Mobile maintenance gets boost from new architectures

Mobile applications for plant-floor tasks such as equipment maintenance aren't new, but advances in vendor architecture are making them simpler to bring to market, according to at least one vendor. Enterprise asset management (EAM) software vendor Datastream Systems says Java programming that follows a service-oriented architecture (SOA) is the foundation for its latest set of mobile applications.

EAM software handles plant asset management processes, from planning and scheduling equipment maintenance to tracking and procuring inventory for repair and facility supplies. Houghton LeRoy, a research director with Dedham, Mass.-based analyst firm ARC Advisory Group, says EAM is well-suited to mobile because "it's a task-oriented system in which much of the work is scheduled at a main location, but performed in the field or within a highly distributed facility."

Several EAM vendors have built mobile applications over the years, says LeRoy. Most partnered with mobile solution partners such as Blue Dot, Syclo, and TelisPark, whose contributions range from offering tool sets to EAM vendors, to turnkey offerings with pre-packaged software.

Marty Osborn, a VP with Datastream, says that architecture of the 7i EAM system—based on Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) programming—enables development of a new generation of mobile applications that requires no third-party software. Introduced earlier this year, Datastream 7i Mobile communicates with the main EAM functionality via Web services calls.

"The beauty of J2EE is that it separates the business layer of an application from the presentation layer," says Osborn. "You can write the front-end with any tool. As far as the back-end business logic is concerned, it doesn't know if the call it's receiving is from a full-blown graphical user interface or a hand held."

This separation of logic from presentation makes it easy for users and integrators to add extensions written in languages such as Microsoft Visual Basic, says Osborn. To develop the main set of mobile apps for Pocket PC-based handhelds, Datastream developers used .NET tools. To develop mobile apps for phones, Datastream developers used Java.

It is still desirable, says Osborn, to streamline the user interface from what is commonly found on a full EAM client. "You never want to be more than two clicks away from the information you need," he says.

LeRoy concurs that mobile workflows and user interfaces should be simple and prompt-oriented. He is less sure about the extent to which users care about the programming used to develop mobile apps, but concedes an SOA that does away with gateways simplifies things for the vendor.

For users, says LeRoy, the benefit is mobile EAM itself. ARC estimates that mobile EAM can reduce the cost of delivering maintenance from 20 percent to 25 percent due to less travel, less data entry, real-time access to needed data, and other efficiencies.