Ervin Rhodes, Principal Product Manager for Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, recently spoke about JD Edwards mobility and the options that are available for users.
Enterprise mobility is often regarded as an integral part of digital transformation. Digital business cannot be conducted solely from the confines of a desk. Whether in the warehouse, on the shop floor, or in an airport — employees need to be able to access and process information via a mobile device. Prebuilt mobile applications are not the only way to mobilize users. There are also other ways—low code, simple, agile ways—to bring the power of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne to users when and where they need it.
Overview of JD Edwards Mobility
Mobility has been and continues to be an integral part of any process in simplification and automation. Mobile devices can lead to greater efficiency for JD Edwards customers. By providing users with good applications, JD Edwards replaces data recording items, such as clipboards, to reduce the potential for manual errors. This improves data integrity and business results. JD Edwards has placed focus on its mobile strategy to best support current customer needs and those to come.
JD Edwards currently has 91 mobile out-of-the-box applications for Applications 9.1 and 9.2. These applications were developed with the Mobile Application Framework (MAF). It is important to note that Apps 9.1 will lose standing support in April 2020.
JD Edwards also offers Mobile Everywhere, allowing users to log in via any browser or container, including iPad for mobile. Additionally, JD Edwards leverages Oracle Mobile Hub and Oracle Digital Assistant as mobile platforms wherever possible.
Today, with the apps mentioned, JD Edwards covers many product areas. JD Edwards has included features like barcode scanning, location services, and native device integration for photo-load and phone use.
Other available solutions include:
- Equipment Maintenance
- Field Service
- Purchasing and Expense Approvals
- Order Management
- Health and Safety
- Contact Lookups
- Project Management
- Inventory and Order Inquiries
- Financial Batch Approvals
- Custom Development
The Future of JD Edwards Mobility
As for the future of mobility at JD Edwards, the team will not be developing any additional mobile applications using the Mobile Application Framework (MAF). Because of that, JD Edwards is advocating two options for customers.
The first option is a browser-based approach. It involves running JD Edwards in a browser or via the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne for iPad (also referred to as the iPad Container). JD Edwards recommends this option due to enhancements made for JD Edwards 9.2. More specifically, JD Edwards encourages the user to leverage User Defined Objects (UDOs) to create layouts that are incredibly user-friendly for tablet users. The use of UDOs such as form personalization, form extension, grid format and Cafe One can provide quick access to JDE on mobile devices.
When you run JD Edwards in a browser on a tablet, the appearance of the JD Edwards client is the same as the web client application that you would see at a desktop. It consists of drill-down menus and everything else customers are accustomed to seeing on a desktop. On the iPad Container, however, there are touchscreen gestures in lieu of drill-down menus. There are also a few minor navigation differences to best serve the tablet user.
The iPad Container is a quick option for getting started with your mobile program. You can easily create your own formats. When you log in to the application through the Jazz server, E1 pages, watchlists, etc., are immediately available to you. Because of the personalization potential, you can maximize the use of your screen. This is only available on the Apple Store as iOS. As drill-down menus are not a default option, you will need to configure menus through your favorites.
This image below is one possible view of the iPad Container, featuring the Alert, Analyze, Act paradigm.
The second option is for customers to build their own mobile applications. JD Edwards advocates an open mobile strategy where customers have the choice of front-end tools and orchestrations to communicate with JD Edwards. As long as the tool can create REST API calls, data can be passed to and from JD Edwards. The greatest benefit is that orchestrations become part of your UDO lifecycle management and belong to you. If you decide to change your front-end development tool at a later date, you will retain your own UDOs, which support your mobile strategy.
The image below illustrates the potential of self-built mobile applications.
Edward Chatbot
With Oracle Digital Assistant, which is an intelligent bot, JD Edwards can further support mobile applications. Tapping the chat bubble launches Edward, the chatbot. Using orchestrations that were set up, Edward fetches the information desired and responds to commands. An example of a conversation is displayed below.
What’s Next
JD Edwards is working on three sample mobile applications for the calendar year 2020:
- PO Approval
- Customers Search
- Inventory Availability
The image below shows sample mobile apps that will target these features and capabilities.
Conclusion
Mobility continues to be an integral component of process simplification. JD Edwards’ vision for mobile moving forward is to advocate browser-based options and your choice of front-end development tools and orchestrations. The plan is to provide mobile samples to help users get started creating their own applications.