BusinessFlow Technology
Introduction: The Integrated and Extensible BusinessFlow Environment
Coordinating robust company management and order management with sales via Ecommerce, phone, fax, mail,
purchase orders, and EDI or other electronic transmissions is a daunting challenge. The need is to effectively
implement business policies, pricing, promotions, and various other operational facilities consistently across all
sales channels and enable a single point of control for all company operations. Mainstreet's BusinessFlow addresses
this challenge. BusinessFlow is packaged software that out-of-the-box is a robust, full featured commerce solution.
Mainstreet's underlying architecture is highly configurable and serves as a platform for software engineers to
customize, tailor, and extend the solution. BusinessFlow consists of a BusinessFlow’s core engine, an online
Administrator, a Web Services interface, Mainstreet's .NET components, BusinessFlow’s Ecommerce suite,
BusinessFlow’s portals and BusinessFlow ShipConnect Client.
Cloud
Cloud Based
BusinessFlow is available as software-as-a-service (SAAS or on-demand) or deployed. In the case of SAAS,
Mainstreet will turn it on for your company. All you need to do is log on. There is no hardware to install and
maintain and software upgrades are automatic. It is easy. In the case of deployed, we will walk your company
through the process of setting up a private cloud for your company.
Mainstreet’s Cloud
For clients operating in Mainstreet’s Cloud:
- There is no infrastructure to manage
- There is no capital outlay for equipment
- The infrastructure scales
- The infrastructure performs for high peak
- The system is managed 24 X 7
- Disaster recovery is managed
- Your company automatically gets software upgrades with the latest functions, features, and capabilities
- Just log in to benefit from continuous innovation from the industry leader
One... cloud, database, platform, and solution. No infrastructure to manage.
Private Cloud
Mainstreet can alternatively install and manage a private cloud of BusinessFlow inside your enterprise
or at a datacenter of your choice.Your company may also start on Mainstreet’s Cloud (described above)
and migrate to a private cloud at any time.
Architecture
BusinessFlow Architecture
Mainstreet's world-class service oriented architecture ("Architecture") is the underpinning of Mainstreet's
software solutions. Differentiating features delivered in Mainstreet's software solutions are directly
attributable to elements of the Architecture. The Architecture enables an unparalleled degree of configurability.
The success of BusinessFlow in delivering a superior solution through configurability stems from Mainstreet's
architecture, a key pillar of which is a dynamic attribution system that is unique to Mainstreet. BusinessFlow
enables the definition of attributes (configurable data fields) to be captured on any object in the system
(inventory items, purchase orders, customer orders, customers, etc.) and makes that information accessible,
searchable, actionable, and reportable based on venue and security levels. The attribution system enables
the user to define an unlimited number of attributes, each of which is defined with a data type (e.g. string,
numeric, date/time, text, attachment), a display type (e.g. single line text, multi-line text, label, URL, check
buttons, choice list, drop down list, and attachments), behaviors (e.g. multiple values allowed, range of
values allowed, required, visible to customers), pre-populated values where desired, and objects in the
system for which the attribute is active (e.g. items, orders, purchase orders, customers, and vendors).
These attributes are then available for merchandising, searchability, navigability, tracking, and reporting.
Examples of the power enabled by attributes are: describing every facet of an item for sale in order
to maximize the merchandising impact on sales, tracking order source to understand why customers
make purchases, keeping data on the dependability and performance of suppliers, providing product
specific documentation to end-users, and personalizing the customer experience by keeping information
on their preferences and past behaviors. Taking a single piece of unique inventory as another example,
BusinessFlow retains all of the descriptive elements for the product, its current conditional state,
its complete service and sourcing history with documentation (pdfs, urls, etc.), who touched the
product at any time, and any and other data the company would like to capture.
BusinessFlow then has a business policy configurator to determine how the part will be handled as it
moves through sales channels or through the internal logistics of our client's organization. More precisely,
BusinessFlow enables configuration anywhere in the company/product hierarchy. Business policies may
be defined at a company level, location, product category, sub-category level, all the way down to
configuring business policies specifically for the treatment a single item. And, there is complete inheritance
through the hierarchy providing tremendous efficiencies across all sales channels.
Data Access
BusinessFlow Data Access and Reporting
Mainstreet enables several layers of data access to BusinessFlow including:
- Microsoft SQL Server 2010 data layer access (if a dedicated database server is elected)
- Object model
- Mainstreet web services access
- Access via Mainstreet's .NET components
- Access through BusinessFlow's Administrator
- Import/export engine ("Job System"), built into the BusinessFlow Administrator, that has complete data mapping and job scheduling capabilities
Integration with BusinessFlow is supported via export/import, EDI, Web Services, or via flat file format. Protocols supported include sftp, AS2, and https.
BusinessFlow reporting is based on its Job System and Microsoft SQL Server data layer reporting.
Microsoft Technologies
BusinessFlow Microsoft Technologies
Mainstreet's BusinessFlow is built based on best practice use of Microsoft technologies. Microsoft technologies include:
Microsoft SQL Server 2010
Microsoft IIS 6.0 and Microsoft IIS 7.0
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008
Mainstreet leverages the latest .NET technology. BusinessFlow's SDK communicates through BusinessFlow's Web Service layer to make all calls into BusinessFlow's Administrator and the Microsoft SQL Server database. The developer may choose to use any .NET compliant Web controls in conjunction with Mainstreet's .NET controls and/or developers may call directly into BusinessFlow using Mainstreet's APIs. Mainstreet provides the source code for BusinessFlow's Web user controls.
In developing on BusinessFlow APIs and with BusinessFlow Web user controls, developers may choose to use any Integrated Development Environment ("IDE") that supports .NET technology. These development environments include but are not limited to Microsoft Visual Studio and Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express Edition.
