Finding Android Apps For Supply Chain

Tech Stack for supply chain operations

When deploying android mobile devices into supply chain operations, it can be difficult to find applications to run on those devices that actually enhance operations. By this we mean real applications that take advantage of the mobile computer power, and are not just a browser, or front-end screen to log into an enterprise app. Due to the relative size of the Android applications compared to the rest of the supply chain infrastructure, understanding what options to deploy on these devices can be difficult to ascertain. Oftentimes, excellent architectural solutions remain unknown simply due to a lack of focus on the mobile endpoint options. More commonly, gaps in technical requirements, (like single-sign-on on the device or device loss mitigation), are not noted until AFTER the rest of the solution is deployed, and then a scramble occurs to fill these gaps late. Let's consider this a bit further.

The Tech Stack

When supply chain customers are researching options for their technology infrastructure, they typically look at the following categories:

• Hardware

• Barcode scanners, point-of-sale (POS) devices, tablets, smart phones, etc.

• The enterprise application

• ERM, CRM, etc

• This includes SAP, Oracle, Manhattan Assoc., and increasingly MicroSoft and Google, etc. These are the enterprise systems that customers use to run their operations globally.

• Bolt-on applications

• These include things like frontline worker applications, manufacturing operations apps, SAP forms, or other more specialized applications that "bolt-on" to the enterprise applications to provide customized operations.

• (And finally!), Mobile applications

• These are applications that run on the Android, (or other), mobile client. These provide an additional layer of functionality that is not usually addressed by any of the infrastructure pieces listed above. They can include launchers, user profile management, device analytics, and a host of other lesser explored functions.

The Challenge

Given the relative investment for each of the pieces list above, it's easy to see why options for mobile endpoint software can get lost in the shuffle. When a company decides they need single-sign-on (SSO) or even device management (MDM) as part of their mobile solution, it's easy to get blinded by offerings at the enterprise or bolt-on application layer, or even the hardware layer. But that may not be the best place to deploy that part of the solution. And, it means customers might be missing out on other options by utilizing the compute power of the mobile endpoints.

There are many applications that can be deployed on the mobile devices themselves, and this can present a more robust and efficient solution. From an architecture perspective, it means thinking in terms of a distributed solution, (an application running on every handheld device), versus attempting to solve the requirement from an enterprise source that must be connected to every device to be utilized. It's a many-to-many, versus a one-to-many perspective.

When considering infrastructure investments for mobile supply chain assets, it bears taking the time to consider what parts of the architecture could be run autonomously on the mobile devices themselves. There is a lot of Android computing power available on all those mobile devices that could be put to more productive use than just logging into the enterprise or bolt-on layers of the tech stack.