TECHNOLOGY

Enterprise Mobility Platform

Retriever has developed its Enterprise Mobility Platform over the last 20 years to support mission-critical business applications for our customers.  We take reliability and data integrity very seriously.

Integration

To get the most benefit out of a mobility solution it should be integrated into your corporate systems. Retriever has integrated with hundreds of backend systems over the years varying from the well known ERPs like SAP to CRM, Asset management, GIS, payroll systems and many others including many in-house built ones.  Retriever Products can easily integrate into one or more Corporate Systems at the same time.

The Retriever Field Service Product has a standard Application Program Interface (API) which simplifies integration.

Enterprise Mobility Platform Architecture

Optional Middleware

For Enterprises that already have a chosen Middleware in-place (e.g. BizTalk, JBoss, MuleSoft), Retriever can integrate with that using standard protocols. If your Enterprise doesn’t have a middleware product or doesn’t want to use it, then Retriever can integrate directly to one or more of your corporate systems using the protocols that these systems support.

Tools

Retriever Formbuilder allows business users to define the data that needs to be captured at different stages of the workflow in the field. The forms can be easily changed over time and updates can pushed out to field workers over-the-air without any application change or user intervention.

Retriever’s Application Development Environment (ADE) tool allows the Retriever team to quickly develop fully cross-platform applications that run on our K9 runtime on Android, iOS and Windows.

Enterprise Mobility Platform Data Centre

Mobile Application Server

The Mobile Application Server encompasses a number of important modules:

  • Management Console – allows configuration of the system, provides visibility into the data flow through the system and is an essential tool for troubleshooting issues
  • Integration Connectors – supports a number of different protocols including WebServices, HTTP and FTP
  • Reporting – reports can be generated (e.g. on work completion) and distributed via emails or integration
  • Schedule – allows back-office staff to view real-time Field Worker and Job status
  • Forms – allows the over-the-air publishing of Forms to field users
  • Identity Management – controls access to the mobile application server

Field data capture is decoupled from the corporate systems. Integration is decoupled from the field synchronisation with the Mobile Application Server. This means that your field technicians can continue to work unaffected even if there are problems connecting to the corporate systems.

Mobile App & K9 Runtime

The mobile application provides a mobile extension to the corporate systems allowing the Field Workers to work with data remotely. It is specifically designed to work in an occasionally connected mode allowing for imperfections in the mobile networks. The mobile application communicates with the Mobile Application Server using the Retriever synchronisation protocol. Mobile applications are not limited by device and can operate on Windows, iOS and Android.

Retriever’s security module ensures that only authorised users have access to the Mobile Application Server. HTTPS is used to ensure security of data transfer.

The K9 runtime handles:

  • executing the compiled business logic
  • the data persistence to the offline database
  • reliable and secure background synchronisation