Advanced Mobile Applications for Business – Behind the Scenes

Recently, our company was featured in a business magazine for some of our work on mobile applications.  I had the privilege to speak at an event to discuss the article in more detail in front of a sold-out crowd.  After my speech, many people had new ideas and questions regarding mobile applications in the context of their business.  I wanted to clarify a few things about mobile application considerations for your business in this blog.

I first want to discuss SOA – Service Oriented Architecture.  This is probably not something you have heard in the context of mobile applications.  However, this is a key component to a mobile application for a serious business.  SOA is a software architecture that is developed to hold functionality for your business.  This functionality can then be leveraged by a mobile device.  SOA is not just for mobile devices, but I will focus on SOA in the context of mobile applications in this article.  Let’s say you have an inventory management system.  This system has been a part of your business for some time, but you would like to leverage some of those inventory functions on a mobile application.  How do you get that inventory information from your existing systems to a mobile app?  The answer is SOA.

The SOA “layer” can sit between the mobile application and your existing business software systems.  It will act as a interpreter and transmitter of information to and from the mobile application and your business systems; in this example, your inventory system.  SOA acts as an interpreter because your inventory system does not know how to “speak” to a mobile application.  Your mobile application does not know how to “speak” to your inventory system.  The SOA layer is designed to facilitate this interpretation and to send requests from the mobile application to the inventory system and vice-versa.

The benefits of SOA go far beyond mobile applications.  Any core business functions can be extrapolated from existing systems and “wrapped” into a service.  The name Service Oriented Architecture means that your business functions can be created to act as a “service” – a function that can be used by other business functions, devices and interfaces.  You can connect a website, smart-phone app, tablet app and even other systems to the SOA.  This allows communication between systems and devices and fosters greater efficiency for business processes.  If you would like more information on SOA contact eSavV Technologies at 888-316-6303 or email us at operations@eSavV.com.

About the author:

Michael Croft is President and CEO of eSavV Technologies and has 14 years professional experience in the software and computer science industry.  He holds a B.S. in computer science and is a certified software solutions architect and has been a business analyst, technical liaison, software engineer, team lead and mentor to organizations of all sizes.  He is a technology consultant to United Nations affiliates and is currently attending Harvard University for his MBA.

eSavV Technologies

www.eSavV.com

888-316-6303

operations@eSavV.com

640 George Washington Highway, Lincoln, RI 02865