C1 Mobile - Technical

		C1 Mobile Technical Features C1 Mobile is Australia's first locally designed and built fleet integration solution.  It builds on more than a decade of enterprise ecommerce and database technology research and development to bring together elements of turn by turn vehicle navigation, vehicle tracking, job despatch, field service management, and team communications. Combine this with a powerfully easy-to-use interface that can be driven via finger or voice command and you have a business tool that is second to none.

RELEASE DOCUMENTATION

C1 Mobile is the first navigation-centric and standards-based mobility platform designed for Windows XP Tablet and Windows Mobile 5 - Incorporating push messaging for field force (FF) despatch, messaging and staff management.  Tightly integrated with navigation and supported by most Windows Mobile Devices on the market, the XML-based architecture provides and extensible platform for custom despatch and field force management applications for Australian SME businesses.

Synopsis

• C1 Mobile is aimed predominantly at small to medium businesses that do not have a dedicated IT person or team to oversee the development and deployment of mobility solutions. C1 Mobile differentiates from the competition by being designed with this in mind.

• The system is two things, an "engine" over which mobile applications can be built (by either C1 or customer), and a marketable tracking / dispatch app ready out of the box to suite business needs. In this approach, the app takes advantage of the platform in the same way that custom apps will in the future.

Why C1 Mobile ?

• C1 have kept the following points in mind throughout the design of C1 Mobile:

• The system and its processes / data should mould into the business process, not the other way around.
• The data types / entities should be derived from the existing business data structures used by the client - not something that the business has been forced to adopt.
• The application processes should be derived from the existing business processes, new processes should not be forced onto a client, as they represent a barrier to purchase.

• The four building blocks of C1 Mobile are central to its focus and success in the marketplace. Integrated Job Despatch / Field Force Tracking, Strong Field Force team collaboration, Customisable applications built on core engine / protocols, running on Microsoft Server and Mobile platforms.

• Several ways C1 Mobile achieves this (what we can offer that our competition currently doesn't):

• Designed to be hosted by C1 or a third party
• Designed to run many application "sandboxes" from different businesses (as would be done in a hosted environment)
• Designed without the assumption that there is a back end system to extend to the field. (The client may have no back end infrastructure - merely an office desktop with excel / access / MYOB or some other accounting package).
• Designed with a distributed, service oriented architecture in mind.

Product Features

• Push job notification
• Instant messaging from server to device, device to server, and device to device

• Over The Air provisioning of applications / configuration

• Hosting of multiple applications on server

• Running of multiple applications on mobile device

• Optional destination tracking / navigation on client device
• Optional team tracking on server side.
• Web interface for server administration
• Application specific web interfaces for “office side” business functions
• Zero infrastructure deployment and maintenance – all you need are the ( connected ) devices themselves to get up and running .

Product Advantages

• Cheap to deploy and maintain – no necessary upfront cost to your business.
• Watertight security – absolutely no incoming connections to your network. All connections are outgoing (similar to the way your web browser works).
• Instant “push” messaging for fast, efficient job delivery to persons in the field
• Works efficiently with teams of all sizes
• End to end security for all transactions
• Easy to use and administer
• Low maintenance / upgrade cost as business needs change

C1 Mobile - How it works

Goals

• Secure
• Efficient
• Extensible
• Reliable

The solution is very robust in that it requires no infrastructure on the client side or even on the application server side. All public identity and firewall issues are taken care of on the messaging server side, and even in that case, the only port that need be opened is the HTTP(S) port, since all connections are based on XML web service calls.

This solution can also be scaled to large team environments, since an application server can set up multiple connection “listeners” with the messaging server. If many messages are passing between the application server and the messaging server at once, then the listeners will be set up and terminated concurrently, in their own separate threads. The mobile device, however, will typically only set up a single listener with the messaging server

Application Server

Can be either hosted by C1 or deployed to the company network. The application server platform can host one or more independent applications, providing essential services such as database access, web service connectivity, and interfaces to other systems. The application server sits protected behind the company firewall and does not require any public identity or address. The application server connects to the outside world through the messaging server.

Messaging Server

Can be either hosted by C1 or deployed to the company network. The messaging server acts as a connection broker between the application server and the field application. This absolves both the client and the server from the need for any public identity or persistent address – allowing very cheap deployment for small businesses, and watertight security for larger corporates (there is no need to open any incoming ports in the corporate firewall to accommodate C1 Mobile)

Field Application

Resides on the client's Windows Mobile device. The C1 Mobile field application consists of two parts, the business logic written by either C1 or the client / reseller, and the application platform written by C1. Together they provide a rich application environment allowing field force and sales force staff to not only work more efficiently with the head office, but collaborate with each other to produce results for their clients.

Deploying a C1 Application

Mobile Application Deployment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1) SmartDeviceApplication with a GUI built in Visual Studio.NET and packaged as a DLL file in accordance with supplied C1 Mobile documentation. This can be done either by C1 Consulting, an industry partner or reseller, or even the client themselves.

2) The DLL file is uploaded to the C1 Mobile admin page. The administrator selects the devices or the group of devices that are to receive this update, and instructs C1 Mobile to push the update to the selected users / devices.

3) C1 Mobile wraps the DLL file into an XML message and includes other pertinent information supplied by the administrator, to be self installed on the device. The XML message is prepared and pushed to the C1 Mobile Messaging Server for distribution to the receiving devices.

4) The C1 Mobile Messaging Server notifies the respective client devices of the incoming update, and begins to push the XML message (including the DLL payload) to the device. The device saves the DLL to a cache directory and creates a shortcut so the user can bring up its GUI directly (if the administrator has allowed this).

5) When a job (using this application) is despatched to the device or the user clicks on the shortcut, the C1 Mobile Core software (residing on the device) will load the respective DLL file into memory and run the code within it. In most cases the code will describe an input screen or some other workflow procedure for the field person to perform (this is of course determined by the needs of the client).

Server Application Deployment

1) WindowsApplication built in Visual Studio.NET and packaged as a DLL file in accordance with supplied C1 Mobile documentation. This can be done either by C1 Consulting, an industry partner or reseller, or even the client themselves.

2) The DLL file is uploaded to the C1 Mobile admin page.

3) Once uploaded, the file is placed in a cache directory, and information supplied by the administrator is placed in the database. When the C1 Mobile admin web interface is refreshed, the new application will be displayed and the administrator will be able to start it via the web interface.

4) Once administrator starts application, the C1 Mobile Application server loads the DLL file into memory and runs its code. Normally with will allow office users to despatch jobs or perform other functions (via web form interface) as required by the client.

5) Jobs generated via web forms are processed by the application and passed to the C1 Mobile Application Server. The application server wraps the job requests in XML messages and passes these to the C1 Mobile Messaging Server. The messaging server then distributes the job(s) to the receiving devices.

Product Strategy

Design Roadmap

V1 Incorporates push messaging and support for CE.Net 4.2 and Pocket PC 2003 Devices along with a limited number of Windows Mobile 5 devices.

V2  - Includes support for XP Tablet - (New Platform Release)

C1's new M3 handheld based on CE.Net 5 - With camera, barcoding and RFID solution integration.

C1 Mobile Supported Platforms / Technologies

Messaging Server

• ASP.NET 2.0
• SQL Server 2000 / 2005

Application Server:

• ASP.NET 2.0
• Microsoft .NET 2.0
• Windows XP Professional
• Windows Server 2003
• SQL Server 2000 or 2005

Mobile Device:

• .NET Compact Framework 2.0
• Windows XP (Tablet / Pro) - All core features

Limited feature set available for Windows mobile:

• Windows Mobile (all .NET supported versions)
• Windows CE.NET (all .NET supported versions)
• SQL Server CE