Municipalities today face unprecedented pressure to modernize services, improve citizen engagement, and streamline internal operations. Microsoft Power Platform is a powerful low-code solution to meet these goals – but without proper governance, it can quickly become a liability rather than an asset.
The Rise of App Sprawl in Municipal IT
App sprawl happens when applications proliferate across departments or individual teams without centralized oversight. In municipal environments, this often looks like:
1. Multiple apps doing the same thing: Several departments might independently build apps for service requests, permit approvals, or maintenance tracking, each with slightly different workflows.
2. No visibility or ownership: IT may not know who created a specific app or who is responsible for maintaining it.
3. Forgotten apps: When staff leave, apps are left running unattended.
4. Security and compliance risks: Without controls, apps may expose sensitive data, breach privacy regulations, or create audit failures.
This isn’t just an IT headache; it directly impacts budgets, citizen trust, and operational efficiency.
Five Real Risks Municipalities Face
1. Abandoned Apps
Apps can be forgotten when staff leave, causing silent failures or unauthorized access.
Scenario: A summer intern develops a bylaw enforcement app for tracking parking violations. A year later, the app’s data connections fail after an update to the city’s database. No one on the current IT team knows how to fix it, leading to delayed enforcement and citizen complaints.
2. No Dev/Test/Prod Environments
Skipping proper development, testing, and production environments can lead to apps breaking live, disrupting services.
Scenario: The public works department updates a citizen complaint app directly in production. During peak hours, the form stops submitting, preventing residents from reporting incidents and outages. This erodes public trust and frustrates staff who now need manual workarounds.
3. Licensing Surprises
Power Platform licensing can be complex, especially when premium connectors or Dataverse storage are involved.
Scenario: The finance team creates a workflow using premium connectors under a trial license. Once the trial expires, the workflow stops functioning, requiring an emergency license purchase. The unplanned cost forces a department to reallocate its budget from other projects.
4. Security Risks
Orphaned or ungoverned apps can access sensitive data without proper controls.
Scenario: A housing application tracks resident personal information but lacks encryption and auditing. When a breach occurs, the municipality faces legal liabilities, public criticism, and potential fines for non-compliance with privacy laws.
5. Shadow IT
Citizen developers often create apps outside IT oversight, risking data security and regulatory compliance.
Scenario: The parks department utilizes a free online scheduling tool to manage bookings at the community center. The tool stores resident information in unsecured cloud storage, violating FOIP regulations and exposing the municipality to legal and reputational risk.
The Benefits of Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)
Governance doesn’t slow innovation; it ensures innovation is safe, sustainable, and scalable. Managing the full application lifecycle effectively actually gives app makers greater freedom to create apps, but without the risk to your organization. ALM provides structure to the app development process in several key ways:
• Version control: Track changes to prevent accidental overwrites.
• Rollback options: Quickly restore a previous working version if an update breaks functionality.
• Structured release processes: Move apps from development to testing to production with minimal risk.
For example, a utility department implements ALM for its work-order tracking app. Updates are first tested in a sandbox environment, allowing errors to be caught before they reach production. Staff productivity improves, and citizen requests are fulfilled without interruption.
To learn more about how ALM can help you bring structure, governance, and scalability to your Power Platform environment, watch this on-demand webinar that gives a breakdown of ALM and how it can work for you.
Complement ALM with a Center of Excellence (CoE)
A CoE works hand in hand with ALM and acts as the backbone of a municipality’s Power Platform strategy.
Implementing a CoE:
• Provides training for citizen developers and IT staff.
• Sets guardrails and policies to ensure security, compliance, and best practices.
• Offers visibility into all apps, usage, and licensing.
• Supports scaling innovation without risking data or operational disruption.
For example, the CoE in a mid-sized city will create a shared app inventory, assign owners to orphaned apps, and standardized naming and permission conventions. Departments can innovate confidently, knowing IT oversight exists, and governance isn’t a bottleneck.
The Cost of Doing Nothing
Municipalities often say, “We don’t have the budget or time to develop this governance framework.”
But the cost of inaction is far higher:
• Lost productivity from broken or duplicate apps.
• Emergency license purchases and budget reallocations.
• Security breaches and compliance fines.
• Rebuilding apps from scratch.
Governance is an investment in resilience, efficiency, and sustainability.
Client Story
The City of Medicine Hat partnered with Elantis to combat app sprawl by training citizen developers, implementing ALM and CoE, and building guardrails for safe innovation. Hear more about the City’s experience here.
Thinking About It? Hesitating?
If your municipality is struggling with app chaos, governance uncertainty, or cost management, you’re not alone. Teams like yours benefit from:
1. Auditing existing apps.
2. Implementing governance frameworks.
3. Training staff and citizen developers.
4. Building sustainable, secure ALM environments under a CoE.
Contact us today or reach out to Will Russell at Will.Russell@elantis.com to turn your Power Platform from a risk into a strategic asset. We’ll help you empower innovation while keeping your municipality secure and efficient.
