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It was inevitable that these three IT trends were going to conjoin at some point: the industrial internet of things (IIoT), the user experience (UX) on mobile devices and no-code development. After all, users of software in any genre want to have a fruitful experience, or else why bother?
With this in mind, Los Angeles-based Webalo, which makes a consumer-type UX platform and has now aimed it at use cases in the industrial internet, has launched version 4.0 of its no-code app-generation platform, and it pivots the entire company into a new realm.
The company made the announcement Oct. 25 at GE’s Minds + Machines conference in San Francisco.
Designed as a productivity tool for obtaining and digesting industrial and enterprise data, Webalo 4.0 features patented technology that gives enterprise users the ability to quickly and automatically generate dynamic desktop and mobile persona-based apps using wizards and drop-down menus.
Business Users Can Adjust Apps to Their Needs
No coding is required. That’s the beauty of no- and low-code development; savvy line-of-business users can visualize data and augment, specialize or optimize business software tools and tailor them to their daily business routines. Shortcuts they learn can help save time and money on the company’s bottom line.
“In applying our approach to the industrial internet, we find that all this data being created by large machines costing huge investments in industries—such as aviation, oil and gas, manufacturing, mining, health care and others–needs to be accessed and used by more and more business people with the devices they already have in their pockets,” CEO Peter Price told eWEEK. “They can use their devices for their own purposes, why not use them in the work environment?
“Our customers can simply plug into these different data sources with our three-step process; we generate the visualization across multiple different devices, and at the back end we see a broad range of industrial data sources.”
Webalo 4.0’s user first approach automatically generates and personalizes apps, enabling users to visualize and respond to information through actionable notifications, real-time dashboards and bi-directional workflows that help them make better, more informed decisions and improve their productivity, the company said.
Three-Step Process
In the three-step process, users can securely connect to data, configure the apps and deploy them across their enterprise without the need for advanced software development resources, Price said.
Key highlights of Webalo 4.0 include:
No code, persona-based app experience: Simple connect, configure and deploy process to automatically generate personalized apps that support the specific needs of users’ and empower the workforce in the fastest, most cost-effective way. A new and unique, personalized workspace user experience further enhances the User First focus of Webalo with customized dashboards and cards to help users visualize and act on data in real time.
User-focused data mash-ups: A first-of-its-kind data “mash-up” capability enables users to view and interact with multiple data streams within a single environment. A plant manager, for example, can mash up incoming orders against component inventory and worker schedules to determine which jobs to put into production and then immediately initiate the manufacturing process.
Dynamic data visualization: Automatically generated visualization options that can include KPIs (key performance indicators), interactive charts, formatted tables, map views and a wide range of other widgets to provide user-customizable and actionable dashboards.
Multiple data connectors: Connection to enterprise data such as IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and SAP; GE data, including Predix, APM, BMS and ServiceMax; and other industrial data from vendors such as Rockwell, Siemens and Wonderware.
Multi-channel: Webalo apps run natively on Android and iOS smartphones and tablets in addition to Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari browsers on desktops and large-screen displays.
Actionable and bi-directional: Enables users to drill down into the data, launch workflows and business processes and enter, capture, store/forward, write and view data.
Alerts and notifications: Automatically monitors real-time environments and alerts users to events that need response with actionable notifications that initiate workflows and business processes.
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