OATSystems delivers value-based, RFID solutions by combining RFID business expertise along with their market-leading RFID Framework – the OAT Foundation Suite. OATSystems has over half a decade of experience working with nearly 100 leading companies on real-world, RFID deployments. This has provided them with a unique perspective on which business processes most lend themselves to meaningful improvement through RFID, and a detailed technical capability to deliver.

 

 

 

RFID is a radical technology, wherein small low-cost chips are attached to any object that needs to be tracked. Each chip has a unique identifier, and with the help of RFID readers, this chip can be traced continuously and information about its location, status, temperature etc. can be communicated back to the information systems.

 

OATSystems specializes in using RFID technology for the purposes of manufacturing and supply chain: to track items as they come and go from a warehouse, or as they go from a warehouse to a retail store outlet etc. What this means from a software standpoint, is that tremendous amounts of data needs to be processed, stored and displayed to users. Millions of RFID chips can be tracked across thousands of readers resulting in a continuous stream of high-density information flow to the information systems.

 

The particular challenge that OATSystems was looking to address was that of creating a more friendly way to display the voluminous amounts of data to end-users. The web-based software had been designed as a simple HTML interface, and they intended to leverage AJAX to improve the data representation.

 

They selected Inkriti because of its expertise in building AJAX and Flex based applications. In addition, Inkriti has an excellent record of working with software firms, and delivering high quality work.

 

“We selected Inkriti because of their expertise in Web 2.0 technologies, and their global delivery model. This was a unique combination that offered us very competitive pricing while deploying cutting edge technologies.” explained Raman Sud, VP of Engineering for OATSystems. “Inkriti helped us jump in on this unique, game changing marketing opportunity.”

 

 

Inkriti meticulously studied the existing system and identified the problem areas by remotely accessing their bug-tracking system. First step was to deliver OATS with AJAX-based widgets that work on several time-based events. Subsequently, we used highly customizable methods to develop multi-form based expressions and created a unique AJAX based mechanism wherein the data gets automatically refreshed on cross browser/multi-connections. Finally, there were many maintenance related problems that was earlier developed in Java that hindered the system from providing its optimum performance and these were also completely resolved using cross-browser capabilities of AJAX.

 

This project was executed completely in an offshore model wherein a team of experienced AJAX developers conferred closely with OATS onsite team to fulfill this work within the expected timeframe

 

The OATExpress software install provides the deployment of scenarios that can be found in a warehouse. Some example scenarios are listed in the snapshot below :-

 

 

The scenarios after deployed can be updated by users on different machines running on different browsers and data is updated by an automatic AJAX mechanism instantaneously for all open sessions. A graphical representation how this feature – Pallet Building – is shown below:

 

In this scenario, the attributes has to refresh whenever data within this scenario (pallet building) changes. A refresh mechanism was required to be incorporated to display it across browsers (IE, FireFox etc) and also across different machines – All open scenarios in different machines have to refresh automatically whenever data is modified in other machines

 

Inkriti deployed an AJAX toolkit – dojo - to implement the refresh mechanism across browsers and machines. The page was changed to use the dojo toolkit and a refresh mechanism was built to refresh just that part of the page where the floor UI is shown. The XMLHTTPRequest API of AJAX is abstract in dojo and this was utilized to build the refresh mechanism across-browser functionality. Inkriti executed these changes using AJAX toolkit seamless across all OATExpress scenarios.

 

A new report called ‘Asset Timeline Report’ was released for the Chevron version of OATExpress. The timelines associated with selected asset(s) needed to be shown and OAT wanted to build something where the timelines for multiple events associated with the asset(s) could be shown simultaneously.

 

The Simile Timeline project (http://simile.mit.edu/timeline/) was chosen to display these time-based events.

 

Inkriti worked with OAT to implement features of timeline AJAX widget for Asset Timeline Report. The timeline is shown based on the xml data passed to the widget from server for the asset(s) selected. The timeline AJAX widget supports “zoom & scaling functionality”.

 

Inkriti added custom code to zoom and scale simultaneously on click of radio button without refreshing the page. Inkriti also incorporated the bubble illustrating the details for the event across browsers.

 

Shown below is an example for a single “tag’ or “asset” and its status at different locations during a varied timeframes. Upon mouse-over a detailed information pops up for that asset at each timeline.

 

 

After above implementations, OATSystems have completely resolved the performance and load related issues of managing high volumes of data along with increasing the overall visual appeal of their application translating to the following:-

 

 

We are extremely happy with the results, “adds Raman. “ Inkriti has delivered a solution exactly meeting our expectations. Their expertise in Web 2.0 solutions along with global delivery model ensured us attractive results for our investment in Web 2.0.”