JourneyTeam breathes life into an outdated system with Power Apps

Using Microsoft Power Apps and a Copilot agent, JourneyTeam helped their nonprofit client reduce costs by 54%, save time on administrative tasks—and refocus on their mission.

July 2, 2025

As nonprofits deal with rising competition for funding, regulatory uncertainty, and staff shortages, technological advancements such as generative AI present a significant opportunity to address key operational challenges. Whether by automating manual processes, creating faster and more accurate invoicing, or using data to customize reporting and analytics, strategic application of technological solutions can help nonprofits serve their communities. But nonprofits face another challenge: how to implement generative AI in a timely manner—without breaking the bank.

Enter JourneyTeam, a longtime Microsoft partner and three-time Partner of the Year Award winner that has been working for more than 30 years to help nonprofits, educational and government institutions, and more update their technology estates. They specialize in guiding organizations through the complexities of the technology landscape to build sustainable growth, delivering services and solutions in business applications, infrastructure, analytics, AI, and more. And, as low-code development experts, they’re particularly adept at creating scalable solutions their customers can easily train on, adapt, and scale.

Eric Beins, Chief Technology Officer at JourneyTeam, said of their Microsoft partnership, “We’ve made a deliberate choice to align 100 percent with Microsoft because it offers an incredibly comprehensive, scalable, and secure ecosystem for solving modern business challenges. Unlike other platforms that require stitching together fragmented solutions, Microsoft provides an integrated stack spanning enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), collaboration, data, and AI.”

He continued, “Microsoft empowers us to deliver smarter, faster outcomes for our customers. Our deep partnership gives us early access to innovation, direct support, and a strategic roadmap that helps us stay ahead of our clients’ needs. It’s more than a technology decision—it’s a growth strategy for our customers and for us.”

Struggling with time-consuming reporting systems

In Utah, an educational nonprofit organization—whose goal is to promote lifelong educational success for children in underserved communities—functions as the anchor for essential early education. Serving 800,000 children across Utah, Colorado, Nevada, and Montana through the federal Head Start program, this nonprofit recognized the power of data to inform decisions––but they were dealing with outdated systems that were time-consuming and cumbersome, a challenge that delayed vital support for thousands of families. They found tracking the lifecycle of documents and activities ranging from health screenings to educational assessments to be disjointed and time-consuming—to say nothing of the various ways employees tracked and stored information.

The nonprofit understood the need to update their reporting systems to more accurately and swiftly produce customizable reports and analytics and meet compliance requirements—while enabling them to focus on the children and families using their program. They engaged JourneyTeam to determine how they could implement a tailored solution that they could own outright, meeting their organizational and end-user needs. As experts in low-code development, JourneyTeam immediately recognized that a solution built with the Microsoft Power Platform would offer their customer the flexibility, scalability, and ease of use they needed. The organization had limited resources and was seeking rapid deployment, and because they already used Microsoft technologies across their stack, Power Platform would offer native integration and easy training, further cementing the suitability.

A person working on a laptop in an office.

“Microsoft empowers us to deliver smarter, faster outcomes for our customers. It’s more than a technology decision—it’s a growth strategy for our customers and for us.”

—Eric Beins, Chief Technology Officer, JourneyTeam

Low code: a better system for better results

After determining that a low-code solution would suit the nonprofit best, JourneyTeam worked directly with them to understand their needs and capabilities. They developed the solution using Microsoft Power BI and Power Apps, as the seamless integration with their existing tech stack gave the customer the tools they needed to make data analysis more accessible and actionable. It also streamlined data entry, improved data visibility through Power BI dashboards, and enhanced communication within the organization.

Beins explained why low code worked for their client: “The Power Platform helped our client quickly implement an efficient, AI-enhanced system with significantly reduced time and cost. Importantly, it positioned them to customize and scale the solution independently over time, making it a smart investment for today and tomorrow.”

With the solution’s user-friendly tools, the organization can now:

Identify trends in child outcomes and make targeted interventions to better support their development.
Streamline reporting to federal and state agencies, which have stringent compliance policies, making this process faster and less burdensome.
Make real-time, data-driven decisions to enhance service quality.

One of the most significant upgrades was the use of Microsoft Dataverse, a data storage solution that provided secure, role-based access to data for each of the non profit’s locations. This eliminated the need for separate data access requests and exports, giving teams greater autonomy and control. The platform’s customizable nature meant that the organization could quickly adapt the system to meet their evolving needs.

“The broader value of agentic AI is its ability to not just answer questions, but take action. That means less time on process and more time delivering human impact.”

—Eric Beins, Chief Technology Officer, JourneyTeam

Taking success one step further with agentic AI

To build on the success of this solution, JourneyTeam then created an AI-powered agent using Copilot Studio to streamline case note processing and analysis, which were once time-consuming manual tasks.

Family service specialists often spent hours compiling reports, which would then go back and forth between specialists and approval managers for finalization. The new AI agent automated these repetitive tasks, reducing the report generation time from hours to mere minutes—giving specialists more time to follow up with families. Embedded directly into the organization’s digital platform, the agent prompted employees with questions during family meetings and automatically created comprehensive narratives for submission.

Beins said that Copilot Studio gave JourneyTeam’s client a secure, low-code environment to build a “truly intelligent” AI agent that is directly embedded into their workflows.

He said, “With this solution, what once took hours of manual effort—like compiling and finalizing case notes—is now handled in minutes through a conversational experience. Unlike other platforms, Copilot Studio seamlessly integrates with the Microsoft ecosystem, so we can combine AI reasoning, real-time data access, and user context without compromising compliance or requiring extensive retraining. The broader value of agentic AI is its ability to not just answer questions, but take action. That means less time on process and more time delivering human impact.”

Refocusing on children, thanks to a 5x reduction in time spent on daily processes

The effects of JourneyTeam’s original solution—and the family services agent they created—were nearly immediate. The organization saw a 5x reduction in time spent on daily administrative processes and a 54% reduction in costs compared to their legacy system. These efficiencies freed up valuable resources, empowering the nonprofit to concentrate on what mattered most: improving outcomes for children and families. The solution was so effective that the organization was certified as a national program of excellence by the Head Start program.

That success is something JourneyTeam and the nonprofit plan on sharing with other Head Start programs across the country. Power Platform has played a central role in the success of this solution, giving JourneyTeam’s customer the ability to have central control and governance over their operations.

As for the partnership between JourneyTeam and their nonprofit customer, they’re taking the power of Microsoft and low code one step further. The nonprofit is planning a Copilot Studio training program that will help employees create, manage, and deploy agents on their own, further enhancing an already game-changing solution.

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