To extend its current relationship with customers and provide the desired mobile functionality, the team leveraged Telerik® Platform by Progress to extend the Progress® OpenEdge® infrastructure. “We needed to be able to customize the mobile apps based on customer need, for example, if users were in different geographical locations and needed support for different languages,” said Zepeda. “Using Telerik Platform, we didn’t have to worry about that. All we had to worry about was being able to provide the customer with the business process they needed.”
The resulting applications, the Mobile App Foundation and Mobile Metrics, provide end users efficient, easy-to-use solutions. “We’re designing the apps to be fast and efficient for users, and to drive a level of process discipline they’re not normally used to out in the field—to maintain data integrity regardless of their location, so they can make informed decisions,” said James.
Both mobile solutions, Mobile App Foundation enables customers to track and control assets to the end of the supply chain, beyond the distributor’s typical exit point, and Mobile Metrics provides real-time metrics and a visual status of affairs, enabling Power & Tel’s customers to make timely, critical decisions in the field.
Development was aided by JavaScript Data Objects (JSDO), which enable developers to integrate the new application with the OpenEdge backend via REST services. “Our developers saved a great deal of time by taking advantage of the JSDO technologies provided by the Telerik Platform, and integrating it with the OpenEdge infrastructure we already had in place,” said Zepeda. “We were also able to deploy the same application to multiple platforms, because Telerik Platform allows us to code once and deploy to multiple devices, operating systems and web browsers, without rewriting the code.”
Using Kendo UI® by Progress, Power and Tel’s developers were able to provide our customer with different ways of interacting with the application we developed. For example, if users were accessing the app on a mobile device, they might see a drop-down list; but those with access to optical scanners could scan in values instead. “Kendo UI provides tremendous flexibility to our developers,” said Zepeda. “It enables them to code once and provide multiple ways for customers to use the application.”
Finally, the team used Amazon Cloud Services for deployment because it’s scalable and secure. “The OpenEdge ABL code enables us to collect our customers’ information through an application deployed in the Telerik Platform,” said Zepeda. “We then warehouse the customers’ information and replicate it to multiple datacenters for later use in their ERP.