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A Solution and a Platform
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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.
BusinessFlow's configurability powers the delivery of complex, powerful functions and features. Examples are compound inventory items (e.g. serialization, kitting, and variations), complex transactions (e.g. multi-channel sales with payment terms and workflow), multiple item interrelationships (e.g. active cross-selling, up-selling, and consumption of one item in the production of another), bundled items (e.g. kits, assemblies, groups, and compounded services and products), and complex business rules (e.g. category management with dynamic attribution of inventories, orders, customers and vendors). Each of these issues requires configurability to truly deploy a solution that matches the operational requirements of the client's business. And it is the case that the vast majority of SMB companies, and more particularly Mid-market companies, have some or all of these characteristics, any of which makes BusinessFlow the vastly preferable enterprise software solution.
Additional Background
The Architecture's key conceptual element is the configuration of meta-data ("MetaData"), data that describes data. This enables the dynamic configuration of data, and in doing so enables rapid, broad and narrow changes to business logic, whereby the scope and effect of changes to business logic are configurable. It is this business logic that manifests business policies, business objectives, and business procedures in MainStreet's solutions.
A second element of MainStreet's Architecture is our configuration engine that supports complex, hierarchical categories ("Stacks") and enables system administrators to apply attributes and business policies at any level in a Stack. These attributes and business policies are inherited by every sub-level, and may be overridden at any level. The configuration engine dynamically applies these business policies and attributes as objects (inventory) move through the system and populate MainStreet applications, client internal environments, and third party environments including industry portals and exchanges.
A third element central to MainStreet's Architecture is its definition of Providers, objects which provide for the re-usability of components throughout workflow embedded in MainStreet solutions, and connectivity to and configuration of data for MainStreet's application suite and external environments.
A fourth element central to MainStreet's Architecture is its use of flexible business flows, whereby the order and ergonomics of a solution may be arranged to map directly to client behaviors and objectives.
Configuration of the software enables and defines the use of these architectural elements.
BusinessFlow's transaction engine is delivered as a hosted service and may be accessed from any Internet connection with Internet Explorer 5.0 or above. BusinessFlow's data storage architecture is a combination of real-time MainStreet hosted database, and a datawarehouse on the client's premises or at a third party provider at the client's determination. BusinessFlow's Ramp Client, used to enter large amounts of new inventory, runs locally on a Pentium class computer running Windows XP.
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