Brightec Time OS benefits

Let your solution steer the terminal …not the other way round

[3 min read]

Staying ahead, let alone keeping up in the world of tech means constantly thinking of customer’s needs from multiple directions. So when we refer to ‘customers’ it doesn’t only mean our WFM solution Partners or resellers, but also their business customers too. We therefore need a 360° view of the complete value chain.
This view forms the basis of our decisions during the terminal Operating System design and architecture planning.

But why build something new when existing solutions are available ?

To build a great platform it goes without saying we’ve got to solve numerous tech requirements, but for the sake of our Partners we also need it to be as flexible as possible avoiding them the risk of being fenced-in on a platform that’s too rigid, restrictive or constrained. It’s the last thing developers want.

We have to provide them a platform where they can show-off their creativity, modularity and end customer advantages.

“This provides our partners another dimension of ‘system trust’ “

To do that we’re providing as much system architecture transparency as possible giving our partners another dimension of ‘system trust’ by offering options for a smooth, flexible and frictionless integration using our APIs with their third party systems.

Just how flexible is flexible?

In comparison to Windows® and Android® being predefined and offering some limited flexibility, we go much further by running services in a managed environment allowing for far more control in the variables that are directly affecting the application running on the terminal

As an example; already at the initial terminal setup phase the application URL can be directly set using our Management Interface.

However, to give our Partners even more choice, instead of having it fixed at the point of production/assembly, if more convenient, it can be set at the time of arrival at the reseller or even their end-customer. This highlights the flexibility of whenever or wherever you are in the value chain.

Think of it like this – as a Terminal Reseller instead of having to offer multiple terminals that only work with specific solutions, you could offer customers one terminal that’s compatible with a selection of web WFM solution providers. While for the end customer, instead of replacing terminals because of a change of solution, consider the capex they could save using the same terminal with future alternative web applications.

The analogy is you have one car that in the summer can be your super sports car, in the winter your SUV and for the rest of the year it’s your MPV.
Finally; if you’re a web application developer for WFM , T&A or payroll, you get the benefit of direct access to test environments enabling you the chance to far better optimise your solution.

“Special emphasis is also given to security and authentication protocols”

To make our platform significantly developer friendly, we provide Sandbox Mode for software testing and verification. This is a great way to provide full software support to our existing and prospective partners in making their software tailor made as per their customer requirements.

Special emphasis is also given to our terminal security and authentication protocols. No critical data is stored on our terminal’s file system where the customer application is running. In addition to that the customer application is itself responsible to manage all application data throughout the application lifecycle.

While running applications in our terminal environment, developers have full control from application initialization all the way to
testing the capabilities of their application modules and interfaces in Sandbox Mode. To better interface the terminal capabilities , we offer ‘Controller API’ for developers to build seamless applications with a focus on high performance and flexibility. In such an efficient environment we’re allowing application developers to customize the API interfaces as per their unique and special needs.

OK, but what about lag, freezing, or the infamous blue screen ?

To get around this, no unnecessary services are allowed to run in the background potentially threatening to compromise the performance of the main application. This avoids the risk of screen freezing or the dreaded blue screen of death halting the all important application flow and subsequently forcing a very inconvenient and time consuming device restart.

It’s another reason why we provide a dedicated web platform fully focused on application performance and the efficient utilisation of application resources.

“suffering from a complete crash can be devastating”

Another good example of risk aversion is that our solutions critical file system partition is ‘read only’ avoiding a potential system crash in case of a terminal shut-down due to a power outage. While it’s bad enough to have an outage, suffering from a complete crash can be devastating to both the solution providers reputation let alone the disruption to their end customers business.

Meanwhile we’ve often heard from WFM or Payroll developers how terminal suppliers claim their OS is “flexible enough”; yet when the developers try to adapt their solution to it, they’re effectively suffocated by too many frustrating limitations. To support our partners we strive to be as flexible as possible because ultimately it’s not about us but about the WFM solution, it’s design, features and functionality.

That’s what matters most.

In conclusion, giving our Partners this much control with such a trustworthy system architecture we enable them to build a quality, value add and more customer retentive application.

Now who wouldn’t want that.

In our next post we’ll be discussing ‘Application availability in offline scenarios’. To read that plus other news, views and updates follow us on LinkedIn

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