Developing Mobile Order Tracking apps for deployment
across multiple mobile platforms? When designing your app it is important to
keep in mind the differences between order tracking and simple shipment
tracking.
With a shipment tracking app we start with a tracking
number and have a simple question in mind: where’s my package? These apps are
very easy to build because you can simply pass the tracking number to the
shipping company web service as a request and receive back shipment information
from the shipping company web service. For a company like FedEx that ships 9
billion packages per day, there’s a lot of big data integration taking place
behind the scenes of that simple Web Service request, but as the mobile app
developer, you don’t need to worry about that.
As the developer of an order tracking app, you suddenly
have taken on a much more complex task. Order tracking differs from shipment
tracking in the following ways:
Multiple
Shippers. In many
businesses, an order may be shipped by a variety of different carriers. Not
only FedEx, UPS, DHL, USPS and other well known small package delivery
companies, each of which offers Web Services for package delivery and tracking
information, but also other carriers such as CEVA Logistics, DAMCO, and
literally thousands of trucking, common carriers, sea cargo, air cargo, rail, freight
and freight forwarding companies.
Multiple
Shipment Methods. In addition to tracking multiple shippers, an
order being tracked may have a variety of different shipment methods associated
to it. In addition to common designations such as same day, next day, 2-day
air, etc. you may also have alternate methods such as will call, in-store
pickup, download, digital delivery, license keys and hold for further
instructions.
Order
Information. In a simple shipment tracking app, all you
have is the tracking number and perhaps weight and dimensional information. You
don’t necessarily have any information about the order itself: quantity, item
number, name, description, price, etc. An order tracking app will typically
have all of this information available as well. From an app design standpoint
this becomes problematic because you obviously don’t have the screen real
estate for all of this information. So even though your app spans a broader
range of related information regarding the order information, you’ll want that
information on a separate tab.
Multiple
Orders and Order Status. Since you may be tracking multiple
orders, you’ll want an easy way to find and display orders, usually by order
number, date, or keyword search. The home screen for an order tracking app may
indeed be a list of order numbers with most recent open orders first and oldest
delivered orders last. Color or bold text on the order number can be used to
clearly identify open orders versus closed orders. Partial order logic will
need to be considered as well as this is a common scenario in many businesses.
Payment
Information. Another tab to track payments related to
orders may be desirable as well. As payment methods will vary, so will payment
status and the way that payments are applied.
In some businesses, payment methods may fail after an order has placed.
Such as a delayed credit card rejection. In these scenarios, you may want to
highlight these orders that need payment attention on the home screen and also
provide mechanism to the customer and/or salesperson to cancel orders in
accordance with your business rules. When customers have terms and make
payments after the fact, credit status may affect the status of an order. For
example, an order may be accepted but not processed until a payment is made to
return the credit status to normal. This is common in many industries and may
need to be accommodated in your app as a business rule.
Salesperson’s
Tools. Salespeople and sales management may also need mobile
order tracking apps, since they deal with multiple customers, they may need to
have an ability to see orders in a variety of ways: by date, by product or
product type, by customer, by salesperson, etc. From the home screen, the
salesperson or sales manager should be able to apply filters so that they see
only such orders. User rights for salespeople, sales managers, warehouse and
logistics personnel and customers will all vary. Keep role based rights and
security in mind when creating your app.
Summary. In
summary, an order tracking app will begin with a home screen that allows the
user, based on rights, to see relevant orders. Drilling down on an order will
normally display the shipment status on the tracking information tab along with
the desired shipment tracking details. If information on the order details is
desired, clicking on the order number in a shipment status tab will open the
order tab containing order details, clicking on the order amount can display
the payment/credit status information. Here again, color coding the payment
amount green, red, etc. can help identify payment status at a glance without
the need to click on the amount to open the tab. Depending on your business
rules and user desires, a mobile order tracking app can be developed with any
number of options. Fortunately, the Magic xpa Application Platform makes the
creation of these apps straightforward and allows you to deploy them across multiplemobile OS including iOS, BlackBerry and Android. Then the Magic xpi IntegrationPlatform can handle back-end enterprise integration to shippers’ Web Services and your own
ERP system for up-to-date information.
