Modernizing legacy software with Power Apps at De Vereende

As the digitalization partner of De Vereende, E-mergo recently developed an application in Power Apps. The app was built to handle, among other things, the administration of their contracts, claims, settlements and reinsurance, and the maintenance thereof. E-mergo was already De Vereende's partner for their Qlik dashboards, and now for Power Apps as well. In this blog we discuss the solution De Vereende needed and how we delivered it with Power Apps.

The Atoompool

The Atoompool insures nuclear risks in the Netherlands and acts as reinsurer for foreign nuclear pools. Insurers cooperate within this pool because the damage caused by nuclear installations can be extremely large. The Atoompool allows the risk to be spread.

The challenge

For the administration of contracts and claims, the Atoompool had long relied on an outdated Microsoft Access application called ARIS. This application was due for renewal. Reasons for the renewal included:

• Maintenance: Microsoft will no longer support Microsoft Access 2010.
• Database: The database design was far from ideal. As a result, reports had to be run afterwards to check the data.
• Security: The application's security was no longer up to date and had to be improved. This was done using existing security modules that Microsoft offers through Azure AD.
• Usability: The user experience was not ideal, because some parts were unclear to end users or did not even work. In addition, the front end was partly in English and partly in Dutch. Finally, the front end was dated and a modern way of developing was desired.

The power of Power Apps

With Power Apps a large number of app scenarios can be realized, digitally transforming manual and outdated processes (for example in Microsoft Excel or Access). Depending on your organization's needs, Power Apps offers 3 types of applications: Canvas Apps, Model-Driven Apps or Portals. Each has its own approach, capabilities and tooling. All of these apps are supported by Dataverse for storing and managing the required data.

Developing, using and managing Power Apps all takes place in the cloud. This means the applications can be accessed from anywhere. Security can of course be fully configured in the management environment, so that only (guest) users who exist in Azure AD can be added. Because everything happens in the cloud, sharing the application is much easier than in the Microsoft Access situation.

Power Apps can use data sources such as Dataverse (formerly Common Data Service), SharePoint lists and Excel files, and can also communicate with an on-premises SQL Server. This is done with a Data Gateway that is easy to install and manage.

Our sustainable solution

For the Atoompool, we converted the Microsoft Access application into Power Apps. The user interface and the (business) logic that was woven throughout the application were recreated, and improved where necessary, using a combination of Power Apps and Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow). The front end was rebuilt in Power Apps, giving the various overviews, forms and data validation a modern look. Power Automate is used for the more in-depth logic.

Because the data is stored in a SQL database that is also used for the reporting in Qlik, we chose to keep the complexity in SQL and call it from Power Apps using Power Automate. Views, functions and stored procedures were created in SQL and are called from the app, so the 'heavy lifting' happens at database level. Doing this in Power Apps would make the app very slow.

One of De Vereende's wishes was to keep audit logs. For this we created history tables in the database, so that every change creates a copy of the original record. We also surface this in the app, so employees can immediately see exactly what has changed.

Benefits

The combination of Power Apps, SQL and Power Automate offers several benefits in terms of design and functionality. The new interface feels more modern than the Access application used previously. The new solution is not only user-friendly but also designed to be easy to maintain. This makes it easier to maintain for both external parties and future De Vereende employees who want to work with it.

Thanks to the logs, the Atoompool can track precisely what has changed. Hundreds of settlements can also be entered at the same time instead of one by one, which saves an enormous amount of time. Finally, the app is better secured through Azure and users can work with it on laptop, tablet and mobile.

Do you have an on-premises application that you want to modernize and move to a future-proof low-code application, perhaps combined with other (Microsoft) products? We would be happy to discuss your specific needs in an online introductory meeting.