The core layer represents software platforms that provide the technological infrastructure
to the functionality-based modules.
Optimization Platform
The optimization platform — powered by the award-winning solver engine
FTSolverTM— lies at the heart of the OWM suite. The platform
is developed based on FriarTuck's collective expertise in a wide range of optimization
technologies.
FTSolverTM is FriarTuck’s proprietary solver engine, which
is developed in-house and employs advanced optimization technologies that are
proven to be effective on large tightly constrained scheduling problems. The
solver engine extracts all the specified constraints, pre-processes them and
generates optimized schedule. The solver engine provides additional functionalities
like error handling and solver settings. For error handling, violations are explained
in detail to pinpoint problems caused by human errors or unforeseen conflicts.
The advantage of having a company-owned solver engine compared to using third
party systems is the ability to closely integrate the application with the solver
engine. This advantage translates to greatly enhanced quality and performance
of OWM when compared to competing systems.
FTSolverTM is
unique in its scope and optimization capabilities, giving OWM a leading
edge in the domain of workforce scheduling and deployment. The solver is capable
of handling very large optimization problems involving hundreds of thousands
of variables and constraints while optimizing a similar magnitude of components
to the objective function.
Integration Platform
The integration platform provides the interfaces required for communication with other IT systems such
as HR, Payroll, etc. The fully integrated OWM automates the transactions between OWM and other IT
systems, thus eliminating time & effort required to manually keep the systems up-to-date. The following
provides typical interfaces required on OWM:
- Integration to HR System: This adapter eliminates the
effort required entering staff particulars into OWM ensuring no duplication
of data. Furthermore, when new staffs are recruited or the existing staffs
leave the organization, it will be dynamically captured in OWM
freeing users from manually updating OWM to consider the new changes
in staffing.
- Integration to Payroll System: OWM provides support for
tracking manual changes to the approved schedule and computes all the claims
pertaining to the changes or shift assignments for each staff. The computed
claims will be pushed to the payroll system through this adapter, freeing
the users from manually tracking and entering the claims of each staff to the
payroll system.
- Integration to Authentication System: This adapter provides
interface to Single Sign-On or other authentication system allowing users to
log into OWM with the same credentials used in the user’s organization.
This adapter addresses some common support problems such as users tend to
forget their passwords and don't like to enter their credentials
multiple times.
Multi Channel Platform
The Multi Channel Platform forms the communication backbone that enables OWM
components to interact via multiple delivery channels like PDA, smart phone,
email, web, SMS, pager, fax and IVRS. This considerably increases the availability,
interactivity and usability of the OWM modules and components.
Business Intelligence Platform
The Business Intelligence Platform provides a set of common services to simplify deployment and management
of BI tools, reports, applications, and analytic engines.
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