Building Smarter Mobile Enterprise Apps using Integration Tools
Building the Client front-end of a mobile application is relatively simple when compared to the complexity needed to tie front-end transactions with an enterprise's many back-end systems.
Sometimes it's simply not enough for a business, in say, the manufacturing or distribution sector to deploy a mobile applications for their staff with access to a single back-end system - let's say the SAP ERP system.
Of course, any customer part or product request must begin with the ERP system - in this case checking to see if the part is in stock. However, the work doesn't end there.
The customer's request and transaction must also be synchronized with the company's on-premise CRM system or on-demand account (such as Salesforce.com). Then an order and an invoice must be raised, and then only finally a shipping report sent to the customer.
So it's all very well having a smart mobile application featuring the latest in Rich Internet Application (RIA) technology that will provide customized SAP functionality.
What's even more important is that your mobile application integrates SAP with your other back-end systems whether they are on-site such as SAP R/3 or SAP Business One, Oracle, IBM, or Lotus, or on-demand such as Google or Salesforce.com.
Metadata-based integration tools such as Magic Software's iBOLT will synchronize your mobile application (that you built using the uniPaaS application platform!) with the other diverse applications within the enterprise using a single skill-set that pre-programs many of the common and repetitive developing tasks that otherwise would require greater time and cost to manually code.
So if you were using SAP previously, not only do you now get a mobile application that gives you anytime/anywhere access plus customizable features (such as different languages) designed specifically to make your life easier, but you also get broader business control and a full view of your business activity - all via that one tiny screen..and with a little help from iBOLT..