Microsoft Power Apps for master data management: A faster, simpler way to gain control of your data
Kaisa VääräData Management Consultant, Solita
Published 11 Feb 2025
Reading time 6 min
Every company deals with master data but managing it effectively can be a challenge. Often, businesses recognise the need for master data management (MDM), yet the scale of the problem might not justify investing in expensive enterprise-grade solutions. For example, Microsoft Master Data Services (MDS)—a tool bundled with SQL Server licensing, therefore, seen as low price and widely used in the Nordics—has been signalling its end-of-life for years. As a result, many companies are now evaluating alternative MDM solutions.
Recently there has been a rising demand for low-code applications, as businesses seek faster development cycles and reduced reliance on specialty software experts. Microsoft’s Power Platform’s Power Apps is offering fast and easy ways to create simple low-code solutions with attractive pricing. Low-code solutions make it easier than ever to build custom applications without advanced coding skills. Instead, understanding the business needs becomes the critical factor. So, is it possible to create low-code solutions that are able to handle MDM problems? In this blog post, we’ll explain when Microsoft Power Apps is the best option to build an effective master data management solution.
Why invest in master data management?
Master data is the foundation of any business, yet it’s often not managed efficiently. So, when does a custom low-code solution become the right choice for your company?
Start by evaluating your current setup. Where is your master data stored, and how is it managed? Many businesses still rely on outdated systems or traditional tools like Excel and email. These approaches often lead to poor data quality and inconsistent management, creating inefficiencies that slow down operations.
Imagine a mid-sized manufacturing company where MDM is still done manually using spreadsheets and emails. Different departments—sales, marketing, product management, and purchasing—handle product data separately. Instead of using a shared system, each department maintains its own version of the same data. This creates isolated data silos, making it difficult to keep information consistent and connected.
Information is exchanged via email, making it challenging to keep track of updates or even find the right person to request the data from. Without a shared system, departments aren’t notified about data changes, resulting in teams unknowingly working with outdated or incorrect data, which may lead to costly errors and delays.
Without proper MDM practices, businesses often face significant challenges that impact both efficiency and data quality, including:
High risk of human error
Unclear processes and responsibilities
Inconsistent data formats
Challenges with monitoring the data
Data access issues
These issues collectively result in poor data quality. By the time the data is needed for operational or analytical purposes, significant manual effort is often required to fix errors and inconsistencies wasting time and resources.
If this sounds familiar, it might be time to modernise your processes. Next, we’ll explain how it is done with Power Apps.
What are Power Apps and Power Platform?
In short, Power Platform is a collection of Microsoft’s low-code solutions designed to create custom applications, automate workflows, and analyse data. Among these tools, Power Apps is the primary tool for building custom, low-code applications tailored to your specific needs, including MDM solutions. While Power Apps serves as the foundation, other components of Power Platform, like Power Automate and Power BI, can extend its functionality by automating processes and providing data insights.
Power Platform seamlessly integrates with Microsoft 365, Teams, SharePoint, and Dynamics 365, offering a cost-effective, scalable solution for organisations already within the Microsoft ecosystem.
If your organisation already relies on Microsoft products and your master data needs are relatively simple, Power Apps could be the most cost-effective and efficient solution for your business.
With a modest investment, you can quickly develop a modern master data management solution with Power Apps that improves data quality and governance, prepares your organisation for AI-driven capabilities and helps you make the most of the data your organisation generates.
Many traditional MDM solutions are designed for large enterprises and require big investments. However, with low-code tools like Power Apps, also smaller-scale master data challenges can be addressed effectively. In addition, the low-code approach simplifies development, allowing for quick development and deployment after the planning is complete.
Why Power Apps works well for MDM:
Quick time-to-value
– Once your data model and processes are well-defined, the development phase is fast, enabling a quicker return on investment. The low-code approach enables creating and deploying solutions quickly, without extensive coding.
Cost-effective for simpler MDM needs – Licensing remains affordable for smaller-scale deployments, especially when used within a single department or a focused use case.
Process automation – Reduces manual work, automates data flows, and improves efficiency, helping to enforce data consistency across teams.
Seamless integrations & extendibility – Natively connects with Microsoft tools like Teams, SharePoint, Dynamics 365, with easy extensibility for third-party services, LLM-powered automation and other advanced features.
Strong security & access control – Built-in security features ensure that the right people have access to the right data while restricting unauthorised users.
Considerations before choosing Power Apps
When deciding to invest into a Power Apps MDM solution, it’s important to keep a few limitations in mind. It provides flexibility through Power FX, Dataverse, and extensions as low-code functionalities, but more advanced MDM cases and user interface customisation may require significant coding effort. Power Apps is best for simple, structured MDM needs, but enterprises with highly complex data structures and requirements may need a more scalable MDM solution.
Although Power Apps is a cost-effective solution, the licensing costs can scale up quickly. Licensing is based on a per-user model, and additional costs may arise from premium connectors for third-party integrations, extra data storage, and AI-powered features. Therefore, businesses should evaluate long-term pricing before committing to large deployments.
Power Apps is an excellent choice for organisations looking to improve their MDM practices efficiently and cost-effectively, especially for those already operating within Microsoft 365 and Azure. However, businesses with complex data needs or large-scale, multi-domain MDM requirements should carefully assess its scalability and cost structure before committing.
If your organisation values speed, ease of use, and seamless Microsoft integration, Power Apps is a strong contender. But for businesses requiring deep customisation, multi-system interoperability, data consolidation, or enterprise-scale MDM, a more comprehensive solution may be the better long-term investment.
Ready to simplify your master data management?
Master data management doesn’t always need to be complex or costly. With Microsoft Power Apps, businesses can build scalable, low-code solutions that enhance data quality, ensure governance, and streamline processes—all while staying within the Microsoft ecosystem.
But how do you know if Power Apps is the right fit for your organisation’s MDM needs? We can help you assess your unique requirements, determine if Power Apps is the best solution, and guide you in setting up an efficient MDM strategy that works for your business.
Not sure where to start? Please contact us! We’ll help you evaluate your current systems, processes, and data needs to decide if Power Apps is the right tool for you.
