Great flexibility is strategically important – business is no longer tied to a single location. Enterprise mobility applications continue to grow in value as managers see higher productivity for all workers, increased velocity of investment in raw materials and an increase in the accuracy and relevance of the real-time data they need to make better business decisions.

Companies have also garnered significant savings from utilizing wireless technology as demonstrated by total cost of ownership (TCO), return on investment (ROI) and internal rate of return (IRR).

MEE, or Mobile Extensions for ERP, is a powerful suite of integration options that enables you to effectively interface your ERP environment to your Blackberry or other mobile devices. This mobile application extends ERP functionalities unto the mobile device to boost operational efficiencies and productivity while giving real-time access to point-of-business information.

MEE’s flexible workflow engine allows ERP users to view, perform, and approve workflow items and requests via Blackberry and Windows Mobile and soon, S60, Android, and iPhone platforms. MEE’s flexibility allows it to be integrated with the most popular types of ERP such as SAP, Microsoft and Oracle. Emphasis is on simplicity, flexibility and rich functionality – it can be rapidly deployed and configured via a web-based tool – fields can be mapped dynamically to the fields of the backend ERP system.

MEE provides the information needed for users to process transactions.

Purchasing (Materials Management) Purchase Request Approvals Purchase Order Approvals	Sales (Sales and Distribution) Sales Order Approvals Credit On-Hold Override
Human Resources Overtime Request Leave Request	Financials Invoice Approvals Payment Approvals

Some ERP Systems have workflow capabilities that are too complex or costly to configure – or they do not have workflow capabilities at all. MEE’s flexible workflow engine allows non-technical users to configure suitable workflows and business rules that are best fit to their own scenario. Users are able to view, perform, and approve workflow items and requests in real time.

Leveraging on Blackberry’s push technology via the Blackberry Enterprise Server, transactions or notifications coming from a back-end ERP system are pushed real-time to the Blackberry device of the intended user / recipient. This allows for faster turnaround of workflow – the transaction for review is delivered directly to the user’s device and the user can act instantly, wherever he may be. Embedded security features are provided (via the Blackberry Enterprise Server) such as end-to-end Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) or Triple Data Encryption Standard (Triple DES) encryption to ensure the confidentiality of information sent from the Blackberry Enterprise Server to the Blackberry device.

The heart of the whole MEE system, the MEE backend, acts as the central dispatcher and workflow engine of the transactions between the ERP and the handset. It is designed under an Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) framework wherein MEE acts as the middleware to enable the integration of not just only ERP systems but other collaborative software as well. It is loosely coupled with different types of ERP systems such as SAP ERP, MS Dynamics AX, Oracle and SAP Business One. Furthermore, integration with ERP solutions is relatively simple – it can be configured (via a web-based tool) and fields can be mapped dynamically to the fields of the backend ERP system.

MEE’s Administration Portal – a web based tool which enables MEE to be configured according to an organization’s specific requirements. Workflow settings can be defined according to set business rules. Users can be assigned a role and a device. Transaction listing and status reports are available. Mapping of fields to a specific ERP backend can be performed. Localization settings can be carried out.

MEE helps organizations save on ERP software access licenses or CALs. For a manager to be able to approve, reject or view transactions within an ERP system, a license must be acquired to access the system. MEE takes out approvals from the ERP system thus eliminating the need to purchase costly additional licenses.