Use Case
Freeing a Dispersed Workforce from a Desktop-Bound CAPEX Process
A Large New Zealand Aged Care Organisation
The Challenge - Every CAPEX request meant finding a desk first.
For a large aged care organisation with managers and staff spread across multiple facilities, the CAPEX approval process had an invisible tax built into it. The system they were using was desktop-only — which meant that before anyone could lodge a request, they had to stop what they were doing, find a desk, and log in. In an environment where people are on their feet and moving between sites, that
friction adds up.
The system also offered IT nothing to work with — no documentation, no internal expertise, and no practical way to maintain or improve it. When the organisation moved to SharePoint Online, they decided not to carry the problem forward.
Replace it properly. Build it to last.
Deptive used Microsoft Power Apps to rebuild the CAPEX request process from the ground up — keeping what worked and fixing what didn't.
- Rebuilt the app as a mobile-first solution accessible through Microsoft Teams
- Automated approval workflows, notifications, and submissions with full audit trail
- Integrated with SharePoint and Power BI for real-time budget visibility
- Designed annual budget archiving and improved data structure for long-term maintainability
- Decommissioned the legacy system and eliminated associated licensing costs
The result was a solution the client's team could use from anywhere, maintain without outside help, and build on as their needs grew.
The Outcome
The process moves when the people do.
CAPEX requests no longer compete with the rest of a manager's day. They submit from wherever they are, approvals move through automatically, and finance has a real-time view of budget position. The desktop bottleneck is gone — and with it, the accumulated friction that had been quietly slowing the process down across every facility.
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Why It Matters
One well-delivered automation opens the door to the next.
In aged care, managers and staff are mobile by nature — moving between residents, facilities, and sites as part of their normal day. Tying any process to a desktop in that environment isn't just an inconvenience, it's a productivity tax that gets paid every single time someone needs to use it. Removing that constraint is exactly what Power Platform is built for.
What's telling is what came next: the GM of IT isn't just satisfied with the CAPEX outcome — she's already looking at what other
processes can be freed up. That's the pattern.
The solution from Deptive was easy to deploy and made the transition painless. As a result, we are considering what other business processes we want to automate and will be looking at Power Apps and Deptive again.
— GM of IT, Large NZ Aged Care Organisation
