NCR TransitionWorks: RFID Infrastructure

NCR TransitionWorks is the flagship product. Deployed in hundreds of sites worldwide since 1997, the TransitionWorks platform provides a rapid process development environment that connects users to business processes, user data to business applications, and marries material flow to data flow for RFID and other Auto-ID technologies.

TransitionWorks provides a complete end-to-end technology that gives the user all the components necessary to craft an Auto-ID and mobility solution and deploy it with minimal effort. Starting with the NCR Application Engine and moving through the different input and output Engines, the platform removes all the complexity of talking to devices and applications. Once a process is created, the platform takes on the responsibilities of rendering to the device type and handling all the communications between users, devices, and systems. For instance, if the user signs on with a browser, TransitionWorks will display a graphical HTML-based user interface to interact with the process. However, the user can sign into the same process using a DOS-based barcode device and TransitionWorks will present the user interface in a native DOS look and feel.

There are several targets for the NCR Application Engine, including Windows, Linux, and Windows CE. This provides maximum flexibility for business process deployment in both enterprise and mobile applications.

Developing a solution is a simple four-step process with the majority of effort performed by business analysts, not programmers.

The four steps of creating an Auto-ID or mobility application using TransitionWorks involves creating Transaction Business Objects using the more than 80 powerful functions of the platform. Then a business analyst can sequence the Business Objects into a Transaction Process. A group of Transaction Processes are placed together to create an Application and assigned to one or more users. For TransitionWorks, a user can be a human or a device, such as an RFID portal.

TransitionWorks bridges the divide within Auto-ID technologies, providing a platform for intent-based data collection and pervasive data collection. Intent-based data collection ties a person to the Auto-ID process allowing the person to direct when and where data collection activities occur. Pervasive data collection is automated. As materials flow through an environment, movements are capture via RFID tags and readers and processes executed accordingly. TransitionWorks allows both types of Auto-ID technologies to co-exist within the same process. This allows for maximum efficiency in automated data collection requirements.