Photo of the Day Power Apps? 

Bring your digital workplace to life by having employees interact with one another. Getting all your staff members to attend an event interact with other departments, and invest in positive company culture can be very difficult. But if you can bridge some of those gaps utilizing technology, it allows management to evolve the culture, engage employees into their work, and set up the company for future success. 

Recently, a client came to us and asked us to create a “Photo of the Day” app. They wanted to display a photo daily. So, they needed to have a way for employees to upload photos and for management to approve submissions. HR also wanted to have the ability to monitor photos in order to minimize privacy issues and the risk of inappropriate photos. Nonetheless, they still wanted it to be a very simple solution, where employees could upload anywhere and from any device. Their goal as management was to feature the best content of the company. But also simplify it for themselves and approve in bulk to plan ahead. 

What were the Solution Steps? 

SharePoint with Power Apps and Power Automate:

  1. At this time, PowerApps does not allow for uploading of documents directly to SharePoint Document Libraries.
  2. Leverage the common approach of uploading the photo as an attachment to a SharePoint List. 
  3. Trigger an approval flow on the list item with a photo attachment.
  4. Upon approval, transfer the photo attachment as a file to the SharePoint Document Library. 
  5. Display the Photo of the Day, in an image viewer web part to a page with the query, “Feature date” field (determined at approval) is equal to today.  

What was the result?  

Why is it important?  

The “Photo of the Day” segment was implemented on their homepage along the news section. It is now compatible for all employees to engage with once they login in through their monitor or device. Here are a couple of reasons why having a Photo of the Day can help your organization’s culture: 

  1. Community – Many organizations that are department or team restricted are not able to connect with other colleagues that are in other departments or worse yet, they don’t even know they exist.
  2. Authenticity – For each person, putting a close colleague’s face or their face on the company’s intranet allows them to express who they are as a person outside of their role.
  3. Motivation– It allows for companies to constantly put out motivational or personal development photo messages to inspire employees as well as, ingrain their company’s motto. 
  4. Informing – Organizations go through changes all the time. This can be an outlet to showcase a promotion or onboarding employee.
  5. Purpose – Highlight the good work people are doing and how everyone’s’ role is contributing to the overall mission of the company. 

Klarinet Solutions specializes in enhancing system performance, optimizing user experience, and developing a streamlined process that supports business objectives. To find out more about our services or if you need help with O365 Power Apps or Flow. Feel free to contact our solutions delivery team or reach us by phone at (866) 211-8191. 

Matt Fishman
Director of Solution Delivery & Support, Klarinet Solutions

Fishman has over 20 years of expertise architecting, managing, and deploying Microsoft technologies to elevate business experiences. As an award-winning, solution-focused IT professional, Fishman has been awarded the prestigious Valo Contributor of the Year, 2017. He brings together technical know-how with a knack for creative solutions that do the trick for any client challenge.