Hi all,
I'm trying to learn a little about Microsoft Dataverse, but I'll put my desired use case below in case I'm way off, and something else is actually required:(This is a nascent idea I'm afraid)
I work for a company that uses shared excel files to manage it's scheduling of several hundred people. However, with multiple people writing to this file simultaneously, it tends to be quite buggy. And utilising well over a million formulas over three different workbooks, all referencing each other, it can be quite slow. Also we recreate all three workbooks for each financial year, causing us issues as we approach the new year, working off two versions of each of the three lots of spreadsheets. Finally most new scheduling information is submitted by forms, and then manually input into the spreadsheets.
I'm wondering if there wouldn't be a better way: storing all the colleague data together, and creating a front-end with Powerapps that presents users with specific data, and allows changes to be input directly from the app. My thoughts are that it would be fully customisable, presenting each user with their specific data, but with different users having access to whatever other data was deemed relevant (technicians presented with their schedule, with options to see their holiday history, possibly also their company spending, contact details etc; managers being presented with the whole team's schedule, with relevant summary data and edit access.)
I'm pretty (possibly naively) confident that with enough research and failed attempts I'd be able to get Powerapps to present the data as above, or however else I could think to use it, but my main question is whether my base assumption is correct:
Is Excel the wrong way of storing this source data? I believe another department is attempting to move to storing data as sharepoint lists, however, I've heard whispers about Microsoft 'Dataverse', and wonder if this might be more designed for this use case. I'm trying to put a case forward for upgrading our subscription to include 'Dataverse', but appreciate that my image of 'dataverse' as a separate app that is used much like excel or access, is probably way out.
Any pointers that might get me moving in the right direction much appreciated!
Michael
