Mobile Physical Inventory - PeopleSoft Asset Management

 

Delivered in PeopleSoft Financials and Supply Chain Management (FSCM 9.2) Update Image 16, Asset Tracking provides a mobile physical inventory solution within PeopleSoft Asset Management that replaces the need for third-party integrations. The browser-based solution using PeopleSoft’s Fluid User Interface leverages existing, deployed asset tags.

 

   

           

 

Major advantages

• Perform mobile physical inventory.
• Access real time data in the Asset Repository using your mobile scanning device.
• Add a new asset or edit an existing asset using your mobile scanning device.
• Automatically populate the PI_SCAN and PI_SCAN_HIST tables with scan records, simply by   scanning a barcode.
• Send email notifications regarding an asset from your mobile scanning device.

 

Hardware and Software requirements

 

Hardware

 

Mobile device paired with barcode scanner or dedicated barcode scanner: A handheld unit that you can use to collect asset data. The device must have web browsing capability to access the PeopleSoft Fluid User Interfaces available in the Asset Tracking homepage.

 

You can integrate the Physical Inventory feature of PeopleSoft Asset Management with virtually any bar coding hardware.

 

Software

 

Barcode scanning devices using an Apple Operating System (iOS): Barcode scanning devices using an Apple Operating System must use the Safari browser in full screen mode. Furthermore, the virtual keyboard will not display when using the Physical Inventory tile in the PeopleSoft Fluid User Interface.

 

Barcode scanning devices using an Android Operating System: Barcode scanning devices that use an Android Operating System will display the virtual keyboard when using the Physical Inventory tile in the PeopleSoft Fluid User Interface.

 

Future

 

If this capabilities is extended with evolving technology around mobile devices and compatibility of these devices with RFID or similar mass scanning technology then it will enable Inventory process more streamlined and robust & efficient.

 

 

 

Presenting WorkCenters as Tiles on Fluid Homepage in PeopleSoft Applications

Concept of Fluid in PeopleSoft

Introduced with Peopletools 8.54, PeopleSoft Fluid User Interface moves away from pixel-perfect page layout and provides greater flexibility with the enhanced use of cascading style sheets (CSS3), HTML5, and JavaScript. PeopleSoft application fluid pages scale gracefully from large screen devices, such as laptops and desktops, to the reduced viewing space of tablets and smartphones.

Features of Fluid have been enhanced greatly with 8.55 Tools. There are many features which can enhance the usability to a great extent. In this post, I would like to touch upon extending fluid to WorkCenters.

Fluid Home Pages

Home pages are collections of tiles that users tap to access transactions. A home page can display different tiles on different form factors. For example, several of the tiles on the delivered employee self-service home page do not show up on small form factors (phones).

Users can have multiple home pages. The main Fluid Home provides access to all of these home pages. The Fluid Home appears when users sign into the system in fluid mode (that is, when users sign in from a mobile device or, if fluid is enabled for desktop devices, from a browser that supports fluid pages). Users can additionally access the Fluid Home by selecting Fluid Home from the classic menu.

WorkCenters 

WorkCenters are designed for specific roles and provide a central area for users to access key components within Financial and Supply Chain applications. They enable users to access various pages and perform daily tasks without leaving the WorkCenter, which reduces the time used when navigating through menus.

They enhance usability of the PeopleSoft Application. WorkCenters are delivered as empty components. They are configurable and Business Analysts can customize the WorkCenters for the specific needs of Organization. Business Analysts can design and create links so that users can view and access specific links and pages. There is no need of any development by IT and is an extremely cost effective way to enhance usability. These links can also be to an external applications. Thus it gives end users a seamless experience. The links can be secured based on specific role or user within PeopleSoft System.

Within the two primary tabs within a WorkCenter there are common pagelets:

• Main tab:
  • My Work
  • Links
• Reports/Queries:
  • Queries
  • Reports and Processes

WorkCenters also provide a Welcome pane, which is displayed to the right of the left pane. A Welcome page explains some of the basic icons that are used throughout the WorkCenter. If a system administrator or an end user (if given access rights) selects the Starting Page check box on the Configure Pagelets component for My Work, Links, Queries, or Reports/Processes, then the option selected replaces the Welcome page in this pane.

 

Exposing WorkCenters on Homepage Personalization Option

The Fluid Home initially displays the user’s default home page. To access a different home page, the user taps the home page title and then selects a different home page from the list that appears.Tapping a tile on a home page opens the corresponding transaction.

Business Analysts and System Administrators can expose WorkCenters as a Tile on the HomePage by defining the fluid attributes for the content reference. This adds incredible value to the end user in terms of usability. This can be secured based on Roles and Permissions for the components and also via security options in WorkCenter.