This project was requested by my colleague David Willie, Head of Marketing and Product Management.
The products in question are video conferencing solutions. This is a cutting edge tech industry in which new products are frequently launched and old ones discontinued. What David needed was a solution that he could update at the touch of a button, that his sales team would have instant access to, on the job, in a fast-moving market.
At the time, my employer had just acquired Microsoft Office 365 and rolled it out on a company-wide basis. It’s a powerful collection of business tools, such as PowerApps, OneDrive, and Excel. But the way these programs integrate meant it could provide a solution that met all of David’s requirements.
David provided an Excel spreadsheet featuring his range of VC products, with various relevant criteria in each column. This was hosted on OneDrive, meaning that he had access to it and could update it from wherever he was, adding or removing products instantly. This spreadsheet would now be the information source for the app, meaning any changes would be updated immediately.
PowerApps also features an interface which gives the designer great control over the look of the app. I was able to design a clean, modern template that was entirely within the company’s corporate style, whilst having control over how the app sourced the information from David’s spreadsheet.
I was able to design something that was entirely within the company’s corporate style
The challenge came with the end user interface of the app. David wanted to give his sales team the ability to search for products using two criteria – number of users (1 to 250), and environment (or type of room). The app would have to return results that met each of those criteria, excluding those that met none, or just one.
I’ve had some experience of working with HTML and javascript, and was able to configure most aspects of the app. But writing the code that would refine the search results across two criteria was proving tricky. I enlisted the help of a colleague, Andy Hirst, who is a Systems Architect, and a programming whizz! He was able to write a five line piece of code which solved the issue, and CollabApp was ready to go.
The app was released to a fanfare of emails and newsletter stories. David was delighted, and his sales team were excited to get a slick looking company-branded app which they could use freely in front of clients, knowing it would instantly give them the perfect product for their requirements.
David Willie, Visavvi
I went on to design other successful apps for the company including the Visavvi Engineer’s Guide.
As a footnote, I would like to acknowledge that the name CollabApp is a clunky old moniker. I wanted to call the app Sherlock, but was overruled. It’s fine. I’m over it.
Totally over it.
J Everard Design 