Case Study: Environment Canterbury achieves faster outcome tracking and reporting with Microsoft Power Apps

Environment Canterbury speeds up outcome tracking with the Power Platform

Environment Canterbury (ECan), the regional local government body for Canterbury, New Zealand, faced fragmented, paper- and Excel-based processes across its ten water zones that made project tracking and reporting slow and inconsistent. To gain faster access to consistent data and better visibility across freshwater, biodiversity and biosecurity programs, they adopted the Power Platform — notably Microsoft Power Apps (alongside Microsoft Flow and Power BI) — working with partner Datacom to pilot a digital solution.

Datacom built the inZone app using Microsoft Power Apps, Microsoft Flow, an on-premises SQL gateway and Power BI, and deployed it to production in under eight weeks. The Microsoft Power Apps solution consolidated roughly 500 projects, cut reporting time from 1–2 weeks to minutes, delivered measurable labor savings within a month, added automated notifications and escalations so projects no longer “fall through the cracks,” and improved resourcing and prioritization — with ongoing monthly updates and potential to expand to other environmental programs.

Environment Canterbury

Paul Hulse

Manager, Zone Delivery team