Many companies find that their ability to improve performance is limited by the user interface design of their enterprise applications in the warehouse. Often these applications are not necessarily designed for mobile devices and may present redundant and/or unnecessary screens and content. A result of these complicated user interface elements is end user confusion and delays in the business process flow. Though application upgrades are sometimes possible, these upgrades often result in additional costs and application performance degradation. An alternative solution for simplifying and streamlining the mobile user experience is to intercept application screens and optimize them for mobile devices.
How StayLinked screen recognition and reformatting streamlines the business process.
When an enterprise application displays an application screen, the telnet Server sends ‘screen update’ instructions to the telnet client. In the StayLinked Telnet Client, these ‘screen update’ instructions are evaluated and converted into a specific type of ‘Application Screen Presentation Event’. These screen presentation events trigger the display of screens previously reformatted using the StayLinked Screen Designer tool. The screen reformatting process allows screens elements to be removed, enhanced, or relocated to make the screens easier to read and process. These reformatted screens are automatically sent to the mobile device in place of the original, more complex screens. The screen substitution is executed on the Staylinked server, so there is no time consuming screen translation required on the mobile device. It is also important to note that thought the end user will see new, user-friendly screens there have been no changes to the original host-based application.
Screen recognition can also be used to trigger other actions related to scanner, screen, keyboard and audio controls. Screen recognition can also automate functions that traditionally have required screen navigation and end user to device interaction.
By displaying only the information that is important to the end user and automating application functions Staylinked decreases errors, saves time, and increases productivity in applications that historically have been inflexible and complicated for the end user.
Examples of uses for StayLinked Screen Recognition and Reformatting.
- When a ‘Logon’ screen is recognized the first time, an auto-response will automatically log on to the host without displaying the ‘Logon’ screen to the user. If the ‘Logon’ screen is recognized a second time, the Stay-Linked Session will be automatically terminated.
- When an Application Login screen is recognized capture the user ID typed into the username field and display it the StayLinked Administrator Connections list. Help desk can now identify sessions by user instead of by device values (MAC address, IP Address, Asset tag, etc.)
- When the 5250 Sign On Screen is recognized, capture the ‘Device Description’ from the screen and update the ‘Device Name’ column in the Stay-Linked Administrator ‘Connections List‘ to help identify devices.
- When a screen is recognized displaying a specific error message at a specific location, capture the error message from the screen, shut down the scanner laser, beep 4 times and pop-up the error message on the device screen. Reactivate the scanner after the error message has been acknowledged.
- When the 5250 Sign On Screen is recognized, reformat that screen to fit on a device that is displaying only 21 columns and 16 rows, and provide just the ‘User’ and ‘Password’ input fields, hiding the other un-needed input fields.
- When a specific screen is recognized, change the way scanner input is handled and add a special prefix to the barcode data only for this particular data collection screen.
- When a specific screen is recognized, change the way keyboard input is handled and force upper-case characters for all input for this particular data collection screen.
These and other uses of StayLinked Screen Recognition and Reformatting—included at no additional cost with the purchase of StayLinked terminal emulation licenses—maximizes workflow, which benefits both the end user and the enterprise. Do you experience this chronic warehouse productivity killer?
