Oct/Nov 2006

Middleware is no longer just a background resource in the mobile market; it is also finding a new role in extending the range of what you can mobilise. Sharon Clancy explains

Middleware has played an important role in the development of robust, reliable mobile data solutions. Now managers are realising that they could achieve more if they could handle more data with middleware applications; and thanks the latest developments in middleware and data integration that is becoming achievable.

There is a strong belief among sellers that evolution of mobile applications has to be more dynamic than traditionally happens at corporate level, because mobile working is changing fast. Managers, not IT directors, are best-placed to identify process changes that can improve productivity. That's one reason all the latest middleware and data integration specialists place so much emphasis on dynamic systems that allow you to remove, change and update applications and devices that have already been deployed.

Middleware companies are simplifying their products to make deployments easier and to enable user-companies to respond and adapt mobile applications to changes in the business without incurring high costs or excessive delays.

 

"People are realising that the more data they can push out to mobile workers, the more productive those workers will be," says Bob Apollo of Dexterra. "Getting data from a raft of sources to a mobile device is complicated, but it mustn't look complicated to the mobile worker. Service-orientated architecture in middleware applications makes this possible."

SOA creates an environment where you can break down the IT into a series of components, he explains. Rather than being monolithic, applications become discrete services which can be used alone or combined into a unique form.

Composite applications pull SOA components into an integrated solution. However, Apollo warns against imposing an SOA on old-style monolith hardware. "If you do that, not all the benefits will not be realised."

SOA platforms benefits include speed of development and deployment and lack of disruption to existing corporate applications. There is no need to upgrade those established applications which run quite happily within the corporate walls. An SOA can also integrate with data from Web sites, allowing mobile workers to import data from Web services.

Data management

Getting that data out to workers can entail getting it from several corporate sources. "A key function of middleware is to ensure the data is pushed out to a mobile device and that it is sent back, "says Jason Airey, managing director of CMS Global Solutions, the tracking and data integration specialist.

Airey says data effectively falls into one of two categories, regardless of the business sector the user is operating in. The first category is immediate, real-time communications: "do-this-job-next" sort of thing. The second category is the province of "push" technology: it's where the requirement is to push a list of scheduled tasks out to users, which may also include data on parts lists and job information.

CMS says its open wireless platform (OWP) approach means that its servers do not care where the data is coming from. The server runs the middleware and applications, whether that is tracking, push email or other applications. "The key is to minimise the data package going to the mobile device," says Airey.

CMS says middleware also plays an important role in maximising the benefits of vehicle tracking. Tracking providers now routinely offer extra features including security monitoring, door opening monitoring, temperature sensing and operation of ancillary equipment such as gritters, and they have realised that the need middleware to enhance their applications.

Middleware also has a role to play in communications management. "Whenever the device goes out of signal range and logs back on, the IP address can change. That can cause costs to build up because most networks apply a minimum data charge for each packet. So although the device might appear to be connected throughout the day, this is not necessarily the case."

"Today it is all about session management," says Martin Kendrick, managing director of Brand Communications. "Just enabling the data to be sent and received is not sufficient any longer. Store-and-forward services may be satisfactory for some operations, but for mission-critical tasks, companies are demanding more. Gas engineers on emergency call-out, for example, need to receive messages in real time."

Kendrick says one advantage of session management is that the mobile device is connected at all times and behaves in exactly the same way as an office PC connected to an internal network.

The company's Apollo Mobility Server Lite solution incorporates a protocol that allows the software to recover automatically from lost or broken calls. It eliminates re-logging on or re-setting, and re-establishes the session seamlessly where it left off. It should be transparent to the user. In this situation the solution maintains the same IP address, so no new connection is needed.

Session management technology also ensures only user data is transmitted, suppressing any other network traffic automatically. Brand also compresses the data before applying the VPN, so offering significant savings in time and costs by faster throughput.

"Even with Internet-based data communications, systems are secure because companies like ours are managing each session," Kendrick says.

Self-improvement

As deployments grow larger, so management challenges are changing. The task is no longer just about data management and reliable communications, but also about remotely updating devices and applications, monitoring the status of the assets and determining how your chosen network is performing.

Monitoring how the device is used will alert you early to any potential problems (with, say, network coverage in a particular area), or will indicate that the worker needs some additional training.

"We are not talking about job data, but data on what is happening to devices out in the field. That data might simply report on the device's location, or might confirm what version of a software application is being run." So says Julie Purves, managing director of B2M, whose mProdigy suite has just been deployed by parcels carrier Lynx Express.

"You do need to know what workers are doing, and you do need resilient and robust data. Knowing how your employees work and how they access the data is critical for building the correct infrastructure."

It is far more reliable to check a mobile device remotely to confirm a worker has rebooted his device, she points out, than to rely on verbal or text message from the worker that he or she has done so. "The nature of deployments is changing from those involving a few hundred workers to those involving thousands. That's a whole different ball game when it comes to management."

GPRS, for example, has reduced the need for mobile workers to return to base to download data; they can now do it remotely. GPRS also opens up the possibility of handling data-heavy downloads to remote devices overnight when there is less network congestion.

Martin Kendrick agrees that post-deployment management is becoming critical. "If you have 11,000 mobile workers in the field, you need to have a strategy to manage updates, locate devices and interrogate them."

Security

Middleware and integrated data services still play a reassuring role in corporate governance, giving companies control in over their assets - whether that be through firewalls, through data and communications encryption or by management of applications and business processes. A company can ensure, for example, through task processing that all its usual corporate procedures and checks are complied with by the mobile worker.

Martin Kendrick says maintaining secure communications will become increasingly important with ever increasing mobile deployments.

More players on the pitch

Middleware companies have had the data management and communications control territory to themselves for many years. However, now they are facing challenges from corporate ERP specialists such as SAP, Siebel and Oracle, and from companies whose background is in managed services.

The ERP vendors have all developed mobile applications for their corporate clients although, say some of the middleware vendors, they tend to go the synchronised route. This means that a lot of the data is synchronised from various sources within corporate database each time the mobile device connects in; and transfers can take a frustratingly long time.

Managed services are also taking over some of the territory traditionally occupied by specialised middleware suppliers. Such resources were originally aimed at companies such as field service organisations who had a conventional paper-based mobile operation but who did not necessarily have the in-house IT expertise to put a wireless solution together. Now managed services companies now offer integrated data and devices management services, and there are various companies offering increasingly appealing products - for example, Cognito with its Activus suite, and Telepartner with ServiceNet.