Information related to a business, its customers, its competitors, and the like, is commonly referred to as “enterprise data” and can be used by the business for a variety of purposes. For example, enterprise resource planning (ERP) utilizes enterprise data to implement business functions such as manufacturing, supply chain management, financials, projects, human resources and customer relationship management (CRM). Enterprise data may also be used for product lifecycle management (PLM) to help manufacturers with product-related information. As a further example, enterprise data may be used for supply chain management (SCM) and supplier relationship management (SRM) functions.
Conventional software packages for providing access to enterprise data generally require significant storage and processing resources, and thus, are generally run on desktop computer systems, server computer systems, or the like. The computer system running the conventional software package may generate a query for specific enterprise data and send the query to a system able to access the enterprise data. Once data is received from the system, it may be processed by the computer system running the conventional software package and presented to the user of the computer system.
Although enterprise data may be accessed using conventional software packages, the ability to access the enterprise data from remote locations or on the go is limited since the computer systems able to run the conventional software packages cannot be easily transported. Additionally, conventional software packages generally cannot be run on portable electronic devices such as smartphones or personal digital assistants (PDAs). Further, conventional portable electronic devices typically lack the storage and processing resources to adequately store and process the enterprise data. Thus, access to enterprise data is limited using conventional solutions.
Some portable devices allow limited access to resident enterprise applications that run on the portable device. However, these portable devices limit communication between multiple enterprise applications. Unfortunately, enterprise solutions often require multiple enterprise applications to talk to one another to obtain information, etc. As such, portable devices that restrict or prevent communication between enterprise applications offer a poor platform choice for enterprise applications.