Beijer Ref returned to Inlight IT for a series of Power Apps that kept proving their value
Beijer Ref operates in refrigeration, HVAC and climate technology, with industrial, branch, sales, customer service, finance and manufacturing workflows that depend on accurate information moving between teams. Several of those processes had outgrown the email, spreadsheet and PDF handling they were still running on, and each one needed structure rather than another generic automation programme.
Each Power App was a separate engagement. The first solved a specific manual process and paid back enough in time and cost efficiency that word spread across Beijer Ref's divisions, and another team arrived with the next workflow worth structuring. The applications were delivered one at a time, around real business processes, with structured data capture, defined workflow logic, controlled access and a more supportable operating model behind each one.
- Client
- Beijer Ref
- Industry
- Refrigeration, HVAC and climate technology
- Location
- Australia
- Starting point
- Internal configuration, approval and manufacturing workflows running through email, spreadsheets, PDFs and informal approvals
- Engagement type
- A series of Microsoft Power Apps, each delivered as a separate engagement, built on Power Apps and Power Automate
- Delivery scope
- Multiple workflow domains: assembly configuration, customer configuration, credit approvals and manufacturing change requests
- Outcome
- Recurring internal process friction turned into structured, supportable applications on reusable Power Platform discipline
Beijer Ref — a series of Power Apps for internal workflows
A real engagement sequence showing how structured applications spread across divisions.
A series of engagements and one delivery discipline
Each application was delivered as its own standalone engagement, built around a real internal business process.
Assembly configuration, customer configuration, credit approval and manufacturing change requests.
Beijer Ref came back engagement after engagement as word spread across divisions.
Power Apps and Power Automate delivered on one engineering-led, reusable set of data, workflow and access patterns.
Internal business processes are often where automation delivers the fastest practical value
Industrial and commercial organisations often run important workflows through email, spreadsheets, PDFs and informal approvals long after the process has become too important for manual handling.
Beijer Ref's use cases had the shape where Power Platform consistently works: repeatable submission, structured data capture, approval or review logic, internal ownership and a clear before-and-after delta.
The value was not in adopting a platform. It was in turning recurring internal friction into applications people could rely on.
Beijer Ref needed practical applications for real internal processes, not a generic automation programme
Power Platform works best when the process is internal, structured and aligned to Microsoft 365 identity and workflow patterns. The risk in this kind of work is treating it as a transformation programme rather than as discrete, well-scoped applications.
The work had to stay practical, one workflow at a time
Beijer Ref's engagements stayed scoped to discrete, well-defined applications around real processes — not a transformation programme that had to justify itself before delivering anything.
Each app had to earn the next one
The applications were not commissioned as a suite. Each one had to deliver enough value in time and cost efficiency that another division saw the point and brought the next workflow forward.
The processes were structured, but not yet supportable
The workflows already existed; they were simply held together manually. The work was to give each one structured data capture, defined logic and controlled access, so it could be operated and supported rather than remembered.
Reusability mattered as much as any single app
Because the engagements continued, the patterns established early — data structure, workflow logic, access control, supportable handover — carried into each subsequent build, which is what made the later apps faster and more consistent.
The applications had to fit the Microsoft 365 environment
Each build needed to align to Microsoft 365 identity and workflow patterns, so access, approvals and ownership worked with the environment the business already ran on.
A series of Power Apps, delivered as separate engagements, across configuration, approval and manufacturing workflows
Inlight IT supported Beijer Ref with a series of Power Apps, each delivered as a standalone engagement as different divisions identified workflows worth structuring. Every build followed engineering-led Power Platform discipline: Power Apps and Power Automate built around a defined process, with structured data capture, workflow logic, controlled access and a supportable operating model.
01A structured application for assembly configuration requirements
An application that captured assembly configuration requirements in a structured form, replacing the manual handling the process had outgrown.
02A tool to support customer-specific configuration requests
A tool that gave customer-specific configuration requests a structured path, with the information captured consistently rather than assembled from email and memory.
03A structured approval workflow for credit application handling
An approval workflow that gave credit application handling defined stages, ownership and an auditable path through review and sign-off.
04A controlled workflow for manufacturing change requests
A controlled workflow for manufacturing change requests, so changes followed a defined process with the right approvals rather than informal coordination.
05Reusable Power Platform discipline that built up naturally
Across the engagements, a reusable body of Power Platform discipline accumulated, so each new application started from established patterns for data, workflow, access and support.
Each engagement followed the same practical path from workflow to supported application
Select a stage to trace how each engagement moved from manual workflow to supported application.
Internal workflows tend to stay manual well past the point they should have been structured
Industrial and commercial organisations often keep important workflows in email, spreadsheets, PDFs and informal approvals long after the process has become too important for manual handling. The first structured application usually pays for itself quickly, which is why automation tends to spread once a business sees one workflow done properly — exactly the pattern Beijer Ref followed across its divisions.
Separate engagements, each commissioned on the value the previous application had already proved.
Multiple workflow domains moved out of email, spreadsheet and PDF handling into structured applications.
Beijer Ref returned repeatedly as word spread between divisions about what the first apps had paid back.
The first structured application usually pays for itself quickly — the pattern that started the sequence.
Beijer Ref kept coming back because the model kept working
Each Power App engagement helped a different part of Beijer Ref move a manual or semi-manual process into a structured application. The strongest signal was not any single app, but that word spread across divisions and the engagements continued.
Recurring friction became a structured application
Each engagement turned recurring internal process friction into an application that could capture, route and report the work reliably.
The model spread across divisions
Because each app paid back, other teams brought their own workflows forward, and the relationship continued one engagement at a time.
Reusable discipline made each build easier
The data, workflow, access and support patterns established early carried into each subsequent application.
Applications, not citizen-developed forms
Each workflow moved into a supportable operating model, owned and maintainable rather than dependent on the person who built it.
Approvals gained defined stages and an auditable path
Credit application handling moved through defined review and sign-off stages with clear ownership instead of informal approval.
Manufacturing changes followed a controlled process
Change requests moved through a defined process with the right approvals rather than informal coordination.
The value was not in building screens. It was in delivering each engagement well enough that the next one was worth commissioning.
Power Platform delivered as business applications, not citizen-developed forms
A series of Power Apps, a series of engagements
Each application was delivered standalone as divisions identified workflows worth structuring.
Multiple workflow domains covered
Assembly configuration, customer configuration, credit approval and manufacturing change.
Word spread across divisions
Each app paid back enough that the next team came with the next workflow.
Structured data and logic
Every build used structured data capture, defined workflow logic and controlled access.
Reusable Power Platform discipline
Delivery patterns built up naturally across the engagements.
Supportable operation
Each app moved into a supportable operating model, not an orphaned form.
The work connected Power Platform build, workflow design and supportable application ownership
Power Platform build
7- Microsoft Power Apps
- Power Automate
- Microsoft 365 alignment
- Structured data capture
- Defined workflow logic
- Per-engagement scoping
- Reusable build patterns
Workflow and approvals
7- Approval workflow design
- Defined review stages
- Auditable sign-off paths
- Credit application handling
- Manufacturing change control
- Configuration request handling
- Workflow ownership
Data and access
7- Structured submissions
- Consistent information capture
- Controlled access
- Identity-aligned permissions
- Data structure patterns
- Reporting considerations
- Access review
Application lifecycle
7- Supportable operating model
- Application ownership
- Documentation and handover
- Maintainable applications
- Lifecycle support
- Pattern reuse across engagements
- Ongoing improvement
Have a manual process that should become a structured application?
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