UNIORG Mobile Information

UNIORG Mobile Field Solutions for information supply provide your management and employees with access to up-to-date and precise information without limitations of time and place. For example, business data from a Business Information Warehouse can be displayed on a mobile remote device (BlackBerry, T-Mobile MDA, etc...), or current synchronous ATP volume queries can be performed. Reactions and decisions based on the displayed data can be accordingly rapid.

Here, development of solution scenarios can either involve using the browser integrated in the handheld device to display and process correspondingly modified HTML pages, or employing a Java application with matching XML/SOAP communication developed for the handheld device. In this way, every function available as an SAP functional building block can easily be transferred to the handheld device, to the extent that the display size makes this worthwhile.
Applications
Die range of possible application is almost unlimited . Everywhere where employees on the move need access to internal data, an appropriate application is possible.

  • Thus, for example, sales representatives on-site with the client can check inventories, delivery statistics or payments; customer service has access to service contracts, service histories and address information, etc. The illustration below shows the example of a midlet which, following article number entry, obtains inventory and sales designation of the materials master--all in a fraction of a second.
  • Moreover, in combination with SAP Business Warehouse, management information systems can be envisaged which inform management of the exact business situation regardless of time and place. In addition, push technology makes possible automated, rule-based alerting, for example if SAP BW indicators exceed predefined limits (see also press report on implementation at VEKA AG).
  • For system administrators, the combination of alerting by push and access to additional system information offers optimal prerequisites for rapid reaction to unexpected operating conditions, and thus go far beyond mere notification.

Mobile data with BlackBerry

Research in Motion's (RIM) Blackberry is not just another PDA. At the core of the BlackBerry design is the Enterprise Server, which is installed on the company's LAN and takes on the entire administration and communication to the mobile devices. Whether incoming emails, new appointments in the calendar, modified authorizations or new software--everything is distributed to the BlackBerries in encrypted form. You thus virtually become a component of the local network. The technical basis for this is provided by the GPRS network, which, with transmission rates of around 50 KB/s and volume-based pricing, allows attractive applications both from a technical and an economic standpoint. In Germany, T-Mobil, Vodafone and O2all now offer BlackBerry mobile devices; with roaming, use is possible practically worldwide.

Web

Web pages adapted to the BlackBerry are created using UNIORG products, or with what's available from SAP, e.g., the SAP Web Application Server. With the BlackBerry's integrated web browser, the user then has direct access--password-protected, if desired--to any data or applications, whether inventory queries, delivery statistics, materials master data or analyses from the Business Warehouse. Web-based integration offers the advantage of capability to exchange data in real time and providing an immediate confirmation from the SAP system; moreover, existing Web-applications can be reused, within certain limits. For example, the screenshot at right displays the analysis of an SAP Business Warehouse.

Midlets

Another alternative is the development of midlets. Midlets are small Java applications which are installed on the BlackBerry via the Enterprise Server and are executed directly on the remote device. They can establish network-based contact to other systems (e.g., to SAP systems), though they don't have to. Thus, for example, applications can be created which also work off-line without an available GPRS network and only later synchronize their data.