From hackathon to production: How one team’s idea became a highlight of a release

This spring, we organized an internal hackathon with a simple goal: solve real problems for business app makers and users, whether they’re working in the office or out in the field.

The format was straightforward: an initial round of 24 hours for teams to develop and present ideas. Then, two finalists had with a week to evolve their ideas and present their final pilots.

Moving fast forward, here’s the best part: the winning team’s idea didn’t just win a trophy and bragging rights (and yes, some prize money on top). Their idea is already live in our latest release, helping partners and customers right now.

Here is the story behind.

The problem(s) that started it all

With our hackathon (like probably all of them) we wanted to encourage creativity, get different departments working together, and see what fresh ideas would emerge.

Five teams signed up with a wild range of concepts, from tools for field users to technical improvements.

The winning team, “Hold My Wine” (yes, there were only crazy names from our teams, we see you, “Chubba Hubbards Hubbing Hub” folks) spotted several pain points bugging our partners and customers:

1. Partners were spending weeks rebuilding customer demos from scratch. Every time they wanted to show what a Resco mobile app could do, they had to start over, even when the customer already had a perfectly good Power Apps solution.
2. Power Platform administrators wanted to evaluate Resco’s mobile capabilities, but they’d have to learn Woodford first. That’s a big ask when you’re just trying to figure out if our platform is right for your team.

The manual conversion process was eating up time and required specialized knowledge that not everyone had. Plus, many organizations were essentially doubling their work – maintaining one app project for Power Platform and another separate one in Resco.

For partners and customers who wanted to leverage Resco’s offline capabilities or enhance their existing implementation with our mobile features, the only option was to rebuild their solution from the ground up.

And so the “Hold My Wine” team asked the winning question – how could we help solve these challenges?

The solution: Model-driven Power Apps converter

“Hold My Wine” came up with something elegantly simple (yet technically complex for sure): a Model-Driven Power Apps Converter that takes your existing Power Apps and converts them into Resco mobile projects in seconds.

Here’s what it does and why it matters:

• Rapid demos for partners – Instead of spending weeks rebuilding, partners can now convert a customer’s existing Power Apps and show them the mobile experience in seconds.
• Side-by-side comparison – You can see both versions running and compare performance, features, and user experience directly.
• No more manual rebuilding – The converter automatically imports forms, views, home menu, and associated tabs while optimizing everything for mobile and enabling the necessary tables and fields.

Who is behind the “Hold My Wine”

Yes, as you could guess the winning team wasn’t just about technical skills, it was how they brought together different perspectives. Jane from business development, Malvína from the consulting team, and Lukáš, Matej, and Martin from development created a mix of departments and expertise.

They won because they combined deep technical knowledge with real understanding of customer and partner pain points. They had a strong product vision and knew how to present it in a way that made sense to everyone, not just the technical crowd.

This was the right mix leading to a winning idea. And the best part is that it didn’t end here.

From idea to reality in record time

The hackathon happened in March, and by June, this feature was live in our spring release.

Usually, getting new features from idea to production takes months. But the team’s solution was so practical and well-thought-out that it moved quickly through development.

And it’s already making a difference. Partners are using it for quick customer demonstrations and evaluations.

How it actually works

The converter is smart about what it does. It grabs your Power Apps forms, views, home menu, and associated tabs and converts them automatically. It’s intelligent enough to only pull what makes sense on mobile, so you’re not dealing with desktop-only features that don’t translate well.

Is it perfect for every complex app? No. But it gets you about 80% of the way there instantly, saving significant time and effort. As we mentioned during our roadmap session at Resco Next: “You don’t have to guess, you can test, compare, and deliver faster.”

Who should care and why

If you’re a partner, this changes how you approach customer demos. Stop rebuilding from scratch and start showing the mobile experience using their existing Power Apps. Your proof-of-concepts just got way faster.

If you’re a Power Platform administrator, you can now try Resco without having to learn Woodford first. See how your apps would look and perform on mobile, then compare the experiences side by side to make informed decisions.

Ready to try it?

The converter is available now in Woodford (you’ll need a Dynamics backend). Our advice: start with simpler apps first to get a feel for how it works, then tackle more complex ones.

We’ve put together a step-by-step import guide that walks you through the process. And since the team is actively improving the feature based on user feedback, don’t hesitate to let us know how it works for you. And before we wrap up, we’re happy the hackathon delivered on its original idea and goal: to support innovation, encourage collaboration across teams, focus on solving real problems for real people, and have some fun along the way. Cheers to the next one.