizen developers with low-code development through a suite of apps, services, and connectors, as well as a data platform that provides a rapid development environment to build custom apps for a variety of business needs.

Power Apps is a suite of apps, services, connectors, as well as a data platform, that provides a rapid development environment to build custom apps to address a variety of business needs. Using Power Apps, organizations are enabled to quickly build custom business apps that connect to their data stored either in underlying data platforms or to connect to various online and on-premises data sources. Power Apps democratizes the experience of building business apps by enabling both professional and citizen developers to create feature-rich, custom business apps with less need to write code.

Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying standalone Power Apps licenses.2 The purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of Power Apps on their organizations.

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Return on investment (ROI)

206%

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Net present value (NPV)

$31.0M

To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed five representatives of four companies with experience using Power Apps Premium. Additionally, 8 other companies were interviewed for their use of other components of the Power Platform which is inclusive of the combined benefits of using Power Apps with other tools in the platform. For the purposes of this study, Forrester aggregated the interviewees’ experiences and combined the results into a single composite organization that has 30,000 employees and $10 billion in annual revenue.

Interviewees said that prior to using Power Apps, their organizations addressed business problems either using high-code applications and manual processes with long development timelines and complexity or individuals would utilize shadow IT solutions as an unsanctioned way to solve for problems. This left them with lengthy application approval and implementation processes and the risk of shadow IT. However, prior attempts yielded limited success, leaving the organizations with lengthy application approval and implementation processes, long high-code development timelines and complexity, inefficient manual processes, and the risk of shadow IT. These limitations impacted end-user and professional developer efficiencies.

Interviewees said that after the investment in Power Apps, their organizations were enabled to address a wider range of use cases that would not have been possible previously. Key results from the investment include an increase in end-user efficiencies, professional developer efficiencies, improved compliance and governance, a reduction in shadow IT, and improved employee experience.

Key Findings

Quantified benefits. Three-year, risk-adjusted present value (PV) quantified benefits for the composite organization include:

  • End-user time savings from Power Apps. The composite organization uses Microsoft Power Apps in tandem with Microsoft Power Automate to design and automate complex business processes that involve multiple systems, data sources, and applications. By addressing a wide range of use cases, a small number of users benefit from very high-impact use cases, and they experience time savings of 250 hours per year (or up to 12% of their time). Meanwhile, a larger number of users employees benefit from medium-impact use cases and experience time savings of 10 hours per year. General use cases include field service, customer engagement, training, and workflow automation, among others. Over the course of three years, the time savings gained from Power Apps end user efficiencies are worth $31.3 million to the composite organization.
  • App development time reduction of 50%. With Power Apps, the composite organization’s professional developers are able to reduce the amount of time they spend building apps for internal workflows, yielding additional time savings for the organization. The integration capabilities of Power Apps eliminates the need for complex custom coding, while the interface allows developers to create and modify applications and workflows more efficiently. Over the course of three years, time savings on app development from Power Apps professional developer efficiencies are worth $14.7 million to the composite organization.

Unquantified benefits. Benefits that provide value for the composite organization but are not quantified for this study include:

  • Improved compliance and governance. Interviewees said improved compliance and governance with Power Apps allows their organizations to enforce standardized processes and workflows, which ensures adherence to regulatory requirements. They said features like data validation, access controls, and audit trails enable their organizations to maintain better control over data integrity, security, and compliance with policies and regulations.
  • Reduction in shadow IT. Interviewees discussed how Power Apps significantly reduced the prevalence of shadow IT by providing users with a low-code development platform to create their own business applications within a controlled environment. They said that by empowering users to build custom apps within IT-approved boundaries, Power Apps reduces the need for users to seek unauthorized and unmanaged applications, thereby minimizing the risks associated with shadow IT.
  • Improved employee experience. Interviewees discussed how Power Apps improves the employee experience by empowering users to create and customize their own applications without relying solely on IT or development teams. They said this enables employees to address their specific business needs more efficiently, fostering a sense of ownership and empowerment. Additionally, they noted that Power Apps provides a user-friendly interface, intuitive design, and seamless integration with other Microsoft tools and third-party applications, which results in a smoother and more intuitive user experience for employees interacting with the applications.

Costs. Three-year, risk-adjusted PV costs for the composite organization include:

  • Licensing costs of $11.3 million. The composite organization incurs licensing costs of $11.3 million for the use of Microsoft Power Apps over the course of three years.
  • Implementation and training costs. The composite organization incurs $1.9 million in employee labor and training costs for the time devoted to managing the implementation of Power Apps along with the training of professional and citizen developers over the course of three years.
  • Ongoing management. The composite organization incurs $1.9 million in ongoing management costs over the course of three years.

The representative interviews and financial analysis found that a composite organization experiences benefits of $46.1 million over three years versus costs of $15.1 million, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $31.0 million and an ROI of 206%.

Reduction in app development time with Power Apps

50%

“Having low-code/no-code available through Power Apps makes for a more pleasant work environment. It raises the HSE (health, safety, and environment) satisfaction and increases our reputation as a good workplace. If we enable employees to try to fix their problems themselves, there is a much better chance that they can cover that problem in a better way.”

Product owner, energy

Key Statistics

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    Return on investment (ROI)

    206%
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    Benefits PV

    $46.1M
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    Net present value (NPV)

    $31.0M
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    Payback

    <6 months
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Benefits (Three-Year)

Power Apps end-user efficiencies Power Apps professional developer efficiencies

TEI Framework And Methodology

From the information provided in the interviews, Forrester constructed a Total Economic Impact™ framework for those organizations considering an investment Power Apps.

The objective of the framework is to identify the cost, benefit, flexibility, and risk factors that affect the investment decision. Forrester took a multistep approach to evaluate the impact that Power Apps can have on an organization.

  1. Due Diligence

    Interviewed Microsoft stakeholders and Forrester analysts to gather data relative to Power Apps.

  2. Interviews

    Interviewed five representatives at four organizations using Power Apps to obtain data about costs, benefits, and risks.

  3. Composite Organization

    Designed a composite organization based on characteristics of the interviewees’ organizations.

  4. Financial Model Framework

    Constructed a financial model representative of the interviews using the TEI methodology and risk-adjusted the financial model based on issues and concerns of the interviewees.

  5. Case Study

    Employed four fundamental elements of TEI in modeling the investment impact: benefits, costs, flexibility, and risks. Given the increasing sophistication of ROI analyses related to IT investments, Forrester’s TEI methodology provides a complete picture of the total economic impact of purchase decisions. Please see Appendix A for additional information on the TEI methodology.

Disclosures

Readers should be aware of the following:

This study is commissioned by Microsoft and delivered by Forrester Consulting. It is not meant to be used as a competitive analysis.

Forrester makes no assumptions as to the potential ROI that other organizations will receive. Forrester strongly advises that readers use their own estimates within the framework provided in the study to determine the appropriateness of an investment in Power Apps.

Microsoft reviewed and provided feedback to Forrester, but Forrester maintains editorial control over the study and its findings and does not accept changes to the study that contradict Forrester’s findings or obscure the meaning of the study.

Microsoft provided the customer names for the interviews but did not participate in the interviews.

Consulting Team:

Nikoletta Stergiou

Matt Dunham

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