Worldwide Enterprise Software Company – iPad Case Study

Client Profile

The client provides the world’s most complete, open, and integrated business software and hardware systems, with more than 370,000 customers.

The Project

Demonstrate a new unique application on the iPad that will use the client’s Retail Business Intelligence servers and data at their upcoming World Trade Show. The client’s marketing team wanted the application to represent a retail product line review that a buyer would use to manage a product line. It should keep all of the application and data locally on the iPad to eliminate any connectivity issues that could arise at the trade show.

The Solution

OPI jumped in and worked with a design firm to create a visually pleasing web based application that displayed summary views of data through queries and filters during the presentation, while maintaining a native application look and feel. One challenge that existed throughout the whole project was a certain amount of ambiguity around the final content of the views that were to be presented. To overcome this challenge, reviews with the marketing group were done frequently to ensure proper content.  Since the application was web based, the client was able to review them live from their iPads or even desktop Safari rather than incurring the overhead of transmitting and installing native application updates.  This close client communication during a project is one of the keys to OPI’s successful track record in delivering solutions to our clients.

The application was built with JSON data structures which could later be retrieved via online services if desired. For the trade show they were stored locally.

Using the iPad’s interactive graphic display to present business intelligence data totally makes sense. Having a mobile platform that can quickly and powerfully display sales statistics or analysis in an enterprise application gives businesses a lot of power and an edge. The final application created made use of a number of the friendly controls on the iPad to present enterprise intelligence. The tab view control and swiping gestures speeds the user through to the related information around a product. Sorting and filtering of data were done quickly with simple controls.

The successful results of this iPad Application in a short time frame integrated into an enterprise solution shows how OPI’s experience with enterprise applications creates successes for our clients.