Power Platform onboarding (Onboardly) — Dynamics 365 partner Awara IT

Johnson & Johnson’s Kazakhstan retail arm faced an entirely manual, opaque process for hiring and offboarding staff. Paper forms, email threads and in-person signatures created delays, audit gaps and inconsistent new-hire experiences across retail locations. The HR team needed a single, remote-capable solution that handled document upload, electronic signatures and access to role-specific resources.

Awara IT implemented a Power Platform solution — branded Onboardly — that combines Power Apps, Power Automate and Teams integration to centralize documents, enable Kazakhstan-compliant electronic digital signatures (EDS), and present learning resources in one place. The result: faster, auditable onboarding with measurable reductions in administrative effort and clearer first-day outcomes for new employees.

Client / Industry / Country

Johnson & Johnson — local retail/distribution operations for healthcare products in Kazakhstan (regional operations within the Middle East/Central Asia region). The implementation targeted HR processes for store and field staff across Kazakhstan.

Business challenge

Onboarding and termination processes were manual end-to-end. New hires submitted paper forms or emailed scanned documents, HR processed files by hand, and signatures were gathered in person. The process lacked visibility: hiring managers could not track status reliably, and HR could not demonstrate an auditable trail for compliance reviews.

Remote hires and pandemic-era constraints exposed additional gaps. The HR team spent significant time chasing documents and coordinating signatures; this increased time-to-productivity for new staff and created risk for labor-compliance inspections. Johnson & Johnson required a solution that enabled secure remote document handling, supported national EDS standards, and consolidated role-specific resources to reduce first-day confusion.

Why Dynamics 365 was selected

Awara IT recommended a Microsoft Power Platform approach because it integrates directly with the company’s Microsoft 365 environment (Teams, Azure AD, SharePoint) and supports rapid, low-code delivery. For a regional HR rollout in Kazakhstan this reduced implementation risk, shortened delivery time and leveraged existing Microsoft licensing.

Although not a traditional Dynamics 365 Finance or Supply Chain deployment, the project aligned with Dynamics 365 partner capabilities: secure identity/authentication, enterprise governance and extensibility for future HR and payroll integrations. Power Apps provided the front-end onboarding portal, Power Automate handled signature routing and notifications, and Power BI supplied HR dashboards for leadership.

Modules implemented

• Power Apps — Onboardly onboarding portal (candidate & HR interfaces)
• Power Automate — document workflows, EDS routing and notifications
• SharePoint for secure document storage with versioning and retention
• Azure Active Directory — user provisioning and role-based access
• Teams integration — in-app links, notifications and manager approvals
• Power BI — HR dashboards for onboarding KPIs and audit reporting

Integrations

• Kazakhstan-compliant Electronic Digital Signature (EDS) gateway via API
• Microsoft Teams for approvals and communications
• Azure Active Directory for identity and provisioning
• SharePoint/OneDrive for secure document storage
• SMTP/SMS providers for candidate notifications and OTPs

Localization & compliance

The solution was configured to support Kazakhstan’s electronic signature requirements and accommodate Russian and Kazakh language interfaces where needed. Onboardly records an auditable signature trail and stores metadata required for labor-compliance checks. Data access policies and retention labels were applied to meet local legal and corporate governance standards.

Awara IT worked with the client’s legal and HR teams to ensure the onboarding packet matched Kazakhstan labor documentation requirements and that electronic signature evidence met national EDS verification practices.

Business value

By consolidating onboarding into a single Power Platform application, Johnson & Johnson Kazakhstan reduced administrative overhead and improved compliance visibility. HR regained capacity previously spent chasing paperwork, allowing the team to focus on strategic talent activities. Managers received clearer status updates and new hires accessed role-specific resources immediately, improving early productivity.

The low-code approach also delivered predictable cost and timeline outcomes and created a foundation for future HR automation (payroll handoffs, performance onboarding). The centralized audit trail and EDS integration reduced compliance risk and simplified responses to regulatory inquiries.